Oliver's first day of preschool was last Thursday. Yes, the same day as Matt's birthday and surprise party. So you can probably understand why I am just now getting around to blogging about it. It's been a busy few weeks around here!
Oliver attends the Graham Cracker Express preschool at our church. He LOVES it! I was so proud of the way he walked right in on the first day. It didn't hurt that it was "Rain forest Week" - he loves jungle animals :) His teachers are Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Abner. Mrs. Miller is our senior pastor's wife and Mrs. Abner is our college pastor's wife. So we already knew them somewhat before the school year started. He is only attending one day a week so today was his second time there. They do circle time, centers, play outside, have a snack, go to Bible Class, go to Spanish Class and have circle time again to wrap it up. It is a full and fun day for him! He knows quite a few kids in his class from church and from GCE last year. He brought home the quintessential pine cone brushed with peanut butter and birdseed bird feeder today. We're planning to hang it up outside this afternoon :) Preschool is so fun!
Mommy and Gabby have done "Gabby School" both weeks so far while Oliver is in school using a toddler curriculum I love. The first week we did eyes and this week we did feet and toes. Gabby was excited that this week included getting her toenails painted. "Just like Mommy!!!" she says!
We love our teachers and are very excited about the year! Here are a few pictures from the first day.
My silly boy doesn't always love to pose for pictures!
There we go! What a big boy he is getting to be!
Walking into school with sister
Dropping his backpack into the "Oliver" basket. He wasn't so sure about leaving it there. He really wanted to keep it with him.
Oliver is in the "Oreos" class this year!
With his teacher Mrs. Miller... he is of course too busy playing with the snake to pose for mommy!
My wonderful husband turned 30 on Thursday... a fact that he was not looking forward to. So in order to help make his birthday a fun memory and hopefully help erase some of the negative emotions he was feeling toward turning 30, I set out to plan a surprise party with our closest family and friends.
I wanted it to be as much of a surprise as possible, so I secretly invited friends and family, had them RSVP to my cell phone, cooked the food for the party while he was at work, stored the party food and supplies in the back of my van (hoping he didn't get in there for anything), hurriedly loaded the fridge items into the van while he was driving home from work so they could stay in the fridge as long as possible, etc. etc.
I wanted him to dress nice for the party... but wasn't sure how suspicious he would be if I offered to pick his clothes out that morning. So instead, the kids and I went shopping and bought him a new outfit to give to him as his first gift of the day :) Worked like a charm - and he loved what we picked out.
Besides the food, the other major undertaking was getting him to the party without him knowing where/why he was showing up at our church building - where the party was held. So to facilitate the transfer from our house to our church, I enlisted the help of our friends Steve and Ann Marie in a little guys vs. girls competition. I created a digital scavenger hunt and relied upon the competitive side of Matt to keep him distracted from thinking about anything other than getting the tasks done. The kids stayed at our house with a babysitter for the evening because there was no way I could throw a party with two toddlers in tow. Below are the instructions for the hunt:
Use the digital camera to take pictures of the following to document your completed tasks. The tasks must be completed in THIS order. First one to complete their tasks and return to the Dillard House wins a 30 minute massage from their spouse while watching the movie of their choice!!
Take a picture of one team member next to one of the signs at JohnPaulIIHigh School (which used to be Alcatel where Matt worked one summer)
Take a picture of one team member holding a new/store copy of EITHER the book A Prayer for Owen Meany OR The Time Travelers Wife (A tribute to Matt’s love of books)
Eat an entire (smallest-size) cup of frozen yogurt from Gooey’s. Make sure to take a picture of the yogurt eater to document the eating of said frozen yogurt (Matt really likes their yogurt)
Frisbee golf – Throw frisbee from the parking lot at the Campbell Green splash pad to the top of the tallest slide on the playground. Take some pictures for documentation. (A celebration of Matt’s love for playing games)
Buy a pack of baseball cards from Nick’s Sports Cards on the SW corner of Campbell and Coit. Take a picture of one team member outside of the baseball card store. (To support Matt’s love of all things baseball)
Both team members must do a cartwheel in the Fellowship Hall of our church – TrinityBibleChurch. Make sure to take a picture of both cartwheels! (Matt is very committed to our church)
Take a picture near the Home Depot sign of one team member giving a “thumbs down” sign. (To support Matt’s dislike for fixing broken things around the house)
Race back to the Dillard House… while obeying all traffic laws of course!
