Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at November 1st, 2008

We spent most of the week dreading Halloween night.  Not because we don’t like Halloween.  We usually enjoy letting the kids dress up and go trick-or-treating, but this year we found ourselves pulled in several directions.  There were a couple houses that I’d promised to bring the kids to, Trunk-a-Treat at church at 6:00, the Fall Festival from Timothy’s school at 6:30, and an office party at 6:30.  All fun activities that we wanted to go to, but took some work to figure out how to do them all.

We started the fun at 4.  Timothy had learned at the pumpkin patch that pumpkins last longer if you paint or color them than if you cut them, so the kids had been begging since Wednesday to be allowed to paint the pumpkins that we got.  They pointed out several times that it made the most sense to decorate them before Halloween, and they were right.  So, we pulled out the tempera paint and brushes, covered the table, and they had a great time!  Surprisingly, there was very little mess.

The finished products:

Emily decorated hers to look like a black widow spider
  

Timothy painted a real (used the peach paint) face on his

Zachary usd all the colors to paint a face on his  
     

Then it was time to get their costumes on and go trick or treating.

Emily dressed as an angel (I guess she just didn’t want to dress up this year!), Timothy as Bubblebee, and Zachary as a Storm Trooper (Scott was so proud!!!).

Trick-or-Treating, Trunk-A-Treat, and the Fall Festival were all a lot of fun and we have a pumpkin basket completely full of candy now.  We dropped the kids off at some friends house and made it to the party by 8:15.   There were 10 people there.  When we got there, they were playing a round of “Fact or Crap.”  We’d seen the game before, but hadn’t played it.  It was fun, but we were disappointed that the cards didn’t reveal the “real” answer when the statement was not true.

The party was pot luck.  We knew we’d be late, so we brought dessert.  For the first time in my life, I baked a cheesecake from scratch.  It was a pumpkin cheese cake with an oreo crust, sour cream icing, and chocolate drizzled over the top in the shape of a spider-web.  It was a hit!  I forgot to take a picture before, but here’s what’s left.

All said, it was a fun night.  Today we get to relax.  I hear there’s some big game today that I’m sure will be on our TV at some point.

Posted by mommyfranklin at October 30th, 2008

Yesterday, Zachary and I went to the pumpkin patch with Timothy and his class.  Being a small, private school, they do not take busses on field trips.  Instead, they depend on parents to travel with them to the destination.  So I loaded Timothy, Zachary, and three of Timothy’s classmates into the Trailblazer and we headed to the pumpkin patch in a town just over thirty minutes away.

Now this was like most pumpkin patches that I’ve been to before.  There was a short lesson about the different kinds of pumpkins and the kids got to pick out a pumpkin to bring home with them.  There was something that I hadn’t seen before though.  Beyond the pumpkins, they had a pen filled with goats, donkeys, and horses.  They put on a little demonstration with their farm dogs herding the goats.  First with the old dog who very calmly rounding the goats up and then young 4 month old dog who ran and pushed the goats around.  The kids weren’t terribly interested in this, but we “grown-ups” thought it was neat.  After the show, the kids got to feed the animals.  That was fun!

Posted by mommyfranklin at October 30th, 2008

When I got my jobs, I immediately began looking for a “school” for Zachary.  I didn’t want to put him in a daycare, but in a school.  In a perfect world, I would have found a place like where he was last year in Lubbock.  There are really three “school” programs in town for three year olds.  I’ve heard good things about all of them, but none of them really had hours that would be very convenient for us.  I decided to call them anyway and see what we could work out as far as the schedule was concerned.  I started by calling the place that Timothy attended when he was three.  This place would be most ideal because their hours actually extend into the afternoon, albeit only two days a week.  Plus we already know about the program since Timothy was there just a couple years ago.  But, alas, they are full.  We are on the waiting list.  The other two schools are two or three mornings a week.  I don’t remember all the details about them.  It’s moot anyway, since they are full too.

So, we’ve been left to our own devices to be sure he is getting at least a little bit of education.  We figure that with two trained educators can figure out a way to stimulate his brain.  I’ll admit that the first few weeks of my jobs, he interacted with the television more than us.  He watched lots of movies.  That has improved a lot.  He still goes to the pregnancy center with me about 8 hours a week and I spend a lot of time working from home, but we’ve built in some school time into our schedule as well.  It’s not overly formal.  Quite honestly, it’s just playing with him that way we should have been doing all along.  We read, make things out of empty toilet paper rolls, talk about the different sounds that animals make, ….  Basically just follow his lead.  He’s loving it!

One thing we have been working on is learning to write his name.  He can say the letters correctly, and does pretty well writing the first few letters.  He has informed me that it’s very hard to write an R.  This morning he made the creation shown on the picture above.  Luckily, I’ve been through the writing backwards things with Emily and Timothy, so I know not to be too concerned that his Z and C are backwards.  And, we’ll get the A in after the H in time.  I thought this was pretty good for a 3 1/2 year old.

Note: To you Kindergarten teachers who may read this – we know that it is better practice not to teach a child their name in all caps.  We’ve showed it to him both ways.  We still have a year and half to get him to write it “correctly.”

One thing about Mr. Zachary is that he lives to be funny.  He is constantly making jokes and just trying to make us laugh (and he generally succeeds).  I could devote a whole post to the funny things he says, which I will do at another time.  Let me leave you with one though.

“God made me crazy.”

And if you know Zachary, you know he’s right!

