The Blantons Go Rolling Along...: Blanton Happenings

As usual, Blogger has discombobulated the order of my pictures... ugh.

For Valentine's Day Natalie got an Ariel wall decal that lights up and plays "Under the Sea". In love.

Mom's birthday lunch at the Holly Inn.

Lynne and Ralph still looking good!

Probably the greatest picture of these two EVER!

She actually smiled nicely without making that goofy face!

Not the greatest picture, but I wanted to document the first time we ate outside at the new house! In typical NC fashion it was 72 degrees on Sunday, followed by a low of 16 the next day.

Sweet Nori, 5 weeks.

Nori officially becomes a Blanton on March 22!

I don't care how much he hates me for this later.

Natalie has had some difficulty following the rules at school. I was getting super exasperated because nothing seemed to work to correct the bad behavior. We tried punishments, rewards, all sorts of incentives... nothing worked. Then one day, one of her classmate's mom told me about her daughter's pompom system. Every day she goes to school, depending on her behavior, she earns one or two pom poms. If she wasn't very good, no pompoms are earned, and if she's really bad then she goes into negative pompom territory (definitely don't want to go there). Anyway, depending on how many pompoms she earns per day, she puts that amount into a pompom jar. When the jar fills up she gets a reward of her choice (within reason, of course). If she goes goes negative pompoms then she has to remove some from her jar. It's a great system because the child isn't getting spoiled with treats every time they're good, and it teaches them to look forward to something and enjoying EARNING it. I put Natalie on the pompom system and it's been like magic. She's had a few one pompom days but nothing less, and we're very proud of her. When her pompom jar was full she asked to go to Discovery Place Kids, so I let the kids play hooky, took them out for a yummy breakfast and Mom and I took them to play the day away. Here are some pictures from her special day, of course Nick gets rewarded, too :)

Out of order... this was while Natalie was in ballet class. Perks of mommy time.

Back to Discovery Place:

This was at breakfast, just me and the kiddos. They insisted on sitting next to each other, while I sat across from them. I felt a little out of control. They can smell fear.

Here's Natalie modeling her summer swim line:

The last one of the the three buddies got married last weekend, Congrats Kevin and Kim!

Get me outta here!!!!

My first college roommate, and one of my dearest friends, has an etsy business. She crochets the most amazing hats. She donated three hats to the Junior League's silent auction and sent a bunny to Natalie. Natalie was thrilled!

Back to the three buddies. Bob, Kevin, and Chase. These are the war buddies out kids will tell their kids about. Sniff.

It was parent observation week at dance last week. Natalie wasn't really cooperating, but I got some pretty decent footage of her amazing skills. Obviously she's the best and should be sugar plum in the Nutcracker next year.

Nick has developed and extreme love for all things transformers. Since this picture was taken his collection has quadrupled. And yes, he takes all of them to bed each night.