Happy Meal

Well.....Ethan is now 5 and almost 1 month old. Aidan is 3 years and 8 months old and today they were both introduced to the Happy Meal. I'd done so well up until now not cluing them into the magical and mysterious Happy Meal. What kind of prize did I get? When can I open the box and look inside? Do I have the same toy at home? This past week I'd gotten Aidan one, but taken the prize out before he got the box, but then later Ethan found the Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 vehicle in my purse. Of course it was Hot Wheels so it was AMAZING to them and they wanted more. So tonight, I prefaced it with the announcement that they had to eat the meal (their choice of hamburger, cheeseburger, or chicken nuggets) if we went to McDonald's. Plus the enticement of a shamrock shake, it was not hard to get Mama to go through the drive through. YUM. Now I've tasted the sweet goodness of a Shamrock shake for the season. Luckily (to all of us) too the Happy Meals arrived with a different car than the one we received earlier this week. Even better....they both got different ones tonight. Now I'm hoping to convince them that they no longer have Hot Wheels in the Happy Meals going forward. We'll see if we can get off with only buying 3 Happy Meals EVER! :)

Singing in the car

The boys & I love singing in the car. I've ALWAYS loved singing in the car and I've been anxious to get them singing from the beginning. I would buy children's music CDs and we would listen to them over and over until I was so tired of "I've been working on the railroad" that I couldn't stand it. I just kept reminding myself of the story my mom would tell of me singing the Grease soundtrack at 3 & 4 years old. I kept wanting them to want to sing in the car as much I like to do it. I think Ethan was around 3 or 4 when he started belting out "Life is a Highway" from the movie "Cars". We now take turns with the iPod. When it's your turn you get to make a pick. We kind of go through phases. They love Adele singing "Chasing Pavements" which just happened to download on my iPod without my knowing, but oh well...it's been well worth the "free" price tag. The like some that I downloaded because I love Hip Hop class, so "Right Round" "Mercy" "Boom Boom Pow" are also favorites. One long lasting one that's been a pick for a while is one of my favorites by Kenny Chesney "Way down here". But I have to say if they are singing a soundtrack (like i did to Grease), I'd have to say that "Never Say Never" by Justin Bieber is the new winner. I took them to the movie on a whim because I wanted to hear the background story on this up & coming kid. I was impressed with how hard he's had to work to where he's gotten and how he would like to be a normal kid (even though everyone knows he's given up normal for fame). Needless to say we've been listening to a few of Justin Bieber's songs ever since we saw the movie. And I love watching them dancing in the backseat. I'm so glad they are interested in singing (however badly they happen to sing) in the car!

Earle Brown is a YES!

We finally got the written ACCEPTANCE into Earle Brown! I'm so relieved to get that letter. Now to turn in the enrollment forms....which I will probably drop off on Friday afternoon. And I'm so excited to go to the Kindergarten Open House in April! I've been checking out the Brooklyn Center school district calendar and all the EB (Earle Brown) Fundraising Nights at Chuck E Cheese, Mom & Son nights, concerts...all sound so exciting to me. Not that I want Ethan to grow up any faster than he already is, but I'm excited to start meeting his new friends and watching him learn more and more new things. Tonight he read the "Go Big or Go Home" sign at gymnastics. I was amazed! He really knows a lot more than he lets on most days, so getting him in school will hopefully bring out all of this intelligence he keeps locked away.....Get ready for Ethan (& Aidan) Earle Brown! :)

