the sidlingers

We’ve been back from Kansas for more than a week now and school is officially out and we don’t really have much going on, but I just haven’t found the time to post here until now.

So a little bit of an update…we’re all doing well.  Daniel’s preschool program was wonderful.  I’ll try to get David to post some clips like he did with the Christmas program.  After the singing portion of the program, the Pre-K class had a graduation.  Daniel was not happy about this, as he knew that Madelyn was going to be moving on to kindergarten.  He actually teared up and told me he was going to stop the graduation.  After somewhat calming him down and threatening to leave the program (I thought he might really be serious about trying to stop it), the preschool director starting calling out the names of the Pre-K graduates and announcing where they would be attending school next year.  When they got to Madelyn and said that she would be coming back to the preschool next year, Daniel’s face lit up.  We found out later at the pinic that she was going to be the youngest in her kindergarten class, so her parents opted to keep her in Pre-K one more year.

The program was followed by a great picnic, where us parents actually got to meet some of the other parents.  We’ve made some contacts for the summer for some playdates.

Saturday was beautiful.  We got Daniel’s pool out for him and he had a blast playing in the water.  I’ve got pictures on my camera, but I’m in the process of rebuilding my computer so I haven’t uploaded them yet, I will soon though.

Sunday we did absolutely nothing.  Really. Nothing.  It was great!

Monday I paid for doing nothing on Sunday and had many dishes and loads of laundry waiting on me.

Today was the first full day of summer vacation with just Daniel and me.  I tried to start it off with some fun by taking him bowling…A word to the wise, if you aren’t that familiar with bowling and bowling alleys and their rules and such, not a good idea to go without an experienced person.  It was fun and Daniel had a great time, but I was reprimanded a few times (don’t walk on the lanes, by the way) by the employees.  As we left, Daniel asked to play the crane game near the exit.  I gave him fifty cents and told him not to get upset if he didn’t win anything, it was a hard game.  He put the money in and positioned the crane above a prize, hit the button and won.  He actually got a prize!  A plush letter "F" (the machine was full of plush alphabet letters).  He was so proud of himself and I was pretty impressed too.

Tomorrow, David has to take my car, so Daniel and I will be at home all day.  Maybe I will finally be able to find some time to get back to posting regularly!

Madelyn will be in Pre-K again next year!  Apparently, her birthday is four days before the cutoff and her mom didn’t want her to be the youngest in the class.  So, in the Fall…Daniel and Madelyn will be together four days a week.  It is a good day for Daniel today.

I will write more about Daniel’s plot to stop graduation later this weekend, but for now PICTURES!

My computer just ate my entry about our trip to Kansas and it’s getting late, so I’m not going to attempt another one right now.

However, I will say that we had a great time and we are very proud of Tommy!  Daniel starting missing everyone the minute we pulled out of the driveway and we had a nice, uneventful flight home.

Here are the pictures, hopefully I can re-construct my entry tomorrow.

We’ll be back on Monday (with pictures)!

Burger King finally came through!  Of course, we only have 3 toys and there are 30 something to collect!

David and Austin are at the theater waiting in line right now, so Daniel and I camped out in bed and watched Episode II.  We’re waiting to see if David thinks Daniel can see the movie tomorrow.

Speaking of Star Wars (is there anything else going on right now?), David and some of his fellow geeks friends from work came up with the cool shirt Daniel is wearing.  It says "P The Emperor" (For the Star Wars Impaired, the emperor is named Palpatine).  They are working on getting some made to sell, if you would like one, either send us an email or visit this site, http://www.wilsonhut.com/index.html .

Tonight was Star Wars Night at Greer Stadium. Darth Vader threw out the first pitch and we got pictures with numerous different characters.

Check out the photo album here.

Please do not advertise the fact that you will have Star Wars toys on May 16th if you do not fully intend to have them on that date. 

Also, if you know that you don’t have them on the date you promised, please put a note on the drive-thru or tell the unsuspecting customer who orders a kid’s meal that their child will not be getting the toy that they have been anxiously awaiting for the past three weeks.  The toy, that’s arrival has been marked on the calendar and is tied with the actual opening of the movie and flying on a plane later this week in terms of excitement levels.

I was really not prepared to get out of my car, as I had a perfect plan of all drive-thru errands to run today.   But no Burger King, you couldn’t let me do that.  I had to turn back into your parking lot and unload a very disappointed child and walk in to your restaurant in flip flops, gym pants and tank top complete with ponytail.

Perhaps it is all just a clever marketing ploy to get me to return again tomorrow for lunch, which unfortunately, I will.  So if that is the case, it worked.  Maybe you really did think the toys would be arriving today and there was some unavoidable delay or maybe the Cranium Cadoo people paid you off to have their toys put in kid’s meal for one more day, knowing that many people would be dining there today for the sole purpose of collecting Star Wars toys (which I would also like to know, how is one supposed to collect 36 different toys in six weeks?) so that more people would buy their games.

Who knows what happened.  All I know is that my kid is sad (as I’m sure some adults are too) and it’s your fault.

Signed,

The 37th unkempt lady who was dragged in by her son this afternoon

My son holding up his Cranium toy in disgust.

First, here are pictures from the soccer game on Saturday and here are some from our trip to the zoo on Sunday.

I’m expecting this week to fly by because we have so many fun things to do.  Today Daniel and I have a lunch date at Burger King.  Tomorrow we’ll go pick out some new coloring and activity books.  Wednesday, Daniel has preschool, where they’ll be practicing for their end of the school year program.  Of course, I’m sure we all know what happens on Thursday.  If you don’t you haven’t talked to David or Daniel enough in the past month…If you’re still lost, I’m talking about Star Wars.  David will actually be going to the midnight show on Wednesday night, but Daniel and I will be going Thursday morning (it’s also the reason Daniel and I have a lunch date at Burger King today, the toys come out today). 

Then, Friday Daniel will head off to preschool in the morning and David and I will pick him up in the afternoon and head to the airport to go to Kansas for the weekend!

Here’s wishing everyone else has a fun week too!

A few weeks back, Daniel had pictures made at school.  I knew that they were being taken by one of those "novelty" places.  I think the exact phrase the information sheet used was ‘your child will look like they’ve been playing in Granny’s attic’.

The day the pictures were taken, I asked Daniel how it went.  He said that it was fun and that he got to be a boat captain, a fisherman and a Titan’s player.  I was still in the "Granny’s attic" frame of mind and was thinking a sailor suit, overalls and fishing pole and something like this for the football player.

Today when I was dropping him off, it was time to pick up the pictures.  When I saw them, I had to buy each pose because I knew I would not be able to fully convey the idea of each picture to anyone.  I wanted to share the laughs that I had when I first saw them (and I have been laughing ever since this morning, everytime I look at them…wait, you’ll see what I’m talking about).

So now, without further ado…I give you…

Please click to make them larger (as you must see them large) and click in order (as they get better as they go) .

The Titan

The Fisherman

The Boat Captain

Everytime I look at the last one, the Love Boat theme plays in my head!

This morning Daniel asked me how many kisses I would like.  I said 35 and he asked how many that was.  I said "it’s a lot of kisses," and he said "big boys can’t give that many kisses."

I thought that maybe he was getting to that age where my daily hugs and kisses would start dwindling.  So I asked, "how many kisses can I have?"

"Eight!"

I think I can live with that.