I Week

I week has been off the cuff, I've been pretty selfish - we do what I want.

Monday was our first day back from the vacation, we got home around 7:00am and my mom volunteered to stay longer so Mr. Robbins and I could get some sleep - it was a very sweet offer, but didn't work. The moment Javin saw us he wouldn't leave us alone - he was a clingy pill all week. After taking my mom home we went over to Auntie's house to spend a little time with her.

Tuesday:
We mixed it up and did Library Day!
Books: Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
Inside Outside Upside Down by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Scribbles  and Ink by Ethan Long

I couldn't think of any I food, so we snacked on stick pretzels, that look like I's (I dipped mine in Icing).


Wednesday:
Zoo Day! We talked about a few I things we'd see (ie. Iguana, Insects and Ibis)
 Books: Discovering Nature's Alphabet by Krystina Castella (I thought it would have more Insects)
Alphabeasties by Sharon Werner (LOVE IT!)
Count on Culebra by Ann Whitford Paul (Great)

He picked the Insect!

Ice cream, of course!

Thursday:
We talked about Igloos and Ice Cream and then made them!

(Javin took this pic) Our Igloo, of Icing and 'March mallow'.

We read: Come Back Soon by Daniel Schallau (Weird)
Casey ans Derek on the Ice by Marty Sederman
Ice by Arthur Geisert (also weird)
Zoomer's Summer Snowstorm by Ned Young

Made Vanilla Peach Ice Cream using this recipe, adding in a few peach chunks.

Action shot!

Friday:
Island day! As I made breakfast Javin watched The Incredibles and we talked about the Island on the movie. We read: It's Mine! by Leo Lionni (Great)
An Island Grows by Lola Schaefer (Good)

Chick-fil-a and more Ice cream!

 Saturday (Extended into the weekend):
I Am A Tyrannosaurus by Anna Grossnickle Hines (LOVED)
I Love You, Little Monkey by Alan Durant (LOVED)
I Can Dress Myself! by Birte Muller
It's Me! by Eric Drachman

H Week

Last week was long and difficult, with the viewing and prepping for the funeral AND scrambling to get Mr. Robbins home from Orlando in time - it was crazy. Mr. Robbins ended up arriving just in time, seriously, 30 minutes later and he would've been too late. After the viewing the Mr. and I ran home and packed for our....trip to France/Spain.

As many of you know, I work for jetBlue. At the Summer Party I won two round trip tickets on IcelandAir, to anywhere they fly. We wanted to go to Spain (That's where the Mr. served his mission, we both speak Spanish, it was a no brainer), however, their flights to Spain decrease to 1 per week in October. Long story, made short...we flew to Paris, spent a couple days and then flew to Spain, then stopped back off in Paris on our way back home. It was amazing and IcelandAir was AWESOME!

My brother was here for the funeral, from Kentucky, and knew he'd be at my house with my mom and Javin during H week so he brought a Horse shoe for Javin. An actual, real, racing Horse, little bit of dirt in it Horseshoe. My mom said they did a lot of Horse stuff and they read Heart in my Pocket - that was his favorite.

I asked him to go grab his shoes, this is what he brought back.

My mom also said that Javin was the biggest Helper. And I know for a fact that they ate Hambuger Helper for dinner one night, it was pretty much the only thing in my empty kitchen. My Ma, Pa and brother were such troopers, thanks!

Gee its been a long week!

You know how life trials work? In my life, it works like this: Everything is good, so I start to get nervous for 'the bad' to happen. Something inconvenient, but not terrible happens, I think that 'the bad' is over and I relax. Then I get blindsided with something awful and hate myself for being stupid enough to think that the inconvenient was 'the bad'. **WARNING** This post is a bit depressing.

Having said that, it was an AWFUL week. It started normal, library day with Gram, we ate Grapes and talked about Gardens and looked at ours outside, then we colored Green Gs for a while.

Gram read Javin some books: Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

Gabby & Grandma Go Green

Grandpa's Overalls by Tony Crun,

she is such a good reader that he fell asleep on her lap.

Tuesday:

We got a really late start, I wasn't feeling it. It was hard to get out of bed and I knew the next day was going to be the Zoo day (Gorillas, Giraffes, Grizzles, Goats, Geese) so we just hung out and I let Javin watch a few shows while I cleaned and tried to collect myself and get it together. We ran a few errands and talked about how the Green traffic light means Go. That evening we dropped Jaron off at the airport for him to go to a business conference in Orlando.

