Another Fair day

Thursday before this weekend we went to the fair as well, you loved the petting zoo then as well. Thought I would post a few pics from that day as well! You really liked the baby kangaroo Joeys in there pouches in a playpen. We spent alot of time looking at them popping in and out of the pouches. There was one goat there that had only one horn and you kept calling Mr. One horn. It was really funny. We got a couple of quarters to get them some food out of a vending machine thing in there and as soon as those animals heard you turning the dial thing they all came running and about knocked you down. I had to keep shooing them away so that we could get the food out of it. The goats kept jumping up at you trying to get you to feed them. You really liked feeding the cow and the donkey. There were these huge turtles there too that you spent alot of time watching, they moved super slow!! There were also a couple of llamas, a pony, a couple sheep too. You loved walking around petting them and feeding them and just watching them.

That day we walked through the livestock barns and you got to pet a bunny, you really liked looking at them and the roosters. You werent really into the horses or cows but you liked the pigs and the birds the best.

Funfilled Weekend

We had a busy weekend again! Saturday we had to get up really early so we could be to Weippe by nine so mommy could do hair for Uncle John and Aunt Tanyas wedding, we picked up Ryan on the way and you had a great time playing with him on the way up there even though it was the crack of dawn. There were lots of kids around for you to play with at Grandma and Grandpas house. We finally made it out to the wedding and there were even more kids for you to play with. Your favorite thing though was that there were a couple of saddles sat up on haybales. You loved sitting on them riding them, you would wave your hat up in the air like you were riding a bucking bronco or something. After the ceremony there was music and you had a great time dancing with your cousing Lanie and Alana, everyone thought you guys were pretty dang cute out there all dressed up, dancing like you didnt have a care in the world. Another highlight of your day was getting to see one of your favorite bullriders, your cousin Jake. You allways talk about him and like to look at pictures of him but when it comes time for you to see him in person you get all bashfull and shy and wont even look at him. Well saturday you finally buttered up to him a little and even let him hold you for a bit. You had a lot of fun that day and was out like a rock by the end of the day on the ride home.

On sunday we went to the fair again so that you could ride the rides, you wernt really into them, you were more interested in the petting zoo. I did get you on a pony for a pony ride, but I dont have any pictures on here of it because I had to take pictures with my normal camera instead of my digital one. You did have alot of fun on the pony and you kept wanting to put your arm and hat up in the air like you were riding it bucking bronc style but the lady kept telling you to hold on with both hands. There was this guy there on huge stilts and he dressed like a cowboy and then a clown and you were scarred to death of him, you saw him coming and jumped under the picnic table and hid your head. There was also a couple of other clowns there and everytime you saw them coming you would hide your face with your cowboy hat. But you liked to watch them as they were walking away.

Thats another thing you have now decided that anytime we leave the house you need to have your cowboy hat and laceup boots, it doesnt matter if its 90 degrees out you think you need to wear it. So yeah we get into it once in awhile when I dont think you need to be wearing that getup! I always think of that song about momma dont let your babies grow up to be cowboys!! haha thats what you remind me of!

