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School Rules! My world.

Last Tuesday was the day I had been waiting for, nay, DREAMING ABOUT since June.

The first day of school!!!

As I have confessed before, I am not a very good summer mom. I just don’t enjoy having all the kids under my feet ALL DAY. And in the big kids’ case, in each other’s faces all day.  The reality is that we are all much happier when the kids are in school.  And, since Sophie was starting full[day kindergarten, Jonah and I were finally going to have our chance to be one-on-one, and I was truly, truly, anticipating that with joy.

But let me back up a little bit.  As I mentioned, Sophie was starting kindergarten!! This is major major major, because almost two years ago when her developmental delays were first diagnosed and I sat at the table with a team from our local public school district, they asked me, “What are your goals for Sophia?” and I answered, “I want her to be able to go to regular kindergarten.”

And she is going to a regular kindergarten.  Entering it reading at a first grade level, knowing her sight words up to fourth grade.

All I can say about that is praise the Lord.  Thank you, thank you, thank you God! We are so grateful.

Sophie was SO excited to go to kindergarten.  She ran right into the room and hugged her teacher. She sat at her desk and happily kissed us goodbye.  She was so thrilled and happy to be in that classroom that I didn’t even get teary-eyed.  I could be nothing but happy for her!

Sophie at her desk on her first day of kindergarten

She loved every minute of her first day and every minute since!  I love hearing her blow-by-blow reports when she comes home.  At parent information night, her teacher said to me, “I think Sophie is going to be a teacher when she grows up.” Which to me, is code for “Sophie enjoys telling everyone in the class what to do.”  It made me laugh and did not surprise me one bit!

Joshua, even though he is entering third grade, was a little bit more hesitant about starting school.  My sensitive guy was so afraid of the unknown, he would have rather just stayed home with me.  But, he had a great day and is having a great year so far, just like I knew he would!

They are so darn cute I had to take their pic on the 2nd day of school too!

So, after a week, my big kids are doing well in school and enjoying it. And even though I have taken on a part-time work-from-home job, Jonah and I are really enjoying having our alone time, too!

I love him. So freaking much.

I love my one-on-one time with my boy, just me and him without our lives being ruled by the arduous preschool drop-off/pick-up schedule. I love having that special time with just HIM that I was able to have with Joshua before Sophie came along and with Sophie after Joshua went to school and before Jonah was born. It’s finally the baby’s turn to have mommy all to himself! So far, it’s been awesome!  I love, love, love, that baby boy.  He and I are having so much fun together, and when the big kids come home from school, we are all happy to see each other and it’s fantastic.

I love school.  It rules my world!

Are your kids off to school yet this year?

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Pin for the Wednesdays: Cupcakes!

Welcome to Pin for the Wednesday! Today’s edition is going to be picture-free, because, well, I forgot to take any. But – it’s about cupcakes, so you forgive me, right?

Last week my kids decided they wanted to bake cupcakes, so of course I turned to Pinterest. My food and drinks board is 40% cupcakes and 60% cocktails, so the problem was not finding a recipe but choosing one. One that contained only ingredients that were currently found in my house, I might add. This one fit the bill – a basic chocolate cupcake from Annie’s Eats. I didn’t have sour cream, but I did have plain Greek yogurt so I used that. They were REALLY good. Andy and the kids ate theirs plain, and Andy declared it the best chocolate cake he had ever had. I also chose Annie’s recipe for cream cheese icing. I loved it (my kids scraped it off, which I consider a travesty), but now that I look at it I am fairly certain I used 8 oz of cream cheese instead of 10. Oops.

I also discovered the following day that the butter AND cream cheese I used had expired in approximately March. Oops. I didn’t die, though, and as far as I know, the neighbors we gave the leftovers to didn’t die either.

Speaking of leftovers, we had lots of un-iced cupcakes left, and I didn’t want them sitting around waiting for me to eat them, so I did a little google research and discovered it’s perfectly fine to freeze cupcakes. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and froze them until later in the week, when it was my turn to bring the Friday afternoon treat for my office.

I thawed out the cupcakes and whipped up some of this salted caramel frosting from Life on Blackberry Farm.

Oh my lord, people. This stuff was good. Looking back on it, I don’t think I cooked the caramel long enough, but that was my fault. My co-workers loved it and I may or may not have eaten it out of the bowl until I forced myself to thrown the rest down the drain. I’d definitely make this one again.

In case you were wondering, I bought brand new, unexpired butter for this one. However, cream cheese was not to be found in our little down and so I once again hoped for the best. So far as I know, everyone is still living.

This post would be a lot more exciting if it had pictures! And food poisoning. Just kidding!

What have you been doing this week? Link up here!

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2) Make sure and link back to our original Pin For the Wednesdays Post here at Mommin’ It Up! (please!)

