Will is Student of the Month for October!!!!!

I would be remiss if I didn't post about Will's newest achievement. It really is something! I got an email from his teacher the other day and she told me that Will has been selected as Student of the Month for his classroom in, are you sitting down?, self-discipline!!! I was shocked! Mrs. Berry even went further and told me that he's modeling the good behavior in class and is an example to those around him! What a new thing for me, being able to be the Mom of Student of the Month! And Will, when he read that email from his teacher was so happy. You think Emma has the million watt smile? That had nothing on his smile!! After all the struggling, to get Will to this point is so gratifying, dare I say, proud? (Sorry President Benson, sometimes you just have to use the word.)
More later, like the pictures from the assembly where he gets recognized. Oh, and did I mention he gets to have lunch with the principal, Mr.Weibel? Pizza delivered from the restaurant,no less! Lucky kid.

Emma was being crazy again today!

Thought you'd like to see the picture of Emma being crazy today. I went to a friend's house today and her daughter had these headbands that just aren't strong enough for her extremely thick hair. So Emma got them! Bonus for Emma, good for Colleen's house to not have them laying around unused anymore. :)
Emma promptly put the whole lot of them on her head and modeled for me. Here is the result.
Enjoy!!!

Will's classroom party

So I went into Will's classroom today with Tommy and Emma and an armful of cupcakes. I was suddently the most popular person in the room! I can't imagine why. :)
Per Will's request it was a yellow cake and chocolate frosting. Well, I was out of boxed cake mixes so that left me with Ms. Martha Stewart's website for a cake recipe. I must say I HIGHLY recommend her classic yellow cake recipe. Yummo! We were out of frosting, so I went to the Wilton website and used their chocolate buttercream frosting. Yum! It was a hit, as I knew it would be. Here is the picture of the cupcakes and some pictures of the classroom. All of the kids had fun. After school was "officially" over, Will took one to Mrs. Moore, his teacher last year, Tommy took one to his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Seeley, and we gave one to the librarian, the principal, and Ms. Erica, Tommy's preschool teacher last year. So we had fun delivering baked goods to our favorite people in the building. Don't you wish you were one of them? Ha Ha Ha

Tommy's teacher

So Mrs. Seeley called the other night, with a glowing report about how he's been doing in school so far. She said what a polite boy he is, and to keep up whatever we've been doing, cuz it's working!
Also, now I'm making some "mystery bags" for her, for some of their math manipulates. So we discussed sizes, and decided on a 6x8 size. I just finished the prototype and will post the pics after I take them.

Back to school, back to school.....

Well today I finally did it!!!!! Both boys on the same bus at the same time! Yea!!! Poor Emma, though. She was so forlorn that the boys left her. She wanted to leap onto that bus when they got on. But then we got into the house and I told her that now we get to have this special time just for us, and she made a full recovery. We went to Fred Meyer, her favorite store (mine too!) and picked up my contacts I had ordered a few weeks ago and then came home. So she had her little outing with her Mama, the first of many. :)
Tommy was so cute. He got up at 7:30 and started asking how much longer until he got to go to school. So sweet. He's really excited to start the new year,and who could blame him? His teacher is A W E S O M E!!!! We had our 45 minute meeting yesterday with Mrs. Seeley, his teacher, and all parents assigned to that time slot with their kids. Can't say it was too much fun, but a necessary evil. Tough keeping the kiddos happy though. Kind of boring for us adults, too, you know.
Will started yesterday and is in 2nd grade. He has Mrs. Berry. With a name like berry, how can we go wrong? I like berries of all kinds, and I'm sure that'll be no different with this teacher. So far she seems pretty wonderful. There is a classroom science experiment in the back of the room with a butterfly grow kit,the kind you can buy on TV, they start out as caterpillars in a jar and then they form the chryssalis, and then presto! butterflies! So they measure daily and watch. Will told me after he came home yesterday that he loved the day and the only bad part of the day is when he had to go home! Such a cutie.
Well, so much for me hangin' with my girl! I'd better go.
More later.

Shuler 2nd Annual Family Picnic

Oh what fun we had at the Flaming Geyser State Park last Saturday. Thanks to April, Ryan's cousin (and by the way, one of my most favorite people ever in this planet), we had such a fun time. She planned most everything from her hosptial bed when she had the health scare of hepatitis, which thankfully she's recovering from :) and she was able to make it to the picnic.
April organized tons of goody bags, a pinata shaped like an ice cream cone, which Will broke!, and even a bean-bag toss for the kiddos to play. We had such a great time.
The men sounded like drunks in an alley as the kids made a "hole in one" saying "hey!" in unison. So funny. When Aunt Louise decided she wanted to have a turn also, they continued the "heys" and she grinned.
Well I think dinner is burning so I'd better go for now. More late.

Christensen Family Reunion

WOW! We had such a grand ol' time at the first annual (I hope) Christensen Family Reunion, held in Indianola, WA at my Uncle Paul and Aunt Colleen's house. First of all, I have to say that I absolutely LOVE their house. It is so pretty and is decorated with a flair of someone who's lived outside the USA for some time and in South or Central America. So, since I have lived in South America (Chile, for those of you who don't know), I felt right at home with the bold colors my aunt uses for painting her walls. I say, "you go girl!" (as if she needed or wanted my approval...:) )
We had a really great time getting acquainted with my Utah cousins that we didn't grow up with. Scott, Eric, Amy, and Katie, all came with their significant others, if there was one (sorry Amy) and kids also. Uncle John and Aunt Nancy came as well. I hadn't seen them since Grandma Helen's funeral when Tommy was just barely born. So it was good seeing them as well. I hope that when we see each other next time it will be even "easier" with them. The whole greeting thing was kind of awkward for me. I didn't know if I should just say hi from afar, shake hands, hug, etc. This whole side of the family have always been strangers to me, the proverbial "cousins who live in Utah and we live in Washington and never the twain shall meet" situation, so it was weird for the first 30 seconds. Then it was like we'd never been apart. Funny how with family it just doesn't matter. I like that.
My kids had a ball. Their house sits on 2 1/2 acres of land, most of it woods. So it was very peaceful, all except the guy down the street wood chipping. Darn him! :) Really, though, we didn't really mind. It kind of lent itself to the whole woodsy vibe anyway.
Then their son, Jared, who came up with his wife, Shawna and their 3 adorable kids, grilled the yummy chicken and we had about 5 or 6 different salds to sample. Gotta love my aunt. She and my mom are cut from the same mold. Growing up, Mom would have me make jello, fruit salad, and a toss green salad for every dinner. It just wasn't complete without it. Oh, and don't forget the cooked vegetable dish and the main dish. Of course though, if it was taco night, we'd just have the fruit and jello salads. We had our veggies in our tacos, of which we piled high with mostly lettuce, tomatoes, olives, green chilis, etc. I'm really not hungry, just pointing out the insanity of my mom and her salads. (I love you, Mom. Am I still your favorite now?)
Well here's the picture of us at the reunion. Uncle Paul had fun trying to get all of us in the picture, so we decided to put a tier of benches to stand/sit on to get levels of people. It seemed to work better. I do have to brag here that I had the idea with Shawna, and then it just happened.
We took the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston and drove. I'll post those ferry pics later. It was Emma's first ferry ride and she loved it! (except for the time we were outside on the front, or aft side, and her hair kept blowing into her eyes. Think of the movie "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou" and the line George Clooney kept saying, "My hair." That was Emma!!!)
More later. I'm tired and am going to bed.