Happy Birthday DCG part 2

Happy Birthday DCG
Originally uploaded by Julie George

Click on the picture and you can see some more pictures from DCG's 3rd birthday party. She enjoyed the day and squealed at each and every gift she opened. You can see some other pictures from the day at my sister-in-law's blog Bits of Silver

Happy Birthday DCG

DCG celebrated her birthday at her school today. Her brother got to come in from his class to help celebrate. DCG has been talking about her birthday for about the last eight months. Each time I tell her to do something that she is not happy about (bed time, nap time, clean up time...)she has uninvited me to her birthday. So, this morning, I checked with DCG and she said I was invited to her party. I cut out of work early and got to be with DCG and her class for about an hour. Lots of fun!!!

UK Game

Old Rupp floor
Originally uploaded by Julie George

I got to go to two UK games this season. I really like to go to the senior game each year and this year we were playing Florida. The last Florida game I attended was in February 2003. What an awesome game that was. I was about 7 months pregnant with TPG and Florida had just been ranked number 1 in the polls the morning of the game. UK ended up destroying Florida by 25 points. The entire crowd of 24,000 was on their feet and yelling the whole game. I remember rubbing my pregnant belly saying "remember this little baby, this is UK basketball"

The following seasons we did not do so well against Florida so I was eager to see them with this one. We won, but like most games this season, we almost gave it away. Click on the picture to see more photos from the game on my Flickr page.

Crazy dress day

crazy dress day
Originally uploaded by Julie George

The kids had crazy dress day at their daycare this past week. It took me quite a bit of time to convince them to wear their clothes this way. DCG was totally against wearing polka dot tights and a plaid skirt. Her sense of fashion was just telling her it was very wrong. (Thank goodness she did not get her sense of fashion from TTG or myself-thank goodness for all of her Aunts)

TPG was really distressed when I put his pants on him backwards. For the last few years I have been saying each and every morning "the tag goes in the back" Then, I tell him to put them on backwards. He was vey confused by this.

I finally convinced them to have fun with it, as you can see in the picture and I dropped them off and went to work. When I picked them back up in the afternoon, TPG had put his undershirt back under his shirt, taken off the shorts, unrolled his pants and put them on with the tag in the back. DCG had taken out her three pony tails and taken off her tights. The teachers said that most of the kids really did not enjoy "crazy dress day" as much as they thought. I think they were just really confused. Oh well. I guess they really do listen to us

TPG and Tae Kwon Do

new belt
Originally uploaded by Julie George

TPG has been participating in Tae Kwon Do for about 7 months. It has been a pretty long road for him but he is finally beginning to make some progress. When he first started back in the late summer, he probably sat in time out almost every day for the first few weeks. To reward the students, the teacher, Mr. Nelson, gives the students black stripes (black tape) on their belts to mark their progress. Each student has to get 4 stripes before they can take a belt test to advance to the next level. TPG held onto his white belt for a really long time. He would earn a stripe one day and lose it either immediately or during the next class session. It was really hard to sit back and watch this happen. But, Mr. Nelson is really gifted at working with young people and I trusted him completely. He is a really soft spoken man but yet he can command the attention of 10-15 4 and 5 year olds without ever raising his voice. Finally TPG earned a yellow belt (it is actually a white belt with a yellow stripe running through it, they don't get real yellow belts until they move up to the next age level) The yellow belt was hard earned. Then it was on to earning the green belt. Another couple of months. Getting stripes, losing stripes, gettings stripes. In just the last few weeks TPG has really started to understand. He earned a green belt and then saw many of his classmates who were ahead of him move up to the next age and skill level. That meant TPG was the most advanced kid in the class. Pretty scary. There were tons of other kids who were acting as TPG did just a few short months ago. Well, today TPG was able to earn his blue belt. He knew it was coming and had been working on it for a few weeks. He was ready and did an amazing job today in his class. All the other kids were looking up to him. I think TPG really enjoyed that and it really helped him stay focused. He knew they were looking at him as an example and he did beautifully. Sitting in the audience watching I was just so proud. This was the first day that I had actually remembered my camera and I am so glad I did. But, the pictures just don't capture the feeling in the room. TPG was just so proud of himself and Mr. Nelson was really proud too. All the other parents were looking at me like "gee, my kid will never be that good to get a blue belt" What they don't know is that I was them must a couple of months ago. I don't know if TPG will stick with Tae Kwon Do forever but for right now, we are sticking with it. It is really nice to see that TPG CAN focus and CAN pay attention when he wants to. I am just one proud mommy. Click on the picture to go to my Flickr page for more pictures.