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(only a month late!)
How old are you?
C: 10
How tall are you?
C: 4’10”
What grade are you in?
C: 4th
Who is your teacher?
C: Ms. Born
What’s your favorite thing about school?
C: cello days
What is your favorite color?
C: green
What are you really good at?
C: video gaming
Who are your friends?
C: Evan, Owen, Andrew, David, Jack
What do you like to do with them?
C: XBox, Legos
What do you like to do at home?
C: play with Legos, read, XBox
What is your favorite movie?
C: Ninjago
What is your favorite book?
C: Summer of the Wolves
What is your favorite food?
C: pizza
What was the best thing that happened to you when you were 9?
C: getting the Lego Dimensions game for the XBox
What do you think will be the best thing about being 10?
C: the last day of school
What do you want to be when you grow up?
C: an inventor/gamer
Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
C: Hawaii
What would you buy if you had $1,000,000?
C: all the Dimensions characters! plus a ton of other random stuff
Who is your favorite person in the whole world?
C: mom!
If you could have a wish, what would it be?
C: to be awesome!
How old are you?
C: 9
How tall are you?
C: 4’8″
What grade are you in?
C: 3rd
Who is your teacher?
C: Ms. Davis
What’s your favorite thing about school?
C: read to self time
What is your favorite color?
C: green
What are you really good at?
C: reading
Who are your friends?
C: Evan, Owen, Andrew, Jack, Donte, Orion
What do you like to play with them?
C: Minecraft, Lego Movie game, build with Legos
What do you like to do at home?
C: create things with my Legos, read, XBox
What is your favorite movie?
C: the Lego Movie
What is your favorite book?
C: the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
What is your favorite food?
C: pizza!!!
What was the best thing that happened to you when you were 8?
C: going to the aquarium and Lego store at the Mall of America and seeing fireworks for the first time
What do you think will be the best thing about being 9?
C: learning how to play more on the recorder in music class
What do you want to be when you grow up?
C: scientist and inventor
Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
C: Antarctica to see the penguins and the ocean to see sea turtles
What would you buy if you had $1,000,000?
C: all the Lego sets in the world
Who is your favorite person in the whole world?
C: Ms. Kleinschodt
If you could have a wish, what would it be?
C: to have a pet green sea turtle
How is it possible that school is already out for the summer? I think I have lost all concept of time since Bennett was born. Being sleep deprived will do that to a girl.
Carter’s last day was Friday. He seemed very unconcerned about it and ready for a break. He’s been having a really hard time functioning at school lately, so maybe that really is true. I think after a few days of Legos he is going to miss it. But he also has lots of activities on tap through parks and rec and community ed. Hopefully they will be helpful for him to have fun and get restored over the summer.
headed out for the last day of school
Penelope’s last day of preschool was three weeks ago. She has been WAY over preschool for a long time now! She had her kindergarten informational meeting in the middle of March, and she was bound and determined that she should start kindergarten the next day. So the last few weeks of school have been hard for her too! Her school celebrated with actual graduation gowns. A little excessive, I thought, for 5-year-olds, but tiny graduation gowns are super cute. The kids sang a few songs and recited a few Bible verses and ate some cupcakes.
Our first week of summer has been pretty uneventful (that is, relaxing). We’ve been enjoying a walk each morning, after which the kiddos explore through the underbrush in the vacant lot across the street. It’s their new secret hideaway, and they’ve spent many an hour there this week. Carter has also started his swim lessons, and Penelope is excited to start hers next week. We are looking forward to Grandma Jean and Grandpa John coming to visit tomorrow. Our summer is off to a lovely start.
This Mother’s Day (a couple days late) I just want to say how thankful I am that these 4 characters made me a mom. Life would be infinitely less fun, interesting, and joyful without them. (Although maybe I would get a full night’s sleep.) Love you kiddos!!!
Since spring break starts next week, we better tell you about what the kiddos have been up to this winter.
