Oh my goodness they are cute!!

Thats really all that needs to be said about that, but I'll say more anyway :)
My friend Chrissi is a photographer and she does amazing work (obviously) so I made an appointment for the kids to get pictures taken together. My poor little bear- we went to Jen's house in the morning for a playdate and he hit his head 3 times while there!! If you look closely you can see the worst one on his forehead. The appointment was set for 12:30 which normally is a great time for us-but since he woke up at 6am that day he thought it was nap time. He was pretty much a miserable little grump- though you would never know it by these pics. So thank you so much Chrissi!!!

My little Rock Star!!
Miranda was very reluctant to smile, but we finally got a real one- yay!!

OH I love this one and Miranda did not want to take the tu-tu off- so cute!

Ahhhhh.... here are the real Avery and Miranda :)

Doesn't Avery just look amazing in this picture??

OH- they are so sweet

Whatcha lookin' at Olibear? Not sure what it is about this one, but I love it!

She's Crafty!!

I worked super duper hard re- doing/organizing our basement. I had all of my various crafty stuff stored throughout different cupboards and drawers wherever I could find space in the house. I really attribute me not being able to get any scrapbookin done to the fact that my stuff was scattered and it was such a pain to get everything out, work for a bit and then have to find places for everything all over again. After visiting Katie and see her super cool set- up I had to work something out. So I set to work on the basement. First step sorting toys- what a pain!! I ended up with 3 big garbage bags, and 2 bags for sale/consignment/give away. Next step was some new shelving/storage units- I took the old stuff apart and took everything down and set up the new stuff. I was so stoked when it all paid off so that I had a whole bookshelf to myself for my craft stuff!! And I couldn't even fill it up- haha. Here is the wall that all of the bookshelves ended up~ This is the kids area where all of their stuff is stored. I am currently working on converting all of the VHS tapes to DVD and that will make even more room for all the future toys that they will get :) And Finally my little craft shelves :) I still have to pull out a card table and chair when I want to get crafty, but it really is so much better!! And here is the stuff that I have managed to get done! Working on Oliver's baby album-which Katie and I did some major damage in while we visited in Nebraska- I think we did like 36 pages or something of the like! Here are Thanksgiving and Christmas pages :)

August??

Oh my heck- how did that happen? Where in the world did July go... I'm really having a great summer with the kids, for the most part (they all have their moments) they are all just super fun right now. We still have 3 more weeks until school starts again and we are going to take advantage of it!! Here is a peek of our July gone by~

Oliver on the 4th of July- he didn't quite know what to think.
The girls on the 4th of July at our local celebration- they had face painting, moon bounce, rock wall climb and more!

The splash park! One of our fav places to go this summer- all 3 kids can run around and play :)

Oliver loves it!

Ice cream fun!!

Such a happy guy for the most part!!

Bunch of goof balls!!

Gaithersburg water park- great fun- first time Miranda has gone on a "waterslide" and not been completely terrified of it.

Little baby Oliver sized slide

Love Miss Jens baby, Eslii, she is such a doll!!

Oliver and Miranda hiding out from the heat at the park!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer break as much as we are!!

Update on Appeal

Okay so I got a 4 page letter yesterday- Its way too long to put on here, but pretty much they re-wrote a summary of my appeal letter and all of the reference letters and curriculums and kinda dismissed all of that and went back to the evaluation results. Honestly if they had just given me the test results to begin with I may have not even appealed!! Here is what they wrote about the eval~


"A review of the assesment data compiled at Stedwick Elementary School shows that Miranda met the criteria approved by the Montgomery County public schools for three of the six areas of assessment, Record of oral language, Visual motor tasks, and Independent task with multi-step directions. For letter identification, Miranda scored 37 points, with an acceptable score of 45 or more points. For concepts about print, Miranda scored 8 points, with an acceptable score of 10 or more points. For the Mathematics assessments, Miranda scored 6 points with an acceptable score of 14 or more points.