Bulletproof backpacks and Kindergarten cirriculum

So this morning I am reading the Lewiston Tribune and guess what is advertised for sale in there............ Bullet proof backpacks here in little ole Lewiston Idaho. I thought to myself are they really necessary here? I really do wonder how many kids are packing them to and from school, feeling relieaved that if a bullet comes flying at out of nowhere they might be a little more protected then fred walking next to them wearing the spiderman backpack. So this really makes me wonder what in hell is this world coming to? I mean come on this is lewiston people, I might consider Braden having one in LA or some other big city but the LC valley, come on. I need to research it a little more about the crime rate around here. And see if there ever has been any drive bys or anything of that nature. But anyways I got to thinking if it is this bad now how bad are things going to be in two and a half years when Braden starts school. So I got to thinking well maybe I can just homeschool him, no this isnt the first time I have thought about this, I have thought of it many times before. And no I am not one of those freako parents who feels that they need to protect there children from the outside world. I am totally not like that. Its just that I am really a small town girl who never really had to go to school with 77947923984 people. I went to the smaller schools where you knew everybody and hell there families too. I do feel that kids need to be out running with other kids and getting a solid education but really how much one on one time do teachers have with children when there is a million kids in each class? How much are they really learning? But anyways back to this homeschool thing. I know that I am not smart enough to home school him for long but I thought well maybe at least kindergarten, so I looked up the Curriculum of Kindergarten, just to see what you have to learn in those short few months and just wait until you see what I found. I am really freaked out by it.
Kindergarten Curriculum Guide
Social Studies
* Meanings of holidays, traditions, and customs* Understanding and appreciating other cultures* Individual's role in family, home, school, and community* Relationship of the individual to the group* Work and jobs* Safety rules and symbols* Basic human needs* Self-respect and self-awareness* Awareness of others* Location of home and school* Diagram of home and school
Science
* Observation of everyday, familiar things* Common animals and plants* Interrelationships of animals and plants* Classification of living things* Farm animals* Care of pets* Like and unlike plants* Indoor plants* The sun: our principal source of energy* Weather and seasons* Temperature* Light* Colors* Senses* Earth, moon, stars, planets* Simple measurement* Beginning experimentation
Language Arts
* Phonics* Choral reading* Listening to literature, music, poetry* Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fables* Social listening* Constructing visual images while listening* Oral communication skills* Role play* Following and giving directions* Paraphrasing and summarizing* Organizing ideas* Experience stories* Relating events and experiences using complete sentences* Listening for correct speech habits and word usage* Beginning writing process* Manuscript handwriting
Health and Safety
* Personal hygiene* Good eating habits* Good grooming* Care of teeth* Major body parts* Physical fitness* Safety to and from school
Mathematics
* Simple counting to 20* One-to-one relationship* Concepts of more, less than, same* Sequence of events* Correspondence of quantities* Ordinal-cardinal relationship* Number-numeral relationship* Recognition of basic sets* Meaning of addition and subtraction* Introduction to number line* Estimation* Elementary geometry (shapes)* Calendar and clock* Denominations of money* Basic problem-solving strategies* Basic chart and graph concepts

So yes they expect a little 5 year old to know all of this by the time they get out of Kindergarten. Five years old people, does anyone else feel this is a little extreme? Sheesh what about being a kid and playing with blocks and maybe learning a color or two? I honestly thought that kindergarten was to mostly make a friend or two, play all day and get a book read to ya and then have a nap. Wow was I wrong. Kindergarten is some serious business these days. Theres no time for messing around.
So there goes all my ideas of homeschooling Braden, lord knows there is no way in hell I can teach him all of that. Hell without looking it up I dont even know what some of it is. So heres my idea now. I am going to start working with him on the stuff that I do know so that when he gets into this huge ass school where you need to wear a bulletproof backpack and you have to share the one teacher with a million other kids maybe he will at least have a chance. Hell a little jumpstart never hurt anybody did it? And I honestly hope that I do not have to send Braden off to Kindergarten his first day wearing a bulletproof backpack.

Fair days

We had a very busy weekend. Thursday Me you and Uncle Cameron went and watched Uncles RJ and Chase play there first Jr. High Football game in Orofino. Sadly they lost 0-33 but they both got to play alot. You got to play Haili one of my friends daughters. You and her share the same birthday but you are one year older than her. You had alot of fun playing with her, its not often you get to play with someone your own age. After the game we took all of your uncles to walk around the Orofino fair for an hour or so. Friday night we had to go and get Uncles in Peck and bring them home with us because one of there uncles died and papa had to get ready to go hunting at midnight. Yes he takes his hunting very seriously. His plan was to walk three hours in the dark with flashlights so that he could be in the "sweet spot" at dawn. Saturday we went to the Orofino fair, we were there 11 hours. It was a very long day. You didnt want to ride the rides alone so I had to buy a bracelet too. You loved the Carousal we rode it so many times, you also loved to go through the mirror fun house. Other rides you went on were the airplanes, spining bears, whale cars, rollercoaster and the cars. Uncle RJ took you on some rides too throughout the day. You got tired and had to take a nap in the afternoon. After you woke up you were ready for more rides. You went through the animal barn and really enjoyed looking at all of the different animals. We went and watched the horse pull for awhile and you were amazed at how big the horses were. By the end of the day that rolled around at 11 at night you were tuckered out. You had a great time though and guess what we are going to do it all over again next weekend at the Lewiston Fair.

