A Little Upgrade

When we moved into this lovely new house last year, it was hard to see some of our old furniture in such pretty rooms.  Matt and I had each had our desks since our school days and they were beat up and mismatched when we got married a decade ago.  I counted 11 moves for my desk, which was probably at least 8 more than it was designed to handle.  But we were patient and held out for the great shopping opportunity that rolls around every May and waited even more patiently for some of the furniture to arrive this week.  In preparation, I got the study cleaned out and ready.

 

Naturally, the kids took advantage of random furniture sitting around to play, in this case they made a pretend Bass Pro Shop which oddly enough sold folders and paper.  I may have to coach Ben on his marketing strategies.

 

 After the big delivery day, it took some time to unpack but I'm pretty happy with the results!  Love these new bookshelves, especially the doors on the bottom to hide the junk :)

Matt's desk is beautiful but unfortunately this room is not big enough for it to stand free in the middle of the room.

I'm so happy with my new desk and all its storage space, also with doors to hide the things I don't need to show the world.  Now we can hanging things on the walls in here, too.  Better late than never!

 

We needed a new mattress and really wanted to upgrade the guest bed, so we moved our queen bed into the guest room and got a king for our room.  This is before...

 

...and after.  The king bed feels so roomy!  But it fits our big bedroom a lot better.  We have laughed that it's a good thing we waited so long to get a king because this bed would have never fit in any of our houses overseas.

 

And now the queen looks very nice in the guest room.  Maybe now we'll get motivated to decorate these walls a little, too.

The last room waiting to get help is the dining room.  Not that there is anything wrong with a kiddie kitchen and two-seater table for people under 48" tall, but we're still anxiously awaiting a grown-up table and cabinet in another month or so.

First Day of First Grade

Starting first grade was so much easier than starting kindergarten!  Ben knows the drill this year and didn't have many questions about school.  Once he knew Sariah was in his class and he met his teacher, he was pretty comfortable getting back into the swing of things.  The hardest part was waking up earlier again!  The kids have never been late sleepers but 6:45 is earlier than Ben would like to be forced into action.  Getting breakfast down by 7:20 has been the bigger challenge but we've managed.  A little TV time to wake up has helped.

 

 The first morning we got dressed a little early for picture time.

My big first grader!

Most of the kids at the bus stop on the first day.  Several kids were car riders so now we have 14 getting on the bus and a lot of moms.  It's a big crowd on the corner twice a day but good to see so many sweet faces!

No nerves getting on the bus this year!  After the bus pulled away, Alex and I dashed through the school traffic to meet the bus and walk Ben to class.

Such a big boy in his desk!  The room looks much more grown up than kindergarten and has a huge emphasis on reading, so we're hoping it's a successful year for Ben and his reading.

At the end of the day, my big boy was all smiles and couldn't wait to go play more with his friends.  I think it's going to be a great year.

The End of Summer

I really can't believe summer is over!  We had a great one...some fun adventures, lots of time in the sun, plenty of playtime at home and with friends.  I didn't overbook the kids with activities and I'm happy we had so much unhurried time at home to play and enjoy one another.  Ben has been excited to start another school year but unhappy that "school takes up to much of his playtime".  I hear ya, buddy!

We soaked up our last week of summer with some of our favorite things.  A trip to the dollar store was the highlight of one day and Ben spent half an hour debating on how to spend his three dollars.  The binder made the cut, the mask did not.  Some of his other considerations - sponges, clorox wipes, notebook paper, wipeboard erasers, and several other things that would be "useful for his school".  Alex went for the more child-friendly glow sticks, candy, and silly string.

 

We spent a lot of time at the pool with our friends.  Our sweet friend Michelle and her family have already been transferred so we jumped at the chance to swim with her one last time.

The guys taking a break.

Ben and Sariah played together just about every day this summer so we were really excited to find out these two would be in the same first grade class!

 

And Alex, well, he got frustrated a lot not being able to keep up with the bigger kids and made a lot of his own fun.  He's itching to get back to school and play with kids his age again.  For as many kids as we have on our street, there is only one other 4-year old and we don't see her a lot.

 

When he got tired of swimming, he played on my phone and made several lovely videos of me sitting in my swimsuit talking to a friend.  I will not share those (*shudder*) but I thought this self-portrait was cute.

We had lots of indoor fun when it was too hot to play outside.  On this afternoon, 8 pairs of socks went missing by the back door because the kids were skating through the entryway.

Hands and feet at work!

The kids got some buddies.  This is Zigzag the wild goldfish, who has already made a trip down the disposal (which thankfully was off at the time), and came out even more crazy.

And this is Cutie the beta.

And then we have Hopper, who escaped during playtime in the yard.  After Ben's beloved Chooky got out, I think he's less inclined to keep a grasshopper for good.  No complaints here!

We've had a few street parties with the neighbors and the last one ended up in a critter hunting expedition.  A frog search turned up a few playmates...

...but the biggest hit of the night was this little grass snake.  Thank goodness Ben didn't ask to bring it home!  I draw the line at snakes.

We had a fun visit with Grammy and Grumpy to hear about their 40th anniversary trip and play a little.  You never know what these kids will find fun.  Legos?  Sure.  Old panty hose that we used to make a lizard cage?  Absolutely.

