Nibbling cake & ripping paper
Happy 1st birthday to our sweet Little Miss!
Tag: kids
1st Day of School 2011
The boys are going to preschool in the afternoon this year. Nolan will go every day and Lincoln on Mondays & Wednesdays. I’m still trying to get my head around what that is going to be like. My house has been full of noise and hustle & bustle for so many years that it really will be strange to have complete quiet for 2 1/2 hours, 2 days a week. (Little miss will be napping while her brothers are at school.)
Our day began with our 1st day of school breakfast…orange rolls & scrambled eggs. I’m not sure what Lincoln is doing here in the photo…
After eating, we had a few last minute (seriously, last minute) things to accomplish before the 1pm preschool start. First stop was CVS for 1 hour prints to complete the boys’ “Spotlight on me” sheets. While our photos were being processed, we began the great backpack search. Lincoln requested a Transformers backpack. We looked for one last week only to find that the entire backpack wall display at Target was empty. I couldn’t believe it. Completely bare. That’ll teach me to leave backpack shopping until the week before class starts.) This morning, Toys R Us came to the rescue. We walked in and there it was…the last Bumblebee Transformers backpack. And it was clearance priced! For once, it payed to procrastinate. With backpack in hand, we spent time wandering the store (to kill time before our photo pick-up.) The boys had fun going up and down the aisles and trying out the toy displays. We could have stayed in the train aisle all morning.
We picked up our 4 pictures and headed home for lunch. Then, with full bellies, we put on new school shoes and went outside for the “1st day” pictures on the steps.
I love these guys so much! They make me laugh multiple times every day.
Lincoln wanted to pose next to Ingrid before we loaded into the truck.
We arrived at school and took one more “1st” picture. It’s going to be a great year!
P.S. Look how much these two have grown from last year’s 1st day!
My new comeback
I was shopping with the kids tonight, (the boys in the big kid part of the cart and Little Miss was in the Bjorn kicking her legs,) when we rounded a corner and crossed the path of the sweetest lady. Typically random strangers will see me and say, “You’ve got your hands full!” Instead this woman said to me, “You’re surrounded by love!” She made my night…and gave me a new comeback.
Popsicle Stick Puppets
We had a crafty afternoon today since it was so muggy outside. We’ve had quite a few days this summer that are kind of like winter (because you’re stuck inside) except we’re in shorts & t-shirts. Anyway, I digress. The boys wanted to make something with the Popsicle sticks in my “craft box” so I suggested puppets. They picked the colors, I cut the shapes, they did the gluing. Both of them had a blast. Then we sent photos to their grandmas & daddy. I love my day job.
Waterskiing
Apparently my boys were craving some lake fun today. I was painting the shed and all of a sudden I heard Lincoln shout, “Hit it!” Then Nolan turned the crank on something that made a clicking sound.
I turned around to find this: a striped sheet was tied to the upper part of the playset (the ski rope,) the lawnmower (the boat ignition/throttle) was laying on the playset platform, and two tennis rackets were next to each other on the grass (skis.) Good to know they’ve picked up the ski/tube lingo.
Nolan reenacted the scene so I could capture a couple of pictures.
Watching cars go by
Jake took the boys to see the annual Antique Car Run that finishes at a park near our house. They brought their chairs, bucket hats, and road trip books to pass the time until the cars came. Looks like they also picked up a few refreshments to keep themselves hydrated while they waited. 🙂
Body Art
This afternoon I was sitting in the living room with Little Miss and talking on the phone with my friend, Sarah. Meanwhile, the boys were sitting at the dining room table coloring “hidden pictures” pages with markers. Sounds innocent enough, right? I mean, I was in the adjoining room and could see their heads over the back of the love seat. Unfortunately, it blocked my full view of them. If only I had known they were not only coloring hidden pictures, but were using their own bodies as canvases.
Check out the detail on Nolan’s feet!
For the record, I waited to take photos of them because I couldn’t let on that what they had done was absolutely hilarious! While they were technically using markers labeled “washable,” this particular set is hardly that. I ended up Googling “remove marker from skin” and found a suggestion for rubbing alcohol. That, combined with a super bubbly bath, seems to have done the trick. Of course all of this happened while I was single-parenting tonight. Jake missed out on all of the fun!
Watch what you say
My mom took the boys for the day so I could get a few things done around the house – like putting my furniture back in order after our new front window was installed last Friday. While they were there, they captured a mouse (or shrew) that had somehow gotten into the house. Nolan saw it first. It wasn’t until the little thing scurried out from the corner and down the steps, that my mom caught a glimpse of it too. The rodent managed to find its way to the “fort” room under the stairs and was essentially trapped. The boys danced around in the doorway and sang “No, mouse, no!” to keep it from getting out of the room until my mom came back with a butterfly net to catch it. They released the frightened animal in the backyard and had quite a story to tell Papa (my dad) and Uncle Tony when they had dinner together that night.
While Nolan was re-telling their adventures from the day, he got to the part about the mouse/shrew going downstairs and how apparently “There’s just all this crap along the wall” down there. At that point, my brother just about lost it. Not only did Nolan use the 4-letter word correctly in context, but he said it so nonchalantly that my mom had to ask my brother if he said what she thought he had said.
Unfortunately, I’m to blame for letting that one slip around the kids. A few too many toys pushed me to the brink a while back and I uttered a phrase similar to the one Nolan used. Guess he filed it away for a time such as tonight. At least he was with family 🙂
Hatching pickles
Lincoln takes after me. He loves pickles.
We had great success growing cucumbers last summer and I tried making pickles for the first time. (I made and refrigerator-canned several pints, but didn’t get to enjoy many because one of my sons decided to tinker with the basement fridge temperature knob and turned the entire thing off without us knowing…but I digress.) They were ok, but I want to try another recipe the next time I attempt to make them again. Anyway…Lincoln is extremely excited about the cucumbers we’re growing again this year. He’s so anxious for them to grow that when we were in the produce section of the grocery store today, he told me, “My pickles haven’t hatched yet!”
Stung
We had our first wasp sting of the summer tonight.
The boys were playing outside, eagerly anticipating the rising waters in kiddie pool, when Nolan started screaming while holding his neck. Lincoln followed suit soon after. We shuttled both boys inside and quickly determined that Nolan had been stung by something (and Lincoln was screaming sympathetically.) Jake went out to the swing set and discovered that wasps had built a nest inside one of the pipes.
He came back in to check on the boys and before going out to take care of the nest, told Nolan, “I’m going outside because the wasps are afraid of me.”
Nolan responded in complete seriousness, “They’re afraid of me too and they tried to eat me!”
Jake could hardly contain himself!