Growth Spurts

O.K., so I knew that kids grew fast, but how fast sometimes surprises me. Most of you know that to say Kailey is petite is an understatement. The child, who is 2 and a half, still wears a size 12months in shorts. This now has become and issue for me with winter coming. Anyway, back to the original story. I've noticed lately that she seemed a little longer. My suspicions were confirmed this morning when we put on sandals she hasn't worn for a few weeks. Imagine my surprise when her toes were so far out!! I had noticed that she was filling out her church sandals almost to the end last Sunday, but nothing like this. I laughed so hard and just had to take a picture. Here it is. Now the question is, If you live in Phoenix, do you buy a new pair of sandals at the beginning of October. I would say no, but after this morning, I'm starting to rethink my position.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!

Yes it's true, my little boy is now 6 years old. Hard to believe. He had to go to school yesterday, but it was no ordinary day. Yesterday was a "most of the day" field trip. We had to be at school at 8am and returned at about 1pm. So, I got to spend all day with him. This would have been the first birthday we were apart, but God works in wondrous ways. Anyway, we went to the symphony in downtown Phoenix. They have a program just for school children. It was great, lots of great music. Jake's take on it was, "It was boring and I'm never going back there." Ha!! I thought it was funny just the way he said it.

For dinner Jake's choice was Peter Piper Pizza. Yummy. Then we went home to a little tradition that has just kind of happened since we've been in Arizona. On every one's actual day, mine and Kyle's included, we all don party hats and have some balloons to open presents and have birthday cake and ice cream. Just ice cream in Jake's case. (See previous post.) We all had a great time. I must say, I am quite proud of the person Jake is becoming. He said it was o.k. if Kailey shared his birthday and let us put candles in her ice cream too. He then let us sing "Happy Birthday" to her and even let her open on of his presents. God has really put a tender heart in him and I love him for it. Here are some pictures of the festivities. Hope you enjoy! I LOVE YOU JAKE!!!

Sunday Mornings and Blue icing cookies

Here are the pictures of Kailey on Sunday mornig before church wearing some of the bows that I made her to go with the beautiful dress that Aunt Ginger gave her for her birthday.

Now on to the fun. Kailey and I went to the mall the other day while Jake was in school. After doing a little shopping, I stopped to get a treat. Kailey picked out a sugar cookie with BLUE ICING! Yikes!!! Now, let me stop right here are insert a side note. Having messy kids drives me CRAZY. I do mean CRAZY. I'm learning to let this go. For one thing, at 2 and 1/2, Kailey is still drooling. Now don't panic. I asked my doctor about it at her two year visit and he said, "She'll grow out of it." The next thing is, Jake was never messy, and he only likes sugar cookies and vanilla ice cream. All things white. For his birthday snack on Friday, I'm taking vanilla ice cream. He doesn't like cake, he doesn't like any chocolate, and he certainly doesn't like colored icing. He was just never messy. Anyway, back to the mall. Kailey picked the blue icing, and I will admit I tried to sway her to get something else. She just wasn't interested. So, I decided to let my issues go and buy the cookie. Kailey had a great time on the ride home. When we got home there was an entire cookie left with all of the icing licked, yes licked, off. Here is what I brought into the house. Needless to say, we changed our clothes and went to pick Jake up. Ah Kailey, life would be a snore without her.

Now on to our biggest events. Tomorrow Jake turns 6. I can hardly believe it. It really does seem like yesterday. What a blessing he has been in our lives. I thank God for him every day.

Thank you Lord for the gift of my children. Today and tomorrow I really thank you for Jake. Give them a heart like Yours. Keep me ever mindful that you have given them to me as a gift from you. Help me guard their hearts and raise them to be followers of YOU. AMEN.

Thank Heaven for Little Girls, and Great Friends!

