Kyle's Babies

Kyle was playing with the Mr. Potato Heads today, then announced they were going to sleep.  He sweetly took his favorite blankets, covered the babies up, and sang them a song.  The nursery leaders say he's been doing that a lot lately with the dolls in nursery as well.  Its cute to see such a nurturing instinct.  I'm excited to see how he interacts with the new baby.

Eric's First Day of Preschool

Eric was so excited to get to go do his own thing today.  He was slightly disappointed that his first day wasn't yesterday, like Caden.  He walked right in and waved goodbye to me with a smile on his face.  They made self portraits out of paper plates that they painted, glued paper hair to, and colored faces on.  Eric was in heaven.  The boy could go through a bottle of glue a day if you'd let him.  He was so proud of his book bag and insisted keeping it on his shoulder all the way home.  He told me he made two new friends - one named Matthew and one named Frosted Flake.  I told him I thought that last one was made up and he said he was just teasing because he couldn't remember the other name.  He has a cute sense of humor.  I think preschool is going to be really good for him.

Caden's First Day of Kindergarten

Where has the time gone?  Today, Caden started Kindergarten.  He wasn't nervous at all.  The thing he was most worried about was figuring out what time recess would be.  He is so opinionated about his looks right now.  Even though he'd insisted on a 'spikey' haircut for school, this morning he was just as insistent that it be combed 'smooth' and tomorrow we'll do 'spikey.'

I told Ryan this morning as we were getting ready that this felt a little anti-climatic.  It didn't feel like the big milestone everyone told me it would be.  Then as I was walking him to the door of the school I started to get teary eyed.  I'm not even sure I can peg the emotion I was feeling, I just wanted to hug him tight and never let him go.  

I'm still really scared about school and Caden's safety there, but the staff has been great to work with so far, which has helped a ton.  My mom sewed Caden a belt that goes under his shirt and carries his Auvi-Q (a new type of Epi-Pen) so he'd be able to self carry his epinephrine.   Having him self carry helps me breathe easier because my biggest worry is that an allergic reaction won't be recognized in time to get him to the office and get meds from there.

'Pets'

We got our first 'pets' today.  A neighbor lady gathered up caterpillar eggs and hatched them, then brought two by our house so we can finish taking care of them, watch them cocoon, and release the butterflies.  The boys are fascinated, and the parents think its pretty cool, too.  I've got to say, this is my kind of pet - contained, easy maintenance, short term commitment.

Aaaarg! Its a Pirate Party!

Eric turned 4 today!  He has been really in to pirates the last few months and likes to host pretend pirate parties in various rooms of our house, most frequently our walk in closet.  So of course, a pirate party was the only choice for his first friend party.

Caden helped draw and color the monster that the pirates defeated on their treasure hunt.  The treasure hunt, complete with digging for coins in the sandbox at the end, was the hit of the party.  Notice only one child is still wearing the pirate hats they made.  Eric loved all the attention and I think overall it was a great day for him.

NBS Summer Party at Hogle Zoo

Ryan's work done an annual summer party geared toward families.  There have been some great parties in recent years, but I think this one was my favorite.  We had a full day at the zoo with face painting and an animal show at lunch.  Caden asked for a dragon face and Eric wanted a boat.  Kyle did attend the party, I just didn't think he'd sit still long enough to get his face painted.

Caden designated himself as the wildlife photographer for our group and took over 75 pictures before the battery on the camera died.  Most of them were of the polar bear because that bear was just so entertaining to watch!  I was impressed at some of the great shots Caden got.  Here are a few of them.

A New 'Do

Caden has been asking all summer if we could spike his hair up, just in the front.  We've tried a few times, but it just didn't work with the haircut I'd given him.  So we took him to get his first professional haircut so he could have spikey hair for kindergarten.

Bunk Bed Ladder

August is going to be a month of some pretty big changes for our family.  First on the list is moving Caden from sharing a room with Kyle to sharing a room with Eric, which also means moving to the bunk bed.  In order to accommodate this, Ryan has to build a ladder for said bunk bed.  We got it used for a really good deal and didn't realize until we set it up that the missing ladder may have been part of why no one else wanted it.  Caden was so excited to help his dad build the ladder.  The finished product is fantastic and looks like it was factory built.  If Ryan is going  to do something, its going to be done the best way possible.