First 100%

Thomas has a folder that he takes back and forth to school each day. It is nice because we can send send info back and forth to each other and we also see the work Thomas has been doing at school. 

A few weeks ago Thomas came home very excited that he had a 100 on one of his math papers. He does really well on his work and is always happy to show us what he has done at school that day. As you can see he was very happy about his 100% so he wanted to show it off ;)

Frist day of preschool

On the first day of school Sup was pretty excited to get up and go to school. He was happy that he could get ready for school like Thomas the night before and go to school in the morning. 

Sup is not much of a morning person so I was a little worried with the morning session, but he did very well. He had been getting up with Thomas the last few weeks so when his school started he was use to getting up and eating in the morning. 

At the open house all the kids get their school shirts with a name tag on it. Sup was not a fan of the name tag and kept taking it off... it was a good thing that he had the neighbor for one of his teachers so if he took it off at school they would still know his name :) 

He was so happy to have a backpack like Thomas as well. Of course the big thing with these boys these days is angry birds, thus the angry bird backpack. As you can see it is about as big as him. The only disappointment is that there was not the blue bird, his favorite. Just in case some are wondering he is called Phillip at school ;) He did very well his first day. It was nice that he was already familiar with the building and the people. One of Thomas' teachers actually came to the front and brought him to his class, so he was pretty happy. So far he loves going and is having a great time :)

Preschool open house

With Thomas starting kindergarten this year Eric and I decided to put Sup into a little 3 year old program. Sup really loved going to get Thomas at his Pre-K so we put Sup in at the same program. 

 We really liked how the programs were run and the people and Sup was really excited to go to school like Thomas as well. Before they start the first day by themselves they have an open house where you come and see the room and meet your teachers. 

 At first Sup was a little shy/hesitant but soon became a little more comfortable. Sup loved there "big room" and really liked playing with the animals in the first picture. He was pretty cute lining them up two by two. 

 It was nice that this year he actually got our neighbor for one of his teachers so he was familiar with her. Both of the boys really like to play with her son so have gotten to know one another pretty well :) Here he is outside of his classroom. He was pretty excited at this point and wasn't really wanting to leave. 

The last place we took him was the playground that they have outside. He was always looking out the window watching Thomas play when we went to go pick him up and was really excited to finally have his turn. It really is fun to see him so excited to start school. I think that he will have a fun year :)

Garden wrap-up

A couple of weeks ago we decided it was time to pull the tomatoes. They were becoming pretty wild and picking them became almost impossible. 

 We could have gotten a few more batches of tomatoes but after several batches I was getting a little "tomato out". With finally getting some rain picking the tomatoes became a feeding fest for the mosquitoes. We would each come out of our "forest" bit all over even with bug spray on. 

 The boys had more fun finding the green tomatoes and stepping on them then really helping out with pulling the plants. 

It was sad to see the garden come to an end but it will be another adventure next year. We are very thankful for the productivity we were able to get out of our little garden. With the severe drought we had many plants and trees didn't do very well even with some watering. Our total for canning was: 

54 qts and 2 pts of stewed tomatoes, 10 qts and 1 pt of tomato soup, 6 pts of salsa, and 6 qts and 9 pts of green beans! 

Daddy's birthday

Since Daddy'd birthday was over Labor Day weekend it kinda turned into Daddy's birthday weekend, which was just fine with Daddy ;) I know its pretty sad that I only have one picture, but I temporarily misplaced the camera. 

So that Sunday was actually Daddy's birthday and he requested some homemade donuts. Even with the later church I wouldn't have time to make them so after we got home I started with the donuts. They came out pretty good with the exception of making the glaze too thin they tasted yummy. Since everyone filled up on donuts dinner wasn't until much later and even then we were not all that hungry. We had chicken cordon bleu and Eric's famous try-color pasta...a must at all his birthday dinner. He wasn't interested in a cake so he went with chocolate ravioli. Since we were full from the dinner and the donuts we had his chocolate ravioli on Monday. It was a fun a relaxing weekend for all of us. We hope you had a Happy Birthday Daddy! 

Kids day

Eric's family has a tradition of having a kids day every year. I am not actually sure how it started or exactly when it started but it was something that they alway enjoyed. Kids day is like a Mother's day/Father's day. A day to show them you love them and appreciate them...not that we don't everyday but it is nice to have that special day :) 

Eric wanted to continue this tradition for our family and have done it the last few years. This year we decided to theme our Kids day with angry bird stuff. The boys were very excited about this day and for about two maybe three weeks we were asked if it was Kids day yet. 

 The boys have really gotten into the silly game and can tell you all about it and what all the birds do both in "regular birds" and in "space birds". It is amazing how popular this game has gotten and how easy it is to find fun cheap stuff.

Since we moved them into their new room they have just four small totes of toys that they can have upstairs....the rest go downstairs in the playroom. With all their new birds they are all in their totes and are happily played with everyday. It is amazing the imagination they have with all these silly birds. And each night they have to have their stuffed birds with them to go to bed. 

The treadmill

One morning a few weeks ago I had one of our neighbors come up to me as I was cooling down from my run. As I was trying to catch my breath he told me that he noticed I ran often and wanted to know if I would be interested in his treadmill. He said that he had two blown out both of his knees and his Dr. didn't recommend using it. 

 Eric and I actually thought about getting one so we thought this might be a good opportunity. He said that we could come and check it out any time and gave us a REALLY good deal for it. So the next day my bother in law and I went over to check it out. It was a really nice one so later that afternoon we went over to pick it up. 

