Commercials can ruin the Santa image!

Last night the boys and I were watching "The Santa Claus" when a Walgreens commercial came on. I often zone out during commercials but happened to watch this one and thought a couple things right away "I wonder if the boys will notice? Oh my, this could ruin the whole Santa image!" Anyways, the commerical was Christmas shopping thing mainly talking about getting your last minute stocking stuffers from them. Of course, Tanner is the one to say something, "Mommy, who fills the stockings?" I mean I know the Santa questions are going to start coming soon, somebodies going to say something, but does it have to be this year? The first time he asked I kind of let it pass without answering him, but thinking of what I was going to say if he asked again...I mean maybe another commerical would get his brain working! Oh no, not Tanner he asked again! My answer..."Mommy and daddy put a few things into the stockings and Santa puts a few things in also." The first of many answers I will be having to come up with...makes me a little sad.

Tapanga the Princess

I am so far behind on blogging I don't really want to think about it, but as I sit here at almost midnight on a Sunday night I thought I would share a Tapanga funny (before I forgot it!)

We recently spent 9 days in Georgia with Joy and the girls (and had a great time) on the car ride home Tapanga and Tyler are talking when I hear Tapanga say (think smarty, know it all voice) , "When I get home I am going to play princesses all by myself!"

Me: "Why are you going to play by yourself Tapanga?"

Tapanga: "Because I am, I'm practicing!"

Me: "Practicing for what?"

Tapanga: "Being a princess!"

Oh, my what do I have in store for me with this one?!

Tanners Classroom...again

As always, when the boys come home I ask them about their day. In the last couple of days, Tanner has mentioned that he has been sent to another teachers room. When I asked him if his teacher was at school, he says that she has been at school he just hasn't been in the classroom. Interesting.

Today, the school had an event to visit and the sub was in his room so I asked what was going on. It seems that they have decided that since there is a sub in this room and there aren't lesson plans for her, they will split the class up amongst the other classes. So, now Tanner is in another classroom for the rest of the school year!

And then I find out about end of the year testing and how I had no idea that they were doing it or in Tanners case already done with it! The principal pulled each student and tested them herself, but we didn't practice and its not the end of the year yet!

I know I am all over the board, but this whole classroom thing, has me frustrated! Why can't they make up their minds. And then on top of all this, the sub was saying that Tanners classroom was behind and they hadn't learned everything they were suppose to (almost talking bad about the teacher)!

One plus from all this (its important to find one) is that Tanner seems to really like this 3rd teacher. I asked him out of the three he has had which was his favorite and he chose the original and the newest. I will take that as a good sign!

Tyler's Beliefs

Tyler has had a couple funny moments recently, that have also lead to some life lessons for him!

This is my child who will tell you everything and anything about not sharing because of germs and whom I have learned recently has some pretty big beliefs on decency...maybe we should take some lessons?

The other night we ran to McDonalds before the boys baseball game. As we were exiting the building a guy held the door open for us to exit the building. Tyler says, "Thank you" upon exiting. When the guy doesn't respond Tyler says, "I SAID THANK YOU!!!" And yes I am not overexaggerating, he really did yell at the guy! Which lead to a lesson on non-verbal ques like nods and smiles.

At the ball field tonight there were a couple boys kicking a water bottle around. When Tyler saw this he yells out to them, "Hey, stop littering!" Now comes the lesson on telling people what to do, especially boys that are bigger than you!

Baseball Funnies

Tonight the boys had baseball practice and Tanner had a couple funny moments. Something must have gotten into him, because he had a crazy moment!

Tanner threw the ball to the girl on first base, but the girl wasn't paying attention and the coach said, "Make sure shes watching before you throw the ball." Tanner replies, "Well I was watching!"

He then starts prancing around and pipes up, "I wish I could juggle, well I guess I could juggle baseballs!"

So mad it makes me SICK!

I know I have gotten really behind on the blog lately and when things settle down I will catch up, but right now I just want to vent! Some of you have heard this vent and others not, but...

