Field Trip!

We had a very busy day yesterday. So busy in fact that I'm just now feeling recovered enough to write about it! I volunteered to chaperone the first grade field trip to the Dallas Zoo for Grace's class. WoW. First off it took forever to get there. The buses drive only about 45 mph and when we arrived at the zoo exit we realized that everyone else in the DFW metroplex had the same great idea to have a field trip for the little ones during TAKS testing. It was packed with school buses. This next tidbit should give you some idea about the parents at our school...we had so many parents volunteer to go that the only child in my group...was Grace. Good grief...I could have taken my child to the zoo for an afternoon! I know...I know....it's the group experience. We had a scavenger hunt to accomplish with our digital camera that was a lot of fun. One of the things we had to find and take a picture of was a mammal eating so, I took this picture....I'm sure the teacher would probably prefer that I NOT chaperone next time!

Later that evening, we attended the American Idol watch party for Jason Castro. Grace was super excited. We watched Jason on the big screen in the ballroom of our new hotel here in town. Grace stood on her chair to watch. They had t-shirts...which she begged for. I told her she already had a Jason Castro shirt to which she replied, " not THAT one!" She's funny to watch. This is the first time she's really been a "fan." I thank my lucky stars that it's someone of character like Jason, and not Britney Spears!!

The above picture is Grace standing on the hood of the Tahoe putting her new Jason Castro antenna ball on! Yes....it's an antenna ball with dreadlocks! Oh...and afterwards I noticed this that she had drawn in the dirt on my car door....

After our Dreadhead experience we headed to IHOP....a family favorite. We were eating later than usual and the kids were tired and hungry...I was tired, Scott was tired. We were trying to keep them entertained by teaching them how to do the scrambled words on the back of the kids menu. They had to seat us and the only other people in the restaurant right next to each other. They had tired and hungry children too. Oh...did I mention the scrambled words were all about the solar system and that Grace nearly made them choke on their pancakes when she all but yelled, "Dad, is that Uranus?"

Now do you see why when we got home I just went to bed and didn't blog?? Exhausting.

Grace wants to put Jason on the blog, so just in case you missed his performance this week you can view it here...

Blessings,
Leslie

Children's Choir Chaos and other fun...

Greetings! Mandy had her first ever school performance on Thursday. Her Mother's Day Out program had a music program for the 2 and 3 year olds. She was wonderful, came in sat down, and performed every song.

I must admit, however, that when I attend these preschool productions I leave thinking how grateful I am that I'm not the teacher in charge! There were at least 3 crying at any one time, one so loud that you really couldn't hear the kids singing. It completely reinforces why I taught high school. I am simply not wired to handle large groups of small children. ...says the mother of three!

The girls looked really cute last night before church. They were hamming it up pretty good too, so I decided to take a couple of pictures before we left. We have a new church and we are LOVING it! We attend the Saturday night service, which is so much easier with the kids. We've even joined an ABF...which I now know means Adult Bible Fellowship....my dear friend Jane told me I couldn't call it Sunday school! The kids love it and Grace asks several times during the week how many more days till we get to go to church.

The kids wanted me to be sure and post a picture of the (surviving) baby bird that we found in a Juniper tree we cut down out of the flower bed this weekend. There were three in all. We put them in a flower pot last night and this morning one had vanished and one was found decapitated in the yard...we think a cat was responsible. They, and the neighbor children, have been facinated with them all weekend. They really want to keep it and promised they'd catch worms for it. I tried to explain how the mommy bird eats the worms first and then regurgitates them for the babies. This completely disgusted Thomas and Mandy...rightfully so. Grace thought about it for a minute and said that Madison (one of the neighbor kids) would do it,"she'll do anything disgusting."

Have a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Leslie

American Idol Mania at the Milder's

Ok...I realize that some of you may possibly think we are a tad bit nuts at the Milder house where American Idol is concerned. Brace yourselves, because this post will remove any and all doubt that yes, we are crazy.



In my defense...I first began watching Idol when I was still teaching. I watched because all my high school students watched and I always tried to keep up. I'd watch and they always beat a path to my class the next day to see what my thoughts were. It was an opportunity to relate to them on a personal/fun level and to hype the contestants I thought were good role models.