Penelope has had a loose tooth for the past couple weeks, and tonight at church it came out! I don’t know why, but teeth are one of the few things that really, truly tell me my kids are growing up. Heck, this girl has all 4 of her 6-year molars already! She’s getting old, this one. But back to the tooth… she’s been reluctant to wiggle it all along because she said it hurt, so it has only been slightly wiggly. This morning though, it was looking quite loose. We had a chat before preschool that when it came out, it might bleed a little, so she’d have to get a paper towel to stick in the hole. But the tooth was still there after preschool. Then tonight at dinner at church, she bumped it with her fork, and she must have really popped the last veins holding it in. It didn’t bleed, but suddenly she had a hole in her mouth! The tooth was gone! We lost her first lost-tooth!!! We came to the conclusion that she swallowed it since we didn’t find it anywhere on the table or floor. We wrote a note explaining the situation to the Tooth Fairy, and Penelope is hoping she will still find a treat in her Tooth Fairy pillow that Grandma Harriet made for her.
there’s a hole in her smile!
Carter participated in the science fair this winter. He chose to study which of his bouncy balls bounced the highest. Inquiring minds want to know! He owns 4 bouncy balls of different sizes, and so he set about measuring how high each could bounce. His findings were not Earth-shattering, but I think he learned a lot about the process of conducting an experiment along the way. Aaron was very proud of him for wanting to be in the science fair. Aaron had a science fair project every year in school, and that’s even how he earned his way to science camp where he met his fabulous bride-to-be. For any inquiring minds out there, a smaller ball generally bounces higher than a larger ball, but not always. Maybe next year we’ll have to study their compositions or something and find out exactly what determines their bounce-height.
Graham has now had 3 sessions with his speech therapist, and it is exciting to see that he is making definite progress! Graham is positively adorable each time she comes over; he lays right down on his belly, ready to get to work, no matter what he was doing before she arrived. She has been bringing little books of consonant-vowel words (like hi, hay, bye, bow, go) for him to practice with, so he has picked up several new words from those. We also are able to hear him trying to say other words that he never attempted before. Like tonight at the church supper, he tried to ask for bread. It was something like “breh,” but it’s so great that he is trying to say more things.
This winter, Graham also moved in upstairs with his big brother and now sleeps in the lower part of the bunk bed. He looks so tiny sleeping on a twin-size bed! We had no plans to transition him out of the crib any time soon, he was quite comfortable down there. But we had set up the toddler bed so that we had a place to get him back to sleep, other than our own bed, when he woke up in the middle of the night, which he was doing all the time. Once he saw the toddler bed, he only wanted to sleep there. But then he was free to roam about during the night and make his way into our bed, which he continued to do all the time. So we figured we might as well stick him upstairs with Carter, so he could wake Carter up instead! He’s been there 2 and a half weeks now, and he’s only woken up twice during the night, so it seems to be a better situation for him, for whatever reason. Aaron thinks that since the crib is empty, Bennett will sleep there when he’s born. To which I say ha! When have our babies ever slept in a crib?
There you have it, our late winter happenings. So, winter, that means you are done now. Stop snowing, darn it!
We have an eight-year-old in the house! How did that happen? Carter’s birthday was Monday, and we just finished celebrating Friday night. He chose to wake up extra early Monday morning so that he could get his birthday started before school and open up his gifts. Then during school I delivered cupcakes for him to share with his classmates. After school, he wanted me to pick him up, along with his friend/second-cousin Owen, so they could hang out all afternoon. And his supper request was a trip to McDonald’s. Not sure what our kids’ obsession with McDonald’s is lately, but we were happy to take them and let all the kiddos burn off all their cupcake-energy at the playplace. Because, of course, we took more cupcakes with us to McDonald’s. With candy sea turtles on them. So that was his special day of birthday fun.
