First grade!

 

Well, we sent little man off for another year of higher learning this morning. Welcome to first grade! He said he was excited to go back to school and make new friends.

 

Little sis was not so excited to see him go. I heard Jake tell her this morning that he would need to give her a hug and a kiss before he left because he was going to miss us all more than we would even know. Awesome. That's when I started contemplating homeschooling again. Then I remembered how much we've all been bickering for the last three weeks around here and hauled him off to school.

Last hug of the morning. Could these two be any more beautiful?

You can tell he was thrilled that I followed him into his new classroom to take one last picture can't you? I felt totally fine leaving him at school this morning. It was much better than the Kinder drop off where I felt like my heart might literally pop out of my chest. I knew he would be fine. Then along about 10am I really started missing him. And my heart felt funny the rest of the day. Luckily, my friend Misty came over to distract me until it was time to leave to pick Jake up for the day.

The pick up line at school the first week sucks. Emma and I had to wait for 20 minutes before we got our boy in the car with us. We were so excited to see him and I could tell he was happy to see us. Later on, he told me the things he liked best about the day. He got to take his beloved crabby for show and tell. He got to play with some old friends. He met some new friends although he doesn't have a clue what their names are yet. He got to decorate a cookie and eat it. He had some trouble with friends wanting to play with different people at recess though. That breaks my heart. I keep telling him to find someone that doesn't have anyone to play with and be a friend to that person. We'll see how that goes.

Then tonight while he was taking his bath he asked me how much longer first grade was going to last. So I told him until next summer. And he said "aw man. I really want to spend some more time hanging out with you guys." That broke my heart too. I know he was just really tired from a long day back at school, but I so wanted to tell him that I would home school him and he could stay home with me forever and someday when he's 35 I would find him a wife and she would be so happy living with all of us forever. I didn't though. I just told him how much I love him and miss him when he's gone but that first grade was going to be so much fun and he needs to keep going so he can fill up his brain. We'll see how that goes too!

First Grade!

It's that time again! What a difference a year makes! I just read the post I wrote last year about sending Jake off to Kindergarten and I was a mess! And although I am feeling a little sad about starting another school year, a part of me is feeling a little glad at the same time. We have had many long days of summer to hang out, have fun and get on each other's nerves. It is time to go back.

Jake couldn't be more excited. We met his new first grade teacher last week and she seems very nice. I've also had a couple neighbors tell me that she is wonderful. Good to have back up confirmation. And when I saw that she sent home a note to parents asking us to send her an email or write her a letter letting her know about our child I was pumped. I'm going to try and be slightly less melodramatic than I was with my letter to Jake's Kinder teacher. So without further adieu:

Dear Mrs. Harris,

I'm giving my boy over to you for seven hours a day five days a week. He will be spending more time with you and his classmates than he spends with me now. He's so little. Please be kind. But firm. You're gonna need to be firm. Here are some things you need to know about Jake:

1.) He is a dreamer. He spends more time in his imagination than he does in reality. I like this about him. Please don't kill it.

2.) He loves animals-especially ocean animals. Please foster his interests.

3.) He loses focus easily unless actively engaged in something he enjoys. Please give him tools to do better.

4.) He is a superhero. Please help him to put away his super powers while at school but to know deep down that he still has them. Don't cut those spider webs just yet.

5.) He is sensitive. He may cry over something that nobody else would cry over. Please give him a quick hug and tell him to buck up.

6.) He is a leader. Watch how kids will follow him. Encourage that without giving him a big head. Help him to use those powers for good and not evil.

7.) He has recently learned potty humor. For this I am truly sorry.

8.) He is enthusiastic. Please teach him patience and humility without quenching his enthusiasm.

9.) He really does not like to write sentences. Please find a way to make writing seem fun.

10.) He does not like to lose. He is often a bad sport about losing. Please remind him that doing his best is really what matters most.

He is my heart. I miss him when he is gone. Please protect him. But help him become independent. On the days you can't love him ask me why I love him. I'll fill you in on his good qualities. Please equip him to move on in life to second grade. I'll do my part here if you do your part there. Let's be partners. Oh and try to do the same for the other 21 kids in your class. (You seriously don't make enough money.) 