The boys Kindergarten musical was tonight and while sitting at dinner Tanner says, "Today was Mrs. Gs last day, but we'll see her again in March." Of course my reply is, "Huh, March...do you mean May?" Thinking she was going to be off till the first of May. Her husband just came home from Afghanistan and being a military wife, you are allowed to take some time off when your spouse returns.

Anyways, after dinner we took the boys to their school and dropped them in their classrooms to get ready. When I get down to Tanners room I ask Mrs. G about what Tanner said. Now this is where I get so mad at Clarksville politics!

Mrs. G tells me, that she put in for 3 days leave and it wasn't approved by a certain person at the Board of Education. That if she wanted to take those days off basically she would have to resign her position. To the person at the board, you are telling me that 3 days matter that much to mess up a whole group of KINDERGARTNERS last month of school!!! I am so sick of how some people with "the power" can mess with others, without!

Tanner absolutely loves his teacher, she has been the best thing for him and me. And I know that sounds funny, especially with me being a teacher, but I am a first time parent of a school-ager and she has been so kind and helpful with everything I have needed and questioned! I also have a different perspective than others because of being able to compare and she won hands down this year!

I am just sick with the ridiculousness of this...3 days, matters soooooo little compared to a whole month. Get off your high horse and think about the students who are being affected by this!

Tanners Work

It always amazes me what the kids come home with from school. Some of the things they do and some of the things they say! Here are a couple great pieces of Tanners:

On Friday, February the 4th, the school celebrated the 100th day. Tanners class did many different 100 activities, but they did a couple writing activities also, like if you had a $100 what would you buy? Tanners reply, "A baby horse." When I saw the following paper I cracked up...it is soooo Tanner! He had to finish the sentence, "I could eat 100 _______" his reply "STEAKS!" That is definitely Tanner, if he could chose he would eat steak all the time, he loves it!

I love how detailed Tanner is in is drawings! During morning work, Tanners class copies a couple sentences, but then on the back of the paper they can draw their own pictures. These are a couple of Tanners pictures he has drawn!

Awards Day

At the end of each nine weeks, the boys school hands out awards. Parents are sent invitations if their child is to receive one. I saw on the school calendar that the awards were coming up, but hadn't gotten an invitation so I figured we weren't getting one. Two days before the ceremony, both boys bring an invitation home.

Since Kindergarten doesn't give actual grades I thought, wow both boys are getting an award I need to go! Tanner received the "I" award last nine weeks and I kind of thought he might get the Star Student award this time, but I wasn't sure what Tyler would get (he is not the best student, but...?).

So, I am waiting through the ceremony, they hand out Perfect Attendance (both boys missed a day because of illness), "P", "R", "I", "D", "E" and no Bowers boys get called up...??? Ok, well I was thinking Tanner could get Star Student, but Tyler?

I was very happy when Tanner got Pride Star Citizen for Mrs. Geers class!!! He is a super good boy and his teacher noticed also!

Tyler never did get called during the assembly. Ms. Randolph said that they would be doing grade awards back in the classroom and I was welcome to come and watch. This is what Tyler was going to get. I am not going to lie, I was a little disappointed, I thought Tyler might be getting another award because of the invitation, but oh well! He did get the straight A's award, as much trouble as he is, he is very smart! I think he was pretty proud of himself and I know I am! Tanners class also gave out grade awards, which Tanner also got a straight A award!

The Kindergarten teachers count up all the mastered objectives and average them with the taught objectives to determine if students get A/B or straight A honor roll! Thomas and I have two very smart little boys and we couldn't be happier!

Dressing Up

The other night we were talking about cruise attire for our upcoming cruise and mom says, "I still have that dress you wore when you were a flower girl!" So she runs to go get it....this dress has been hanging in a closet for 28 years in a plastic bag. When mom comes back it looks like it has some stains on it, but mom says, "Lets wash it and see if they come out." After running through the washing machine the dress comes out looking almost like new. Its a size 4T so it should fit Tapanga! Lets try it on her!

