Wheeles Family: 2007

We had a pretty fun Halloween around here. I finished sewing the sequin trim onto Sycely's Cinderella dress and spray glittering her "glass slippers" the night before, but it all turned out just marvelously. She was so proud to tell everyone that "Mommy did a Cinderella dress for Sycely." She was a little doll all dressed up, a perfect little princess! We visited Daddy and Granny at school and got to see all the big kids and have lunch with Daddy. We headed over to have dinner with Nanny and Papa and visit a few family friends in the neighborhood and do a little trick-or-treating. Sycely wasn't too clear on what all was going on, and has never had candy so she could care less about that part. She did get to have her first ever piece of candy- a few licks on a lollipop (lemon-lime...GROSS!) and she didn't put it down until we snuck it away from her when she got in the bathtub. And yes, for those of you wondering, Sycely did take her nap in her Cinderella dress. If you think we could get her out of that dress to go to sleep, you're crazy! Enjoy the pictures. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

October

The last month has been a pretty crazy one around the Wheeles household. The month started off with us having to say good-bye to our dear Aunti Eris as she moved to Arizona. Saying farewell to my bestest friend was extremely hard, but we did have an pretty rockin' family slumber party the night before she left! We got to do lots of sisterly bonding in her last couple weeks here so hopefully that will get us through until our next visit-that, phone calls and instant messaging!

Our National Accreditation validator came to school last week. We fortunately had the weekend to finish everything up, but even still, we didn't have a moment to spare. We spent the WHOLE weekend finishing up those blasted portolios. The visit went well, and we can expect the final word (hopefull of approval!) in the next two months.

Besides accreditation, teaching at Child Care Connection, skating lessons, my high school class and being a Mommy and Lem working and tennis regions and state, there hasn't been time for much else. I spent a few days working on sewing Sycely's Halloween costume (Cinderella) and baking treats for Lem's students. We did enjoy the Aces pink night, though the ice looked more like someone spilled Kool-Aid than really, truly pink, but it was super fun nonetheless, and they won in the last two minutes of the game so it was pretty awesome. Lem's been having lots of meeting for their local Model UN conference next weekend, but otherwise, things with work are slowing down a bit for him now that tennis is over.

We got to hear some of National FFA Convention via the internet last week. It was exciting to know our friend Janette was up there on stage in front of thousands of students, but it was pretty sad that we weren't there. We'll get to see her in March when we visit her in Arizona for spring break, though. And not being at Convention this year allowed us to be witness the year's first real snow. It was only a few days of dusting, but Sycely was pretty excited to see the "snowman" as she calls it-we're working on straightening her out on that.

Sycely's been such a joy to watch lately. Her play is becoming so much more sophisticates as she masters imaginative play. She talks as different characters the whole time she plays and it's simply adorable to see. She's singing up a storm, as usual, and will bust out a round of Old Macdonald at any given moment without warning. She's such a delight to spend the day with.

I guess that's about all our excitement for the month. I'm posting a separate blog for Halloween since it has all its own pictures. Hope you have all had a happy, healthy month!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Fall Is In the Air

It's time for another Wheeles Family Update. The month of September has been a busy one for us. Lem is wrapping up the tennis season with Regions this week and State next week. His JV team is done with meets and practices so we get to have him home after school again these days. He's helping finish up planning for the local Model United Nations conference, which is coming up next month. His Thursday evening class is going well, except that it pretty much takes up all of our family time on Thursdays. We get to share a quick meal and then he's off to class. It's up to Sycely and I to finish out the evening on our own-just us girls.

I've started teaching group skating lessons, and have a couple private students that are starting up. I'm loving my group lessons on Saturdays, even my little Snow Plow Sams (3-5 year olds) who have never skated. But it's nice to spice things up with a little high level freestyle too! I'm working like mad on finishing up the classroom portfolio I'm doing for Providence's reaccreditation which is kind of consuming my life right now. It would be SO much more managable if I were writing about my own classroom that I was in all day long, so it's a challenge, but I'm plugging right along. We're expecting our validator visit in the next couple weeks, so I'm getting all the loose ends tied up. I'm still teaching classes for Child Care Connection- my next one is on Observing and Recording. I also started teaching my High School Child Development Class, which has gone really well so far. I have 7 girls in my class that are pretty entertaining. I've been really surprised by how into class they are and how much they participate and seem to genuinely WANT to learn the material. According to the school director, they really enjoy the class. I've also been appointed to the planning council for the upcoming Governor's Summit on Early Childhood, in addition to all my other board duties, of course, because I don't have enough going on!