Posted by DaddyFranklin at October 21st, 2008

Tonight was the last game of the flag football season for Timothy.  We got to see him score his first touchdown.  As you’ll be able to tell from the video, we were quite pumped.

Here are a few pictures from the last day as well:

Posted by DaddyFranklin at October 4th, 2008

Today, after mowing I put together the canopy that we bought with our new lawn furniture. Lori helped me finish it off after she finished putting together the boys’ new dresser (the dark one).

Posted by DaddyFranklin at October 4th, 2008

This weekend looks to be a very relaxing one. We spent last Saturday in bed with a nasty stomach bug so last weekend was a bust. My main goal of the day is to get my giant yard mowed. Is there any chance it is my last mow of the season?

One could only hope.

By the way, I am posting this from my iPod touch. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I mean I know how to do just about anything I want with it. The real question is whether any of the functionalities it provides can replace the way I used to do it. I spend so much time at a computer I wonder if I really need to be able to post blogs, check email, review calendars, fiddle with facebook, and chat all from the iPod. If there was anything besides music I might prefer to use this thing for, it would be the games, but I’m just not a huge gamer. I am trying…

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 20th, 2008

Timothy started playing flag football this week.  It really is quite comical to watch a bunch 4, 5, & 6 year olds play football.  Unlike t-ball, there is quite of bit of education that the kids need to play football.  In t-ball, the kids need to know to hit the ball and run the bases when it’s their turn to bat and to catch (pick up off the ground) and throw the ball to first base when they are fielding.  In football, they learn to hike the ball, hand it off, and run for the end zone when they are on offense and to grab the flag of the guy with the ball when they are on defense.  It’s a lot to remember and requires some ability.

There wasn’t a lot of learning involved in the first week of practices.  The kids learned to hike the ball and to run with it.  They didn’t learn to hand off the ball or run in a certain direction.  We’re hoping that now that we’ve been through the first game, these will be some skills learned in practices.

Timothy’s team (the Redskins) played the Cowboys this week.  They don’t keep score, but it’s pretty easy to tell who won.  The Cowboys got 3 touchdowns and the Redskins got 1.

Nonetheless. everyone had a great time.  All it takes is to get a snack at the end of the game to keep the kids coming back for more.

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 19th, 2008

* August 30

Holy moly!  My oldest child is 8 years old today.

As you know, we already had her party.  We celebrated her birthday at school yesterday with cookies.  Today, we went to Lubbock while Emily went to a friend’s party and we did some shopping.  Then we met some friends at Chili’s (Emily’s choice) for dinner.

Wow.

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 19th, 2008

* August 25th

Emily started 3rd Grade today!  I can’t believe it.  It seems like just yesterday that I was taking her to Kindergarten.  She is attending LaMesa Elementary.  This is the same school she attending for 1st grade, and she is just delighted to be back to the school she knows.  She is participating the Gifted & Talented Program both at school and will go to weekly G/T classes at the district office.  The good thing about being back at the same school is that she does not have to be retested to get back into these programs.

Her teacher’s name is Mrs. Chilton.  She has been teaching at the school since it opened 20 years ago.  When we tell anyone that Emily is Mrs. Chilton’s class, they all tell us that she is wonderful.  Several of her friends from her 1st grade class are in her class.  Emily doesn’t feel like the “new” kid at all.  We’re confident that is going to have a great year. 

Emily is too big to be taken to her classroom, even on the 1st day of school.  We had meet the teacher night last week, so Emily already knew where to go this morning.  She hopped right out of the car and walked straight in.  I’m assuming she did great from there.  She told me she had a wonderful first day.

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 19th, 2008

* August 23

We had Emily’s 8th birthday party last night.  When we started planning the party, we were still living in Lubbock.  Emily knew she wanted to invited her two best friends from Plainview and a group of friends from school / church in Lubbock as well.  She wanted to have a sleepover, but we felt that most of these moms probably wouldn’t be comfortable with their 8 year daughter spending the night in another town.  Not to mention the hassle of getting them to the house and back home again.  So, she decided to have the party at Mr. Gatti’s in Lubbock and have her two Plainview friends spend the night.  In an effort to avoid Labor Day, we scheduled the party for August 22nd.  Having the party before school starts has become a custom for us.

Emily decided to have a Cheerleading party.  We weren’t real sure what that meant, but agreed to make a megaphone cake.  We made the reservations that included food, drinks, the use of a party room, a party host, and a $10 game card for up to 8 kids.  She sent out 8 invitations and waited for party day.  There was no need to get party favors since each kid would be getting a game card and could get their own prizes with their tickets.

On the day of the party, Emily’s friends from Plainview rode with us to Lubbock.  7 of the 8 kids arrived and the party went very smoothly.  I really didn’t have to do much at all, which meant I got to enjoy the party.  It was nice!  Everyone had a great time and Emily was a great hostess.

Emily is now the proud owner of Monopoly: Then & Now, 2 new webkinz, a webkinz outfit, new pajamas, 2 ePets, a purse & Nancy Drew book! 

After all her Lubbock friends had left, we ran a couple quick errands in Lubbock, picked up Slushies at Sonic and then headed home.  Once we got there, the girls wanted to play Emily’s new Monopoly game.  Since it’s kind of a tough game, I played with them.  We decided to play the “quick” version.  We quit when two hours passed and there was no end in sight, the girls were pretty simpled out and I was tired.  We set them up with a movie in the living room and I went to bed.

The next morning we had Belgium waffles and the girls played with Emily’s new toys until their parents came.   Then we all crashed on the couch for the rest of the day.