McGrath Moments

Braeden: Mommy, I just found Brenna's booger, so I'm just going to throw it in the trash.

Me: O..K..?? Thank you??

Brenna doesn't have a toy, blanket, anything that we call "Booger", so he actually meant a booger. There were so many questions that I wanted to ask, like "Where exactly did you find this booger? How do you know it is/was a booger? Why did you want to pick it up?" But I couldn't ask any of these questions. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't really want to know the answers or if it was because he was so proud he thought he was helping and I didn't want to make fun of the situation. Either way, good blog material!!

Well, I am only a few weeks late, but here are some pictures of Brenna's 2nd Birthday Party/4th of July Party. We had friends and family over for a picnic, water activities for the kids, and fireworks.

Brenna Grace, Age 2



Brenna enjoying her Capri Sun Juice!



My Parents, Sister and her Husband, Ed, the kids, and I.



Cooper playing baseball!



Braeden swimming!

Ed's Family Picture!

Relaxing in the backyard!

I really want to thank everyone for celebrating with us. It is always so fun to get together with family and friends. Also, a special thank you to Sherry Fisher for spending the time to take all of these wonderful pictures for us!!

This morning Braeden went to his cousin, Brody's, 2nd Birthday Party. It was a fishing themed party, so we decided I would stay home with Brenna, so she wouldn't be running around and getting in the kids' way while they were fishing. Brody's mom, Mindy, was nice to send a treat bag home for Brenna.

Braeden: Here is a bag I brought you from Brody's Party.

Brenna: Thanks, Braeden.

Brenna then pulled out the fishing bobber that was inside the bag and since she really didn't know what that was, she handed it to Ed and then continued checking out what else was in the bag. The next thing you know, she pulls out a baggie full of licorice, sour worms, and gummy fish and screams...

Brenna: SUGAR!!!

This past Sunday, my Aunt Terry made plans to come over and have a "Sleep Party" with Braeden and Brenna. For those of you who don't know what a sleep party is, that is the term my children use for "Slumber Party". Anyways, they LOVE, LOVE their Aunt T soooo much and were so excited for her to come over. Braeden jumped out of bed early Sunday morning and ran to get Ed saying, "Aunt T is coming!!" Ed told him he needed to wait until the clock said 4:00 to start watching for Aunt T to get there. Well a couple of hours later, he ran to Ed again and said, "Aunt T is coming!!! The clock said 4!!" Ed glanced at the clock and it said 8:41!! Well, there was a 4 in the time!!

I am so happy with how Braeden is doing at Preschool. For those of you who don't know, he is attending Tots n' Tales Montessori School. I have to admit that I have not always been so impressed with the progress he was making, but in the last couple of months I have really been happy with their program.

He has 3 pages of homework each week that need to be completed by Thursday. He has come a long way with his letters, numbers, and writing his name. He can now recognize and say all of the sounds that each of the letters make. Not only that, but he can SIGN THE ENTIRE ALPHABET!!! He came home the week of Father's Day and signed "Happy Father's Day" to Ed. We were so proud of him!!

He can also say the months of the year, count to 100 by tens, and say his phone number and address.

I don't want this blog to seem like I am bragging, because that is not the case at all. These are probably things that most other children his age can do. But after his last parent/teacher conference, I knew he was behind other children in his class, but now he has really caught up. Not only that, but having a preemie born 10 weeks early, Ed and I did not know what we were going to have to deal with intellectually with Braeden.

At this point, we are very proud of his progress and the dedication of his teacher, "Miss Mary". I think Braeden is pretty fond of "Miss Mary" as well, because he often calls me "Miss Mary"!!

Well, after the success of painting the bathroom, I decided to take on the dining room. I chose a dark chocolate color and a goldish-brown color. I decided to do vertical stripes on one wall and paint the other walls chocolate brown w/the goldish color accenting the back of the china cabinet. This was a project I took on by myself and completed on my own. I was pretty proud to say the least. I have always felt like I needed Ed to do any of the home improvement/home repair projects, but I have realized that I am a little more capable than I thought. (I still need you Ed!!) Here are the final pictures of the room...

We have a FOTZ (Friends of the Zoo) yearly membership. Ed's sister, Katie and her husband gave it to the kids for a Christmas present and we are really enjoying it. We don't feel like we have to see everything in one day. We can go in the morning when it is cool outside, stay for a few hours, and then head home. The kids love looking at the animals. This visit we took our neighbor, Emma. Her and Braeden are great friends!





These two monkeys were "cleaning" each other and we tried to explain that to the kids:

Ed: The monkey in back is just picking dirt off of the other monkey's tail.

Braeden: It looks like they are digging in each other's BUTTS!

Well, that is exactly what they were doing. So we just laughed for a long time!





The kids loved the carousel ride and the train ride. We had a great time together!