Now, I think I need to stop here and mention that I don't have many to any clothes from my childhood and this is actually the first thing that Tapanga could wear that I did. Of course, Tapanga was in 7th heaven, after all it was a "princess" dress and she was all giddy with excitement!

I wore this dress for a cousins wedding in Gatlinburg back in the early 80's...check out the fashions back then!

As much fun as it was to play dress up with Tapanga, I don't think she will be wearing this dress anywhere in public! :)

The Snow We Were NOT Expecting!!!

The weather reports all weekend have talked about the 2 systems coming towards us in the coming week. Temperatures over the weekend were relatively high and so people were not as concerned with Mondays system because of the warmer ground temperatures. When the alarm went off Monday morning I did check the news to see if we were out for the day, just in case they decided to be cautious.


Everything looked normal and so we got ready for school and headed out. I kept an eye on the weather all morning, expecting the schools to dismiss early in anticipation of the coming system, but the call just wasn't coming!!! (I was frustrated) 8th grade had just sat down for lunch at 10:00 when the call finally came, that we would dismiss 2 hours early. It looked like this was a late call...the snow was already sticking!!!

Middle schools dismissed at 12:05, this is two hours early for us! I decided that I would go and get the boys from school, because the ground was looking awfully slick already and they wouldn't be getting off the bus till about 2:30 if I waited for them! I am so glad I decided to do this, the ground was so slick and I just couldn't imagine them on a big bus driving through this mess!

I should mention that during the morning news we were predicted to get about 1 inch of snow, by the time I left school we were predicted to get 3 to 5 inches!

Thomas got released early from work and he picked Tapanga up from daycare and we pulled into the driveway at about the same time. We already had about 2 inches of snow and the boys wanted to play in it sooooo bad! I told Thomas that the snow was a good wet snow, a good snowman snow and that he needed to build a snowman with them!

He went out and built one the deck! The kids had a great time playing in the snow!

I am very thankful I went and got the boys from school early, about 30 buses had trouble delivering students home in this unexpected snow. I don't believe Tanner and Tylers was one of these, but it made me feel so much better knowing they were safe with me at home instead of waiting for them to get off the bus! One inch turned to about 3.5 at our house!

Now the question is what will round two bring on Wednesday?

Super Bowl Fun

We went to Mom and KG's tonight for the Super Bowl and during half time Tyler started dancing. (If you listen closely you might here the Black Eyed Peas in the background.) I have to say coming from two non-dancing parents he's got a couple moves...well maybe! What he definitely has is an appetite, notice how he has to stop every now and again to get a few peanuts! Too funny! Sorry for the bad quality, but still good enough to get a little laugh!

As Tyler was getting ready for bed Tyler says, "I want to be TJ when I grow up!" Thomas replied, "A TJ? Do you mean a DJ?"

Oh, Gross!

Tonight we were suppose to go to a friends house, visit and maybe play a few games, but someone got sick and so we couldn't go. Instead, Thomas and I decided to go get some dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It seems that wasn't such a good idea also. No, Tapanga came over to me after the dessert had been delivered and said, "My belly hurts." This was right before she started puking and puking and puking. Lets just say it was all over the place! I had it all over me, she had it all over her, and not to mention the floor!

Oh, my! I have never experienced this before. How embarrassing! I ran her into the bathroom where I stuck her in the empty stall, while I tried to wipe my hands. I needed to wipe the handle off from where I came in and I am struggling with the toilet paper, because they had a hand dryer and no paper towels!!! Which all of you know of wet hands and toilet paper go together! A lady in the next stall heard what was going on and started laughing. She says, "I am sorry, but I can't help it." She was so nice to say, "Hold on just a minute, I will go get you some towels." When she comes back she says, "They weren't happy about them, but here's a wet and dry one." Thank you so much!

The joys of motherhood! I guess it was a good thing that we didn't up going to anyone elses house even though it was rather embarrassing to be at this particular restaurant tonight!