Records

Yesterday, my school was cleaning out our supply room so lots of things were up for grabs. Guess what I snatched up?


A record player:





And lots of records, some have read along stories like Peter and the Wolf.


And look Gordon from Sesame Street (who needed a little work on the hair before the albums cover).


As soon as the boys got home, I busted out an exercise song called Chicken Fat and Grant's eyes just lit up, "Mom, we did this at school today!" It seems a retired teacher had all of her old records transferred to cd for the remaining teachers.

So fun, I love it. It brings back lots of memories of my record player in a white plastic box with an orange handle and listening to my Snow White album in the garage while I roller skated. Oh yea baby!

Three

My niece turned three today. She is a sweet tiny little thing and we all love her very much. Nicole had a darling 'tiny' party for her and I had to share the sweetest picture.




Happy birthday.

Kindergarten and teenagers

Well Grant made it to kindergarten and I survived with only a few tears.







He came home and raised his hand to ask me a question ;-) And today he got to go to the office for quality work! So far so good.

My first day on my own, Friday, was spent getting ready for Dylan's 13th birthday party. He had 10 friends over to watch a movie outdoors and then sleepover outside in the fort.























They stayed up until 4:30 am! Dylan said he and two other boys never slept! They blew threw pizzas, popcorn, chips, pretzels, pop, water, candy, cupcakes and then donut holes in the morning - teenage boys.

Sunday was his actual birthday, so I'm officially a mom of a teen! We opened presents at home and then headed to the farm for some target shooting and a nice dinner. Dylan got some new gadgets for his gun so he was excited to shoot and, heck, I even shot a pistol for the first time.






He had a good time and thanked us a million times on our way home. He is a good boy and has set some great goals for himself this year. It's really hard to believe it has been 13 years ago that we brought a skinny 5 pound baby home from the hospital, now his feet are bigger than mine. Love you buddy!

Today was another day on my own. I cleaned floors and did laundry then headed off to Zumba. When I got home I cleaned up from the party (teenage boys are messy) and made myself a nice salad for lunch and then....I watched a movie on amc and I think I may have even fallen asleep for a few minutes :-) It was lovely and I didn't cry.

Last day

Grant's last day home with me before kindergarten.











We played with water and soap and shaving cream in the sink, ate lunch out, went to two parks, and read books in a homemade tent in his room, oh and I cried :-(

3 and 7

Jack and Dylan are off to school today. Jack will be in third grade with a veteran teacher :-) and mother of boys and a room full of classroom pets. He and I are very excited for this year.


Dylan will be in 7th grade. I don't know his teachers :-( only the PE teacher. We worked his locker out and walked his schedule last week so I hope he does ok today. I think he was a little nervous but too cool to admit it.


When I yelled after them if they'd like me to walk them to school, they replied,"no mom."


Grant will go to kindergarten Friday, but I bet he'll let me walk him to school (he doesn't have a choice).

Fall ball

Well, fall baseball starts today. Both Grant and Dylan play this afternoon, Grant plays on the youngest team and Dylan plays at the far other end of the park with boys that will need to shave after the game (no kidding).

In preparation for Grants game, we had to come with four encouraging things to say to fellow teammates during the game (he is a little competitive to say the least). He came up with:
Good job.
You can do it.
Try again next time.
Nice catch/ nice hit.
We'll see how that goes, fingers crossed.

And for D's game, I was up at 10:30 last night sewing his uniform shirt down from a size "why would a coach give a small kid a man's size large shirt" to a size that "doesn't quite hang down to his ankles so he won't look quite so small against his 5o'clock shadow teammates" size.

Report and pictures to come later.

Water water everywhere

In leu of the rainy day today, I thought I'd post a few wet pictures from this summer.





















Try to stay dry and have a good day :-)

Goodbye summer Olympics, we'll miss you

I'm always a little sad when things are over, like books, movies, vacations, games, road trips. It's a little weird, but true, and the Olympics were no exception. I love the Olympic games, the sports and the background stories. Those athletes are amazing and I enjoyed watching all of it over the last two weeks.
We did make a couple of Olympic crafts (I can't help myself) and the boys broke out the badminton net last week to play volleyball.





















See you in four years summer Olympics. We'll be waiting...

Gardening

This morning's harvest :-)