Our gift to Carter this year was a trip to the aquarium at the Mall of America, a stop at the Lego store, and a dinner out with his dear old mom. He was crazy excited to go! It just so happened that he did not have school on Friday (conference time), so we were able to head up to the cities after lunch and enjoy a whole afternoon together. Our first stop was the aquarium. If you know anything about Carter, then you know he loves the ocean! He practically jumped up and down the entire time we were there, he was bursting with excitement. He found eels, jellyfish, octopuses, sharks, sea horses, alligators, piranhas, and so much more. He loved walking through the tunnels, being surrounded by all the fish and sea creatures. Our next stop was at the Lego store, where I think he could have stood and stared all night. They have every available product in every available theme. Carter only likes the Lego City section: police, fire fighters, coast guard. He said, “It would be really cool if we could take one home,” and his jaw nearly hit the floor when I said that we could. So after he ogled all the Lego sets, he finally chose a police set with a helicopter and a bad-guy hang-out, and we checked out. It was a little too early for supper, so we decided to head back to the aquarium. We passed through most of the areas quickly this time, pausing mainly at the shark tunnels. There were supposed to be sea turtles in there, but we hadn’t seen them during our first time through. It didn’t seem like we were going to see them at all, when suddenly two of them appeared out of nowhere! I think that was the very best present Carter could have ever received!! We watched them surface, blow some bubbles, and swim around a bit before they disappeared again. He was completely thrilled to have seen his favorite creatures. By this point, we had been on our feet for nearly 3 hours, and Carter was one hungry guy. I thought he would enjoy the atmosphere at the Rainforest Cafe, so we headed there for supper. He had plenty of creatures to observe while he waited for his pizza. At the end of the day, his report was that it was the best day of his life! That’s about the best response to a birthday gift you could hope for.
So what’s up with Carter these days? Obviously, you already know he loves sea turtles and Legos. Add reading to the mix, and that’s pretty much him in a nutshell. He is supposed to read 20 minutes each school night for a minimum of 300 minutes total for the month, and he usually totals out between 1000 and 1200 because he just can’t stop reading! He has dabbled in gymnastics and basketball lessons, but his heart isn’t really in athletics. He is more of a scholar—most of that reading is done in non-fiction books—and a scientist/engineer. He has taken a few Lego classes through community ed and has really enjoyed working with the gears and motors on the projects they do. He is also working on improving his chess game, which means mom is also learning how to play chess.
More importantly, he really is growing up. He has matured a lot since we’ve settled here in Owatonna. Not to say he is one remarkably mature 8-year-old—far from it, really—but he’s getting there. I’d say we’ve maybe reached the typical maturity level, which, let’s be honest, for an 8-year-old is not all that mature. They say things like “if you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” Makes me groan, but at least he’s where he should be. Which is a far cry from last year, when there was lots of actual crying and screaming going on.
So eight is going to be great for him. Happy Birthday, Carter!
Carter is a new member of the four-eyed club! Isn’t he handsome?!?!
He went in last Monday for an eye exam after his teacher noticed he wasn’t able to read things off the board. No big surprise, he wasn’t seeing perfectly anymore. We’ve been warning him forever, since he was toddler grabbing at our glasses, that he’d be getting his own glasses someday. And that day has arrived! We are glad we were able to pick them up today to give him a chance to get used to them before he heads back to school on Thursday. What a handsome fellow!
Now if I could only get him to agree to a haircut…
(That’s from Pitch Perfect, best movie ever made. Aca-believe it!)
Words cannot describe how fabulous Carter’s first day of school was! He came home absolutely beaming and gushing about all the things they did during the school day.
It made my heart so happy because just a week ago he was so terrified to go! And who could blame him? His second new school in just two years. But it all turned around last Thursday when he had his meet-the-teacher event. Mrs. Thurnau was super nice and welcoming to Carter. He checked out his classroom, loaded up his desk with supplies, and found a bunch of books he wanted to read. We explored his school and found the library, art room, gym, and garden. At every stop he was getting more and more excited about attending McKinley. We found where the bus would drop him off, and he practiced finding his classroom on his own. He became much more confident and ready for the return to school.
This morning he was so excited that he woke up at 5 o’clock!!! We sent him back to bed, of course, but I’m not sure he slept much more. We all trekked over to the bus stop, and he was even excited about riding that! Another relief, because he hated riding the bus last year, and I ended up driving him around every day. He headed off to school with a great big smile on his face!
