First Day of School - We Have a Kindergartener

Yes it is already time for school here in Arizona. We start a few weeks earlier than most schools. I think it will always seem crazy to me that they go back at what I think is the middle of the summer. I remember going back in mid-September when I was a kid. But we live in a school district that has a modified school round schedule, so we get to enjoy longer spring, fall and winter breaks. When I really think about it the worst part of the summer starts around mid-July, when the monsoon and dust storms pick up and we get hot days and humid disgusting weather. So really the kids don’t want to do anything outside any more than we do. Today was no exception on the weather front. Just plain yucky. But I digress.

Jackson’s pre-school class was moved to a different school, so now Mike has to go across town to drop off Jackson first and then race back to drop Nicholas off before school starts. I took today off to join him.

We started off with a mini photo shoot, with the best that I get in cooperation with pictures. He’s cute anyway!

Showing off his new Super Mario backpack that he picked out…

This was the best we were getting this morning of a shot with both boys in it. But what was cute was Jackson hugging Nicholas and saing “ohhh”. So cute.

Waiting for daddy to pull the car out of the garage.

Jackson wasn’t having the photo shoot with his backpack out front, so we improvised.

Heading off to class at the new school We found out he does not like the new backpack so we may need to revert to the old smaller one for the time being.

In the classroom now and we are happy. Jackson has the same teacher at the new school and she has the class set up almost exactly like the old classroom at the old school, so he was right at home. Good thing we went to meet the teacher night last week. They were running late and we had to get going to get Nicholas to school on time.

By the time we made it to Nicholas’s school it was a madhouse.  We had to park across the street more than a block away and walk him to the play yard. We packed lunch on the first day and were so happy the school allows kids to bring peanut butter in their lunch, since that is all Nicholas will eat. Lunch is really the one thing we worried about most.

All set and we are on our way to school.

We hurried up to wait in the kindergarten playground. It was a bit overwhelming with all the parents in line with the kids. Nicholas was super excited to be there and get his day started. These are some of my favorite pictures of the day!

Finally in the classroom and settled at his desk we said our goodbyes.

We are so proud of how far this little guy has come and we know he is going to have a great time in kindergarten.

We picked Nicholas up after school and it was a little crazy. The kids all come piling out of the school at the same time. We were a little nervous because Nicholas is used to Mike signing him out when he was picked up at pre-school. So we did not want him to be scared if he couldn’t find us. It seemed like forever before we saw him. He was following a teacher out and I got this picture of him, before I got his attention. Our little boy just seems so big to me here.

Nicholas’s teacher is awesome. She called the house tonight to see how he was doing after school and said he had a great day. We believe it. He was in such a great mood when he got home and I was so thankful I took the day off of work so I could share this big day with him.

I realized as I was holding his hand walking into school and leaving this afternoon, that it probably won’t be that far away when he won’t want to hold my hand anymore when we are at school around his friends. That is the only thing that I teared up about today. I was so happy for him and proud of him that I could not stop smiling.

Where Did May Go?

I guess for me intention and reality have not quite aligned. I spent time transitioning my blog and getting it updated posted once and let life take over. What is up with that?

I love this song…I think it is going to be big this year

….I digress

I guess since I was last here we did a few things. We took the boys to Schnepf Farms to pick peaches, Jackson really got into it this year. He was much more cooperative than his big bro!

I spent my Mother’s Day with my 2 best boys. we were working on our backyard so it wasn’t really relaxing.

I

But the results made me happy, even if I had to spend a lot of time at my 2 favorite big box  hardware stores.

We were able to get in the pool by the middle of the month. With the life vest, Jackson now acts like he owns the pool and is giving Nicholas a run for his money. I will be surprised if they aren’t swimming without them by the end of the summer.

We spent Memorial Day Weekend with Mike’s brother’s family. In between pool time there was lots of Apple friendly fun.

Nicholas had a couple of friends birthday party’s over the weekend so we had fun with the 5 year old friends at gymnastics and Peter Piper.

Jackson took over my iPad. The only way to get him to eat was to let him have it at the table. He looked like he was at Starbuck’s.

I took the last day of school off and took the boys to school.  They had a fun last day with Miss Jacci.