Last weekend we celebrated my birthday with family and friends. Friday night Lem and I went out for a yummy dinner and special dessert. We got all dressed up so I could have a chance to put my new skinny body in a fancy dress (a pink one of course)! I reached my weight loss goal the day before my birthday- one day early- hooray! Saturday I taught skating and then we had folks over for a mexican dip party that was sooooo tasty! It was a pretty fun weekend and a great birthday for me, and most important of all Eris was here! That's happened once in 7 years so I was really stoked about that!

As October arrives, there's snow making its way down the mountains and I'm actually anxious for it to start snowing and get all pretty and white around here. Which, of course, means Christmas is just down the road! Unfortunately October also means the loss of my "sister" Eris as she heads down the Highway to her new home in Arizona. I'm terribly sad to see her go, knowing I have to say good-bye to yet ANOTHER of my close friends, but I'm more sad that Sycely is losing her closest Auntie, but I'm praying this move will be a blessing for Eris, nonetheless. We're planning a Spring Break trip to Arizona to visit her and our FFA BFF Janette, who promises us enchilladas and baby sheep.

Around here October also means hockey and to kick things off the Aces are having pink night! It's a special game to support breast cancer research, etc and they are having pink ice and pink jersies and everything-I can't wait, it's going to be heaven! Pink ice, go figure. And then, there will be Halloween. I'm working on Sycely's Cinderella costume, giving myself lots of time to get it done. That's about all I've got to report for September. We will keep you all posted on anything exciting.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Photo Shoot

Our awesomely talented friend Jimmy obligingly spent Wednesday evening with Eris and I taking some photos of the two of us. We've been realizing we don't have many pictures of the two of us of late, so we asked Jimmy to take some of us before he headed back home and Washington, and before Eris makes her big move to Arizona. We saw 5 moose in the first 5 minutes-just trying to find ourselves a moose-free location to take the pictures. Of course, Jimmy was up against bad evening lighting and, no kidding, a HUGE downpour of rain half way through, but he's such a trooper, he got us some good pics nonetheless! He's such a good sport! Here's a slide show of some of our photos. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Labor Day Weekend in Homer

We enjoyed a fun, relaxing Labor Day weekend with the fam in Homer. Sycely did spectcularly well on the drive down, and slept about 2 hours of the drive home, so even from the start it was a fairly smooth trip for us. She acutally napped EVERYDAY which is saying alot as she has taken to not napping a few days the last couple weeks. She slept well at night, which is a tremendous blessing to us!

We pretty much spent time visiting, and of course, eating :) We finally got to see dad and Kate's new house, which is AMAZING. They have a wonderful view and it's about the cutest, most perfect house imaginable for them. It's very open and warm and just to adorable! My dad and I took Mays (his new puppy) to Homer Hounds and I gave him his first bath, though admittedly everyone agrees he doesn't smell too much better. Kate, as usual, made delicious dinners for us. We got to go for lots of walks on the beach and do a little shopping on the Spit. The weather was great and dry all weekend and we got to see some spectacular fog as we pulled into Homer Friday night.

We had our traditional Sunday breakfast at Duncan House and spent most of Sunday playing on the beach and attending a BBQ. Dad and Lem got to play some tennis as well. Other than lots of beach fun and hanging around we pretty much had a mellow weekend. Hope everyone had a fun, safe Labor Day!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Fun at the Fair

Yesterday we took our annual trip to Palmer for the state fair. This year, by far, was the most fun for Sycely. She had a wonderful time watching all the people, eating yummy fair food, seeing and petting the animals and she rode her very first ever ride! Hooray for the carousel!

I think riding the horses on the carousel and imagine a VERY high pitched squeaky voice here the "baby chicks!" were her favorite treat. I'd bet she could have spent all day there looking at those little guys. I feel another hatching project coming on.

She also got to go in the petty zoo, where no joking, a goat actually farted right on her! First thing, right when we got in there! It was hilarious, she looked around at the goat like, " I think I know that sound, and I'm pretty sure you're being rude!" She was also knocked over once by a baby sheep being charged at by a goat, but she seems to have survived fairly well. Nothing a little garlic fries can't cure!

Next year she'll be tall enough to even go on some of the bigger rides, like spinning apples and gently floating elephants. I think we've still got a few years til we have to worry about the tilt-a-whirl and the zipper, thankfully!

All in all, we had gorgeous weather (a pretty slim chance at our fair), tasting food and lots of family fun. We had a super fun time at the fair and Sycely was such a trooper, despite only a 15 minute nap as we parked the car. Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Summer Update

Well, it has been far too long since we have sent out an official update for the fam. Lem is back at school now after a very busy and NOT A VACATION summer so Sycely and I are making our way back toward our normal school year routine. We've still got a couple weeks until all our regular activities start back up but we're staying plenty busy in the meantime.

