Summertime fun at Lake Lemon.

Will coloring

Who knew!!  Will NEVER colors. Its like pulling teeth to get him to sit down and write, draw or color at all. So when this came home from school today I was shocked!  This is good coloring!  (Aside from the black)   Way to go Will!

Little Orphan Annie

Our new baby girl!

 

 

 

Maybe not her most flattering angle..

 

 

I'm not sure what got in to me, but I decided a small dog was in our future. (actually, it was LUKE who suggested a small dog - when I was thinking bunny!) I was researching breeds and decided pug might be the breed for us:  happy-go-lucky, friendly, non-yappy, sturdy, little lap dogs.  Then I ran across this little girl who needed a new home.  Her orignial owner had taken her and her sister and their older dog would not tolerate them.  So she needed to find the two little ones a new home.  I was sold.  This is Annie (Little Orphan Annie) and she is so precious!  Luke says he thinks she's ugly, but none of us can deny how sweet she is!  She is almost 5 months old. 

Seriously....

Kramer and Annie learning to compromise my late-night lap/legs.

Class of 2026 - WOW

I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest.  Shocking.  You get a t-shirt made for your kindergartener in an adult size and then take a picture of them each year on the first day of school, and over the years they slowly grow into the shirt.  Who knows if I will a) remember to take the pictures and b) remember where I've even put the shirts...but here is one year down and only 12 (and 14) more years to go! 

Dane's First Day - Prince of Peace

Dane started pre-school today! 

After a very stressful morning (another post) we made it (on time!) to his new school, Prince of Peace.  After expressing some serious shyness earlier this summer when being around the school and his teacher (our FAVE Mrs. Lester who Will also had) I was nervous that he would have a hard time when I left.  That would have been really difficult for both of us.  But he was cool as a cucumber!  He walked right in, found his seat, and got right down to business.  Playing with trucks of course.  There were lots of girls in his class, which is different than Will's boy-heavy classes.  I think there might be just 3 boys.  Possibly 4.  Lucas was the only other little boy there at that point and while I tried to get the two of them to play and interact, little Lucas was acting like a caged lion at a zoo.  Not upset, just pacing around the truck table and completely ignoring my questions and comments.  So who knows if Lucas will warm up and he and Dane will be friends, but Dane didn't seem to care.  He was such a little trooper.  I stayed for about 5 minutes and then told him I was going to take off.  He gave me about 3 big good hugs and said I love you and that was it!  Mrs. Lester asked him if he wanted to go and pick out a book, he said yes, and that was that.  I left - and then of course peeked back in - and they were just sitting there starting to read a book.       

 

 

My heart is happy for my sweet boys.

 

Whew!  ...Now just to get used to our new and much more busy schedule.

Wills first paper home from kindergarten. I promise I won't post them all.

Life is Tough

 

Here was Dane's "Will's First Day".  Not so good.  :(  Do you see the giant alligator tears?  Let me be clear: he's not sad because he's going to miss his brother.  He was sad (here) because he had just found out that he didn't get to ride the bus too. 

First Day!!

 

First day went well!!  He hopped on that bus like a champ!  I could sense just a bit of hesitation or nervousness, but he had a big smile on my face... And melted my entire heart.


My handsome little love.

Of course Dane didn't want to sit by his brother this morning.  ...scooting away..

 This was the best I could get of the two of them.

Darth Vadar backpack and lunchbox.  :)

 

It was so precious.  When I told him it was time to head out and wait for his bus, he said Ok I'll go get my booster seat!  Oh... Sweet boy.  His eyes were as big as saucers when I told him no boosters or seat belts (which still baffles me) on school busses. 

 

Found Fisher to sit with.

Big boy!!!

 Thank goodness for a sweet bus driver humoring all us crazy moms! 

MOM!  Seriously!  j/k....He was actually calling for Fisher to hurry up, but Pamala and I thought "Enough Mom!" was a more fitting caption.  :)

(See we weren't the only crazy moms following the bus to get "getting off the bus" pics- here's another one.)


