First Week of School Completed!

Celebrated the first week with friends at Cold Stone

Well, the first week of school was a success so we celebrated with our friends at Cold Stone with some ice cream. They all enjoyed dancing on the floor. A little more information leaked out of Ryan as the weekend went on. It's like he was trying to remember a dream. The backwards shirt mystery was solved. He was telling me that he got a little cold during rest time and then he says "hey, that's how my shirt ...got twisted...I pulled my arms through to stay warm and...well, I guess it got twisted." like it just popped into his head that very moment. So funny. He also said a little boy put glue in his ear and had to go to the nurse. I'm just glad it wasn't him. He did say the boy came back and was alright. He was cracking me up. On Friday more drama continued when he said a little boy was banging his head during rest time and caused his nose to bleed. And someone else used Ryan's nap mat. I don't know the full story but he said he got to sleep on the magic carpet. He was happy and didn't seem to care that someone else got his nap mat. (I'm just not sure I like someone else using his nap mat!) Anyhow.....week one is complete. Come on week two!

First Day of Kindergarten

Okay, so the day has finally come. I really thought I would be okay, but I must say it kind of took me by surprise. We started the day with homemade pancakes made by Daddy. Well, no, let me back up. We started the day when Ryan came into our room before 6am. He said that he was too excited to go to school. After a very restless night, that was very-very early. So now, back to the pancakes...they were extra good. Ryan said that he helped Daddy make them and he put the "love" in them. So we got us all ready and got to the school pretty early. In fact, we had to drop him off in the early arrival room. If you get there after 7:45 you can go straight to the classroom. We checked him into the early room, got some photos, and said our goodbyes. I was fine until I had to turn and walk away. That's when the tears took over my body. I was crying so much I couldn't even see the steps on the way out. Thank goodness for sunglasses. We had to walk a long way because we had to park on the street due to the parking lot being full. But all in all, I did it.

Throughout the day, I would just think I was fine and then Aiden kept looking and asking for Bubba? Bubba? Even when I got home from dropping him off, I was excited to watch some grown up TV instead of Ryan's cartoons, but on the news was a story of a 7 yr old boy that had gone missing. --That was all she wrote and I was crying again. Sigh...I packed up Aiden and we went to Walmart. It was perfect, because we ran into our best buds who's boy had also started kindergarten today. We shared sob stories and laughed at ourselves. After Walmart, Aiden and I had lunch and then it was his naptime. He went down at noon and oh boy was the house quiet! That's when I knew I was going to like this school thing. ha, ha. But around 2pm I was counting down the minutes until 3 o'clock when I needed to pick him up. I couldn't wait so I left early. Well, traffic was already backed up and I got there 10 til 3! I had to wait 50 minutes in car line and it was 100 degrees, with a baby that I had to wake up from a nap. Surprisingly, Aiden was fine. He entertained himself with his goldfish. :) Now after waiting 8 hours to hear about Ryan's day when I picked him up, he gave me nothing. I mean no details. I couldn't believe it. I thought he would be talking my ears off. Nope. I asked question after question and he just said he couldn't remember. I was shocked. Then to top it off his shirt was on backwards. I asked him how that happened and again, he said he didn't remember. I guess instead of saying the pledge of allegiance now they have the kids take a vow of silence. I asked him if he had a good day and he said "oh yes." But still no details. Once we were home Aiden gave Ryan a huge hug, and then they stripped down their clothes and wanted to watch TV. That's it. Nothing more. I cooked supper and now that we are done, I'm only hoping to pull some more info out of him. The kicker is that he didn't even have any info in his backpack. Just a note on the agenda saying "Great first day!" Oh, now I'm sitting here on the couch and Ryan just said to Scott "hey Daddy, pretty soon you are gonna have grandkids!" I wanted details but not this! I can't wait to hear what tomorrow brings.

Conversation with Ryan the night before his first day of kindergarten

Are you excited about your first day of school?
Oooh yes! And he fell to the floor and spun around

What are you most looking forward to?
Those tapes you can listen to, and the library.

What did you think of your teacher Mrs. Hanner?
Oh she’s gonna be nice. I don’t think, I know it.

What did you think she looked like?
She was pretty, and a little tall.