Taxes

Have I ever mentioned that I hate the process of filing taxes. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE getting a return and being able to spend all, or some of it on something fabulous is like winning the lottery, but the process of finding all the information, adding it all in, and the tireless entry of stock sales is BORING and exhausting to me. I just want it to be done and over with. Now to think that I have an accounting degree from the University of MN, it's quite funny how I hate this stuff. Part of it is intriguing watching the Turbo Tax program calculate the amount you owe and owe and owe while you enter your income and then watching that red OWE number flip over to GREEN when you get to the deductions is like watching all the fruit line up on your slot machine. But it takes far too long to get to the payout and when you have one weird thing to enter that you're not sure you're entering correctly (like how we sold stock this year to make a down payment on the Jetta)....UGH! It is frustrating. Nevertheless it's something that has to be done and the sooner the better I guess. We've been putting this off for a few weeks now and I'm ready to just have it done. While we still have questions outstanding on the sale of the stock....it'll be nice to be done with this for the evening. So far it looks as if we will get a refund. Let's hope so, so we can buy something fabulous...like a vacation?? :)

Another response - school update

Well, we got our response back from St. Louis Park School District. We are 5th on the waiting list for Spanish Immersion School. At least we heard something back from them! So currently, we have heard the following....

ACCEPTED at Woodland (cons to this one are that you have to pay for full-day kindergarten, and the transportation to/from would be difficult / pros are that the Curtler's and the Krolnik's attend this school)

4TH on the waiting list for Yinghua Academy (cons are we'd have to do a little more research on the before/after school and bussing options / pros what an experience to be fluent in Mandarin Chinese!)

ACCEPTED at Monroe (cons are they weren't too friendly to "outsiders" at their Open house, they are not positive full-day kindergarten would be around for the 2012-2013 year when Aidan would start, and once Aidan starts it really is out of the way for us / pros Science Technology Engineering Math would be a pretty good focus)

ACCEPTED at Earle Brown (cons haven't seen this in writing / pros it is our #1 choice, Ethan RAVES about it, IB program)

5TH on the waiting list for Park Spanish Immersion (cons transportation to/from, not sure on the before/after school options, pros learning to be fluent in Spanish)

The only two we are waiting on are which one Minneapolis assigned us to.... Kenwood or Whittier. But we won't find out on those until the end of March.

Not as bad as it seems

This week was extremely long and stressful at work and while I was getting buried in all the negativity of a co-worker and the upcoming changes to our work location I didn't stop to think about how good we actually have it. When we were invited by Tony & Eileen Kamp to go to Happy Hour, I realized that we are truly blessed. While they are blessed to have little Wyatt running around like a typical (almost) three year old and have him thriving (on the outside anyway), they have gone through something I can only begin to imagine. I can't even being to fathom all of the stress, heartache, highs and lows they've gone through since Wyatt's diagnosis at 4 months old. Ethan's hospitalization for dehydration and possible kidney issues (still showing negative at this point) was enough to do me under. It was a perfect way to get out of the negative funk to get together with them and let the boys be boys and play with Eric & Wyatt. Plus as the added bonus to get to hold that cute baby Savannah! I love our boys and while I am let down from time to time that we don't have a girl, I would not trade them for anything....so having a cute little girl nearby is always a good thing. As for work, I'm just going to keep plugging along and not worry about negative co-workers and try to embrace the move to 4th floor when it happens. If anything, I will enjoy some more flexibility in dropping off/picking up the boys once school starts which is NOT a bad thing at all, right?

4th Response (verbal anyway)

Well, I bit the bullet and called Earle Brown Elementary today. Betty in the office told me that she had spoken with the district office and Ethan's application was approved. She hasn't "seen" the approved application and the district hasn't sent a letter to us yet, but apparently we are ACCEPTED and there's a bottleneck at the district office. And while I'd like it in writing, for now we have to accept our acception over the phone. We did find out about the kindergarten open house in April. I am very excited for that. And when I told Ethan that Earle Brown wanted him, he had the biggest smile on his face. I am very excited. Although now I move onto worrying about the before/after school care. I don't know if I can wait until April to figure that out, but I will start researching online. :) We were impressed with this one from the start. It was the very first school we saw, but none of the others have lived up to it. Plus we are very excited about the IB program. I hope the boys will continue with it through their entire 13 years of school. Still waiting to hear what happens with Spanish Immersion (although logistically it would be an awful challenge) and the Minneapolis schools, but YAY that we got into our #1 choice!