O.K. So it is no secret that at the Wewe house, we LOVE bows. Kailey has literally worn a bow every single day of her life. You know we live by the saying, "Fake it till you make it." Well, we replaced Texas big hair with big bows. The problem was, you can not find a decent sized, shaped, or colored bow around here. I have been obtaining bows for the past two years by either 1) bringing them home from Arlington with me or 2) ordering them online. Either way was not easy on the pocket book. Well, lucky me two of my friends have had babies in the past 6 months. And anyone want to venture a guess as to the gender? You guessed it, GIRLS! And to my good fortune, they like bows. Now to the really good news, they have learned to make them on their own. Recently they informed me they would teach me, and clued me in to a ribbon store that is beyond fabulous. SO, yesterday, the two of them, their cuties and my friend Kim, who has a three year old daughter and an adorable baby boy, all came over for lunch and a "Teach Marna how to save thousands on car insurance, I mean, thousands on hair bows." day. Evidently Kim, whom I have termed the Martha Stewart of our group, has been holding out on me these two years, because she herself is quite the artist with a ribbon and clip. I should have known, she's pretty good at those sorts of things. (She's a hygienist to boot.) Anyway, we had to greatest time, or I had the greatest time, and learned to do something that I enjoy and can be enjoyed for a while. I'm so excited. Now we can be very matchy matchy with our bows. Thank you Kim, Toni and Erin. Without friends like you, I'd be a lot poorer. Kyle thanks you too. Soon to come, Pictures of Kailey in bows created by her mother.

Super Star

Each week in Jake's class, one student is selected to be the "Super Star" student. Now I say selected, but what I really mean is the teacher does it in alphabetical order, only backwards. She said since her name is Wornick and her kids were always last growing up, she decided that the end of the alphabet would be first on occasion. Well, this one time I wish we would have gone in the real order. Jake got to be first. For Jake, this was great. For me, not so great. We were told to create a "display board" that had pictures of the family, the child at different ages, places we've been, things we like to do as a family. The kicker was these six words, "Be as creative as you like." Great I know lots of moms with creativity oozing out of their ears. Well, that's not me. And I had to go first. This little project didn't seem to enlist panic in the rest of the moms. After a little investigation, I found out why. They all did this in preschool. Double Whammy. I have to go first, and I'm a "super star" virgin. Anyway, after much blood, sweat and tears last weekend I finished on Saturday night. After putting the kids to bed on Sunday night I was struck with fear that maybe my board was a little pretentious. Kyle's response was, "Well, what can you do about it now?" . He had a point. I left it as it was and off we went. Now that it's done and at school, I feel quite proud of it. Judge for yourself.

Soccer

The new soccer season started on Saturday. Luckily for our family all our games start at 10a.m. Perfect. Jake is on the same team he's been on for the last four seasons. There are several of them who have been together that entire time. I think it's finally starting to click with them. On Saturday they scored 5 or 6 goal. (There is no OFFICIAL score kept.) They also stopped several balls. Jake played in the goal for one quarter and he stopped 3 balls himself. I was quite proud of him because he "pounced" on each of them, just like they've been working on in practice. He's also gotten much better at being aggressive and going after the ball. When he first started soccer he would cry because the other kids weren't stopping to let him kick the ball. After a couple of seasons and some explaining of how this game is actually played, he stopped taking it so personally.

