Will's First Day of 1st Grade

Well this may be a bit of picture overload...but I just can't decide which ones are my favorite!!

I honestly can't believe that he is almost 6 and already in 1st grade. Today snuck up on me, and not just in the sentimental sense. I didn't realize that today was the first day of school until last week when we ripped off the July calendar and there it was on the calendar. I had less than a week and a half's warning and so many things I still wanted to do with my kids before vacation ended. Well.....we didn't do any of them! We spent every day just like the others. Running around for hours in the dirt and heat, a few hours here and there at the pool, fighting with friends and pouting about bed time. That was pretty much our time before today hit.....and then just like that, we are back into a routine, he's gone for 7 hours a day and I keep eyeing the door waiting for him to come bursting in thru the front door and give me a hug before running back out to play.
I miss the little guy...a lot. I know I need to let him grow up...but it's hard.

Boring Underwear

The other day Will and I went hot tubbing at my parents house. After as William was getting dressed we had this conversation

W: "Mom, do you wear underwear?"
Me: "Yeah I do"
W: "Do yours have skylanders on them too? Or is it something girly like Gracie's?"
Me: "Mine and Dad's are all white bud, remember, you've seen them before"
W: "That's super boring. Maybe I'll color you some pictures on your underwear so they aren't so sad"

Hahahahaha, I wish that life was so simple that the only thing we needed to worry about was the fact that our underwear is super boring!!

Thanks for making me laugh bud.

Do you have friends?

Today Gracie came and snuggled up on my lap and asked "do you have any friends". Of course I do! She then continued on to ask me a very specific question that completely blew me away. "What do you do when your friends throw dirt at you and you don't want them to? Do you yell?"
I almost couldn't believe that she was grown up enough to be asking me questions like this.

Earlier today she had come home crying because her friend's little brother had spilled her drink and been throwing dirt at her so I figured her questions were stemming from this earlier instance.

I explained to her that I never yell at my friends, even if we disagree with something, I always use calm words to solve the situation. She then replied "so I can't hit them or yell?"

I honestly couldn't believe the mature and real person conversation I was having with my daughter. How did she get this old?  I kinda want my baby back but at the same time I am loving that I can have talks like this with her.

OEK Program

Being a Mom is hard. Before now I thought that sleepless nights were the hardest parts, or that having them talk back everyday was hard. Watching them grow up was the hardest. Little did I know that watching them go out into the world would literally bring me to tears; and I wouldn't know how to get over it.

Watching William get on the bus the first day was difficult. I wondered if he would make new friends since he didn't know anyone in his class. I hoped that he would remember to be polite and raise his hands in class. I questioned if he would be able to unbutton his shorts when he has to pee; or if he would be the first kid to get in trouble for throwing wood chips on the playground. Would the teacher understand that he's shy when he gets around adults, or would he have friends to read with during story time?

What I didn't anticipate was the phone call I got from his teacher yesterday. When she started talking I could hear the hesitation in her words, and it was almost like I needed to pry the words out; "Will qualifies for an all day kindergarten program called OEK. It's an early intervention program that helps kids be ready for 1st grade next year"
As a Mom, pretty much all I heard was "you're kid isn't as smart as he needs to be" "you didn't do a good enough job" "he needs more help than the other kids"
It was everything I could do to ask questions, get her opinions and then get off the phone before she could hear the tears in my voice. I hung up and immediately wanted to talk to Sean. Luckily he didn't answer because I couldn't even get words out. He called me right back and all I said was "I need to talk to you, but I can't stop crying". He came home and we talked it over with ourselves as well as with William. We all still have concerns, but now all Will knows is that he gets to have lunch at school which involves brownies...who can beat that?!
I expressed my feelings to Sean. All of the "what ifs" started coming. What if we had moved here in time to get him in preschool last year? What if I had worked harder with him over the last year or the Summer? What if he had a daycare or even karate before now that helped him with authority? and of course What if he now gets teased because he's in a "special class"?

Is he gonna resent me for this? Is he gonna be mad because he's loosing out on upwards of 4 hours of play time with friends each day? Am I gonna be able to handle it? What am I gonna do with my little man gone for 7.5 hours EVERY DAY?
But then I had to set my feelings aside (really I just shoved them down way deep...they may come back up later!) and think about what if we didn't put him in the program? Would he not be ready for 1st grade? Would he need to repeat Kindergarten?
We have given the teacher a yes to the program. Tomorrow I am going to a parent meeting that will hopefully answer any and all questions that I have, and ease any concerns that might arise. But I'm excited to see how much William grows from the program, and see his smarts and talents flourish from it.

Here's to hoping I can keep my emotions in check, and not miss him too much as he starts this new journey next week.

BBQ fun!

Another post full of pictures. Because really, I love to take pictures of the kids playing with Daddy, and see their fun expressions when I pull out the camera!

The other night we had a BBQ our in the back yard. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit. Dad has been cooped up so much lately after his surgery, that fresh air was nice for a change.

Oh, and I bought a horseshoe game at target in their dollar section. So fun to teach the kids how to play...or at least pretend to play!

Then we decided to have some races. Gracie was such a good girl and never complained that she always got beat. Even though we tried cheating a ton of times, to help her win. Will's just too smart for us!

So Sean tried to run with her. Well, sick little (and yes, I mean little. The man has lost over 15 lbs in a week!) him couldn't make it too far. And he got yelled at by me, because she was well over his 5lb lifting limit.

And we learned that these are NOT racing shorts. Because he started off fine, then looked funny running back. When he got to me, he turned around and I realized him shorts were down to his thighs!!! Silly boy

"Micra-cone"

New Camera

So I got a new camera in November. And I have been getting good at taking pictures. I mean, I use the thing almost daily to take pictures for my other blog Our Thrifty Ideas. But yesterday I realized that I have this great piece of equipment and I am not using it for what’s most important; documenting my life to it’s fullest.
I take pictures with my phone, constantly. And my kids definitely are great at being in front of the camera. But the pictures that I take are definitely not “put on the wall” worthy. The quality isn’t great, and they are on my phone so the lighting and bokah etc are not what they could be.
So I have set a challenge for myself to take pictures of my kids on a daily (well maybe every other day) basis and document them. Whether here on the blog (yes, I’m gonna try to get better at posting here) or even just having them in a digital book for when the kids are older.

So here’s my start.
Last night we had cupcakes for dessert. Gracie kept yelling and Sean and I saying “So delicious, yum”! It was so cute to hear, then we looked at her.

It’s a good thing that we took her dress off before giving her the cupcake. Because it really got messy!


Hopefully I can get better at sharing the pictures here on the blog. Because let’s admit it; these kids deserve all the screen time they can get!