What do you think P.E. will be like?
I don’t know.

Are you scared of anything?
Well, if there was a lion living there and it got out, yeah, I’d be scared.

Are you looking forward to recess?
I’m not really into recess, I’m into P.E.

What do you think they will serve for lunch?
A taco and some fries. I don’t know…I’ll ask.

Do you think you will miss me?
No because you are in my heart. I will miss Aiden, and Daddy a lot, and I will start to miss you.

Last words….
It’s gonna be fun. That’s all.

Meet the Teacher

Oh how we love Mrs. Hanner already. It was great for Ryan to see his new classroom and meet his new Kindergarten teacher. He's been looking forward to it for some time. He kept saying he thought he would know someone in his class and I kept preparing him that no he would not. There was only one little boy that we knew going to his same school and I didn't think the chances were that good but lo and behold he is in Ryan's class. Ryan said, "see I told you so." Even with the sass, I was glad that he would know one person. He walked right in his class....a little nervous acting and the teacher thought he was gonna be shy. Oh what an awakening she is in for! He quickly opened up and met a new friend named Aidan. So when Ryan told him his brother's name was Aiden, he thought that was cool. His teacher was impressed that he had already learned to tie his shoes and asked him if he would help her teach the rest of the class. His head puffed up and he said "sure." She really doesn't know what she is in for! I also showed Ryan where he would have P.E. and where the library is. He thought it was SO cool that they had Magic Tree House books but was a little bummed that they don't check out books to Kindergarten students. He knows we can still go to the public library, so it doesn't look like I will be getting out of reading the stories about Jack and Annie anytime soon. There are like 40 something in the series. All in all it was a great day getting to see how my first baby is going to be spending his days. Ryan said, "just think Mama, You only have me one more day at home." Can he rubbed the salt in my wound any deeper? ugghh...I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast! We are looking forward to a great year.

August 7- Our friend Kaitlyn's 2 yr party

This was the best little party for a 2 yr old. It's a new indoor play area simply called "A Play Place."

July 28th--Church Night at the Birmingham Barons

Well we don't really watch baseball and we never watch the Barons, but it was still fun to go out on a Wednesday night for church night. Our friends the Bates met us there and the kids had a ton of fun. Ryan said he got spoiled that night because he had pizza, hot dogs, Hershey bar, and ice cream. And there wasn't even a belly ache to mention. Aiden loved the M&Ms but lets just say they DO MELT IN YOUR HANDS!

July 25th--Operation Go with our Church

Operation Go was a service project our church did to serve our own community in addition to our mission service away from home. Our small group at church is made up of a lot of preschool parents and it is kind of hard to do mission projects without finding a baby sitter. So we decided to Feed our Hungry Heroes. We took goodies and snacks to Firestation #1 in Trussville. The kids had such a great time climbing all over the trucks and seeing the firemen. One thing I did not get a photo of that I wished I had was the inside of their department. The first thing you see is a TV room with 7 large recliners, and 3 large refrigerators--such a man cave. The kids also made thank you cards for the firemen.

July 22-Registered Ryan for Kindergarten

Well this was the day we have been anticipating...the day we registered Ryan for Kindergarten. Scott was able to come join us and I'm so glad because I had to fill out a ton of paperwork while he stood in line to hold our place. It wasn't horrible but it would have been nice to have the paperwork in advance. Keeping an almost 2 year old to stand still is next to impossible in such a place. Entering the building was a bit intimidating. We had to find our way in an unfamiliar place. But some things were like flashbacks. Scott laughed as he saw the tiny potties in the bathroom and how small the table and chairs were in the lunch room. For me it was the floor to ceiling tile hallways that reminded me of yesteryear. It's funny how much change the decades have brought, but the rooms brought back a flood of memories and somethings remain unchanged. Ryan was so excited and he seemed to make friends as we waited.

What a whirlwind!

This last month has flown by. We've been so busy getting ready for school to start and wrapping up the summer. We've been getting in last minute play dates, birthday parties, and school registration and meet the teacher. It's been a whirlwind! Haven't had much time for blogging, but here are a few photos that captured our fun.

Splish Splash playdate back on July 15th

Spaghetti Night fun on July 15th