A Busy Weekend

We had a great weekend at the Wewe household. It was busy, but good. Actually, this entire week has been busy. At Gateway we have a very special kid's program called Crosstown. "Crosstown is a place where kids bring their parents to learn." It is a big theatrical production that starts with singers and dancers, and has a drama presentation every week. Kyle happens to be one of two "host" so he is on every week. I play the part of Mrs. F and am on just occasionally. Anyway, back to the real story. Crosstown took a break for the summer and just resumed this Sunday. The idea was brought up that maybe we could revamp the set, which happens to be a club house. WELL, Kyle took the initiative (our Crosstown virtue this month) and re-did the set himself. Every night after work he would lay it all out in our garage and driveway and worked away. He will tell you that it was a great ministry tool. So many people st oped to ask what he was working on. He did a marvelous job and the set looks awesome, but he was up past midnight every night trying to get it done. He is a man of many talents, maybe too many. Did I mention that Gateway is without a preacher. Can anyone guess who might be filling in? You're right. Our very own Daddy. He and our involvement minister are rotating on a three week on, three week off basis. And this weekend he was on. He has done a wonderful job in this position too. The last two Sundays he has spoken about being what the Potter created you to be and fulfilling the role that he has planned for you. He took on the theory that busyness does not always relate to doing what God has called us to do. I plan on putting up the set pictures pretty soon for you guys to see.

A day in the life of a Kindergartner

Today was a big day. Jake attended his first "school birthday party." It was for a little girl in his class named Corinne. She just turned 5, which makes her almost an entire year younger than Jake. Anyway, she had a swimming party at her house before school this morning. Jake, who is turning into a social butterfly, could not wait. He came running into our room this morning sounding the alarm "Get up, today is the birthday party!!!". So, up we got and off we went. He had a great time and was not keen on the idea of leaving to go to school. Oh man, the life of a kindergartner. Because Jake attends a Christian school, they have bible built into their day. I am quite taken with the fact that they have a special prayer time where the teacher ask for prayer request. The hearts of those kids are so wonderful it's easy to understand why Jesus uses them as our example. Another part of their week is a chapel service. Well, at each chapel the kids are given a chance to give an offering. They send home these little envelopes and the kids put their coins in and bring them back to give at chapel. Me, just being the mom, didn't really think this through. So since we give every week at our home congregation, and Jake gives on Sundays too, I didn't send anything yesterday. What a disaster. I got an earful from a teary eyed 5 year old. "EVERYONE had a little envelope and they got to give it to the guy playing music and I didn't have one!". Now, why, after all this time has he suddenly become so observant of what is going on around him? I guess I really screwed up. For one thing, I didn't remember that it was chapel day and second of all, I don't know where I put those stinkin' envelopes. You better believe I sent the teacher and email asking about offering etiquette and begging for more envelopes. This mom won't let it happen again. I HOPE...

Celebrate Jake Day

After the first day of school we decided to go to Amazing Jake's for the finish of what we termed "Celebrate Jake Day". Amazing Jake's is a glorified mix of Chuck E. Cheese's and Dave and Busters. I thought you might enjoy just a few pictures from the after school festivities.

One more great story. Jake picked his first day of school outfit from the new clothes we bought him. He choose this one based on the fact that his shorts had a belt. No other thought was put into it. Just that it had a belt. He let me choose the shirt. The same kind of thought went in to the shoes we bought for school. The school required that we have closed toe shoes. Well, at our house we owned nothing but flip flops. So, we had to buy new tennis shoes. While shopping, we discovered a pair of Sketchers that had a mini flashlight in the box. Well, the looking was over and there was no consideration of any others. Ginger said Sketchers has a good marketing department. I agree.

We Solved the Case and Now Have 1st Day of School Pictures. (How's that for a title?)

The case has been solved. I must admit, I thought maybe Kailey Elizabeth was our main suspect, but alas, it was her daddy. Kyle evidently put the camera in his "church backpack" on Sunday morning and forgot about it. Since he doesn't use the backpack for the rest of the week, we didn't search it until last night. There it was! Hooray!!! So now we have school pictures. School, by the way, is going great. The more I see and talk to the teacher, the more I like her.

Now to the pictures, there are so many to choose from. If you look closely you will see that Kailey is wearing her polka dot backpack. She is so ready for school. Everyday she says, "Where's my backpack?" and when we get to school she'll say, "I go to school." She hates it that she can't stay. We have not found a mother's day out program around here. Jake went to preschool at the school he attends now. Their start age is 3, so she still has eight months. Until then she's stuck with me.