School Fun

It seems like I've barely taken any pictures this month, but our routine has mostly been school, homework, play, repeat.  And watch football on the weekends.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  It's actually nice to be well into the routine and watching everyone learn and thrive at school.

The kids got surprise visitors at lunch last week and they were so excited!  It's a shock to me to watch Alex walk in as a student and leave with his class, after two years of him being my little sidekick when we visited Ben at lunch.  He asks me every day to come eat with him.  If I say no (which I usually do), now he asks if Grammy and Grumpy can come instead.

It's handy that second grade lunch follows kindergarten, so we hung out and waited for our next little guy.  Now when Ben walks in, it's a shock to see how tall he's grown!  Especially after seeing hundreds of 5-year olds.

At home, Alex doesn't have official homework but the kid can't get enough of some of his school activities.  His current favorite is "write around the room", where you walk around with a clipboard and write down any words you see.  He combines it with his sight word flash cards by sticking them all over the house, then writing them down.

His "job" isn't finished until he's taped his work up in his closet.  These sheets are growing daily!  Alex also loves to get on iStation and starfall on my computer and has even passed up video games for these reading websites.  Is this my child?  I LOVE seeing him so excited to learn!

 

Alex is also starting to write phonetically and I'm back in the deciphering phase.  I got a good laugh out of this worksheet when I finally figured out what he'd written.  (click to enlarge)  Tllig = tattling  Wepdog = reporting (when you say it in Alex's voice, it makes perfect sense)

And Alex had to talk me through these drawings so I wrote the translation next to them to remember what he wrote.  What he didn't tell me was who was tattling about his brother standing on him...but I have a very good guess.

I've been doing some projects of my own while the kids are at school.  My sweet neighbor taught me how to sew pajama pants and Ben was thrilled to pick out is own fabric and get some custom pants.  It was a lot of fun so I definitely want to do more.  Next time I'll remember to add a few more inches to Mr. Long Legs here.  These will be capris by spring.  I've also been painting a bedroom a week, which is fun to me and really satisfying.

We've enjoyed watching football on the weekend and it's another exciting season to be Aggies!  (and fun to be a blue parakeet in this house, apparently)

School Days

So far our school year is off to a great start.  The kids are enjoying their classes, making friends, and already survived the first virus to pass through the house (fortunately on Labor day so we didn't miss any school!).

Alex has adjusted to kindergarten very easily.  The first day he said, "My teacher isn't as good as we thought.  She didn't have much fun stuff for us to do today."  The second day he said, "We did paperwork!!  It's getting better!"  And the third day as he was getting on the bus after school, Alex turned and yelled to his teacher, "It's going to be a great year!"  Now every day he comes home excited to tell me what he's learned and happy to read me the books he colored or show me his new sight words.  I love seeing how happy he is to be at school and how much he's loving to learn.  I hope it continues!  His only complaints so far - recess is too crowded (with something like 225 kids, I'm sure it is!) and dismissal is too long.

Ben has been really happy in his class as well.  He has some buddies from previous years to talk about minecraft and has found a few new cute girls that make him blush.  His reading has suddenly improved a lot and he's much more excited to do it.  I've also seen a lot of improvement (or effort) in his handwriting so we're off to a great start in second grade.  Let's hope we stay on that track!

At home, the kids have been playing and enjoying free time after school.  Alex has complained that school really interferes with his minecraft time, so we had to discuss our priorities a bit.  We're still in the thick of summer but they've enjoyed racing their remote controlled Jeeps in the evenings when it cools down a little.

 

We were all excited to kick off the college football season last weekend with our friends the Hesters and loved how they rigged up an outdoor TV so we could swim and cheer on the Aggies at the same time.

Ben decided he was ready to go snorkeling and he loved going around the neighborhood pool

Back to School!

It's that time of year again...time for the kids (who have been up around 6:30am all summer) to be dead tired at 7am again and suddenly wanting to be with mom all day again.  Must be the first day of school!

 

My big, big kindergartner.  I'm still in shock that this house is past the preschool years.

My tall second grader!

Alex finally got his big bus ride after waiting not-so-patiently for two years.  He was thrilled.

Love that sweet face in the first seat.

I met the bus at school and walked the boys to their classrooms.  The school is massive again this year because so many new families have moved in to the surrounding neighborhoods, so the traffic was terrible and the bus was very late.  Ben's class had already started to I didn't embarrass him with a picture in front of everyone.  He has several friends in his class this year and a wonderful young teacher. I think it's going to be a great class for him.

Alex's class was still bustling with parents and kids unpacking.  I got him all settled in his seat and he started taking some deep gulping breaths.  I knew the tears were next as the reality of "big" school set in, so I gave hugs and kisses and dashed out of there.  My tears would not have been far behind!  It's been harder than I expected to let go of my baby but I really like his teacher as well and I think she'll be great for him.

We were blessed with some much needed rain in the afternoon, but unfortunately the downpour was right as the kids got off the bus.  But I got two soggy, tired, and happy boys home in the afternoon.

Creations

I do love watching the boys get creative and design their own buildings with legos or magnetic blocks.  In this particular case, I don't think Blue and Mario share my sentiments.  The kids have been making all kinds of cages, castles, and planes for the poor birds.

 

 This one had a walkway and a playroom.  Lucky birds.