We sure enjoyed our break but I'm looking forward to a little more schedule and structure in our days and maybe just a little time to get things done at home without the help of little hands. 

Time Capsule

Now that Ben is playing with my old phone from Perth, I'm finding lots of stuff on it that I had forgotten!  There are old texts messages from friends that make me really nostalgic and some great pictures that I apparently never downloaded and would have been lost if we hadn't pulled the phone out again.  Here are some of my favorites.

This one is obviously not a camera phone photo, but I must have loaded it on there to have a good picture of Ben.  One of my favorites from our last days in Singapore, sometime around July 2009.

Our first month in Perth because we were in a temporary house.  The kids would have just turned 3 and 1.

 

 Moving day with dozens of white cockatoos in the yard.  I miss seeing different birds like that but I sure don't miss their noise.

Probably September 2009, when we were searching for appliances and got LOTS of help.

A winter trip to the beach.

I don't know the times for these but I love these sweet baby faces!

A beautiful sunset one evening.

I'm guessing this was around January 2011 because we were getting school shoes for Ben.  Love the fashion sense on this 2 1/2 year old.

I don't remember this at all but I seem to have a nude child on a public beach!  

What a treat to look back at our Aussie days.  I miss the beach and the scenery a lot but now that most of my good friends have moved away as well, there is not much else to miss there.

Galveston

The kids and I got to tag along on another of Matt's conferences and take advantage of a room on Galveston Island.  It's just over an hour from the house but it was a great reason to spend a few days at the pool and beach in a nice location.

 

The kids LOVE hotels.  I'm just now beginning to enjoy all sleeping in one room together, although it's still pretty tricky at night to get them to go to sleep and:  a) not fall asleep myself at 8pm, b) very quietly play angry birds in bed, or c) sneak into the bathroom and make a comfortable bed out of towels to read until I'm sleepy.  And then we're all awake when the first person wakes up in the morning, especially if that person has no volume control on his voice (ahem...Alex).

 

Swimming was great fun and we spent a lot of time at the pool.  I'm really happy to be wrapping up the summer with two good swimmers!  Alex still needs an adult nearby but for the most part can do anything he wants in the pool.  He watched a kid do a flip into the water and said, "I'm going to do that, too!"  But, Alex, let's wait on that a few years, okay?

 

We spent most of our time at the beach.  It's hard to beat sand and waves!  The kids boogie boarded a few times and one day when the waves were smaller we got a float at the store to play with instead.  That's Ben in the background relaxing in the little waves.

 

These boys don't get much happier than this!

 

We also had some fun dinners together, like this one at the Rainforest Cafe.   I'd avoided it as long as possible because it's overpriced food with cool scenery, but the kids loved every minute.  Let's just not tell them that there is one in our mall!

 

On our second morning, I wasn't ready to go swimming at 9am, so instead we road the ferry to the Bolivar Peninsula and back.  I knew Ben would love the idea of driving our car onto a boat and I figured they'd both love roaming around the ferry.  We saw a few dolphins and enjoyed the cool breeze.

On the other side, we played in the car and visited a very conveniently located snow cone stand before getting on the return ferry and hitting the beach again.

 

 We had a wonderful three day mini-vacation and I knew it was successful when I saw little sun-kissed cheeks and sleepy faces in the backseat!

More Fun with Reid

One of our favorite things this summer was getting to see Reid and Aunt Stacey three times!  I love watching the boys play with their cousin and grow to love him more each time we're together.  This time they came to our house and we did some swimming, some playing at the splashpad, and even took Reid to his first movie.  We also had some fun in the backyard with a few neighbors on a homemade splash pad.

 

The little guys didn't like playing on the trampoline with the bigger kids so they entertained themselves with this bucket instead.  I love Reid's posture...like, "Alex, what are you thinking?"

 Yep, gettin the old noggin wet.

Reid's turn?

None for him, thanks.  Just fishing a car out of the bucket.

We also introduced Reid to the exciting world of battery operated vehicles and I do believe he was a big fan!

Reid got a few spins around the park in each of the jeeps.  And yes, we are fortunate enough to have TWO of these beasts parked in our garage now.  Just when we think we can get rid of the yellow one, the kids have fun driving both of them again.  Ben took his job very seriously and carefully drove Reid around in big circles.  Alex, on the other hand, was loud and wild and drove all over the place.  We're in trouble in about 12 years when that one gets a license.

One of Ben's friends has her mom's old iphone and Ben was already hitting me up for a phone.  At six?  I don't think so.  But I did dig out my old phone from Perth (which was getting dusty in a drawer since it won't work on any network except Western Australia's...oh how I don't miss WA technology!) and made the regrettable executive decision to let Ben keep it.  I showed him how to use the camera and play music files and we heard nothing else for several days.  Not to be outdone, Alex wanted a phone of his own too.  I went back in the dusty drawer for a cheap go phone we've used on several occasions and showed Alex how to play the ringtones.  Incredibly annoying for the adults but apparently endlessly entertaining for kids.  This is only a small snippet of the dance, but I chose this clip because Alex's bootie wagging is priceless.  And before you ask, NO, he did not learn than from me!

 

We had such a fun visit.  I wish summer was longer so we could do this more often!!