I have a feeling he smiled all day long because once he got home he couldn’t stop talking about all the great things they did during the day. I’d like to list them for you, but I can’t remember them all! He just kept going and going, one thing was better than the last. He was even excited to have homework on the first day of school, reading for 20 minutes. “The perfect homework for a kid like me,” he said. Best of all, he is totally pumped to go back tomorrow!
This mom couldn’t be happier. Last year, although Carter liked going to school and learning, there wasn’t this great sense of comfort. Honestly, I didn’t like his school in Iowa all that much, and I felt it was rather lacking in its academic standards, communication practices, and behavioral expectations. The staff there talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk. I’m so glad we’re not at that school any more! McKinley seems so much different. First off, it’s a STEM school, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. Not that that is all they teach, but everything is slanted that way. Totally fits Carer. Secondly, they practice the 7 Habits of Happy Kids, which is all about teaching kids to be in charge of themselves, plan things out, listen, fulfill their responsibilities, etc. Totally something Carter needs! Thirdly, they have a planner. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but after a year in Iowa with NO planner, you appreciate how important your kid having a planner is. It is so simple but also a perfect way to know what’s going on in school and at home. And basically, McKinley just seems awesome. When a school is awesome, it just sort of radiates it. Dawson did that, and I feel it here at McKinley too.
Here’s to a great school year! Penelope starts her’s tomorrow, wish her luck!
You know, I had this grand plan at the beginning of the year (not that you’d actually know about it, since I didn’t actually tell you about it) to write two blogs posts a week. Each week, folks. Wowzers, right? I was totally psyched, excited to get back to writing. Small problem, I had absolutely zilcho to write about! Winter in Iowa is flat out boring. It’s just too cold to do anything. And if it’s not too cold, it’s too windy to be comfortable outside. Oh, the prairie. She’s a windy devil. So, yeah, nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to write. Except birthdays, cause we’ve got a lot of those in the winter in the Ulland house.
However, right now I wish I didn’t have to write about this birthday. Carter’s going through this stage (we hope) and he’s been just horrible lately…or for the last several months. So I really don’t want this to become a Carter-bashing session, but you’ve been warned. Not sure if it’s still anxiety about our move to Iowa, crankiness from his bouts of insomnia, or what his deal is. But I honestly didn’t think I hear the words “you’re so mean! I hate you!” for at least another 6 years. But here we are.
So he’s 7 now, which is crazy! We were reminiscing with him today about the day he was born, and it is all still so crystal clear. But now he’s halfway through first grade, one of the best readers in his class, and a lover of random knowledge. He’s crazy about the Octonauts, a bunch of ocean explorers on Disney channel, which has prompted a love of sea turtles and inspired his birthday cake this year. He continues to be interested in Legos and building and figuring out how things work. He confesses that he has a very strong imagination, which keeps him up at night, but also makes him love art class. He also loves PE because he is always moving. He actually hops on our treadmill now and then when he just can’t stand not-moving anymore.
Carter and his turtle buddies
He’s busy and clever and curious. He totally and completely loves his brother and enjoys hanging out with his sister (one good outcome of boring Iowa winters). He’s one cool kid…when he’s not being totally obnoxious. Ah, Carter, we love you! (and we’re hoping this stage is past us soon!) Happy birthday, guy.
After 3 months in our new house, we are finally making some more progress into making this place our own. Sure, all our furniture and belongings are here, but it still feels somewhat like we are just visiting. We haven’t hung up any photos or decorations or window treatments, and there are walls and walls and walls that need repainting (I’m getting very sick of the clover-land that is our living/toy room!). We were smart and painted Graham’s and Penelope’s rooms before any of our stuff got here. Carter’s was next on the to-do list—I actually bought paint for all three rooms the day after we closed on the house—but, here we are, 3 months later, and I finally got it finished. Wahoo! I’m kinda proud of it because it took A LOT of work, time, and broken knees, so that’s why I’m showing it off tonight. Take a look.
before, with all the furniture already moved
Carter used to have one favorite color, green. Very reliably, he would report that his favorite color was green. He only wanted to wear a green shirt, drink out of the green cup, use a green toothbrush, green green green, green green. One day, he decided he did not like green. Was unsure of what color he actually did like, but definitely NOT green. So now, he has sort of settled on blue as his favorite, although it is likely to change along with the weather. So picking out a color for his room was problematic. To keep all boyish colors in the rainbow happy, I decided on stripes for his room. That way all our bases would be covered and he could never complain that his favorite wasn’t up on the wall. Stripes. And lots of them.
