Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween 2013

This year Landon was a Ninja Turtle and MK refused to wear her adorable pumpkin costume I bought her…she threw a good ol' fit and I gave up…it wasn't a calm, laid back family affair but we got to trick or treat with the neighbors and Jim and the kids enjoyed passing out candy afterwards.  I enjoyed a glass of wine inside.  Happy Halloween!!




Sunday, October 13, 2013

Fun at the Fair!

Today we took the kiddos to the fair. Jim and I have always loved going to the fair and taking our kiddos is the most fun! There just isn't much better than seeing the excitement in a kiddos eye and boy was Landon excited! When we got there we bought our tickets for the rides and then ventured out for lunch. Mommy was most excited about a corn dog and daddy was most excited about nachos! Landon was not super patient during lunch and kept asking us if we were full yet! Ha! When we finished with lunch we headed over to ride a few kiddie rides and along the way Landon was very intrigued by the games...and even though they are a gigantic waste of money we let him play a few. His first game was the ping pong ball fish bowl toss! For $2 you got 10 balls. He blew through the first 10 and no fish was won. A little later on he played a game where he could catch toy fish and for $5 he was guaranteed to win! He chose an inflatable sword and there are surely a few fair goers that wish he would have chosen something else since he hit several people with it while swinging it around through the crowd. After riding a few rides we let him play the ping pong ball fish bowl toss again and this time we let MK in on the action. And she won! It was the craziest thing ever and Landon kept saying "I can't believe my baby won a fish!!" He was so excited! MK didn't really understand what she had done. Ha! After watching the tiger show (and eating a funnel cake) we headed to the petting zoo. MK had been talking about feeding the animals all day! She liked them but wasn't too excited about actually letting them eat from her hand. Landon loved that part!! On our way out we stopped to pick up our new pet fish...and Landon named him Luigi. We bought a covered tank and I'm sure the resident cat wishes we had picked one without a lid so she might enjoy a late night snack!
We had a great time and look forward to taking the kids to the fair each year as they get older.























































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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

School Days

WAY back in August the kiddos started a brand new school year...and this time Landon started at a brand new school!!  Our dude is now a pre-k'er at Christ the King.  He went to Bear Camp there over the summer so he was already a little adjusted to the environment.

CTK starts earlier in the day than Second Presbyterian so I'm able to drop Landon off in the mornings and Nana picks him up in the afternoons.  He has to be there by 7:45 which gives me enough time to drop MK off at Nana's and still make it to work relatively on time.  I have been so excited about drop off!  Seems like such a big kid thing to be able to hop right out of your parent's car without them walking you in!  Since we had a teacher meet and greet in his classroom the day before, we decided that instead of walking Landon in on the first day we'd start the year dropping him off just like we'd do the rest of the year.  There is an aide helping kiddos out of cars and making sure they get inside with their belongings.  The first two days were picture perfect drop off perfection.  I just knew we were golden and I smiled ear to ear all the way to work.  Then...day 3 (which was a Monday) happened...and boy oh boy day 4 was worse!!  I'm talking kicking and screaming worse!!  The director and Landon's teacher had to pry him away from me.  It was gut wrenching.  Awful.  I was unsettled the entire day even though his teacher emailed to say he was fine minutes after I left.  I'm pretty sure they told him he wasn't going to act like that and that he was to come in to class and start on his work right away.  Wow, right!?  We know a new routine can be scary for a little big dude and we didn't want to make it worse...so, that night we talked to him about how he needed to act at drop off...and aside from one day when he was late because of a doctor's appointment he has done absolutely great!!  For the first few days that he did well I think I would sigh a  ginormous sigh of relief and say "yay bubba!" as we drove away...so now, still to this day, Maddie Kate says "yay bubba!" when Landon gets out of the car.  Sweet siblings.

Landon has done pretty well so far!!  He's apparently having a little trouble focusing on his work during "table" time but his teacher has assured us that he'll get the hang of it.  We talk to him about it but we try not to nag.  We sternly explain that it's important that he get his work done and do what the teacher says but we don't want to punish him since he's still little and this "real school" thing is kind of new!  He is only 4, right!?  He likes to play with his friends at recess and the bristle blocks is his favorite activity center.  He is also going to speech twice a week.  He's learning a lot about God and the church, they do a lot of story time and reading/listening comprehension, basic math consisting of finding differences and matching and they do quite a bit of art.  They also go to Spanish and music class!  He's learning to write his name better and has improved so much.  Most recently he spelled yellow and red for us!  Smarty pants!  So far we just love Christ the King and we are looking forward to lots of fun there over the years!






Luke and Landon - Best Buds!  They're not in the same class but they get to play together at recess!


Maddie Kate started in her new class at Second Presbyterian a couple weeks after Landon started.  She has moved up to the Toddler C class - which of course is the most advanced toddler class.  Ha!  Nana drops her off and picks her up each day.  Maddie Kate is a toot!!  Her best friend Papi wasn't originally in her class but the story goes that he didn't do well not being in the same class as MK so they moved him!  Aside from the fact that he likes to bite our girl they remain best friends and MK always has a Papi story for us!  Her other friends are Julia, Hazel and Charlie Gray.  One time, before she said much about the girls I asked her if she had any friends that are girls in her class and her reply was, "nope, just boys".  Lordy! I'm thinking Miss Maddie Kate keeps everyone in line around there...apparently she's bossy and likes to talk...hmmmm, where could she have ever picked up those traits?  We really like Maddie Kate's teachers and we know she'll have a great year!

Definitely not interested in the first day of school photo session - she brought her cheese for breakfast along.