Then....my own kids got big enough to watch and are huge music fans, so it's become something we enjoy watching together.

Now....we have our very own local contestant which has made watching it this season SUPER fun.



Grace is the funniest. She is a total Jason Castro fan. This is her watching last night's show....

Yes, that is a framed picture of Jason Castro that she is holding. What makes the picture so special is that it was given to her by someone who actually KNOWS Jason....who attended American Idol a couple of weeks ago and had it AUTOGRAPHED! Her brother and sister are not allowed to touch it! Dad only got to hold it long enough to check out the smile face with dread locks that Jason drew on it. It's special to her, not only because it's Jason and he signed it, but because of who gave it to her. Last fall when Grace played soccer for the first time ever, she cried at the first couple of practices. School had just started and there were some issues there and her self-confidence had hit rock bottom. Coach Brandi was our "saving Grace"...literally! She pushed and praised Grace and helped rebuild her confidence in a way that we couldn't. It made me realize how important it is that every child have people in their lives, that they are NOT related to, to believe in them and be their champion.

I digress.....back to American Idol. We were super worried about Jason making it through this week after last night's Andrew Lloyd Webber fiasco. I mean COME ON!!!! Andrew Lloyed Webber and American Idol??? What is THAT about?? Don't get me wrong, you know I love Broadway, but not mixed with my American Idol. The whole night was a big boring disappointment and the judges hammered Jason pretty hard. AND, since my children are the children of a government teacher who has drilled into them the importance of voting.......yes, the pressure was on for me to vote for Jason! It's possible that I may have arthritis in my thumb from hitting redial so many times last night.

Anyway....it all paid off!! Jason is safe and in the TOP 5!!!! There was much excitement at our house when Jason was sent to the safe zone and not in the bottom 2. Even Scott gave an excited holler. In the past, he's pretty much just tolerated the whole American Idol thing. This season, he's as into it as we are because he likes Jason.

Anyway, Carly left...and I'm glad. Her tattoo was WAY annoying and she was screechy.

I can't believe I've just written a blog this long on "American Idol"....I'm 35 for goodness sake!

Blessings,

Leslie

P.S. Grace and I found this on YouTube....too sweet!!! Be sure to watch to the end!

Strength

Have I ever mentioned how much I love strong women??! Perhaps it's because I was raised by several "Steel Magnolias." Remember the show "Designing Women?" If that show had been about a bunch of women educators instead of decorators, it would have been about my mom and her sisters! Strong,smart,funny Southern women. Mom would have been Mary Jo, Jane..Charlene, and Judy...Julia.
I suppose that since I was raised by such women (and my awesome Dad, of course!!), I always take note when I see these extraordinary women.

Yesterday morning I was watching "Good Morning America" as I always do. Co-host Robin Roberts has been battling breast cancer for the last several months and after chemotherapy and radiation, her hair has just begun to grow back. All these months she has been wearing a wig on the show. As of yesterday, she's no longer wearing it! She said,"I am not my hair, I am the soul that lies within." Strong southern woman.

Another strong Southern woman I've been thinking about this week is Susan. You've all heard me talk about baby Luke who's in the NICU in Atlanta. His mother keeps a daily blog about him. You can find her at http://up4anythingatl.blogspot.com/ In the midst of what is no doubt one of the most trying/scary times of her life, she continues to be one of the most inspirational people I have ever known. Check out her blog and you'll see what I mean. Through her blog and her family's willingness to share his struggle, Luke has touched countless people.

Speaking of strong women....or rather strong-willed...

Mandy "helped" me plant flowers Monday. (Yes, shocking I know..I worked in the yard.) I finally convinced her that holding the empty pots so they wouldn't blow away was,"THE most important part" of planting the flowers. Otherwise, she was going to run the show and we were going to plant them HER way. Tomorrow is her first school program at Mother's Day Out. She's very excited ,or as she says, "I'm so exciting!"

Blessings,

Leslie

"The biggest myth about Southern women is that we are frail types--fainting on our sofas...nobody where I grew up ever acted like that. We were about as fragile as coal trucks." --Lee Smith

Catching Up!

I recently realized that there were a few things that happened around here that were never blogged about.

