Money Madness

Over the past few weeks, Nate's math unit at school has involved money. He has really enjoyed learning about all different types of coins, their value, the presidents on them, etc. Actually to say he has been enjoying it is the understatement of the year!! He is borderline obsessed.

 

He started combing through his & Abby's piggy banks (as well as my wallet), trying to find "specialty quarters." To him, this meant quarters that had a state on the back. I told him that his Daddy used to collect all the state quarters, back in college when they were just releasing 4-5/year. So, our little coin collector was born...

 

I dug out a little box I had in my safe, from my grandpa who also enjoyed collecting coins. I found a few silver dollars and I have never seen Nate's eyes light up so big!

His first silver dollar!

 Nate's teacher must have also recognized this new interest of Nate's, because she sent a note home 2 weeks ago that said "I am going to start giving Nate extra math classwork because I've noticed he really likes adding and counting money." Ha! So here is some of that:

 Then, the boy goes and picks out this book last week at the library. I just assumed it was like money, like the cover says:

 But no, when you open it up, it is more like an economics book!!!! Of course Greg was proud. And very excited to read it to him, ha!

 Now, fast forward to Thursday. And enter: Poppy.

 

He and Nanny came for a visit. Poppy has been known to be a coin-collector himself (and a bit obsessive as well!) so he & Nate got right to work....sorting State Quarters, presidential dollar coins, buffalo nickels, Susan B. Anthony coins....you name it, they looked at them. Poppy graciously gave Nate most of his collection, and Nate wanted to look through the coins ONE BY ONE and have Poppy tell him about them, how old they were, etc. They even got on the internet to look up a few values....Nate's best find was an 1892 nickel worth $14!! Of course that one (and about 20 others) were put in a small protective sleeve and stapled shut.

Poppy was very patient with Nate all weekend - and his endless questions - but to be honest, I think Poppy was having even more fun than Nate!! Grandpa Gregg Gibbs would be proud....the coin collecting gene will live on in Nate.... :)

Nate could not WAIT to get home from school on Friday, to look at more coins with Poppy. Poppy surprised him and gave him not only a State Quarters map, but also a Presidential Dollar Coin map and a State Parks Quarter map. Yes, these two peas in a pod had quite an exciting few days!! :)

Quite the collection for a 6 year old!!

Glow Run 2014

Have you ever heard of the Glow Run?! Click here to see if it will come to a city near you....it is so fun! A group of friends did it on Saturday night and yes, I even talked Greg into coming!! Now, keep in mind that this was not a "real" race (since it was not timed), so I wasn't sure Mr. Competitive would want to do it. But he agreed to come even though I warned him that there would be some jogging and (gasp!) even some walking.

 

Everyone met up at our house beforehand, since the race was downtown & we live the closest. Every got their glow gear on and we all piled into the Party Van!

Poonam, Alba, Katie, me & Greg, Nick

The back of our van looked a little crazy!

Yes, we pre-gamed it a little bit :) (Pardon my chins!!)

The girls, ready to get their Glow on!

Did I mention that Greg was a REALLY good sport?! He didn't even flinch when I told him we were painting our nails with glow-in-the-dark nail polish!! Jazz hands....

(Silly me though, I put the nail polishes on in the wrong order, so ours did NOT glow. So Greg got his nails painted for nothing. Oops!!!)

Black light station mid-race

Greg photo-bombing Nick's picture, ha!

Cheers!

 So.....after lots of singing, dancing, jogging, and walking....we finished!! And got glow-in-the-dark medals for participating. (And please notice the awesome fanny pack I am wearing. I got it at a thrift store so I could store everyone's money, keys, etc. Let me just say....that thing is so practical! I think I may just have to start rocking one again.)

Me & Katie in our post-race glory

After the "race," we walked up to Mellow Mushroom for lots of yummy food, beer, and laughs!! Love my little Supper Club group!

Abby's Wacky Week

Abby had quite a Wacky Week at school!

 

Silly/Backwards Day

On Wednesday, Abby not only wore her shirt backwards, but proceeded to dress-up like it was Tacky Day. She picked out every inch of her outfit and was so pleased with herself! :)

 

The "crown of bows" was her fave :)

"Silly pose"

PJ Day

Abby doesn't normally go to school on Thursdays, but since they were off for President's Day on Monday, her teacher allowed her to come. So fun! You wouldn't know it by this picture though:

Not sure why she was so grumpy (other than she is a GIRL!).....but I told her I'd take out her "Elsa" braid (from Frozen) and immediately she cheered up! Funny how that happens.

And she insisted on wearing her kitty cat slippers too, which I think are oh.so.cute!

 

Silly Share Day

On Friday, the kids were asked to bring in something silly for Share Day. And of course my girl picks a "fart whistle," because really.....what is funnier than a fart!? :)

Showing off her pink & red patterned nails

I'm so happy Abby's teacher does these fun days for her class; it just makes her love going to school even more!

Another Milestone

Today, Nate turned 6.5 years old!!!

He has been counting down to this day on his calendar for weeks. (I'm not sure why he was so excited about turning 6.5, but he was.)

And....my parents arrived today for a 4 day visit, so I thought it'd be the perfect time to have a half-birthday party!!! I surprised Nate with a half cupcake, half party hat, and we sang half of "Happy Birthday" to him tonight after dinner. He was thrilled :)

Nate continues to amaze me at 6.5 years old....

He is a sweet sweet boy and the best big brother in the world...

He is still obsessed with legos and I love seeing all the new "creations" his brain comes up with everyday...

He loves making any crafts with paper....paper airplanes, origami, fortune tellers....

He has really enjoyed a recent unit at school on money....it has sparked a new hobby and now he is coin-collecting. Which is such a joy for his Poppy, who also shares the same interest. (More on that later....)

He is starting soccer next week, yippee!

He is reading better & better each day. His vocabulary is growing exponentially and he loves doing all the extra classwork & homework from his teacher.

He is a thoughtful, sweet, inquisitive and sensitive boy. And I wouldn't change one thing about him. Especially not that heartbreaking smile :)

Happy 1/2 birthday to my sweet boy!

My Funny Valentines

Greg & I woke up early yesterday morning to make a special (pink!) breakfast for our two funny valentines. Next to Christmas Eve, I have never seen the kids so excited to get out of bed in the morning! I told them their "buckets of love" were on the kitchen table, ha! (And Greg got his 2 favorites - Reese's Cups and coffee :)

 They don't look excited at all, do they!?

 Abby insisted on "reading" all of her new Frozen book to Nate. Mind you this is at 6:30 am!

 These don't look that impressive, but I assure you they were good :) Pink chocolate chip pancakes, yum! Greg tag-teamed with me and made bacon.

 Best buds :)

 All dressed & ready for school! (And more importantly, their Valentine's Day parties!)

 I wasn't able to go to Abby's party, but a friend's mom took these two pictures for me. Love my sweet little Miss Priss! The first thing she told me about her party was that "she had cheetos!!!!" :)

Her beautiful bestie, Mia

 Nate's Valentine's party was pretty hectic to say the least. His Teacher's Appreciation Luncheon/Craft Day had gotten cancelled two weeks prior (due to snow), so the principal rescheduled the 2 hour (!) Craft Day to coincide with the Valentine's Day party. Good thing I had lots of volunteers to help me, but still, it was pretty crazy. We let the kids watch a movie in one room, while we pulled them a few at a time into the craft room to make handprint bags - for Mother's Day - and snowglobes out of a mason jar. Both crafts turned out well, but like I said, were just really time-consuming.

 Somehow we managed to squeeze in some V-day party & snacks too. Oh how I love the opportunity to be a part of my boy's class! :)

 Abby had a make-up gymnastics class after school, and luckily, was the only one there. So she pretty much had a private lesson and loved every minute! I, on the other hand, was about to collapse. I am still recovering from strep throat and have little to no energy. And 2+ hrs with 30 kindergarteners about did me in! 

Luckily, I came home to home sweet treats from my sweetie :) I told him not to get me anything, other than letting me order the new label-maker I wanted. (Yes, I'm weird). Well, he listened, but insisted on getting me some yummy chocolate!!! (And thank goodness b/c I made pink brownies for the kids for dessert and they were NOT great. Pinterest fail.)

We topped off the night with a quiet night in, yummy pasta & wine, and snuggles with the kids. It was just what this exhausted mommy needed! :)

"A" for Effort

Dear Nate, 

Yesterday was your last basketball game of the season. And all I can say is: thank goodness! 

Now let me back up....if you decide to read this blog one day (which I doubt will ever happen), just know that I love you. A whole heckuva lot. With that being said, since I am one of those moms that doesn't sugar-coat things, I can honestly say that you had a rough basketball season. (And that's putting it lightly). Granted, it was your first time playing. And you were on a team that combined both kindergarteners and 1st graders. So it was only natural for the kindergarteners to be beginners and the 1st graders more experienced. The coach warned the parents that it would take a few games & practices for it all to "click." 

Well, son, it never really "clicked" for you :( You are just NOT aggressive in the slightest, and you are too well-mannered to steal the ball from someone. I guess I should have known this. You constantly complained - and sometimes were close to tears after games - about how many "rules" there were. Because of course, your little perfectionist brain wanted to memorize them all and do everything right. Switching so quickly between offense & defense was very confusing for you, and though you were great at standing "at your mark," you never knew what quite to do beyond that.

Luckily, the coach realized early on that you were not going to be the MVP, and made sure to let you bring the ball the down the court once or twice each game, after the other team scored a basket. This was the highlight of each of your games (and the ONLY time you ever touched the ball). Here is a quick clip of you at the game yesterday:

Now from the next few pictures from yesterday, I'll be honest... it looks like you kinda know what you're doing!

 

But then there's these pictures....and they tell a different story.....which is closer to the truth....

Dear boy, I love you so, but it was just REALLY hard to watch your games this season. Sometimes I actually had a sigh of relief when you were subbed out. Mostly because you just looked so uncomfortable and confused most of the time, and it broke my heart to watch.

 

After the game on Saturday, your coach gave every player a medal and then we had a few last pictures & treats with the team.

This may come as a surprise, but I DO hope you want to play basketball again next Winter. I think you should give it one more shot, to see if it was just "first season jitters," or rather, just plain NOT for you. We shall see.

 

I am proud of you for going to every game & practice, even when I could tell you really didn't want to. You didn't give up and you didn't have a bad attitude all season. And at least you enjoyed being with your friends and getting (a little) bit of physical activity at the same time.

 

I love you, Nate the Great. But I'm not gonna lie....I am really looking forward to soccer season starting in a few weeks! :)