2 whole rolls of painter’s tape, and this is only the first half of the project
Aaron was a dear and helped me get the painter’s tape on the wall for the first half of the stripes. Carter has some picture ledges, which we use to keep his bedtime book and other sentimental things handy, next to his bunk beds, and we used these as the starting points for the stripes. We thought it would be cool to have white stripes exactly where these ledges are, so that they would kind of disappear into the wall. So with Aaron’s giant level, we started taping off above and below these ledges to create the first stripe around the wall. It took a long, long time, as in several hours. Once those were complete, we broke out our handy dandy ruler and simply measured off the appropriate amount of inches to tape off the rest of the first half of the stripes. Those took about a half-hour each to get around the room.
Carter helping out with painting
The actual painting, as you can imagine from the tiny stripes, took about an hour all together. Grrr. I do actually enjoy painting walls, but it was almost unfair to do hours and hours of prep work for a quick hour of painting. (And most of that time was actually spent cleaning my brush and switching roller covers between paint colors.) Carter really wanted to help out paint his room, so I let him do the big patch of gray around the middle of the room. Then I decided it was too silvery of a gray, so we had to head to the paint store to find a more comfortable gray. Turns out gulls’ wings are a darker gray than the fur of timber wolves, who knew? Only Benjamin Moore, I guess. With that remedied, and a second coat all around, the first tape was peeled off [10 seconds to undo hours and hours of work, makes me cringe just thinking about it], and another 2 rolls of painter’s tape went back on the walls.
first half of the stripes are done, ready for more tape
Thankfully, the second half of the tape went up much, much faster. I told Carter it was sort of like tracing. The lines were already there, I just had to follow the stripes. This time I could get a line of tape around his room in about 5 minutes. Painting took a bit longer this time around (4 hours for one coat) because I had more colors the second time through and I had to go up and down a stepstool constantly. Those little trips add up!
Done! just in need of a few touch-ups
After doing the second coat Sunday morning, I was so so excited to pull the tape off and see the final result with all the stripes together. Carter was actually away at his grandparents’ this weekend, so it was all a big secret to him. I spent the rest of the day doing some touch-ups—textured walls can be such a pain—but I wanted it to look perfect for him. By bedtime, and a late bedtime at that, it was ready for him to check out. And he was thrilled!!! He said “this is AWESOME!” What more can a mom ask for?
the top bunk, see how the ledge disappears into the stripe?
I asked him which stripe was his favorite. He replied the 3 blues [one is actually turquoise, or technically Bahaman Sea Blue], the yellow, and the orange. See what I meant about the favorite color issue? I’m glad they are all up there.
the bottom bunk, looking all stripey
Yet to be painted is his Lego cave, otherwise known as the closet. It is getting one color and one color only, another blue because that seems to be the favorite. This was one of those once-is-enough deals, no more stripes for this painter.
many of the colors were pulled from our old shower curtain, which is now the covering for the Lego cave
So glad to be [mostly] done with his room. Carter has been waiting sort-of-patiently for it to get painted since we moved in, and he was a good sport about camping out in Penelope’s room for a week while I worked on it. Hooray for progress! We are going to be mounting a bookshelf, hanging a floating shelf, and putting together a desk to help Carter tackle his mess, so there is more progress to be made.
Elsewhere in the house (okay, the entryway) we put together a giant wardrobe and are working on tearing down an ugly old rickety one—woo! progress gets me all excited. I am in love with a box named Pax. Stay tuned.
Our Little Slice of Happy 