He wouldn't technically need to ride the bus (although Monday and Wednesday afternoons would pose a bit of a problem) but he wants to and fortunately he's about the last one picked up and one of the first dropped off.  So I sat out on the porch and waited for him to get off the bus.  He was in the best mood, said he had a great day.  The biggest problem of the day was that he had to hurry through his lunch.  He didn't even drink his drink (said he got water from the fountain) and skipped his carrots...hmmm...  It was cute - I had told him not to throw away his spoon or his container from his sandwich - reusable.  So he saved everything.  The yogurt drink which wasn't all gone, and his applesauce container which also had some left.  So he came home with all that spilled in the bottom of his lunchbox with raisins mixed in.  So then we talked about what can be thrown away. 

He had fun - told me they went to recess two times.  Told me about the kid who got in trouble twice.  He sat at the green table.  Brought home a paper that he had colored pictures of things starting with "A".  

After I got all the information out of him that I could he said "I need to sit down for a minute and take a little rest.  Long day." 

:) 

My baby boy - Kindergarten!

Will is off to kindergarten in the morning.  I can hardly believe it!  I know that he is ready.  So ready.  With a June birthday, we held him back so he would be older versus younger.  I know it was the right decision, but he is so ready for all day every day school.  I can tell he is bored at home.  I'm really excited for him.

Having said that, this Momma's first day jitters are in full swing.  I started getting panicky yesterday thinking about all the things that he would need to do by himself.  Pick out the correct bus, wipe his mouth after lunch (sometimes he gets peanut butter all over!) sometimes his yogurt tubes are really difficult to open.  Bus behavior.  (No seat belts! - but stay seated and no rough housing) Ugh...all this is giving me hives.  I feel like I'm releasing him into the wild. I know he will be fine.  And if he has peanut butter on his face, he'll survive.  And if he can't get his yogurt open, he just might not eat it that day.  All these things are small, but I guess that big part is that I don't want him to feel like he's alone or doesn't have his mom there to help him.  But I guess he doesn't.  And I guess that's just part of growing up.  I just feel like my heart is out on the chopping block.  My baby!!  He's not stressed at all!  :)  Which makes me very happy. 

We had his Open House tonight.  Here is his classroom.  Mrs. Brown is his teacher. 

His school really reminds me of my elementary school.  It's a smaller rural school.  Playgrounds with big fields in the background.  I think it's going to be a great school for him. 

 

 

Our Pack

I have been trying to upload this video for months, literally.  Finally!!

One evening we got home from the grocery store.  Dane was playing in the garage.  Fortunately at our house if I'm in the kitchen I can easily see if anyone drives in front of our house, and we don't have any neighbors, so we're pretty fortunate.  I was unloading the groceries and heard a noise.  The kind of noise that as a mother I dropped what I was doing to focus in on the noise.  It was a noise I needed to be concerned about.  I raced out to the garage and I found this...

Part of my "pack" ...howling.

My (littler) Boys..

..and their bikes.

Biking!

We've been doing some serious biking lately.

We had been talking about Will needing to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels. I was inside getting dinner ready one night and Dane ran inside and said "Wills riding his bike without training wheels!" Lo and behold we ran outside and there he was, zooming around the front yard with no training wheels! He had gotten the bike without training wheels out of the back of the garage all by himself and just took off! We missed the whole thing!  I had visions of running alongside him, teaching him how to balance with my hand on his seat, steadying him. Nope. Not my son apparently he was ready that day and took matters into his own hands. Haha!!  Anyway, he is a pro now and Dane has jumped on the bike wave.  For fathers day we got Luke and Sonny a bike to share, which Luke and the boys went to get recently, along with a bike and helmet for Dane. (Wills old one was still a little too big for Dane.)  Ever since we have been doing lots of bike riding. We are all loving it!