The four of us stood in our living room and went over the ground rules of the hunt before racing to our cars. Steve and Matt together and Ann Marie and I together. I had designed it so that Ann Marie and I could show up at the first task about the same time as the guys to make them think we were really participating in the hunt. We showed up, both snapped our pictures and then headed out again.
I also designed it so that the second task could have led us to different locations so that they wouldn't be surprised not to see us again immediately... because after the first task Ann Marie and I raced straight to the church to meet some friends to get the food, tables, decorations, lights, etc. all set up before Matt got there. We had about 45 minutes to get all of that done - which we succeeded in doing! That was one of my main stresses about the evening, so I was so thankful for all of the help I had getting set up!
Here are some pictures of Matt and Steve as they finished the rest of the scavenger hunt... all the while wondering why they didn't see us at any of the other locations. They thought we were really behind and were confused because they thought we would probably be winning since the girls were the more competitive team. Hmmm... :)
Taking a picture with The Time Traveler's Wife
The empty frozen yogurt cup at Gooey's
One of our tasks was rained out - the Frisbee golf. But here is proof that they were there!
Matt holding his baseball cards
While the guys were still out hunting, I had everyone else who was attending the party assemble at the church about 15 minutes before he was to get there to intercept him mid-hunt when he arrived at our church. Steve secretly called his wife and hung up to alert us that they were there. And the moment we'd all been waiting for:
Surprise!!!
Wow!
Happy Birthday Sweetie!
The group assembled to hide and yell surprise!
Matt and his Grandfather - Bodie
The happy couple
Dishing up some food
Our friends Ryan and Heather drove down from Oklahoma for the party! Thanks guys!
"Happy Birthday to you" - with mini cheesecakes
Matt's mom chatting with Matt's high school friend Adam Turner
The party room!
HUGE thank yous go to a few people: Darci, DeeDee, The Jones Family, Steve and Ann Marie and Matt's mom for the AMAZING amount of help they gave me setting up during the 45 minute time crunch. And thanks for being our official photographer Ann Marie - most of the photos above are courtesy of her!
Thank you so much to Adam Turner and Ryan, Heather and Erin Harkins for each driving 3+ hours to be there!
Also a huge shout out to those of you who brought enchiladas - the dinner would not have been a success without you. And Brit and Heath - thank you so much for rescuing the cheesecake and saving me from getting totally off schedule and late to set up! And thank you SO much Annie - for all of the cooking you helped me do at my house that afternoon, all of the decorations you brought and the awesome beans you made! I couldn't have done it without you all!!!
Matt loved his party and now has great, positive memories of turning 30 - success!!! We love all of you dearly and feel so blessed with the community that God has provided us here in Plano!
Here are some pictures to commemorate the last week in the Dillard household:
Oliver graduated from the Aquatots program at Emler Swim School. He did SO awesome. He went from being afraid of the water (would even cry through EVERY bath), to swimming on his own underwater for 10 seconds! Wow. A. Maze. Ing. We were so proud of his courage and hard work. Here he is with his ribbon and t-shirt that he got at the last class!
One of Gabby's sweetest... and pretty much only... girl friends stayed with us one day last week. It was such a fun day! The girls played so well together - they are only a few weeks apart in age. Georgia is such a sweetie and loves Gabby. She even named the baby doll she sleeps with baby Gabby. How cute is that. We look forward to having many more girly times together.