(ok. so mainly I copied and pasted my kinder letter. Still pretty melodramatic, isn't it? Maybe I'll do better in second grade!)

Happy 32! Happy, happy, happy!

Yesterday was Mike's 32nd birthday. Poor thing. I feel like it was the epitome of what a parent with small children's birthday inevitably becomes. Just another day. It doesn't help that his birthday comes in August and my brain has officially left the building sometime around July 1st. It normally doesn't come back again until November when things cool down around here. August. Texas. Hot. Enough said.

I did attempt an outing to WalMart on Friday to find a small gift for him. We have no money in August either. So, I'm talking really small. As in a 4 by 4 Rubik's cube small. I generally hate and despise going into WalMart because it smells funny in there. And also the aisles are usually in complete disarray. And also some if not most of the clientele at our local WalMart choose to wear inappropriate day time shopping attire when they visit. And also I think that WalMart is the place where hope goes to die. I'm just sayin'. I prefer Target with their bright red colors, dollar aisles and welcoming Starbucks aromas when I walk through the double doors.

But Target wasn't gonna happen yesterday. I chose to go out around 3pm which meant the black faux leather interior of my car was approximately 3000 degrees. I was already in my after 10am heat induced sluggish brain coma and WalMart seemed like a better option because it is only ten minutes away from our house. Turns out I should have just stayed home and taken a nap. After following some other shuffling zombies around the store for awhile I came to the conclusion that WalMart doesn't offer Rubik's cubes to its patrons. That is very telling my friends. Very telling indeed.

So Mike got nothing for his birthday. Except a day with his kiddos because wouldn't you know I started back to work yesterday too? Teacher in-service day. I did bake him a cake the day before but did not see fit to frost it until I got home from work on Saturday. It was just too. much. I did tell him on Friday night that there would be no birthday gift this year because I suck. And also WalMart sucks. So hopefully, he was prepared. At least we took him out to eat at his choice restaurant to commemorate the day. Thank you Rudy's! You saved what could have gone down as the worst birthday ever.

I believe he is thinking "Today I turned 32 and all I got was this stupid cake!" Love you honey! May your next birthday be more special and perhaps celebrated in Colorado or California or Alaska.

Summer Snippits

We really have been quite busy this summer. I've just been too exhausted by the end of the day to write about it! Here's a synopsis. I took the kids into the big city one Saturday morning to see a free concert by some of children's music "big names".  Joe McDermott and The Biscuit Brothers. At the same concert. For free. That would be like a teenager getting to see Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber together. Or like me seeing Rick Springfield and Bon Jovi in the same night. You can't tell by the picture but Jake and Emma were super excited. And maybe suffering from slight sun stroke. It was hot out there ya'll.

 

This is Joe. He is incredible. Even adults like him.

We got some rain and saw a lovely rainbow.

We made friends with some lizards in the garden.

 

Mike did a complete overhaul of the kids Power Wheels truck.

 

Took a trip to Amarillo to see my parents.

Dad and I took the kids to the zoo. "Hey, hey we're the monkeys!"

My oldest friend in the world, Denise, was gracious enough to host a Stella & Dot trunk show for me while I was there. She invited my second to oldest friend in the world, Misty, to come. Had a great time with these girls! And I don't mean that they are old. I just mean I've known them longer than any of my other friends!

We've hiked, bowled, swam, and gone to many a bouncy house over the last few weeks. And now, somehow, someway, we are down to the last two weeks of summer. I think we're all ready for a more regular routine and some cooler weather. Although I am not looking forward to setting an alarm clock every morning. Enjoy the last days of summer!

Tuesday Hikes

Well, we took the kids hiking again today. It was the second Tuesday we have done that this summer so I am hereby declaring it a summer tradition! Let the Tuesday hikes commence! Today we decided to go to McKinney Falls State Park. It was beautiful. Of course the drought has made the water levels very low but we did find the "falls" or what is left of them and it turned out to be enough water for the family to actually swim in. And today we actually remembered that we have a furry offspring so we took Brady with us. I think it may have been the best day of his life. He was so happy.

