Family Pictures

checking the pictures for satisfaction

Grandma and Grandpa's visit, part 1

My parents came to visit this weekend.  Our time mostly consisted of eating yummy food and playing with the kids.  They took the kids to Target and let them pick out some new toys.  Eliot has been really wanting this shark Thomas toy for a long time and hasn't stopped playing with it since it got placed in the basket.  I don't really get why a shark is on the train tracks...

My dad picked up several puzzles and they spent an afternoon at the table putting them together.

He even taught Eliot the art of the fist banging pieces down.

Sunday afternoon, we had a football game on and Dad taught the boys how to play.

Except that Eliot kept calling it baseball and it really was a game of running across the living room with a pillow...but they still had fun.

 

When things needed to wind down, they played some Angry Birds.

 

And opened more new toys...

giving Grandpa a thank you hug

The best part of the trip:

my mom brought me one of my grandma's apron and gold necklace.  I wore them as I cooked dinner that night.

We ended the weekend with a sweet treat

 And my new favorite picture

1st grade style

We were rushing out the door this morning, but I just had to take a quick shot of my 1st grader.

She's come home everyday this week talking about how she wants to style her hair for the next day.

 1st graders must have really stepped up the style this year.

Yesterday, it was a side ponytail with a headband.

Today, she wanted a braid down the side, into a ponytail.

Wonder what she's going to come home requesting today :)

15 Months

It only took a year, but we finally have a complete "all-clear" from doctors.

At Colin's 15 month check-up, he weighed in at 20 lbs and is still only in the 5th percentile.  But he's shot up in height and is developmentally right on track.  We finally saw an excellent pediatrician and he is confident that Colin is healthy, just small.

Such a breath of fresh air for me.

Hopefully this is the end of specialists and concerned family doctors.

I took this video on my phone...I have no idea why it's blurry at times, but it gives you a glimpse at cute Colin.

'B' Week

 Highlights from 'B' week:

We rode bikes, blew bubbles, ate bananas and read bug books.

Eliot went on a blueberry hunt and had to match the blueberry letters to the letters on the driveway.

We sang the 'BIBLE' song, bopped blue balloons, and counted/color sorted gummy bears.

We colored a big box blue and filled it with B things (a bus, books, baby and bears).

Then the big box became and drive through, a club house and a cave.

Although this picture is blurry, it captures our house perfectly:

Alison's hiding in the big box.

 Eliot is naked and filling the box with random toys.

Colin is jumping on the box, laughing at the fact that he got away with getting on top of the box.

Ben is scratching his head, thinking, "Why do we have a box in our living room?!".

And to make it even funnier, you might notice the drink in Ben's hand...that's how our 'B' week ended.

My goal for preschool is to go on one "field trip" or have one play date a week.

This week we went to Bluebird Gap farm and Bass Pro Shop to look at the animals.

I think the last time we went to see the animals, Eliot was Colin's age.  And to say he was excited would be an understatement...he couldn't get enough of the animals.

I was waiting for him to freak out when we saw the stuffed bears at Bass Pro, but he just looked up and said, "Hi Mr. Bear!"

'B' week was a blast and we're jumping into C...I think that calls for some chocolate cookies!

Simply the Best

I was tucking Alison into bed tonight and she was asking, as usual, what we were doing tomorrow.  I told her that Daddy had to preach in the morning and then we were going out for pizza.  

She said, "I like Daddy's pizza better than pizza out".  

I agreed; he is a really good cook.

As I was walking out of the room, she said,

"Mommy, you picked a really good daddy."

Yes, I picked simply the best.

Fair field trip

Huge blessing of our move...Alison's new school.

The first week of school we got a letter saying "As always, parents are always welcome to attend..."

The last school had a strict, only 2 parents and absolutely no sibling rule.

I was thrilled to see that any and all parents could come any time.

I also thought it was pretty cool that they took a field trip in the second week of school.  It shows me that they were on top of things over the summer and were prepared/ready to jump into the new year.

All that to say, I went with Alison to the county fair.  I met some of her new friends and other moms of her class.  We watched the circus, horse show, fed the goats and drank a giant fresh squeezed lemonade.

A big first of the day was leaving the boys with a sitter so I could go.  But it wasn't just any sitter, Hannah Boomer watched them.  She did great and it was sentimental for me and Ben.  I babysat Hannah when she was the boys' age and now she's babysitting my kids.  Crazy how life comes around.

First Week of Preschool

We've had a slew of firsts around here lately!

Eli started "mommy preschool" last week.

This is how he felt about it:

I thought he would be beaming and so excited to have some one-on-one time with his favorite mommy.   But no, he was in tears and wanted no part of preschool.  To Eli's credit, he doesn't remember Alison doing preschool at home and school in his little head is the building where Alison is.

And we were not there.  

We did not have a lunchbox or backpack and the bus had already left.

I thought a special snack might help lighten the mood.

He ate the snack with a frown on his face and wouldn't touch the letter 'A' I asked him to color.

Stinker.

I sang him the letter 'A' song and explained to him that we were going to have lots of fun doing crafts and playing games.  I think the song won him over and he started to warm up to this whole learning thing :) 

I knew teaching Eli would be far different from teaching Alison and was slightly nervous about jumping in.  I feel terrible admitting it, but I've never let Eliot cut or glue and he's only colored a handful of times.  Going into this week, I had no idea if he even knew how to hold scissors or open a glue stick. 

Shocked?

The littlest little stinker may have had something to do with that.

I was so surprised at how well he did and I am so immensely thankful for the island in our kitchen.  Now he can sit up high where Colin can't eat any crayons or drink the glue and can create whatever he wants.

So what does Colin do while we work?

He just runs around the house naked like a good little toddler.

By Tuesday, Eliot was much happier about school and by Thursday he was asking when we were going to start for the day. 

For this year, I'm focusing on a letter of the week and working activities around that theme.  This week I learned that trains may be my best tool in teaching him. 

Everything we did turned into a train track...alligator teeth, apples and ants.

Thankfully Aunt Beth was brilliant and bought him a Thomas alphabet train puzzle and we used that sucker every day.

So proud of the tunnel he built for Thomas

I loved our first week.  I loved our time together and I loved watching him learn. 

Cherry on top of the week:

the kids working on our 'fruit of the spirit' apples together.

The way they play

I find it really interesting how differently our kids play.  Our kids aren't great "players" and we always had to force them to spend time in the play room at our old house.  It's been wonderful to see them playing a million times better at our new house and perhaps it's because they have their own space and their toys are separated.

Alison will sit quietly in her room and read a book or play dolls while
Eli explodes his room into a pretend world.
He lines up dinosaurs and trucks and trains and people and will tell everyone that enters his room, "don't knock anything down!", which is impossible but we all tiptoe around, because we just love him that much.

Ballet

Alison started a ballet/gymnastics class on Saturday mornings.  This is her first "real" ballet class and I'm so excited for her.  We told her she could pick one activity for the year and she couldn't decide between ballet and gymnastics, so when we found this combo class we knew it would be perfect.  I love that it's on Saturday's too because I hate over-scheduling kids during the week.  I also love that I get to put her hair in a bun ever Saturday...I think she looks so beautiful with her hair back.

First week of school

Eli telling me all about buses...probably should break that blankie habit soon

We're into the second week of school and so far it's been great.

Alison has had some understandable anxieties about not knowing where places are in school or who to ask for help, but I've been really proud of how brave she's been.

Eli asks everyday when Alison will be home and is always excited when I tell him it's time to go pick her up from the bus stop.

Riding bikes while we wait for the bus

We're easing into the bus routine.  I've taken her some days and picked her up other days.  She's been anxious about finding her classroom by herself after getting off the bus and talking to new friends that sit next to her.  

So, like any good mom, I bribed her.

She's been talking about banana splits all summer (even though she didn't even know what they were) so I told her we'd go get her first banana split if she said, "Hi, my name is Alison.  What's your name?" to the kid next to her on the bus.

Well, it worked like a charm and I think it helped her get over her fear of talking to new friends.  It probably didn't hurt either that the other kid was in kindergarten.

Another fun thing about the bus stop...it's pretty much a block party twice a day.
There's 10 other mom's out there with their multiple children and they hang out and chat while the kids play.  It's a big change from me, Kim and the babies last year, but I'm thankful to have an opportunity to get to know the neighbors better.

Last days of summer

So I wrote this big long post about our last days of summer and how much fun we had...and then blogger deleted it.

Summary: we made some brownies and play dough, had a tea party and went to the beach with our "old neighbors".

I'm excited to say that we're ending the summer with Alison conquering her fear of water!
Hopefully next year she teaches her brother her tricks.