Conferences

Today is Parent/Teacher Conference day for Maggie. This morning I asked if she was worried and she said, "No, there is a 0 percent chance Mrs. Marsden has anything bad to tell you." :)
Glad she's so confident and who in the world taught her how to correctly use percentages?????


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"My mom was right. My shoes were tight."

Write that 5 times!

 

This morning as Maggie was putting on her shoes I said, " I think those are too small." She threw a fit and told me they fit perfect. I decided not to fight her on it. About 10:45, I got a call from Maggie and Mrs. Marsden asking if I might "possibly please" bring her different shoes at school. Mrs. Marsden assured me Maggie had already told the whole class the story of how I tried to get her to change and how she threw a fit. The mean Mom in me wanted to make her wear them the rest of the day, but I decided it wasn't worth the blisters and poor Mrs. Marsden's sanity. So I took her a different pair.....BUT waiting for her on the counter after school was a little homework assignment. She noticed that it rhymed, I told her it was because I wanted in stuck in her head for the rest of the day :)

Here are a few other pictures from the last few days.....

She's got a lot to get done, you know :)

Gracie usually won't even let Reagan in her room, so when she
invited her for a nap I was shocked!

Arnie was out of town for a few days, so we went on a few girl outings. The girls really enjoyed the pottery place when we went the first time, so we headed back....


Gracie painted a puppy bank.

Maggie painted a cross jewelry box.

Then we went to Pizza Hut so Maggie could use her Book-It certificate (she earned it by reading
10 books on her own.)

Gracie and I did an experiment on Monday when it was FREEZING! It takes 2 episodes
of Curious George for a cup of water to freeze (when it's -15)!

Maggie's math and reading skills amaze me most days!

Arnie found Gracie a VERY fitting shirt while he was skiing.

I have lost all control. I never would have allowed Maggie to leave the house dressed like this....
but I've apparently evolved! :) Gracie has one heck of a sense of style!

City girl :)

Maggie looked pretty farm girl this morning.....


I said "how did I get such a farm girl? I'm a city kid." Maggie quickly responded, "I was a city kid once, for 6 weeks." She's talking about the first 6 weeks of her life when we still lived in Omaha......hahhahahahah, silly girl!!!

Today isn't just any school day, it's the 100th day of School!!! According to Maggie they are having a party and doing 100 piece puzzles :) she's excited about the day.


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kidnapped!

***I just noticed this didn't post on Monday when I typed it....so it's a bit out of order.

Sunday at church there was a new family obviously trying to figure out where their kids belonged. The parents were talking to another adult and I suggested to Maggie that she introduce herself to the little girl and offer to show her where Sunday School was. Maggie proceeded to walk up to the little girl, put her arm around her shoulder and start pulling her down the hall. The little girl was a definitly startled :) We stopped Maggie and told her to tell the little girl her name and ASK if she wanted to go with her. The girl obliged. I still think she may have felt a little bit like she'd been kidnapped by a 5 year old, but she seemed to go more willingly and the her parents were thrilled she'd found a "friend".  That sweet little person may have a funny "my first day at church" story when she's older :)

A bunch of pictures....

Gracie wanted to wear her socks like Poppy..... :)
Friday night we went to Omaha to take Nate out for his 21st Birthday. We had a great time, we'll do it again when Deem turns 21, but it'll have to be happy hour because we'll all be too old to stay up that late. As you can see, we were great influences on poor Nate.....
....but look, he survived!
Nate and Bri asked the girls to be flower girls in their wedding. Maggie is PUMPED! Gracie will be, she just doesn't understand yet.
A little cousin love....

It was beautiful on Sunday so we finally took down the last of the lights!

Gracie liked the weekend....she wasn't so thrilled about getting up on Monday morning :)

It's so COLD Maggie drew mittens on her self portrait.... (isn't it cute!)

Our house is stating to look Valentinesssey. It was looking so boring after Christmas, it's a nice change.

We're piloting a kids workout program at church, the girls loved trying it out...

