Author: Melissa

During dinner tonight I gave the kids a little interview!  Here it is –

Ajax (age 8; 3rd grade):

• If you could live in a house shaped like anything, what would it be?  A big diamond. I think that’s like a cool design for my house. There would be support beams on the sides. Invisible support beams.
• What do you think is in outer space? I think there’s um, aliens. Maybe like wreckage’s of alien space ships.  What do you mean by aliens?  I mean creatures in space.
• Where is the most wonderful place you’ve ever been?  I honestly don’t know.  Oh the ocean, the ocean!  Liked that there were shells everyplace!  And you stand where the waves are, so that they are pushing against you.
• What are you good at?  Running.
• What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you? I love you. Who says that? You do (Noomi – that’s cause she’s our mom).
• What is the worst smell in the world?  Max’s farts. It smells awful; I almost barfed, it smells like rotten and smelly eggs.
• What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Scientist. What kind? Wait no a miner. What do mean by that? I want to mine in a mine-shaft and like, find gold.  No wait, I want to be a farmer.  I want to farm potatoes, corn, and beans.
• What’s your favorite song?  We Will Rock You.
• Favorite band? Queen
• What is love?  It’s when someone likes another person. How does it make you feel? Happy.  (Noomi -they kiss and marry).

 

Noomi (age 5; Kindergarten):

• If you could live in a house shaped like anything, what would it be?  A circle. Because so we can push the house and make it roll.  Everybody would roll it, push on that side- Whosh!!
• What do you think is in outer space?  It is spaceships, aliens, stars, the sun, the moon.  And then space people. That’s all 6 people.  Guys that go into space. Ajax – like astronauts? Noomi, yea.
• Where is the most wonderful place you’ve ever been?  It is Papa’s house.  Because I get to see Mabel.  Mabel is my favorite dog there.
• What are you good at?  I’m good at drawing.
• What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you? I love you. Ajax- who says that? Noomi *tapping my foot with her finger* this girl right here-  Mrs. Indish.
• What is the worst smell in the world? Toilets.
• What do you want to be when you grow up?  I wanna be a piece of a hot dog (she provided no further explanation).
• What’s your favorite song? Momma loves you.
• Favorite band? Queen.
• What is love?  If a boy and a girl and they are rushing to each other and they love each other and they kiss they get in love.
• Who is your hero?  Ajax. Why ? He’s funny and all the time plays with me. All the time does fly mode.
• If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?  I would turn invisible and I would just make myself get lost.  Like go at the playground without even asking my mom.
  • Ajax – I would haunt people.
  • Noomi – Actually I’d turn invisible and go into people’s houses and take stuff. Noomi that’s stealing dude. Oh never mind. I’m just gonna rush up to the clouds and touch the sun.

Believe it or not September has skipped right along and we’re now into October.  Kids are enjoying school.  Ajax has been focusing on improving his handwriting and Noomi is working on letter sounds and heart words.  She’s having a bit of difficulty recognizing that individual letters make up words, and words make up sentences, etc.  But we’re working on it.  Both kids are doing amazing in swim class and both were just bumped up a level.

This weekend was pretty quiet, like most Saturdays the kids had swim, then we went grocery shopping.  Afterwards Noomi had a birthday party and then after that we had dinner over a friends house.  On Sunday we made a big breakfast and then went hiking in the woods.  Ajax had a soccer game in Eaton Rapids on Sunday and after that we grabbed a quick dinner before heading home and into bed.

Weekend recap!

Week two was better than the first.  Kids seemed to accept the new routine.  Noomi loves riding the bus and has started getting into her classroom routine.  I guess the first few days of school she refused to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance.  But the teacher recently emailed me and said she finally joined the class (something Noomi had proudly told me as well when I picked her up from school).  I don’t have much to report about Ajax’s class as the kid tells me very little.  He said he likes his teacher, she seems nice.  That’s about it, lol.

On Saturday, both kids had their swim lessons.  They are both doing great!   Ajax can swim and is working on the backstroke.  Noomi can now float on her back and is getting the hang of swimming.  After swim class we did some grocery shopping, had some lunch and then zipped up to Owosso for Ajax’s first soccer game (hes’s #17).  Grandma Dara and Papa also came down for the game.  Ajax did great his first game, he was goal keeper for most of it and all the kids really seemed to have a good time.   At the end of the game, one kid asked, wow who won!?  Ajax’s team won.  Noomi had a blast playing with the other kids during the game, but wasn’t too interested in watching it.