Wednesday:

I traded someone a shift and was picking up my portion from 7:00am-9:00am. I received an unusual call from my Step-dad's phone at 7:30am, I ignored his call because I was on a call, then my mom called. I knew something was wrong so once I had a minute I paused my work phone and called my mom back - through her tears and sobs she told me that my nephew, Josh, had just hung himself across the street in my sister's garage. I was immediately filled with panic and it felt like all the blood in my body drained to my feet. I told my mom I'd be there shortly. I called my work and managed to use some Paid Time Off and Volunteer Time Off to get off 7:45-9:00 - it was a miracle. I ran downstairs, brushed my teeth, packed a quick bag for Javin and woke him up. Dressed in our pjs we raced out to West Valley to find a small group of people gathered on my sister's driveway. The whole way there I was trying to convince myself that I heard my mom wrong and/or that she was just exaggerating. Once I pulled up and saw the police it set in. The unfortunate and unexpected death of my 16 year-old nephew has been and continues to be a really terrible, confusing, frustrating experience.  

Needless to say, we didn't go to the zoo. Neither did we do anymore G week, we stayed at my sister's house in West Valley the rest of the week and cleaned, cried, ate and talked. It was wonderful to see family and friends, I just wish it had been under different circumstances.



I couldn't just leave it at that. Here are a few books I thought were cute and was excited to read, but didn't get to:

Duck, Duck, Goose by Tad Hills
Gorilla Garage by Mark Shulman
Furious George Goes Bananas by Michael Rex
Gideon & Otto by Olivier Dunrea
The Girl On The Yellow Giraffe by Ronald Himler
John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith (I might grab this one for J week)
The Legend of the Golden Snail by Graeme Base (Also, this one for S week)

F week

Despite it being "F" week I had somewhat high hopes for it, mingled with lots of work and an extra busy husband - boy its a good thing I'm NOT pregnant (not that we are trying).

Monday:
Library Day! We got the usual, way too many books.
We read: Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
Miss Mingo and the First Day of School by Jamie Harper (LOVED)
Pink! by Lynne Rickards
For Pete's Sake by Ellen Stoll Walsh

And since it was Flamingo/Feather day, it was...Aviary Day too! Javin and daddy took a nice little ride over to Liberty Park and walked around the Aviary and checked out all the birds. When Javin got home he told me he saw the "Fa-ning-os!". So cute!

Tuesday:
Aquarium day! We were suppose to talk all about Fish today, but Javin was more interested in the Frogs at the Aquarium than the Fish.
We read: Big Al by Andrew Clements
Flotsam by David Wiesner
The Rainbow Fish by
Hop Jump by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Beware of the Frog by William Bee (LOVED)

We ate French Fries and chicken nuggets for lunch. When we do get  fast food I ONLY get him apple slices, so the fries were a BIG treat.

Counting Frogs

Riding Frogs

Listening to Frogs

Wednesday:

This was suppose to be our Frog day, but it lost a little power when the day before had so many Frogs in it.
We read: The Biggest Frog In Australia by Susan Roth
Do Lions Live on Lily Pads by Melanie Walsh (simple, but cute)
What a Party by Sandy Asher
Wanda and the Frogs by Barbara Azore
Once There was a Bull...(Frog) by Rick Walton (Cute)
Five Nice Mice by Chisato Tashiro

We also talk about Forests and Fall (you know, Autumn). We ate some Franks (aka. hot dogs) and watched Finding Nemo.

Thursday:

We read these while we (Javin) sat on the potty, bare bummed (nothing came out, we're just practicing):
Frederick by Leo Lionni
Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth
The Foggy Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt (LOVED)
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert (LOVED)
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss (LOVED)

We ate lots of Fruit and talked about our F body parts (Feet and Fingers) and did some Finger painting of Frogs.

Friday:

We went outside on the patio and wrote out some Fs in chalk until we got swarmed by bees. I got Frustrated with the bees and then with Javin and then we went inside so I could have a time-out. We discussed what a Farm is and what kind of animals we'd find there, like maybe some Foxes. And we read:
Faraway Farm by Ian Whybrow
Herd of Cows! Flock of Sheep by Rick Walton (cute)
Crazy like a Fox by Loreen Leedy
Another Fine Mess by Tony Bonning
Fox and Fluff by Shutta Crum (Cute)

All in all, it was a pretty good week, despite my tantrums followed closely by Javin's. I'm really enjoying this memory making process :)