Easter for example...

New bibles...

New big girl panties...

Grace's sweet First Grade teacher Mrs. Packard is expecting a baby boy at the end of the month, so her class gave her a baby shower last week. It was so sweet listening to their comments about the gifts and why the baby needed them!
Grace wants me to mention American Idol, and to VOTE FOR JASON!!! Jason Castro is now bigger than Hannah Montana at our house. Every afternoon as soon as she gets home from school she races upstairs to watch the saved shows on Tivo. She rewinds so she can watch just him over and over and over again!

In case your interested, we've included this incredibly talented young man's performance from this week!

Uncle Nick is here visiting this weekend. We haven't seen him since January, so the kids are super excited to have him here. Thomas had a little PT with Uncle Nick this evening!

Also, very exciting this week was the arrival of their passports.

We only went to the post office last week to turn in our papers, pay the $255 in fees (yes, that's what passports for 3 kids to go to Canada will cost you) and for the kids to appear in person in front of a government official and declare "that the information presented here is true to the best of your knowledge." They just looked at her like she was crazy and said, "Yes?" I had to take them out of school to go. Ever convenient the post office only does passports Monday-Friday 10 am -2 pm.

They were very excited and looked at every page of the book and read all about themselves and can't wait to go to Canada and have them stamped. Thomas says he's excited about Canada, but he'd be more excited about Japan. Why Japan? I have no idea. We have completed our itinerary for our annual vacation and I promise I'll post it this week.

As for now, I'm headed off to bed. Tomorrow is Soccer Saturday...our weekly two hours of soccer games!

Blessings,

Leslie

Mandy goes to school!!

Today was HUGE in the Milder house! Mandy got to go to school!! She has begged to go to school for about as long as I can remember. I don't believe I've ever seen a kid so excited about the prospect of school. Must be one of the benefits of having older siblings. I signed her up for Mother's Day Out two days a week. She LOVED it! She looked adorable in her Tinkerbell backpack with wings!

She's always been such a "mommy's girl" that I wasn't sure when push came to shove if she'd really want to stay. But, she went right in and didn't even offer a backward glance when I left the room. Her teachers said she had a great day and never once got sad or nervous.

She told us that her favorite part of the day was music and "the park" (playground). Thomas and Grace were so fun to watch when they came home today. They both asked her how her day was, what she liked, what she did! As an only child this is one of the many things I enjoy watching. I can't imagine what it's like to have these other people besides your parents, that love you and support you like that. It's so cool!!

I was fine too by the way. My dear friend Jane called me around 10 a.m just to make sure I wasn't sobbing in my car in the church parking lot! I did good. I worried abut her all day of course and I did have one moment in the hallway on the way to the car where I thought, "Now what?" The last time I was child free like that was when Grace was in preschool, but by then I was already pregnant with Mandy, so it was short lived. Needless to say, I found plenty to occupy my 5 1/2 child free hours. I was ready to get her this afternoon though, in fact, I was early!

She is excited to go back and I'm so glad she had such a positive "school" experience!!

Blessings,

Leslie

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Matthew 19:14

Faith, Trust, and American Idol??

Funny how the Lord speaks to your heart sometimes isn't it? The strange instances where He shows you the way?

We are some SERIOUS American Idol viewers at our house. The kids and I watch every single week. We have always enjoyed the show, but this year we have a young man in the final 10 from right here in Rockwall...and we love him!! His name is Jason Castro. This week all the Idols sang different songs written by Dolly Parton. Jason sang "Travelin' Thru." I was listning to him sing and the lyrics just hit me...

"God made me for a reason and nothing is in vain
Redemption comes in many shapes with many kinds of pain
Oh sweet Jesus if you're out there, keep me ever close to you
As I'm travelin', travelin', travelin', as I'm travelin' thru"

See, little Luke has been weighing on my mind for the last several days. He's not making progress and his tiny kidneys aren't handling the stress well. He's so swollen. He's a month old now and still hasn't gotten to be held and snuggled by his parents yet. Every day I check Eric and Susan's blog. This sweet baby's "travelin' thru" and his life and his family's journey are an inspiration.

Blessings,
Leslie


The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Psalm 28:7