After the game, we found some garage sales and the kids were thrilled to find some Transformers and action figures for $1.  They used their own money and were so excited with their finds.  Noomi picked our family movie of Feival Goes West, which I haven’t seen in over 20 years.

On Sunday, we all slept in, made a big breakfast and then did some general cleaning and work around the house.  The kids did their chores and then played outside.  Other than that it was a pretty quiet day.

Happy Labor Day folks!

The kids were happy to have their first week of school concluded.  Wish Noomi’s first week would’ve gone better, but we’re optimistic for her second week.

Both kids were home with Dave on Friday as I had to work.  After work I hit the salon and finally got my pixie cut that I’d always wanted.  I love it, but the kids not so much.  Ajax immediately asked how long it would take for my hair to grow back.  Noomi said I had boy hair (which of course resulted in a lengthy discussion regarding there is no boy hair or girl hair, etc.).  On the upside, I was able to donate it to Locks of Love, and that’s just pretty cool.

On Saturday, the kids had swim lessons and then we headed to Tecumseh to see Lisa and Doug’s new house on over 40 acres!  It was lovely and they are very excited to have so much space.

On Sunday, we did some grocery shopping and then Papa came over to watch the kids as we had my cousin Michael’s wedding in Dearborn (The Henry Ford).   The wedding was very nice, the food was great, and of course excellent company!

On Monday, Dave and I were pretty slow moving, but we managed to get the rest of our yard cleaned up and ready for Fall/Winter.  We’ve been working hard to get things cleared and put away as we understand that there is a distinct possibility that we may be moving this winter.  The kids played outside with the neighbors and had an overall relaxing day as well  We capped off our day with pizza and a family movie (ET).  The kids loved ET.

Well Noomi’s first week of school has not greatly improved.  Today when I picked her up from Kids Corner the teacher told me that she had been pushed by another child and her front tooth was knocked out.  Sure enough, out comes Noomi, covered in blood with a missing central!  I couldn’t believe it.  Noomi said she didn’t even cry.  Ajax threatened to beat up the other kid.  Poor baby girl.

Today was the first day of school!  Noomi was so excited that she was up around 6:15 am. I tried to get her to lay back down, but it wasn’t happening.  She was up and ready to go.  Ajax took a bit longer to get out of bed, lol.  The kids decided they wanted to ride the bus for their first day, so Dave and I loaded them onto the Bus and then I drove to meet them at the school (not going to lie, got a little teary eyed when the kids got onto the bus). Unfortunately, the bus was way late and didn’t arrive at the school until almost 8:30 (school started at 8:20!).  Ajax ended up running off with some of his friends without a backward glance, as I waited for Noomi to get off the bus.

I assumed Ajax made it to his class ok and I walked Noomi to her classroom.  There was a lot going on and Noomi was quite overwhelmed.  Her best friend, Cruz, was there and that seemed to make all the difference for her.  There were a few times where she wanted to hang on me, but she saw Cruz doing things and felt comfortable to move forward as well.  She seemed happy and excited when the teacher escorted the grown ups to the door.

After school both kids rode the bus home and Dave and I were there to greet them.  Ajax bounded off the bus, he seemed to have a great time, but Noomi walked like a zombie down the steps, staring blankly without talking.  I actually think she fell asleep on the bus ride home (or darn near it).  She was totally out of it and said she had a bad day, a teacher yelled at her for not paying attention and made her cry and she didn’t want to go back.  She was so tired I couldn’t really make sense of what happened.  I am now, of course, fretting.

At dinner the kids told us more about their days.  We were able to pull out positive things from Noomi’s day like eating lunch with her friends, recess outside, and music class (which she kept calling singing class).  Ajax, like always, is difficult to get information out of.  He said he had a good day, his teacher is nice, he has lots of friends in his class, and that he had gym with his favorite gym teacher.  All good things.

Well crap I missed August.

Somehow the month escaped me and now it’s cooling down, sun’s setting earlier, we took the pool down, and the kids start school tomorrow.  Summer is done folks.

Our last stint before school involved a few kids birthday parties, dinner with friends, late night movies, and, of course, fishing with grandparents.  The kids were bummed that they didn’t catch anything, but of course had fun swimming.  Those expensive swim lessons have finally paid off as Ajax can now actually swim and Noomi is pretty close to it.

We also had a solar eclipse across the United States and in Michigan we saw about 80% of it which was still very cool.  I took the kids to a solar eclipse party at the Howell Library and we made T-shirts and ate cookies and filled a bag with books.  We also stared at the sun a lot.

