The Big ONE!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, happy, wonderful, brown eyed boy! You have been such a joy and a blessing to have in our family. We love you more than words can say!

Enjoying his birthday donut, he ate almost the whole thing!

First Day

The Middle Schooler

Matthew had an awesome day in fifth grade. He said that being at the middle school made him feel older. He enjoyed everything they did, he said his teacher is really, really nice. At lunch they get to choose from four different options so he was super excited about that. And he made a new friend- who only lives across the street and about four houses down, who knew? Now he has a bus buddy and they even played together after school. And I am so relieved his first day in the big house went so swimmingly.

The Third Grader
Miss Katie Grace was stressed about going to a new school but since we will be moving in just over a month I wanted to avoid having to switch schools or having to commute to the old school for the rest of the year so we just started out at the new school. Luckily, she knew one girl who was in her class last year that was also going to this school and they were able to get them in the same class and lo and behold when she got to school she discovered lots of other kids that she knew from her old school since they had redone some of the boundaries this past year. So, phew! Crisis averted and Katie Grace had an even awesomer day than she could have imagined. She loves her teacher and the new school.

The Kindergartener

Owen has been looking forward to starting school for years now, that comes with having older siblings, and so it was with much anticipation and excitement that he went to his first day of school. Unfortunately, I think his expectations were a little too high because they did not live up. He would not give me a hug when I dropped him off in the gym, I didn't think he was too old for that yet, but apparently he is. When I asked him how his day went he said, "not so good, I had to wait like over two hours for snack time!" He also doesn't know any of the kids there and so I think this made it a little harder, he told me he didn't even make any friends and his teacher kept making them give her five (they have to hold up their hands and show five fingers to quiet down). Honestly, I think he was a little disappointed that he didn't learn more. He has been chomping at the bit to learn to read and they didn't really do anything today. I think as time goes on and he makes friends and starts LEARNING things he will come to enjoy school a lot more.

All in all, I think the first days were a huge success! I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me when I got home from dropping off the kids. It was so quiet and I could think again and I'm so glad they all had a great day (for the most part).

It's Great to Finally Be Eight!

Gracie had an awesome birthday with her friends and family. Her birthday party was tons of fun. They played a mummy game, had a prize walk (like a cake walk but with prizes), made shrinky dinks, and decorated cupcakes. The next day we had family over for dinner and she chose to have beef stroganoff. It was really yummy and everyone had a good time. It seems like we waited forever for Gracie's 8th birthday to roll around and now that is has come and gone I am sort of in a little mourning period for my little girl. Little she is not. And for me the age of eight is the passing of her being a little girl and turning into a big girl. Although she has always been big for her age and fairly mature it seems now we are just on the fast track to tweendom. And I'm dreading it. I don't know if it's because she's my only girl or if it's because the thought of her getting older scares the crap out of me but I'm going to miss her little girlhood days. Gone are the days of me being able to buy her cute little girly shoes (she wears a size 7 in women's) and this makes me sad. Soon (probably sooner rather than later) she will be sharing shoes with me, shaving her legs, and wearing make-up! But for now I will just try to enjoy her being a kid and the fact that she still loves to play with stuffed animals!

Stair Master

Kickin' It

Today was Owen's last soccer game for the summer season. He really worked hard these last few games (because his dad told him that if he scored two goals in a game he would take him to see a movie) and he scored two goals in his last game! Good job Owen! I wish I had been there to see it. I was watching Katie Grace's last dance class. Luckily, Kris got some great pictures and a cute video of one of the goals he scored. I can't believe this kid is gonna start kindergarten in a few weeks!