Aunt Natty and Uncle Matt drove up from New Braunfels for a visit last weekend. It was great to see them - we hadn't seen them since Natalie graduated from grad school in May. We had a relaxing weekend just enjoying each others company. The kids played and played with them and wore them out! Oliver revived his favorite Uncle Matt game ("hot chicken" - don't ask) and the kids enjoyed having some big playmates who were willing to play anything they wanted to! Fun times...
And then tonight we celebrated the end of our summer playgroup with an ice cream party at Henry's Homemade Ice Cream. It was a wild time... you can imagine when you see how many kids were there! We were the only people in the place at the time so it worked out well. We've enjoyed meeting with these families once a week all summer and passing the hot summer days together. To celebrate our fun summer, I made matching shirts for all of the kids with cute little Texas cut outs on them. We tried hard to get a good picture in. Check out this good lookin' bunch of kiddos! We love you all!
Starting in September, we will begin our new fall schedule. Back to preschool, MOPS, storytimes, and the kids attending a program at Bible Study Fellowship one day a week with my mother-in-law! Our weeks will be much fuller and more scheduled which will give this exhausted mommy a much needed break from being their personal entertainment director. Good times... but change is good.
Gabriella has always had a lot of hair - always! Even in a late-pregnancy ultrasound, they could see her hair because she had so much already!!! I didn't even know that was possible! I love the curls that have pretty much always been there. Now that she is nearing two, her hair has gotten pretty long. When it is wet, it is well past her shoulders. But you would never know that to look at her because it is normally would up tightly in ringlet curls - which I absolutely adore.
I have recently been trying to branch out in her hairstyles as the top-of-the-head-ponytail look isn't quite looking right on my almost two year old with longish hair. She's quickly leaving baby behind and embracing toddler in every aspect of the word! We've recently enjoyed a lot of half pony tails, side of the head barrettes, regular pony tail, pig tails, and the latest - braided pigtails. Note: all of these hairstyles are made supremely cuter by the ringlets that escape from their hair ties to frame her sweet face.
Below is a half-hearted attempt at a hairstyle collage. I need to get some better pictures...
The ponytail (with ringlet escapees)
Pigtails
Half ponytail
I have yet to capture a picture of the braided pigtails, but believe me, they are darling! But, I could not pass up snapping a picture of the POST braided pigtails look. To. Die. For.
Those of you that have seen my boy in action for very long probably have noticed one of his quirky behaviors. We he's in a good mood and happy, he flicks. When he gets really excited, he flicks. He's a flicker - an ear flicker to be more specific. He usually just does a one hand flick - except in cases of extreme excitement. Then both hands get going flicking both ears! An example: My parents were taking him to a play area at the mall near their house. My Dad said as they got closer and he started hearing the sound of kids playing, his arms started going up by his ears... flick, Flick, FLICK! Every night after dinner, when he's full and happy, this is what we find Oliver doing. Every night. Skipping around the rug... flicking.
A common conversation we have about this routine:
Mommy: What are you doing Oliver? Oliver: I'm plaaaaying! Mommy: Ok, have fun!
Here he is in action (and in this video, you get a bonus - his made up song...)
Just last night, a friend told me that her son (who plays with Oliver regularly) was starting to flick every once in a while. He was out playing ball with his Dad and would run around and flick his ears after he threw it. So we were beginning to realize it's contagious nature. And then today, I walked in on Gabriella this morning... and guess what she was doing. FLICKING! I RAN to get the video camera and caught some of it in action. It was so super cute! I asked her what she was doing and she said "play like Oli!"
My silly boy doesn't always love to pose for pictures!
There we go! What a big boy he is getting to be!
Walking into school with sister
Dropping his backpack into the "Oliver" basket. He wasn't so sure about leaving it there. He really wanted to keep it with him.
Oliver is in the "Oreos" class this year!
With his teacher Mrs. Miller... he is of course too busy playing with the snake to pose for mommy!
