Adios Summer Days of Slumber

Well, for the Sparks Family summer is basically come to an end. The days of slumber, the nights of fun. Really we didn't sleep as much as I would have loved during the summer. For Savannah, learning never takes a break. For the other kids, school setting did break. But we all looked VERY forward to starting school. The first 3 children in my life started back last week. So we have 3 solid days of school down. Everyone is still in the 'Green Zone!' I will take the first week as a success!

Getting ready for school is a chore! I admit I am tired after the first day! But, I always take a picture of the prepared clothes and bags. Someday I know I am going to miss this! And in 2 weeks I will add 2 more kids worth of bags and clothes to this craziness!

On the first day of school the kids get an "Official" first day of school breakfast! School colors and all! They love it and the little girls were looking forward to their first official PCA breakfast!

My sweet Laurel Emily. 5 Years old and heading to Kindergarten. The night before she had a million questions for me about the day ahead. She wanted details of what was going to happen. She admitted she was a little nervous. But the excitement of it all took over. Laurel is my tender hearted little girl. She is the one who will pretend for hours and play with dolls. I prayed all day for her to find friends and feel safe at school. Prayers were answered!

Sweet Chloe Marie. My leader in my house. My first baby! 2nd grade and she is all grown up! She wants to take care of her sisters at school. She doesn't want to see anyone not included. I can count on her to be a friend to everyone that passes by her. My prayer for her was to feel loved by her teacher and class. To continue to be a friend to everyone, but to be discerning with those who may take advantage of her kindness. I am still praying for her!

And Anabelle Christine. My little sprite! My spunk! My independent 5 year old. I look at her and feel like she has grown up in a blink of an eye! No matter how much I try to hold her tight to me, she pushes away because there is an adventure that must be conquered! I prayed as Anabelle went to school that day that she would be still and quiet..learn what her teachers have to give her. That little red head is going to do something HUGE in life. I have known that since she was born.

Watching the 3 girls hold hands and walk into school I felt thankful. Thankful that they were excited about school. Thankful that they were healthy enough for school. Thankful that God allowed us to go to such an amazing school. But at the same time I had to hold back my tears. Especially for my 2 little kindergartners. Chloe was 6 months older then they are when she started school. So to me, they are so much younger! I remember sitting around with Fred when they were just starting to coo and talking about how neat it will be to hear them talking one day! And now, they are going to be reading and doing math and all sorts of things. I have to admit,I wish I could see them in their class room!

My sweet friend Joy took this picture! It means a lot to me because it is our entire family. We all celebrated walking the girls into school. Corbin even got to see a lot of his little pals because they had older sisters and brothers going to school that day as well. Savannah got loved on by moms that I haven't seen all summer. After Joy took the picture, I looked at it and said a prayer for her. Her 3 kids all started school that day as well. And her 1 sweet Connor was getting the ultimate lesson, at the foot of Jesus. 8 years old, and he knows more then we do. Amazing and yet bitter sweet. So this picture tells a bigger story to me then another family photo.

Dr. Taylor is our Head Master. I almost hate calling him that because it sounds mean and cold and he is anything but. PCA is blessed by him. Chloe was standing behind him and begging me to get a picture. It think it was more wanted then when we saw Mary Poppins in Disney World!

Chloe and Mrs. Shrauner. We could not have asked for a more perfect teacher for Chloe this year. For 3 days now she has come home saying, at least 20 times, and at random moments, "Mrs. Shrauner is SO SO SO nice!" I love know she is loved on!

The sweet babies and Daddy at their table. They were excited when they found out they were sitting next to each other! And then add the fact that one of their best little friends was sitting there as well.

And this has to be one of our favorite families! They are a blessing to us! And there are 2 precious little girls between the 2 families missing in this picture! And 1 bubba!

This is probably a harder day on me then the first day. This is the 2nd day of school. When the girls let me know, "We can walk in by ourselves mom!" Man, that is a tough one to swallow!