Gracie is quite the little Yogi :)

Off to school in the freezing cold.....

Today our first baby girl turns 9!!! The girls want to make her a cake....not sure how that will work out.....I think she'd be just as happy with a milk bone and it would be WAY less work!

I HATE SCHOOL!

I don't really hate school, but I am really concerned about the anxiety it's causing Maggie lately. When my little girl was home with me she was happy, confident and she believed us when we told her how smart she was. Now I'm afraid she comes home feeling dumb and inadequate. If Kindergarten can do that to her, what will middle school do. She's so smart, she's the most compassionate and concerned child I've ever know. We just have to find a way to make her believe in herself and not see every difficulty or less then perfect test score as a failure. I want her to have struggles, I want her to understand that she can't be perfect at everything and that she's not always going to be the best everything in her class but I don't want her to hurt.

She struggled with a literacy test yesterday. She has always been one of the best readers in her class, and I think not "passing to the next level" with her peers was embarrassing and painful for her. There are lots of playground politics at school and I think there was one little girl who hurt her feelings yesterday, that's going to happen and they all have to figure out how to work it out, but I think the 2 things together made her overly emotional. Her teacher assures us that she does great in class, asks questions when she is unsure and handles defeat and correction ok, but apparently it's a strong face she puts on until she comes home.

We have to figure out how to help her, all this is doing is chipping away at her self confidence. The more these defeats bother her, the more of them she seems to have. We have to help her find a way to cope and relax a little.

My heart aches for her, I hate that she's getting too big for me to fix everything. I know she has to learn and I really don't want to be a helicopter mom, hovering over her and sheltering her from everything, but I hate to see how upset she is by all of this and I'm terrified that it is changing who she is. Pray for her (and for us).

Papa??

Gracie asked "How come Papa is on the Cat and the Hat?"


She's got a point :)

When she grows up....

....Maggie decided when she grows up she isn't going to be a "crack out" doctor anymore, she's going to be a horse physical therapist (do those exist? and how does a 5 year old know what a physical therapist is???).  She's going to take the horses swimming for therapy and get in the pool with them.  Some kids want to swim with dolphins....mine wants to swim with horses :)

She also told me she thought there were about 6 steps before she could have a horse....
1- Practice riding Chevy
2- Get tall enough to put a saddle on by herself
3- put up a BIG fence
4- build a barn
5- look for a good horse
6- buy a horse
She thinks she can have it all wrapped up by summer :)

Yesterday at her lesson, Maggie got to do the first 2 steps of a reining stop. She was SO excited.  (Reining is a Western riding event where basically the horse runs SUPER fast and then slides to a stop. Kind of looks like a baseball player sliding into home plate.) Maggie begged LeAnn to let her try, so they did. Poor Chevy got jerked around pretty good, but he put up with it. She did great for her first try.  An hour on the back of Chevy is the best therapy money can buy for Miss Maggie, she's so happy and confident when she's in the saddle.

Gracie and I made a trip to the carwash on Tuesday....here is what she thought of it....
http://youtu.be/CtJml6FpaKM
poor kid :(

Lots of grocery shopping going on around here :)

 

I wish I knew...

I wish I knew what was going on in Maggie's little brain. It's been a rocky 24 hours at our house. She's struggling with something, but I don't know what. It breaks my heart not to be able to help her. She's had a couple of significant angry outbursts lately. They are unlike anything that we've ever experienced with her. Last night she sat in her bed screaming and yelling for almost 40 minutes, until she was so physically exhausted she couldn't continue. When she woke up this morning she was completely horse and very tired.

She had a rough week at school. She puts SO much pressure on herself that the slightest sign of imperfection totally freaks her out. She got an S- on her report card in handwriting and it didn't matter how many O's (outstanding) she had, she couldn't get passed the minus. Her teacher has started to reference "getting ready for first grade", the other day Maggie struggled with a reading quiz, when she told me about it she was hysterically upset about how she was afraid she wouldn't be smart enough to go to first grade and she would have to stay in Kindergarten. Poor girl. Of course she is smart enough, we just don't know how to make her see it.