 

 Two sad little faces!  At least they're patient enough to hang out until they get their freedom.

They even go places in their smaller space stations and rockets.

Two dollars worth of plastic tablecloths turned into an afternoon of fun with capes and stages.

Our favorite activity turned out to be a Shrinky Dinks kit that had been waiting on a shelf for a rainy day.  Since we haven't had many rainy days here, an afternoon with no plans turned out to be the magic day and boy did these kids have fun!  We colored...

...we baked and watched excitedly as our creations shrank...

...then we assembled monsters and the playscape the the kids played until bedtime.  And most of the next morning.  Where do I sign up for more of these kits??

We met up with Jack and McKayla, two sweet kids from Ben's first grade class who will also be in the same second grade class!  I'm so happy for Ben that he'll know some nice friends on the first day of school.  I think there are 11-12 classes for each grade already so that means tons of kids in the school again.  Don't know anyone in Alex's class yet but he's never exactly had trouble meeting people so that's nothing to worry about.

San Antonio

Since it's almost time to go back to school, we decided one little family weekend road trip was in order.  Matt and I picked San Antonio because it's close and fun and full of Texas history.  We stayed on the riverwalk and loved showing the kids all the sights.  Our first order of business on Thursday evening was to drop our bags and head to Ben's number one request - the Alamo.  It was too late to go inside but we made promises to the kids to return soon.

 

We wandered up and down the Riverwalk a bit and found a nice place for dinner.

Friday morning we headed straight out to Sea World to be there when it opened.

 

We started with the kiddie coaster and a few rides, then caught the pet show before some of the bigger rides opened.  It was great going early because we were able to ride almost everything multiple times before the lines started growing.

 

We were all set for the big Shamu show, but unfortunately a little thunderstorm blew in right as it was about to begin so everything had to close down for half an hour.  It actually turned out to be more of a treat because they turned on some fountains for the orcas and we got to watch them play on their own for a while.  We found out that the love letting the water spray into their mouths!

They finally ended up cancelling that Shamu show due to time constraints, so we headed over to the Azul show instead.  The kids got close-ups with the belugas before the show started.

This was a fantastic show with acrobats, divers, synchronized swimmers, parrots, dolphins, belugas, and one great comedian.

Afterward, we hopped on the splash mountain ride again just before the lines got too long and the kids hung around at the end to get just a bit more wet.

Finally, we went back for the real Shamu show and then let our tired feet tell us it was time to head home!  It was a fun day at Sea World.

Saturday morning, we made our way back out along the Riverwalk and stopped for a picture at one of Alex's favorite waterfalls.

Loved this little duck family!

The kids absolutely loved the river and all the fountains everywhere.  It was nice going in the morning because I had never enjoyed the riverwalk without thousands of other people there as well.

Finally, Ben got to explore inside the Alamo and around the grounds.  All the guys liked the cannons.

Our tiny tour guide is pointing out that this cannon has a cannonball inside.  He also requested a picture at every single cannon but I don't think we need to share all of those.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Uncle Lindy, Aunt Nell, and my cousins Brooke and Elizabeth that afternoon, but I forgot to take a single picture.  We had to get going to make our dinner reservations at the top of the Tower of Americas so the kids could finally eat in a rotating restaurant.  Matt and I also celebrated the fact that we got engaged there 12 years ago!

The views were great and we loved watching the moon come out and the sun go down.

What a fun way to end our summer!  Now a little more fun, then it's back to lunchboxes and school buses...

Aggieland!

After being in Texas for two years, it was high time to for Ben and Alex to make their first trip to College Station, home of Texas A&M University.  Never to soon to get a little maroon in their blood!  First stop - Kyle Field to see the home of Fightin' Texas Aggie Football.

 

 The kids learned about E. King Gill and the 12th man tradition and Ben asked if he'd get a chance to play in a game.

Next stop, the MSC bookstore to stock up on maroon.  I didn't buy this shirt, but I got a good laugh out of it.  Glad to know the town attitude hasn't changed since we left!

The kids found LOTS of things they loved, but we settled on just a few things they needed.

After a quick shirt change, we started wandering around campus and Matt and I reminisced about our days there.  The Academic building is still beautiful.

The kids loved seeing the pennies at Sully's feet and added a few of their own.  Hopefully getting some good grade karma before school starts!

Next we told them all about the century tree and I finally walked under it myself.  I guess after being married for more than a decade it's about time Matt and I walked beneath the huge branches.

We were teasing Ben about walking under the tree with a girlfriend and this was the face we got!

Not to be outdone on the sour faces, Alex gave us his best face at the Dixie Chicken.  A nice grilled cheese sandwich and some Tijuana fries fixed him right up, though.

We hung around to play some bones, too.  Just some easy games...we'll have to wait a few more years to teach them to play 42.

Ben was totally taken with the old saloon doors out front.

We made our way back across campus and stopped at the Former Students Association building to check out the massive Aggie ring replica.  Pretty cool!  Would have been even better if I'd remembered to wear my ring so the kids could see them together.

We all had a wonderful day and the kids had a great time seeing the campus and College Station.  We even pointed out our old apartments and Hurricane Harry's, where Matt and I met exactly 14 years ago today!  Who knew that crossing paths in a dusty dancehall would change our lives forever :)