I call this one "Turtles on a Log"

The beginning of the hike when everyone was still happy!

We found a cave where word has it an ancient Native American tribe may have lived. The kids even found words carved into the walls that they were sure were left by the Indians. I have my doubts-unless one of the Indians was named Mike Lowry or perhaps Rocky.

Sister is rockin' her track shorts.

The lower falls.

I mean really. Brady swam all morning. That is one happy golden retriever.

Because of the drought there was a small pool that was cut off from the main body of water where a small school of fish was trapped. A couple of them had already gone bottoms up. Of course, my Jake wanted to save them. So we came up with a plan to trap them in a plastic baggie and liberate them to the main body of water. We probably spent a good 30 minutes rescuing fish. Of course the fish were totally freaked and probably thought we were aliens or something so not all of them cooperated. We had to leave a few behind. Let's see how survival of the fittest works out for those little guys.

Fourth of July Festivities

This year we finally decided we could take the kids to the annual 4th of July parade downtown without worrying about them running out in front of a fire truck or something. It was a very small parade but Jake and Em loved it. They especially loved the part where people threw candy at them. Yay!

After the parade we headed to the downtown park where there were a plethora of bouncy houses to be bounced upon. Jake and Emma waited in line to go to the top of a pretty tall bouncy slide first. I knew it was going to end up with Emma at the top refusing to go down. But Mike assured me that she would be fine. Just as they were about to get their turn I had a panic attack about Emma and her underwear situation. So I asked her if she put any on and she said yes and then I noticed the mama in front of us trying not to bust out in laughter about that conversation. Something told me she's been there and done that too. As predicted when Emma finally climbed to the top of this particular Pike's Peak she wigged out and started crying. I had a dress on so there was no way I was going up there. So Mike had to save the day and climb the slide in two single bounds and then he whisked his daughter down the slide. When they reached the bottom she was all giggles and said "again! again!" And I said "no way sister." Then we found the HEB mascot and the kids had their picture taken with him. They were so excited for some reason. I mean, it's just a big paper sack with fake food inside. It's not Rick Springfield or anything.

Then we came home and ate hot dogs because you can't much more American than that. I also made an apple pie because, hello, American!

 

And for the first time in their lives we took the kids downtown that night to see the firework display. Usually, we just sit in our driveway and see whatever illegal fireworks the neighbors are setting off. Oh my word. They had so much fun. Except for the part where Emma chewed open one of her glow sticks and got the glow chemicals all in her mouth and it burned, it burned! Then she rubbed her face with her hands and that started burning. Then we had to ask the strangers beside us if they had any water we could use to stop the chemical burning taking place in and on our daughter's face. Good times. But finally the fireworks started and Jake could not contain his excitement. He said in his very loud voice "mama! they are exploding! they are exploding mama! this is the best day of my life!!!" And even Emma agreed with that because by that time the burning had subsided and she was able to focus on fun. Hope you had a happy 4th too!

Summertime Adventures 2013

Last week almost killed us. It was our annual go to Vacation Bible School all morning, come home for lunch and then go to swim lessons all afternoon week. I know tons of families do these kinds of things day in and day out and that's great but we aren't typically that busy. If the kiddos had one meltdown last week they had one hundred meltdowns last week. But I will say they had tons of fun at VBS and Emma Mae has been singing all sorts of songs about Jesus this week which makes me smile. She keeps ending one song with "he gives us ever lasting might" and I keep telling her I think it's supposed to be "ever lasting life" and she tells me "not in my song mama!" So, whatever. He does also give us might I suppose.

We are watching my neighbor's eight year old boy three days a week this summer. So the kids have a friend to help keep them entertained which is good. And I have one more child in the house to keep entertained or else I hear the dreaded words "I'm bored!" So off to the swimming pool we go. Every. Single. Day. If Jake gets any more tan or his hair gets any more golden highlights in it we will have no choice but to sign him up for some sort of little boy swim suit model contest. Or surfer boy poster contest. I don't know but seriously I could die from all the cute over here. Even our fair skinned little Emma has a pretty good tan going on. And yes, I sunscreen them. With zinc oxide even. The good stuff.