So, let's see what have we been up to since May? Well, Lem rounded out the school year, I finished up my bible study, we got tons of fun play equipment in the backyard for Sycely-hooray for awesome garage sale deals! We spent Memorial Day weekend in Homer, Sycely has a blast playing on the beach and eating pizza. Lem took an Econ class after school got out and softball season started. That brings us up to June.

We had a rip-snortin' good time garage sale mid June which made us quite a little profit for some home projects we were planning, and got rid of a bunch of stuff we clearly didn't need, making more room in the house and the garage. Lem started teaching summer school at Service and I went to more than enough Governor's Picnic planning meetings! I also had a bunch of planning meetings for upcoming classes and trainings I'd be teaching. We went out to the Valley for an fun picnic with our Governor, Miss Sarah. It was just her and a bunch of our core team from the campaign eating burgers and hanging our round a campfire. It was nice to have some relaxed time with her and old friends from the campaign team.

So, July...Well, we spent fourth of July painting our bedroom a fabulously relaxing shade of green to match our bedding. We got to enjoy a visit with our good friend Kyra as well. We got to go to Family Camp with our church, which was a very fun weekend. Sycely had a good time playing with her friends Brock, Scarlett and Marissa, and of course, we had fun hanging out with their mommies and daddies :) and Sycely had her very first S'more. Sycely went on

her first visit to the zoo on a gorgeous sunny day. She loved the "yowls" most. I started

teaching the Reggio Emilia Intensive I've been dreaming up the last year or so. I also started planning to Child Development class I'll be teaching for New Direction's (they recently joined onto our church) High School Completion Program in the fall. We of course went to the the new Harry Potter movie on opening day and I read the last book in less than three days when it came out two weeks later. Lem finished up summer school, we celebrated our friend Brock's first birthday. The Governor's picnic was a real hit and WAY less stressful than I expected it to be. Everything

went so smoothly that all I really had to do was make sure my volunteers had cold sodas and that Sarah and her fam had anything they needed. Lem took another class that was a ridiculous 12 hours a day (most days) 7 days a week. We replaced the window in our bedroom-which needed it VERY much-with help from Lem's dad. That rounded out July for us.

And finally, August...by far our busiest month of the summer. I've taken on a huge project from my school completing one of the classroom portfolios for a preschool classroom whose teacher recently quit as a result of her husband being killed in a plane crash. I'm getting pretty close with it now, but I'm not the least bit interested in keeping the word "criteria" in my vocabulary! My Reggio Intensive continues to meet every 2-3 weeks. I started teaching classes for providers and parents at Child Care Connection. I attended an all day retreat with my board to define our vision and such. And I started coaching skating more. I'm teaching group lessons now and will be taking on some

private students in the next few weeks. We of course celebrated Sycely's birthday-with 2 parties this year! She had a fun time playing with her friends on Saturday and then we had our family party after church and her nap on Sunday (the 5th). My dad and Kate were able to come to town (with their new puppy Mayes) and my Grandpa was up for a three week visit from Idaho as well. Lem started coaching tennis the second week of August. We enjoyed another great visit with our friend Alaina. Lem went back to work last week and the students started back

yesterday. We went out to the Valley last weekend to visit with some of my family. Most of whom we haven't seen since around the time we got married. it was great to get to see everyone and their kiddos, and introduce Sycely to them all. We've been able to visit some more with my Grandpa and had him over for a yummy dinner last night (I even made him a lemon meringue pie!) We took a picture of him holding Sycely under a tree in the yard wearing this adorable little dress I wore when I was 2. We have an identical picture of him holding me in that dress

under a tree. So, I suppose that about sums up our summer. We will head down to Homer for Labor Day, and otherwise our fall will be full of Lem's regular school stuff, tennis and me teaching skating, the New Direction class and other classes for work. Sycely and I will be back to Mother Goose and the waterpark in another couple weeks or so.

Sycely continues to amaze us with her personality and abilities. We are daily awed by

her sweetness and her adorable antics like singing in the car, about the most precious moments ever! She talks in sentence now and knows just about every Disney character out there, though she still prefers the Princesses. She likes to choose her own clothes and shoes and has become such a big helper, putting away her toys, throwing away her trash, getting her own dishes, helping with laundry and dusting.

She can spend hours playing with all her plastic figures and the fisher price castle, farm and dollhouse. She has mastered colors, most shapes and counting now. We converted her crib to her toddler bed with a rail about two weeks ago and she's been doing great with that transition. We've been having lots of tea parties and playing outside whenever the weather cooperates.

That's our summer update. Hope the new school year is finding you all happy and healthy!

Wheeles Family

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Happy Halloween!