Michael Starts Kindergarten! 8-17-2012

 On Thursday Michael was one excited boy - he told me, "I'm so excited about kindergarten that I want to touch the ceiling!!" After rest time he told me, "I'm going to go lay out my clothes for school tomorrow! I can't wait to wear a collared shirt!" He colored a picture for his teacher, helped me wrap her back to school gift & got his backpack ready. Before bed we read "The Night Before Kindergarten" & then he started talking excitedly about riding the bus. Andy & I told him we would take him in the morning & he was SO disappointed - haha :-) When we told him he would be able to ride the bus home at the end of the day, he was much happier. 

My sweet friend Erin printed this cute sign for Michael to hold. Kate wanted to be in a picture too & she wanted to go to school - she kept asking me if she was going to school.

 I love this picture in front of his school - He was SO excited and seemed so confident!

 It's really fun that Michael & Molly are at the same school :-)

  Michael has Mrs. Branch. She seems very sweet - she is new to WI but this is her 4th year to teach in Edmond. She read "Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten" when the kids got to school Friday morning.

And there he is...our big boy getting off the school bus! His face was glowing, he was so happy! I never really pictured myself letting my 5 year old ride the bus. But we are in a really unique situation with our neighborhood being so close to the school - almost every neighborhood kid rides the bus & they all love the bus driver, Ms. Brown :-) I asked Michael what his favorite part of the day was & he said, "Recess! And riding the bus!!" He also mentioned that he loved making "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" trees but "We had to let them stay at school because they have to dry." When Andy asked him how his day was, he responded very enthusiastically, using his arms, "It. Was. AWESOME!!!" We are looking forward to a great year :-) 

Summer Notes

Here are some notes I have in my phone about the kids this summer -
5/22 - M was telling me about God - "He's bigger than big. And He's HUGE. He keeps us safe!"
5/30 - During family worship Kate prayed, "Thank you for my monkey pj's!" Her favorite song that she wants to sing every. single. night is Holy, Holy, Holy (she says Hoey, Hoey, Hoey :-)
6/28 - I was packing lunches for the pool & M very seriously said, "Is there anything else you need from the pantry? How about a rice rusk for David?"
7/1 - We swam several days in a row & M told me, "Maybe tomorrow we can take a break from the pool." (Ha! You know you've been swimming too much if a 5 year old wants a break!)
7/24 - David took his first step!
7/25 - David loves putting things in containers & then pouring them out / starting over. Kate always calls David "Little Man" (Wittle Man). Kate is currently wearing princess pjs, a pink baseball cap, fairy wings & twirling around saying, "Mommy, look what I can do! I'm a princess Mommy! I'm a princess!"
7/26 - We had Baby Signing Time on for David to watch. It got to the diaper dance part & M said, "Diaper Dance?! Now this is Weird!"
8/16 - Kate said, "Oh! It's my pretty princess purse!!" - Really starting to show an interest in princesses. She took the movie, Snow White, out of our DVD drawer & pointed to Snow White, "Ohhh, I like her! She is SO pretty."

The Last Week of Summer

Lots of sleep for this little man the last few days - He had his 15 month vaccines on Thursday

 Kate loves to color and play with the markers :-)

 Playing dress up has been a favorite lately.

 Michael had fun helping me make a cookie cake for our neighborhood back to school bash - and he really enjoyed taste testing the dough :-)

 David is still doing his tricks

 Kate put Minnie down for a nap :-)

The Library

While Mom was visiting we had a fun morning at the Edmond Library - 

Spaghetti!!

Family Photos - July2012

Our longtime friend, Jon Norris, took our family photos a few weeks ago.  It was a HOT summer morning, but the park was beautiful & all 3 kids were very cooperative (maybe because we promised ice cream :-) I would have loved if David had been more smiley, but he was very subdued for some reason. These are just a few of my favorites - 

 

Whirlwind

The month of July was a complete whirlwind -- A week & a half in Texas, friends visiting, Dr appts - found out I needed to have a hysterectomy. And now here we are in August & I'm on day 5 of recovery. On Tuesday I had surgery & got to come home on Wednesday. When I walked into our bedroom I couldn't believe what our Life Group had done - they had turned our room into a beach wonderland - so thoughtful! It's made resting in here much more fun.

The kids have been in Texas all week - thankful that their BB & Papa were willing to take care of them for us while I had surgery & recovered. We are missing them!! I can't believe we're less than 2 weeks away from Michael starting Kindergarten, Kate starting Preschool & just getting back into the whole school routine. Summer has flown by! 

More July Fun

Candice & her girls came to visit the last week of July. They arrived on Monday afternoon. We had fun swimming & after we got the kids to bed we left Andy "on duty" & we went to Mama Rosa's on Lake Hefner - it was very yummy & we enjoyed sitting on the patio & having lots of great girl talk. We stayed up late talking & then around 2am I woke up with my stomach churning. I really hoped it wasn't food poisoning. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling awful & so did Andy. Luckily, Candice felt fine, so we knew it wasn't food poisoning, but some kind of 24 hour bug. True friendship right here folks - Candice took care of all 5 kids (ages 5, 5, 3, 2 & 14 months!) by herself for most of the day while I layed on the couch completely useless. At one point I even fell asleep on the floor while all the kids were playing around me. By evening I was starting to feel better. We took the kids swimming again. Then we had to watch When Harry Met Sally, for tradition :-) We also had fun acting like teenagers & making homeade pore cleaning strips from a recipe we found on pinterest! Even though the trip didn't go exactly as planned, we had a great time. So thankful for my sweet friend of 28 years :-)

July Phone Pictures

 While we were at Mom's house, she gave Michael this RV/Car Lego set. The box said ages 5-12 years old. He took the kit out into their guest house by himself & 3 hours later he walked back into the main house with it completely finished, all by himself. Our jaws dropped when he showed it to us. I couldn't believe he followed the directions without asking for help one time!

 1. Headed to TX, turtle float & all. 2. I'm sure the construction workers across the street think it's funny that a little boy sits in a chair on his porch & watches them work. This entertains Michael for hours.
3. A mama duck & her 9 ducklings joined us in the pool one afternoon. 4. Kate came in the living room wearing her fairy wings & princess pj's & told me, "I'm a princess, Mommy!"

 At the end of our 2 weeks in Texas, I was dreading doing the long 8+ hour drive by myself with the kids, but they did really well. Random tid-bits from the trip --

*M asked where we would stop for lunch. I told him McDonald's. He said, "Well, that's not very healthy." I told him it was a special treat since we were traveling. Kate said, "It's healthy for me, Mommy! It's healthy for me!"  

*I could have done without the lovely hail storm in Stephenville, TX. We had to pull under 3 different trees. Kate cried. Fun times.

*The Yukon hit 100,000 miles on this trip home.

*The random, funny signs in Mineral Wells, TX that said, "Keep Mineral Wells Crazy" -- Seriously?? 

*Kate had EXTREME enthusiasm every time we saw an animal or a flag - "Mommy! A flag!!" or "Mommy! Look! An amimal!" (love the way she says animal right now :-)

1.I ordered Michael a backpack & lunchbox for Kindergarten. When they came in the mail he was SO excited that he wore the backpack around the house for hours, had his lunchbox in bed with him at rest time & asked me so many times how many more days until Kindergarten, that we counted together on the calendar :-) 2. David is SO close to walking - he took 2 steps last week 3. Pretty Kate 4. Michael so fascinated with watching our new washing machine wash clothes.