A little fall..........

Yesterday afternoon we were at the park and you were doing really good playing and you even went down the big huge slide all by yourself and then I told you that you had about five more minutes to play and I decided that since you were doing so good on your own that I would go and sit on the bench not maybe one minute after I sat down I looked up and there you were falling off of the stairs. I ran over as fast as I could and grabbed you up and your eye was bleeding and you were covered in bark and you were bawling and you said that your arm hurt and I just knew that youy broke it. I sat down and let you finish crying and you said that your arm felt better, thank god! Anyways this is how you looked this morning, poor baby. I sure hope that it doesnt scar.

35 months a few days late

So 35 months already, almost three, so hard to believe! This month has been good for the most part, we have been crazy busy, as you can read in the previous posts! You have got quiet an attitude this month, everything is "dumb" so you say. You are starting to be more and more argumentative and think that you are always right. It is so frustrating at times, its hard for me to hold my grounds at times because you think that you are the parent. I think that you are to big for your britches! You have grown alot this month, you can no longer wear 3T jeans, you are wearing 4T's they are big in the waist but fit in the length. I dont know how you can possibly be growing so much when you never eat anything. It is an ongoing fight trying to get you to eat. When you were a baby eating baby food in the jars you would eat so much. Right before you quit eating jar food right after your first birthday you were eating up to four jars at one meal, it was crazy. Now you hardly even eat two bites of anything per meal and that is the honest to god truth. You drink tons of chocolate milk so maybe thats why you are growing. I only give you sugar free chocolate in your milk though, so your not getting to much sugar. Your birthday is coming up and I am so excited for it. We are doing a cowboy theme party. You are so excited for it. I sent out your invites today and am expecting about thirty people. Last year you were so sick with hand foot and mouth disease that you spent the whole day in your pjs and spent a good part of the day sleeping so I am hoping that this one is alot better for you. I really cannot believe that you are going to be three, like really I sit here and think about it and I just cant believe it. Where has the time gone? You have grown and learned so much in three years. I am really excited to see what the next year brings! I love you very much! Love Mom

A busy first week of September

Well braden boy we have had a very busy week!

On Monday we went to Pasco to Chelsey and Joes, we took there dogs back to them Dreyfuss and Lilly. It was a long ride there, mom really hates driving. We got to pasco and mom took the wrong exit and we got lost for an hour, Chelsey finally came and found us. Thank god for cell phones if not for them I dont know what we would of done.

On Tuesday we went shopping and then went to Chucky Cheeses, you loved it! There were tons of fun rides and game for you to play. I am so glad that I got to take you there while you were young enough to still enjoy it (me and chelsey loved it too!) You got to talk to chucky on the phone there which you thought was really neat! There were also all dancing on the stage, they were like these huge puppet things, you really liked them!

Wednesday we went shopping some more and then me and you made the long trek home! You slept most of the way, which was good for my nerves! I am so thankful for our DVD player as well, it does a good job of entertaining you so your not distracting me with the usual hundred questions you like to ask me! When we got back we went out to the motel where grandma sheila works and you got to see your uncle cameron for the second time, almost two years after the first time you saw him. You were very bashful and kinda scared but it didnt take long for you to butter up to him!

Thursday we went up town messing around with uncle cameron awhile and then we went to our first Xtreme bulls event out at the Lewiston Roundup grounds. It was so awesome you loved it. You of course had to wear your laceup cowboy boots, your cowboy hat and your bullrider shirt. You loved Keith the clown you spent alot of time watching him and yelling at him to dance on his barrel! You also spent alot of time clapping and dancing to the music. We sat in the first row near the chutes so you got to see the bulls up close a few times! It was very exciting and very worthwhile! You had a good time with Uncle cameron sitting next to you!