We have to find some way to help her get a handle on her anxiety or she will have an ulcer before the 4th grade.

Other then last nights struggles, we had a nice weekend. Friday night we made a last minute trip to Omaha. We went to dinner, ran some errands and had a quick celebration of Deem and Mark's Birthdays. We came home in time for Maggie to go to a classmates Birthday party and then a Panther basketball game. Today we had church, Sunday school and softball practice. All in all a good weekend, I'm grateful for the smiles and laughter.

All dressed up to drill a few holes with Grandpa.

Maggie & Lauren were dressed like twins...sassy little ladies :)

Gym floor snow angels!

The store is open!

Gracie found her helmet in the closet today...still fits! It might do her some good to
wear it sometimes.

Funny....

When Maggie is mad at or trying to correct Gracie, she calls her "Gracie POTATO Robinson", happens several times a day. Yesterday Gracie must have had enough because from the kitchen I heard her respond with "ROBINSON, quit yelling at me!" :) Apparently there is no need for first names....I laughed!!!

Happy birthday!

Yesterday Deem turned 18!!! Who can believe that?? Maggie had school and Deem had to work, so we didn't get to see him. Maggie called him first thing in the morning, she wanted to be sure that he knew it was only 2 more years till he wasn't a teenager anymore :)

I think this picture is from his 13th birthday.

  Pop's 60th Birthday is this Sunday. We won't be able to be there to celebrate with him, so we had a little party last night.
The girls made him a big birthday banner and sang Happy Birthday.
Then Maggie convinced him they needed a birthday "selfie".....
:) Happy birthday Pops! We hope you win the golf tournament and get a hole in one (like Grandma, Mommy & Uncle Jeff) to celebrate. Love you!!!

And a little silly Grace dance to make you laugh.....

A girl and her stuffed animals....

Here is what Arnie found when he checked on Maggie sleeping last night......

70 and sunny???

After a fun New Years Eve at home with some friends....

(I can't believe this is the ONLY picture I took all night!)

....we headed for sunny Arizona.

We had perfect weather and a great visit. Maggie & Gracie made a list of all the things they wanted to do while we were there and I think we hit them all.

A little dance performance while we wait for dinner :)

They can be so sweet to each other, occasionally!

 We visited the Southwest Arizona Animal Rescue (or something like that), they rescue and rehabilitate wild animals. The girls loved seeing the animals up close.

Gracie especially liked the puppy (Artic wolf).

Maggie imitating the bears.

 We made a visit to the train park, which is always a hit.

The park was all decorated for Christmas. We stayed till just after dusk so we could see the lights come on.

 We visited the most beautiful stables we've ever seen....those horses have it pretty good. Maggie said she was going to scoop poop there for a summer job when she is older.

 We got to spend lots of time outside in the sunshine!

 

Grandma and Maggie bought 100 tattoos at Walgreens, you can imagine
what the girls arms and legs look like :)

 

Pop's has a BIG birthday this weekend. We didn't make a cake but we
did have some toasted marshmallows to celebrate!

Gracie really liked that hat....and the bouncy horse..... (click on the link below to see the video)
http://youtu.be/otuUnCzT9ZM

Sunday morning before we headed home we decided to take a family hike up Pinnacle Peek. Maggie asked if it was the highest mountain in the world, we assured her it was indeed the highest mountain in Grandma and Pop's neighborhood :)

Maggie's favorite word of 2014 seems to be "selfie". She's constantly asking to take a picture of herself. This is a
selfie of she and her daddy on Pinnacle Peek.

we made it!!!

 A little more fun outside....

 ...then it was time to load up and head back to -20 degrees below!!

The weather today is AWFUL, we haven't been outside yet! Tomorrow Christmas break is officially over at our house. Maggie heads back to school and everything goes back to our normal schedule. We've spent most of today "de-christmasing" our house. Everything looks SO boring when the decorations are gone, but I'm glad to have it cleaned up. 2014 here we come!