Super Heros

This video is from spring break. Corbin and Camdyn(his cousin) in Denver. I laugh EVERYTIME I watch this!'>http://www.youtube.com/v/wmt1EdG_r7Q?fs=1&hl=en_US"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true">'>http://www.youtube.com/v/wmt1EdG_r7Q?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385">

Adam and Eve and a little stinky girl

So I got home from work on Thursday only to be created with a bit of a lie. Mom had already prepared me with the story, but I let the one involved tell me what happened.
The story begins 2 days prior. Anabelle had the privilege of sleeping in Chloe's room. It is always fun because Chloe has a lot of books to look at and has a lot if stuff Anabelle can get into. When she got up from her nap mom noticed red all over her shirt. Anabelle had an acceptable answer for it and they went on with the afternoon. So now we skip forward 2 day. Chloe came down stars with a toothbrush covered in red. She said it was in her bathroom. Mom took it and began to wonder. She went up to the bathroom and looked around. Then she saw sticking out from behind the toilet a little hand. She pulled it out and found this



This is Chloe's DeeDee doll from 1 year old. She loves her. She has been everywhere including Disney World!!! Ahhhh.
So I get home prepared for this. Mom takes me into the dim laundry room where a lifeless DeeDee lies. She calls Anabelle in to tell me what has happened. Slowly Anabelle silks in. Her head down with her protective warn pink silky clamped in her fist and her soothing sucking of her thumb, barely peaking out beneath her silky. I point to the doll. Anabelle begins to tell me she "didn't mean to." I said,"you didn't mean to ruin something or get in trouble but you certainly did mean to put lipstick on the doll.". Of course I asked her why and she really didn't have an answer because she was just being Anabelle. The first thing I pointed out to her was that she had disobeyed Ninny by not staying in bed and napping. Th second thing was that she shouldn't have ruined another person's property. If someone had done that to her pink silly I am pretty sure that we would need therapy for months! She seemed to understand. Then I said that the worst thing she did was try to hide her sin. Later we talked about Adam and Eve and how they tried to hide from God after they ate from the tree of knowledge. Anyway, at this point I made her go get Chloe to show her what she had done. In fear she did. I was proud of Chloe because she didn't flip out like I though she would. But she was very sad. She sobbed. She was crying the ugly face cry. When you are so sad your face just looks terrible. We went through the I am sorry for, asking for forgiveness, accepting forgiveness and remembering when we forgive we don't continue to bring it up again and again. Chloe said she wanted to be alone so she went into my office.
About then the phone rang and it was sweet LuAnne Ivy from church about volunteering. I asked her to call me back in 3 minutes.
So I went back to Anabelle and told her that she has officially lost the privilege to nap in Chloe's room. That hurt pretty bad. Them I told her she needed to pick her punishment. She tired to go easy on herself. But I gave her 3 options and she choose to not get a book that night. That is a big deal in our house. So I love on her and am about to answer the return call from LuAnne when..............
Laurel comes flying out of the office screaming, "Chloe just throwed up!!!". I run in there and her lunch is all over the floor. I looked at her and asked her if she was ok. She starts to gag and points at Savannah and yells, "mustard!". I look at savannah and grab her because she is about to dive into lunch!!! I smell her and realize she has a horrible diaper running down her leg!(tmi). So I ask Laurel at get some towels and tell Chloe to go into the bathroom. She holds her hand up that looks like she slapped it in mustard and starts to gag again. I can't help but laugh as I take stinky pants into the other room. Yet again another teaching lesson. I get done with the little red stink bomb and head back to Chloe. I start cleaning the office floor and say," do daddy and I ask you not to pick her up all the time? And when we break a rule, we are open to something possible bad happening. That is a consequence. And that is why you got poop on you and threw up. ". At that point I laughed and so did she. I got back to the phone and returned the call I think I gave Luanne a good laugh. My kids love tacos and usually I don't hear a peep out of them if we are eating them. So like an good mother I made tacos for dinner!



-posted on the go