Gettin' Ready!

Recital time is right around the corner!  Yesterday we had pictures for Livie's dance class.  They get their costumes and get all dressed up in full make-up and hair.  This is Livie's FAVORITE part!!  She loves getting her make-up done and will stand in front of the mirror and make kissy faces.  It's hilarious!

Their costumes this year are really cute, though it's really itchy, she says.  I messed up her hair unfortunately. They said to put it up and make it curly like the photo.  Her hair is so long that they wanted me to pin it up, so it looked more like a bun, but all the other girls had theirs in ponies, so we'll make that change before the actual recital.

Is it wrong that I'm kind of excited to see how tall she is compared to the other girls?!  Never thought I'd have a tall daughter!

Livie knows the routine backwards and forwards, so she was getting ahead of herself.  Gotta have her slow down and stay in step.  At least she always had a big smile on her face!

Miss Patty told them all that they did a great job.  So cute to see all of them in their little costumes like that.  I LOVE recital year and can't wait to see my girls perform!

Madie's Letter

Madie was so excited to tell me this morning that she got her letter!!  She got her "M" and got two pins - one for cheerleading and one for Scholastic Bowl.  She couldn't wait to put it in her room and show it off.  I remember when I got my letter in high school.  I don't remember getting pins, but my letter jacket was one of the major milestones in high school.  Really happy that she gets to experience that on the Jr. High level.  I love how active she is in school too.  I was just like that and it's fun to see that she is too!

Mother's Day

 Well, our Mother's Day this year was a little on the chilly side (53 degees and windy), so we opted to postpone our annual Mother's Day hike at Starved Rock.  I actually have so much on my mind about what I need to get done in the next few days, that I don't know if I would've been able to disconnect from it enough to enjoy a hike today.  So, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks we'll make up for it and head over there. :-)

I don't need a hike to remind me of my blessings.  From the time I was a little girl, I loved playing with dolls.  Absolutely loved it.  I would tear pages of models out of magazines and pretend they were my children.  I'd give them names and pretend that they were jet-setting around the world.  I would take Barbies and paper dolls, anything I could use to be my children.  I always played the "mommy".

When Pete and I were dating, I prayed nightly for the chance to fulfill my dream of marrying this amazing man I was dating and have the family I always dreamed of.  God gave me the desires of my heart and I got not only the best guy in the world, but three amazing, goofy, animated, exasperating, precious children - each so different from each other and each so much a part of both me and Pete.  So, even though Mother's Day is a nice day to get extra love from my kids, I never need reminding of how blessed and honored I am to be the mom to them.

One thing I do love is that they give me great presents!  They are old enough now to do more than sign a card that Pete has picked out.  They come up with their own ideas.  Livie painted me this picture.  It's a picture of Pete fishing and me watching him.  There's a fish and a dolphin jumping out of the water (guess she really liked the dolphin show at the zoo!).  Madie, Noah, and Livie all created a web video/card for me that they filmed using their Ipods.  It was hilarious and awesome!  I got more drawings from Livie and lots of hugs from all of them.  What a great day!

End Of The Year

It's that time again.  The end-of-the-year is upon us. .... or, more accurately, ME!  My class is done next week, so I'm making up their books.  I love doing this. :-)  I love seeing how much my students have grown and become more independent as the year has gone on.  It's so fun!

I haven't picked up all 140 pictures I need for the books yet, but I started at least assembling them.

You can see the marble art they made in class and how I cute out the number "2" to add to their book.  I do that, because it's our "2s" class!  Kinda fun.  I add a little page about what we love most about them, then add 4 pages of pictures, a "I'm a SHINING STAR" page with their picture and their handprints make up the last page.

This is the picture we put in the book.  This is Katie, my co-teacher.  She just got back from 10 days in FL, so she's tan and awesome.  I should've taken our photo BEFORE her trip!  Maybe then I wouldn't look like I've never seen the sun in my life, but what are you going to do, right? ;-)  It's been a great year and has gone by so quickly!  Next Thurs night and Fri are our last days with those sweet kids and their terrific parents.  It's going to be hard to say goodbye, just like it was last year, but at least I know we helped make those shy little 2s turn into the bright, independent, preschool-ready 3s that they are today!

A-OK Sunday

Today I was a nervous wreck!  Why, you ask?  Because I was asked to step outside my comfort zone and take 12 kids along with me!  As always, my nerves were for nothing and the thing I didn't want to do turned into a huge blessing.  "A-OK Sunday" stands for "Acts of Kindness Sunday".  We didn't have a service at church today.  We all went into the community to do good things for others.  I was asked to take my Sunday School kids to a local nursing home and have them sing songs during their worship service and then head over to a local park and pick up trash.  So, we began practicing a couple songs to sing and we made door hangers to hang on the residents' doors.  As many of you know, even though my mom is in a nursing home, I get very nervous in them.  Guess it's because I'm not a particularly affectionate person and find it hard to react in that way towards people.  So, anyway, there were nerves. 

We thankfully had lots of adults step up to help, which was a HUGE load off my shoulders.  As you can see above, we had a van full in our van alone!  I think we had 11-12 kids in total.  Not a huge crowd, but with 9-10 adults as well, we had quite a nice crowd there.