At first we thought that we would put it in the basement, but for everyone's safety we thought we would keep it upstairs. The boy think it is the funnest thing in the world. Thomas will run on it for a few minutes and Sup will just walk on it...he doesn't like to go fast. In the above pic he is going 1 mph! He was pretty proud of himself ;)

The start of of the finish :)

A few weeks ago we had most of the finishing work done. Late Tuesday we stayed up to get all the molding painted and put on so we could get ready for the carpet on Wednesday afternoon. 

 We were all very ready for the carpet to come in. It was the last major thing we had left in the room. Wednesday morning we worked hard to clean up the room so it was completely empty. Since Thomas was at school Sup volunteered to so a quick sweep of the floor. 

 The carpet people were really fast in getting the carpet installed. After about 30-45 mins they were done and even vacuumed the new carpet! We really liked how it turned out and soon the boys were dying to get there beds in their new room. 

 They didn't even wait for me to put on their sheets before they wanted to test it out. Eric plans on making a bed for them so for now they are just on the box spring, which seems to be just fine for them :) Of course there is still the issue with not all the painting done on my part. But it is very nice to see that our hard work paid off and the room turn out nice. 

I also have to make some adjustments to the curtains. We got on blue one and one green one of course. But with the size of the window and the price of curtains we decided that we could get away with just the one for each window. So I will cut them in two and sew a fun little border around thus making two curtains for each window so we can open them. So we will see how that projects comes along ;)

Starting the dinosaurs

Sometimes I wonder to myself why I volunteer myself for certain projects. I have an idea in my mind and I think it will come out okay, but I sometimes forget about how much time it will take me.  

 So for the boys room I thought it would be really fun to draw and paint some dinosaurs on the wall. Thomas wanted a volcano as well because all the dinosaurs lived in the time were there, "are a ton of volcanos". So I sat down with four sheets of paper and planned what I wanted to do on the four walls.  

I let the boys pick out what kind of dinosaurs they wanted and what color each of them could be. We ended up with five dinosaurs, one volcano, and one tree.  After I sketched all the dinosaurs on the wall Eric and I thought it would be better to prime each of them to help with the blue/green coming through. Even with the primer coat I still had to paint to coats of the color paint for each one. Along with outlining each one twice. Lets just say I am still working on  them.

The hard thing with these boys is mommy time to do these should be like all I have to do. I am glad that they are excited, but I am reminded daily that the triceratops and the volcano is still a "ghost" (from just having the primer) and I NEED to get it done. This picture is not the best but Thomas is much more relentless about bugging me so the T-Rex was the first to be all done! Out of all of the I think he came out the worst. Eric and I thought he had too much to eat a time or two, and when I was going to slim him down and make him smaller Thomas said he loved him the way he was so I left him. The boys, especially Sup, has had some really bad dreams of late but the boys say the dinosaurs protect their room and keep them safe :)  

First day of school

Thomas started his first day of school on August 15th. He was actually pretty excited to go and see what kindergarten was all about. Eric had given him a blessing the day before so he was all set to go. That morning he popped right out of bed asking,"is it time to go to kindergarten?!"

 For the most part Thomas is pretty independent, so the night before school started I had him pick out what he wanted wanted to wear. From past experience he has been doing this for a while he likes to do it and it saves me from trying to get him to wear something. We also packed his lunch and set out his shoes so the morning went very smooth. 

 I tried to offer him something special to eat pancakes/waffles, but he just wanted cereal. After his bowl of cereal we had about 15 mins before we had to leave. He curled up to me and watched a little bit of cartoons and told me, "I love you mommy". It was a sweet moment for me and one I'll never forget. 

 We got in the car and headed to the school. It was a little crazy around there but we parked on the side road and walked over. The first day I was able to take him to his classroom. With preschool he did really well and so with kindergarten he already knew how to do the basic things. He put up his backpack told me goodbye and went and sat in his seat. And waited for the teacher to come to him to tell him what he needed to do. I slowly walked out of the classroom, down the hall, and out the door. My baby boy is growing up and I made it all the way home before I shed my first tears. But it will be exciting to see him grow and learn, and is growing up to be a great little boy and we are proud of him. 

He is going great in school, and really likes going so far. His teachers says he is a good example and a bright little boy. We all walked down to the bus stop to greet Thomas off the bus. There are other older boys, as well as the bus driver, that made sure he got off the bus the first few days. Now he know his stop and is adjusting very well :) 

Painting begins

I have had several people ask how our room is going/looking. It seems that time has gotten away from and our poor blog has been a little neglected. So I am getting back on track!

 After priming the boys were endless asking when they would finally get some color in their new room. The white was boring and they really wanted to see their favorite colors. When we decided to do this room we came up with the idea of green for the grass and blue for the sky. The colors worked out perfect for the boys. 

 They had been dying to help paint. So I finally gave in and let Thomas and Sup help with supervision. We only wanted paint on the wall ;) Since the blue was on top we let them help put with the green. Thomas did a great job Sup we had to watch the whole time he had the brush in his hand. 

 We were so happy to get the ceiling done so Daddy could get in their new ceiling fan. It was much easier to paint first so we didn't have to worry about painting around the fan. Although once the light was up they wanted it on and were disappointed they had to wait until Daddy hooked the electrical back up. 

Once each color had the two coats we were ready for mommy to start drawing/painting the dinosaurs. Also daddy could get the electrical hooked up and the molding on but we are happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel!