McGrath Moments

I am thankful for great neighbors. I didn't have a babysitter to watch Braeden last week for his final week of summer vacation and I had a great neighbor step up and volunteer to watch him Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday while I worked. Thank you so much, Jill!!

I will have to say that there are a few neighbors that have been kind enough to watch Braeden and Brenna in a pinch and I appreciate it so much. I love that we live in a neighborhood full of families and we trust each other with our children. It really is a comfort to know that there are other people looking out for your children and that these people have become friends.

We spent a couple of days last weekend at the lake. I love boating and swimming and the kiddos were very excited to go. My sister and her husband, my parents, my Aunt Terry, Ed and I and the kids all spent the day on the lake. We had a great time!

And then we decided to spend the night. IN A TENT! I am NOT an outdoor kinda girl. I pretty much bathed in bug spray. I hate bugs. All bugs. Bugs that fly. Bugs that crawl. Bugs that make noise. I don't discriminate.

I only agreed to do this because Braeden has been begging us to go camping. I finally gave in and seeing how much fun he had made it all worth it. It's not that I haven't been camping before. I have gone camping so many times that I cannot count them all. We went all of the time when I was a child, but with one big difference, my Grandpa sold RV's. We went camping in style. We had a kitchen, bathroom, beds, and best of all air-condition.

This was different. This was roughin' it. We cooked hot dogs by the campfire and made smores. All the time being attacked by bugs and butterflies. Yes, I said butterflies! They dive-bombed our heads, clung to our clothes, and swarmed all around us. I have never seen anything like it. We even had to move from the campfire to a grill to make the smores because they were such a problem.

We were home the next morning by 7:15am. I made it as long as I could, and then it was Home Sweet Home!! I'd do it all over again to see how much the kids enjoyed themselves. They even enjoyed my ghost stories! But, I can only handle the outdoors in small doses. It might be a couple of years before they convince me to do this again!

This summer Brenna turned 4 years old!! June 28th, 2011, the same day that Ed and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary! She decided she wanted her birthday at the movies because the new Cars movie came out the Saturday before her birthday. I think she also had some encouragement from her brother. A win, win situation for him...a party and Cars 2!



For some reason Brenna has become quite a fan of Superman. She loves to watch the movies and play with the action figures. To make it a little more "girly" I got her a Super girl cake and she LOVED it!!

I think this is our 3rd or 4th birthday party we have had at the movies and every time we do it, I get so stressed out. I get stressed taking just our two kids to the movies because I always worry if they are going to stay quiet, or who will need to go to the bathroom and how many times they will need to go, and who will spill their drink or popcorn. What if there is a bad word in the movie? On and on, just worrying. So explain to me why I keep having their birthday parties there where I get to worry about it times 15 other children??

Happy Birthday, Sis! I'm glad you and your friends had a good time!

Byrds Dance Recital June 26, 2011

Brenna had her first dance recital this summer. She looked absolutely fabulous!! I have never seen a cuter bunny!

I was the room mother for the recital. We had all of the girls all dolled up. Make-up, curling irons, hair and body glitter, the whole nine yards and they had such fun!

They danced to Benny the Magic Bunny and if I never have to hear that song again, that would be fine with me!!

This is a picture of Brenna dancing at the rehearsal. Since I was back stage for the actual show, I was able to watch the rehearsal to take video and pictures. She surprised me so much for the rehearsal. If you remember back to when I tried to get her to first start her dance class, she was screaming and crying and refused to go and we had to do the Mommy/toddler class, well that is how she acted when they had to take her from me to go to the dressing room. SCREAMING and CRYING!! But as soon as she got on stage to do her dance, she did GREAT!! She did even better at the actual show. I was so proud of her!



I didn't even think that she was going to get to participate in the actual show, because on the way home from the rehearsal, which was in Lawrence, she threw-up all over her costume. Apparently, and I am NOT judging, but the mothers who were back stage with them for the rehearsal fed them snacks the whole time to keep them quiet and occupied. Well, Brenna's tummy did not like it and she threw-up about half way home from Lawrence. It was all down the front of the costume...matted in the fur collar, stained, everything! My sister was in the car with me and she just looked at me while I was driving and said, "You are going to cry when you see her costume." She was right. I was convinced that I was never going to get it clean enough for her to participate in the show. Luckily I did and the show went on!! But seriously, why does stuff like this have to happen to me? I don't think Brenna has ever thrown-up in the car, but the one time she has on this expensive costume that she needs to wear again, it happens!! Good times!!

I need to get some of Braeden and Brenna's activities documented. I have been pretty bad about keeping up with their milestones, interests, and activities. Braeden first!!

At the end of May, we were invited to Braeden's class Kindergarten Celebration. Each student was given their Kindergarten completion diploma. We looked over their school work for the year and had cookies and juice. It was a fun time to celebrate a successful year with his class.

Each grade level at Delaware Ridge Elementary does an "Investigation". It is part of the Expeditionary Learning program at DRE. The Kindergartners did an investigation of frogs. They presented all that they had learned about frogs in a program at the end of the year. Braeden was a cattail. I still remember the lines he had to recite: I am a cattail. Mommy frogs lay their eggs in us. Frogs use us to hide from their predators. In order for Braeden to memorize it, I, of course, had to memorize it too!

Summer fun in the backyard with friends and family!

And then there was Tball! Same team as last year! It is amazing how much difference a year will make. Last year we were playing in the dirt and running the wrong way. This year we can catch balls and make outs. Pretty impressive progress!

On another note, I grew up with a girl named Meghan. We were best friends ever since I can remember. Our Moms are best friends to this day. We always knew that our children would be friends too. I just don't think it ever entered our mind that they would be BOYS!!

Braeden and Chase played each other in Tball this summer. Here is a cute picture of them!

I was very thankful that my office sponsored our team this year! Thank you Dr. Roberts! Best boss ever!

I has been a fun summer and Braeden says he is not ready for school, but ready or not, it is coming soon! Same teacher, same class! At least it won't be a big change for him. At DRE, they keep the same teacher for two years. Good luck in first grade Braeds!!

I knew this day would come. Today was the first "I don't like you" day. I'm sure soon to be followed by the "I hate you" day. Brenna was in rare form today. Even my sister couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth. To top it all off, Ed is out of town. We will be having a long discussion when he gets home because there is no way this behavior is going to continue.

On a side note...Braeden is 6 1/2 yrs old and has still not had his "I don't like you" day. It is amazing how different siblings' personalities can be, even raised by the same parents, the same way.

This post was intended to be done from my new phone. I actually got a new phone last Friday. I was so sick of Ed saying how embarrassed he was by my OLD, OLD phone. I knew how to work it and it was just fine for me. Now I have the new HTC 4G AT&T phone. I have to admit it is pretty fabulous and I wanted to type my blog from it, but surprise of surprises...I can't work it, so I am back to the laptop.

This weekend I was thinking to myself, okay I have a new phone. What's next for me? Joining Facebook? No, there's no way I am ready for that yet. One step at a time!

Braeden: (whispering, of course)
"Brenna, will you ask Mommy to..."(fill in the blank)
"Brenna, will you ask Mommy if we can have..."(fill in the blank)
"Brenna, will you ask Mommy if we can go to..."(fill in the blank)


Does he think that I am more likely to say "yes" if Brenna asks?
Does he think that I can't hear him ask her to ask me?
Does he realize that it drives me crazy?????