We decided to wait in a waiting area until our part came up in the service.  Didn't want to try and keep all those kids still and quiet until our time came up.  They sat around and chatted until it was time to line up.

I sat on the floor and did the hand motions for them, so I didn't get to see the residents' reactions, but I could hear some "amens" and they got a nice round of applause after each song.  Some of the adults/friends with us said that some of the residents tried to do the hand motions with them and had big smiles on their faces.  A gentleman said "Thank you" to me as we walked off after our last song.  I said "thank you" right back.  It was a real joy and privilege to do that for them. :-)

Next, we were directed to the residents' rooms and we hung up the door hangers we made for them.  Each hanger had the verse "This is the day that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.", which happened to be the first song we sang for them. :-)

The kids went into groups and ran from door to door hanging them up.  This was a BEAUTIFUL facility and  they had no trouble finding places to hang them.

As you can see, the kids made really beautiful hangers and I can only imagine how much the residents enjoyed them when they got back to their rooms after the service and lunch.

We had made up 60 of them, so we had several extra.  I guess there are townhouses/condos that are connected to the main nursing home.  So, we walked back to those and started hanging them on their doors too!  It was a beautiful day for a walk and we knew they would enjoy them just as much as the residents would. :-)

These are the duplexes in the PVL subdivision.  These are for independent-living residents.  PVL cares for their lawns and stuff, but they are able to live on their own.

After we finished up at the nursing home, we headed to a local park.  We had snacks and juice and let them just have fun playing for about a half hour.

They played and played and played.  You can imagine how exhausted they all were when we got back to the church at 11:30!

At least they had fun, right? ;-)

After a little while, we had the kids come back to the pavilion where we had our snack, put on some gloves and start picking up all the trash at the park.  How cute are they?!

We didn't find a whole lot of trash, but at least they took the time to help.  We headed back to the church for communion and a quick run-down of what everyone did.  There were people painting, assisting in other worship services, visiting other nursing homes, etc...  We had a great time and really felt like the kids got to experience a new way to worship!  Praise be to God!

The Saga Is Over!

After nearly 2 weeks, the kids are back to school!!  Not THEIR school, unfortunately, but at least they're back in buildings with their teachers and friends. :-)

This week I've had my neighbor boys all day long, so they had a lot of fun yesterday enjoying the sunshine and playing outside before their little break was over.  They made the sandbox into a mud pit and got soaked with water guns.  It was, and I quote, "The best last day of break ever!" according to Madie. :-)

This morning was an early morning.  My kids are always up at 6 (they're crazy!), so the early morning wasn't too hard for them.  The kids are in 3 different locations until the end of the school year in June.  The last day had to be extended for a week, because of the missed days.  The K-3rd (Livie) is at our local Nazarene Church.  Because of the changes to the locations and stuff, the school asked that all the kids ride the bus, so they wouldn't have trouble with congestion with the buses and cars.  Totally understandable.  So, for the first time, my kids are riding the bus!  They had to be ready and outside at the bus stop by 7:20 this morning.  I'm usually getting Livie in the shower at 7:30, so we've had to make some changes at the Trolinger house!  Livie was a little nervous about the bus and about their "new school" and what she was going to experience there, but thankfully, every one of the kids at her bus stop are her friends, so that made it a lot easier for her.  None of us, teachers included, really know what the school day is going to look like for them.  It's going to be totally trial and error today, but I'm excited that they are back in school and can't wait to hear all about it!  Hopefully I'll be able to post an update tonight.

With all the changes, the bus got there about 15 min late, but once it came, the kids jumped up and headed right for the bus.  Very fun!

The buses have to drop off all the K-3rd graders before heading out and stopping to pick up the 4th-8th graders, which are going to school in a neighboring town.  Fourth and fifth graders (Noah) will be going to the elementary school there.  That school cleared out some of it's classrooms and condensed their students, so we could have room there.  So amazing of them!!  The 6th-8th graders (Madie) will be at the old high school.  So, I have three kids in three different locations and in 2 different towns, but they're in school and excited about this new adventure.  No hesitation on their parts at all.  Their bus stop mates are also good friends of theirs, so they enjoyed sitting around and chatting for an extra 30 min waiting for the bus to arrive.  Since everything is new today, we totally expected delays.  Hopefully as everyone gets used to the changes, things will be more on time.

I'm the nerdy mom who took pictures of her 12 and 10 yr olds getting on the bus for the first time.  The 8th graders on the bus looked at me like I was crazy.  Thankfully, my kids are nerdy enough to not care how much of a dork their mom is. ;-)  So, here's to their first day back!  This town, and these kids especially, needs to find a way back to some normalcy.  They have had a lot of uncertainty in their lives of late.  No one knows if the school will be repaired and ready by the time Aug rolls around.  There are classmates of theirs that have lost their homes and are struggling to find a new place to live.  So much is going on, so for them to be back with their teachers and back with their friends, no matter where that is, is important for them to move forward.  Hoping for a great day back for everyone!