Sweet Home Alabama!

Well, we are adjusting to life after vacation. We had an amazing trip with absolutely beautiful weather. Couldn't have asked for better weather while we were down there. It was around 80 degrees every day and sunny. We had rain one afternoon, but it didn't start until around 4:30 in the afternoon and only lasted a few hours. By about 7:00 it was done. The coldest day was the day before we left to come home and it was a frigid 73 degrees (haha). It was incredible.

While we were there we did so much sight seeing, it was great! Ric's aunt lives in a beautiful private community with many things for the kids to do such as basketball courts, a soccer field, a playground, tennis courts, walking trails, a lake which is great for fishing in, and many stores along with a few restaurants. It was very peaceful in this community and all of us thoroughly enjoyed our time with Judy.

But, we also wanted to get out and *see* Birmingham. I had done quite a bit of research online before we left because I didn't want the kids to get bored while we were there. I found a list of the top attractions that Birmingham has to offer and we visited 3 of those attractions. Our first stop was to the McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham. What fun! The kids had a blast there! That was probably the most enjoyable day that we had there. The kids enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit which was there, and they could "dig" for dinosaur bones. There was also a huge exhibit on weather, another one on the techniques used in making a cartoon, and of course Lauren had a great time in the preschool area. We could have stayed all day there! Another big attraction there was the aquarium that they had. We saw a huge eel, many saltwater fish from the Gulf area, some fresh water fish, an octopus, and so many other sea creatures. The boys loved the aquarium area.

Our next day trip was to the Peanut Depot also located in downtown Birmingham. This was a very fun trip that only took a short time to do. BINGO! Just what we need for the kids. The Peanut Depot was located in a large old brick building on a brick road. The building itself is over 100 years ago and is listed in the Birmingham historical directory. They make all their own fresh roasted peanuts there and give tours of how peanuts are made. This was fun, I've never seen the process on roasting peanuts. We also ate our first ever Boiled Peanuts. Quite honestly, I've never even heard of boiled peanuts until last week. The tour wasn't really a *tour*. The building is basically 1 very large warehouse type room and all of the peanuts are actually roasted right there in that big room. The owner was there and he explained everything to us very well. Of course we left with quite a few bags of fresh roasted peanuts! YUMMY!

Our third and final day trip was to the Birmingham Zoo. Of course the kids loved the zoo. We saw many of our favorite animals such as the gorilla, the sea lion, tigers, lions, monkeys and many other creatures as well. This was Lauren's first trip to a zoo, and she had a great time seeing all the animals her 2 favorites were the zebra and the many giraffes.

All in all we had a great trip. It took us 12 hours 15 minutes to drive straight down there and only took us 11 1/2 hours coming home. The kids did awesome in the van both there and back. I couldn't have asked for my kids to be better behaved!

Conferences

Tonight was conference night for both of our boys. You know ever since my kids started school I HATE parent teacher conferences! My kids do good in school, so I don't know why I hate it so much. I think its the whole idea that somebody else is critiquing MY kids! I don't know what the reason is, but I cringe going in there! 

So, Sam's conference was first. At his fall conference there was some behavior issues. Sam is a very bright kid, and quite honestly he is VERY bored in school. So, tonight we're told that his behavior is 100% improved! So, thats a relief. Then we go on to the academic *stuff*!  So his teacher tells us that he is reading at about a 3rd-4th grade reading level. He has no problem sounding out words, in fact he rarely has to stop and sound them out anymore. At this school the boys take what is called NWEA tests (Northwest Education Association). He is too young for the MEAP test, so this is what would be equivalent to a MEAP test. WELL, Sam's tests showed this: Math, the normal "average" for a child in 1st grade would be a score of 170, Sam scored 190. 

Reading, the "average" score for a 1st grader in reading is 160 and Sam scored almost a 200. 

So, Sam is doing quite well for a child his age. In fact Sam, according to these tests results he has surpassed 99% of other children in 1st grade. I just hope that next year he will have a teacher that pushes him a little bit harder. 

Ok, onto Ryan. At this level with Ryan he gets letter grades. Soooo, he has a B+ in Language Arts, a B+ in Reading, an A- in Math, a B+ in Social Studies and a B+ in Science. 

Ryan also had to take the NWEA tests and in reading he scored 216 points (the "average" score for a 4th grader is 207). In Math Ryan scored 217 and the "average" score for a 4th grader is 209. So Ryan is also working above average. He does a great job in school and Ryan recently was awarded the Virtue of the Month Award for 4th grade for the "Encouragement" Virtue. Apparently Ryan does a great job encouraging his classmates. 

So, all in all conferences went great. I'm glad its done until fall though...

HAPPY APRIL???? maybe...

Ok, so the beginning of April hasn't been that great here at our house. Tuesday was April Fools Day and we woke up to find that Ryan (our oldest) had pink eye. YUCK! So, of course, that meant he had to stay home from school. 

Tuesday night I started feeling a little yucky. I had some swollen gland stuff going on in my throat, which is pretty common when I catch a cold. Well, by the time I went to bed I was feeling miserable, so I drank some Airborne (which I highly recommend to people!!!) and off to bed I went. 

Wednesday morning I woke up to find that I could NOT talk. My throat was swollen closed. Words were nearly impossible coming out of my mouth. It was odd and yet very scary too! I've never experienced anything quite like this. Ric looked at me and said "do you have a cough drop in your mouth?" NO! nothing in my mouth, just felt like I had something shoved down my throat. Then I took a look at Ryan and saw that his pink eye had not cleared up. So, of course that meant he had to stay home again. In the meantime, Ric looked at me and said "let me see your throat." So he took a flashlight and peered in my throat and announced "you need to see a doctor. I think you have strep throat." GREAT! So, I first called the pediatrician for Ryan. He has had this cough/cold and I knew he had an ear infection. Then I proceeded to call my doctor and get an appointment for me.

Well, 9:00 a.m. we are sitting in the pediatrician's office and she says "Ryan's ears are fine, his lungs are fine." THEN she looks in his throat. "WHOA! He has strep throat!!!!" I then told the pediatrician about my symptoms and she peered into my throat and said "oh yes, you have it to." So, he's on an antibiotic for his strep throat. So at 1:00 p.m I go to my doctor and tell them "yes I think I have strep, my son was at the pediatrician earlier and he also has it." So, my doctor takes a look and says "Oh you definitely have strep. I wish I had a med student here to show this to." They never even did throat cultures on either of us because the strep was so bad. 

So, how did we end this eventful day???? Well, I told Ryan we deserved ice cream. So we bought ourselves some ice cream and let the cool ice cream run down our sore throats! Doesn't ice cream always make everything better???!!!!!!!