3) In the Mr. Linky below, leave a direct link to your Pin FTWednesdays post, not to your main website.

4) Totally optional – grab our cute #PinFTW button! The code box is over there in our sidebar.

 

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We’re going to Disney World and I’m trying not to be a control freak.

Photo from karmaloop.com

By the time you read this, we’ll be well into our final hurrah of the summer – our trip to Disney World.

For those of you who have been around for a while, you know that I have a bit of a Disney, um, problem. Let me tell you, it is just the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) vacation destination for a type-A OCD-er like me!

In case you’ve missed them, here are my Disney posts of old (and if you’re looking for tips, make sure to read the comments readers have left!):
Call Me Crazy
The Happiest Place on Earth
I’m Baaa-ack!
Disney Trip, Part Two
Top Ten Tuesday – Disney Tips!
We’re Home!
Top Ten Disney Tips (Lessons Learned the Hard Way Edition)
A 10-Month-Long April Fool’s Day Joke (this one is only tangentially related to Disney, but it’s a classic that I link to whenever possible.)
I’m going to Disney World (and I’m going to eat. A lot.)

Which brings us to today – when we are actually at Disney World.

Believe it or not, I’ve done some things different this time around. The last two times we’ve gone, our kids were really young (Kate was 3 the first time, and then she was 5 and Sam was 1 the next time we went) and I had more time on my hands got a little obsessed with planning. This time, with older kids (aka no one in diapers) and some experience under our belt, I’ve done a lot less planning.

I know. I can’t believe it either.

Of course, I’ve done some… you will not see me leave Ohio without Advanced Dining Reservations complete (let’s be honest – I made them 180 days ahead of time) – so I have an answer to the most important question – where are you going to eat? I’m so glad you asked! We’re hitting…
— Mama Melrose (with the Fantasmic package, which means we’ll have reserve seating for the end-of-the-night presentation at Hollywood Studios. That’s the only fireworks show we haven’t seen before, and I am excited about it!)
— San Angel Inn. This is located in the Mexico portion of Epcot. We ate there the day after we ran that stupid half marathon, and I have been dreaming of the steak tacos ever since.
— The Plaza Restaurant. This is a table-service restaurant that is new to us, but from what I’ve read, it is a hidden gem!
— Disney Junior Play ‘n’ Dine at Hollywood and Vine. Sam is super excited about having breakfast with Jake the Neverland pirate and his friends Handy Manny and Special Agent Oso.
— Tusker House. Our other character meal is going to be breakfast with Mickey, Donald and the crew at the Animal Kingdom.
— Disney’s Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Ohana. This family-style luau at The Polynesian Resort is new to us as well.

I must admit, deciding where to eat is one of my favorite parts of planning the trip!

Anyway, like I said, I’ve been taking things less OCD easier on the planning, and I intend to keep that attitude while we’re there. (Someone remind me of that, would ya?) We are going at a time that’s supposed to be less crowded than when we’ve been before (1s, 2s, and 3s out of 10 on the TouringPlans.com crowd predictor site, as opposed to 8s and 9s before) and I’m hoping that will mean I am less drill sergeant and more nice mom, since we theoretically won’t need a strict plan of attack to get everything in. (When Kate was three, we followed the “Dumbo Do or Die” touring plan. No, I am not kidding.) We’ll see how it goes.

The other thing I’ve done differently this year is to plan a few little extras. For one thing, the kids are going on a two-hour Pirate Adventure, where they’ll take a boat ride and search for hidden treasures with other kids and the Disney crew. In the meantime, Andy and I have reservations for a leisurely breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. Don’t worry – they have breakfast cocktails. I checked.

I’ve also made reservations for the kids at the Pirates League experience, where they’ll be dressed up as pirates for the day. It’s basically Bippity Boppity Boutique without the tulle. I haven’t told the kids about it yet, but I think they’ll be excited.

I do have one other secret I’m keeping from the whole family. We are taking a Fireworks Cruise – basically we’ll have our own pontoon boat and driver, and we’ll cruise around Epcot and end with an up-close view of Illuminations, Epcots end-of-day fireworks show, which is one of my very favorite things. I am so excited to surprise the kids and Andy with this!

Finally, the other major difference in this trip and those before is… my trusty iPhone. Having it in my pocket will be so handy – I’ll have all our reservation numbers, schedules, etc at all times. I won’t even need the picture album containing excel spreadsheets and miniature maps that I’ve carried around in the past! I’ve got our schedule on iCal, and the WDW Lines app ready to go so we can see current wait times at any moment. I’ve also got the official Disney Parks app, which has just about anything you’d need to know about the parks – maps, wait times, restaurant information, hours of operation, and even where to find the characters at any time! I think it’ll be game-changing to have all that stuff at our fingertips.

So… that’s my plan for a non-OCD (relatively speaking) Disney vacation. Any last minute words of wisdom?

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