Yesterday we met some friends at a local movie theater that shows free kid movies every day in the summer. God bless them. I didn't even mind paying $6 for popcorn because we got to sit in an air conditioned dark room for two hours with no complaining! Blissful.

Today, Mike and I took all three kiddos for a two hour hike at the greenbelt. My poor neighbor boy actually said to me "what's a hike?" when I told him what we were doing for the day. City kids. He actually ended up loving it and said to Jake "I actually feel HAPPY right now!" as they were walking down the trail. Which goes to show that a little outside time for boys is not a bad thing if you ask me. To make things fun I told the kids the first one to spot a butterfly got five points. Then a hundred points for a lizard. You get the picture. By the time we hiked over an hour to find the only little pool of water in the dried up creek bed we were close to each kid had racked up about ten million points. We saw butterflies, lizards, birds, bugs, squirrels, weird tail less rodents, tons of baby frogs and to top it off three snakes. Yes, I said three snakes. They were all in the little water hole we eventually found. First we saw one and that was cool. Then we saw a second and that was neat. Then we saw the third and I said to Mike "do you think we're in a snake den? hey kiddos! go ahead and back slowly out of here and let's get back on the trail. what do you say?!" Then Jake and his friend spent the next 45 minutes completely forgetting about how HAPPY they were on the hike out and instead talked of dying in the woods from being too tired or their feet falling off from walking too much or of dying of starvation or thirst before we made it back to the car. Clearly, we need to toughen up these boys.

Now, on a completely unrelated note:

My Firecrackers

Beach Babies

We took the kids on our first family beach vacation last week. They had so much fun! So did Mike and I but I also learned a valuable lesson. Going to the beach with your young children is way different than going to the beach with your friends. I felt like I was on "lifeguard duty" the entire time. I really could not relax with them in the water. Still, I'm glad we went and we are already planning our next trip next summer!

Before I show you pictures though I need to tell you about the pre-vacation stress my precious children gave to me. As we were leaving I stopped to feed my hamster. I noticed that everything in his cage was moved to one side. It was very peculiar. So I called out to Mike and he came and looked and began digging around in the cage. Which turned out to be very, very empty. No hamster anywhere. The children were already buckled up in the car. We were that close to being out the door. So I looked at Mike and said "bring them in here for questioning." Our son told us that what had happened was the cage had somehow, mysteriously fallen off of the table we keep it on. He repeatedly stated that he didn't know how it happened. But the lid fell off and so he picked it back up and put it on the table. Evidently, he did not see dear Striper crawl out of the cage when it paranormally took a nose dive. Emma claimed no knowledge of the event whatsoever. She said she was asleep. She is a known liar so I'm not sure I believe her. Anyway, we spent the next 15 minutes looking for Striper but did not find him. So we left. I was very worried about him because the front door had been open for some time while Mike packed up so I knew if Striper had made his way outside that he was toast. I mean we have hawks, snakes, mean old mockingbirds and all sorts of dangerous stuff out front. And Striper is not an outdoorsman. He has no survival skills that I'm aware of. Also, I was afraid that if he was hiding inside our house he would accidentally get caught on the sticky mouse traps we have everywhere just like our cat did a few weeks ago. Not pretty.

So we spent the next two days on the beach living it up but always in the back of my mind I was worried about my hamster. When we got back in town the first thing I did was look for him. Still no Striper. The next morning after I fed the cat I happened to walk by her food bowl only to see a cute little ball of fur sitting in there eating cat food like there was no tomorrow. I have never been so happy to see a little rodent.

Now, on with the photo documentation!

The kids loved the Texas State Aquarium. And Mike got to participate in the dolphin show. He won a free Whataburger for his help!

We took a ten minute ferry ride. It was the first time for our children to be on a boat. We even saw bottlenose dolphins! Yeah! Behold, the brown waters of the Texas Gulf Coast. Thank you Mississippi River.

The view from our condo. It was beautiful but my camera lens kept fogging up.

We didn't even have to teach Emma Mae how to hold her boogie board. She just did it naturally. It's in her DNA. Mike was so proud. Both kids did great on the boogie boards and spent an entire day playing in the surf. Love!