We took the kids to the schools’ open house and met their teachers.  Noomi has Mrs. Lewis, just like Ajax, and Ajax has Mrs. Foley.  This year, the third grade moves Ajax into a new school – Explorer!  He has a locker and his own desk.  Noomi’s incoming kindergarten class is the largest the school has seen in years, hitting about the 200 mark.  They had to shuffle teachers around and add classes to accommodate them all!  Ajax’s class is about 1/2 that.

Ajax is also starting soccer next week, practice being two days a week, games on Saturday.  Noomi decided she wanted to join Girl Scouts, so I thought it would be fun to help out and co-lead, which I think will be great, but I was quite surprised at how much work it was!

With tomorrow being the first day of school we had a pretty quiet day today.  We painted rocks and then hide them around town.  The kids played at McCormick Park with friends and then we hit up the grocery store on our way home.  Lunches are packed, clothes are laid out, and everyone was in bed at a reasonable time!  Noomi is beyond excited to start school, she was so excited that she already completed her first homework assignment (due at the end of Sept).   Ajax was less excited, but he’s definitely ready for more routine and he’s excited about being in the third grade.

(Noomi and I also met friends at the MSU Children’s Garden.  Ajax wanted to go to summer camp instead)

I feel like we’ve had a hectic summer!  Where to start?

• We are debt free!  Last week we paid off the last of our debt (sans House) and it feels incredible. After years of working the snowball we finally made it.  All said and done we cleared about $170,000 in debt in about 6 years! The house goes up in October and then we’ll really be free!
• This past weekend we headed to Duck Lake which was around Muskegon.  We headed up with our friends and the kids had a blast.   On one side of the sand bar was a small shallow lake and on the other was Lake Michigan. It was lovely and warm.  The kids loved it because they had the nice warm water to play in, they built a sand castle, and even jumped off an outcrop into the water.  Both are getting very good swimming under water.  Maybe the swim classes are paying off.
• On Sunday, my dad came to visit and told us all about his trip out west.   The kids also swam for hours and we also picked blackberries.  Unfortunately, Noomi got stuck in the blackberry thorns almost immediately, Ajax got bored, and then before I knew it I was alone in the woods picking berries.
• On Tuesday, it was National Night Out in Williamston which meant food, games, a water hose, a hot air balloon, face painting, and bounce houses.  We didn’t get home till late but the kids were very well behaved the entire time and had a blast.   Ajax ran wild and is now old enough to go off on his own a bit.
• Overall, both kids are doing ok and having fun this summer.  Noomi has been a bit of a handful and has been quite stressed about kindergarten.  She’s been having trouble sleeping and has been getting up a ton at night.  She’s been worried that her writing isn’t good enough.  This morning she was trying to tell Ajax and I a story, but we couldn’t understand a word she was using. She became so upset and said she couldn’t go to kindergarten because she doesn’t have the right words.   I’m dying here, how can a little girl be so worried about school!  So far nothing we have said has made any difference.  Ajax in true brother form has been supporting, but sneaks in some taunts here and there. His funniest thing right now is to call Noomi, Naomi, and it is driving her crazy.  I remember doing the same thing to Emily when she was little, lol.
• At summer camp Ajax took the swimming test (so that he didn’t have to use the life jacket) and passed. He was beyond thrilled, next is the deep water swim test. For that he needs to do the backstroke and that, he will tell you, is where he has trouble.

After Noomi’s party the kids went up north with Grandma Dara and
Papa.  They had a great time.  Ajax is now big enough to reach the pedals on the John Deere.  Noomi used the hose to clean the house (twice) and also taught Mabel to use the doggie door.  They came home on Friday and were quite worn out!

On Saturday, we headed to Oxford for the family BBQ.  The kids played and swam with the cousins.  Everyone had a great time.  We got home around 5 and then the kids went swimming again with some of the neighbors.

On Sunday, we did the normal cleaning routine and then Noomi and I headed to Canton for a wedding shower for my cousin, Michael.   While we were gone the guys went for a bike ride and Ajax wrote in his summer journal (as we are trying to have him write consistently over the summer to keep his skills up).   Noomi had a great time at the shower and sat right at my cousin’s feet while Michele opened the presents.  It was pretty cute.

Yesterday was Noomi’s birthday party.  This was her small party year so it included family and close friends.  Noomi was pretty tired as she had a hard time falling asleep the night before (she was very excited) but rallied for the party.   I made her a watermelon cake and a peanut butter cake.  Noomi loved the PB cake and ate 2 pieces.

On Sunday morning we had the family over for Noomi’s birthday breakfast which included, of course, sprinkle pancakes.  After breakfast Grandma Dara and Papa took both kids up north for the week.