The following comments were noted on the student profile sheet:
* Needed to have directions repeated several times
* Team does not recomment early enterance to Kindergarten

The staff at Stedwick Elementary school followed the procedures established by teh Montgomery County public schools to determine eligibility for early enrollment for kindergarten of students born within six weeks of the state mandate date of admission to Kindergarten. Miranda met the criteria on three of the six areas of assesment, but failed to meet the criteria on the other areas of assessment. I reviewed these results with Ms. Janine Bacquie, director, Division of Early childhood programs and services, and with Ms. Pamela Prue, former elementary school principal. We agreed that Miranda should not be approved for early entrance to Kindergarten based on her limited foundation reading and math skills. The letters and curriculum checklist enclosed indicate some good skills, but they are mostly observational and are insufficient to document the above-age-level skills required for early entrance to kindergarten."

I know that that is a lot to read through- I know that for early entrance they want your child to be at end of Kindergarten level. I did not know that Miranda's scores were low in the reading and math. I was pretty much going on what the lady told me that did the assessment. So all in all I got the answers that I was looking for as to why they aren't going to let her in. I want what is best for her and that certainly isn't to struggle in areas where she isn't ready!!

Rick wants me to call and see if she can be retested- but it is just such a long and emotional process and I don't think that she has improved with her math or reading skills enough in the time that has passed that it would make that much of a difference.

Soo.... anyone know of any good preschool programs with openings that won't make us go broke???

Such a big boy!!!

We went to the park on Sunday- only lasted about an hour becuase it was so freakin' hot out, but while we were there Oliver swang on a big boy swing for the first time. Aint he cute?? Gosh I love that boy!!

My little bear

Oliver is super smart!! He is a spoiled little baby boy by me, his dad, sisters and the rest of the family- I know this and I'm okay with it. I'm not saying he is a genius or anything, but I'm a proud momma lately. Here are some things that Mr. Smarty pants (also known at times as cranky pants) has figured out lately~ He can reach doorknobs and if they are the right kind he can pull on them and the door opens!!! He can turn around and slide down the stairs on his belly- a much faster way of getting to where he needs to be. If he has a wet or dirty bum, he will go get the diaper and wipes and bring them straight to you. When someone is eating, if he comes to them with a big grin and then opens his mouth really big- chances are he will get a bite. When someone says "YaY" this means you smile big and clap your hands. If your momma puckers up her lips you give her a big wet kiss (but do it for no one else- haha :) Those are just a few of the fun new things happening in our house right now. While he might not have much of a grasp on things verbally you can tell he is a thinker!! He does have a few words now and again. The ever popular "dada" the occasional "Mom" when he is being cheeky and wants to show off or when the mama isn't anywhere to be seen. I've heard he actually says mama quite a bit when I'm not around. He says "nu-num" when he sees someone eating and says "mmmm" when he eats something he likes. He also waves and says "Haaa" which I am taking to mean Hi. The word "guh" has many meanings right now- could be dog, duck, cup, go, take your pick depending on the situation.

Its pretty cool being the mom of a boy.

laundry- ick!

Here goes my laundry woes... First of all- does it ever end?? Seriously. I am so sick of laundry- I washed, folded and put away 4 loads yesterday and now there is more to do- there is a song that I sing about it, goes like this "The never- ending laundry, woah oh oh oh, the never- ending laundry" to the tune of the Never ending story. Sorry, I know I just put that song in your head and you will be singing it all day today!!

To go along with the fact that I can't ever seem to get caught up, my dear wonderful husband tries to help. He is even less domestic than I am- reading a tag, whats that about?? Needless to say the words "do not put that load of laundry in the dryer while I am gone" computes to "can you please put that load in the dryer" which means yet again we have shrunken laundry. Good news for Avery as she is now the proud owner of a pretty pink kid sized modbe skirt!! Oh well, he was trying to help right? Now this brings me to the sad fact that I am blogging about laundry. Really really I do have a life- it just involves 3 messy kids and a house to love and try and keep clean. I complain about the laundry, but I love it too- Well not the actual doing of the laundry or folding of, but the daily family and house stuff. How funny the path that my life has taken- did not ever think that I would be married with three kids and a house blogging about my laundry woes- gotta love the changes that life throws at you!!