We now have a kindergartner. So proud of this dude!

To celebrate we headed to Coldstone for ice cream before cooling off in the pool.

It’s officially summer in the Carr House!

Lot’s of time in the air conditioned house playing the Wii.

Jackson drew this yesterday, it looks like one of the characters in his favorite Nickelodeon show and iPad App from Team Umi Zoomi. Pretty good for a kiddo that needs a little therapy for fine motor skills.

He is so fun.

I finally finished the family room drapes. Love that Jackson was admiring them.

That is our past month. Looking forward to seeing my family and going to an Angels game this month, and hopefully I will very soon paint my bedroom. The boys are in summer camp in the mornings and for the first time since Nicholas was born, Mike has a few hours alone every morning.

Have a great week!

Week in the Life - Monday & Tuesday

I wasn't going to join the Week in the Life project this week. I decided Monday morning to go for it and just approach it differently than last year. It ends up being the same week I documented last year when I took tons of pictures every day and wrote tons of details. This year, I am taking a cue from Kelly Purkey's class at Big Picture Classes and doing a quick summary of my day, mostly from my perspective with just a few photos.

Monday July 25

Day: Monday, July 25, 2011

Wake: 5:35 a.m.

Sleep: 10:50 p.m.

Weather: 101 degrees

Work: home sick today

Plan: first day of pre-k for Nicholas

Eating: tilapia tacos

Drinking: Landshark beer

Exercising: yoga & stretching – calves very sore

Listening:  quiet house after boys are asleep

Watching:  Tori & Dean re-runs on Oxygen

Feeling:  achy, hot and tired today

Thinking: about losing weight

Doing: setting up school archive boxes from pre-school to 12^th grade for both boys

Wanting:  to purge the excess in the house

Needing:  to get some extra sleep

Loving: the box of memories Dion brought this weekend

Tuesday July 26

Day: Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Wake: 5:35 a.m. - after being licked by Marti

Sleep: 10:30 p.m. - in the family room chair

Weather: 106 degrees

Work: arrived - 9:45 departed – 7:15 home – 7:45

Plan: first day at new preschool for Jackson

Eating: awful Healthy Choice frozen meal for lunch

Drinking: iced tea

Exercising: yoga and stretching

Listening: Mike’s radio station when going to sleep

Watching: Hawaii 5-0 on the dvr

Feeling: so much better than yesterday – back to normal

Thinking: behind. I am too busy at work right today – too many meetings not enough work time.

Doing: volunteer training at Nicholas’s school

Wanting: to get home earlier at night

Needing: preservation spray from Michael’s

Loving: how excited Jackson was after getting his new outfit on for school & taking his 1^st day photo shoot

School Time

Today our littlest man started pre-school….

We debated if he was too young. If it would be a good thing for him.

He isn’t talking much yet,  and probably needs a bit more of a push and some social interaction.

We thought pre-school at 2 might be better than waiting until 3.  So today, we let go and watched our baby become a toddler….

He had a good first day and will go twice a week for now.

Nicholas gets his daddy to himself 2 mornings a week, too. Although I think he was sad not to be able to stay today when we dropped off Jackson. I think he missed his “may-me”.

Today was exactly one year ago that Nicholas started pre-school at 3.

And this afternoon we realized…they wore the same sweatshirt to their first day of school….

…maybe it’s happenstance…

…..I see it as good luck….

           …don’t you think?

A Peak at Fall Decorating, Weekend Stuff and ScrapTiffany Monday

It always makes me smile when we open up Nicholas's back pack and find his weekly report with all this happiness and lots of good praise. He loves school and I love to see him doing well. And I guess Mike is picking up on photos I like to have, because he took this one Friday afternoon on his phone and sent it to me.

Mike and I both stayed up late Friday night playing. So we weren't really thrilled when our dog Mandi had an accident and threw up in the bed at 5 a.m. She's been sick and we think the medicine is bothering her tummy. Our poor sweet girl.

The upside is we got out early to do some planting.  The heat this summer has been awful, and our plants suffered. It was still in the 110 range over the weekend. After spending a fortune over the years to keep all kinds of flowering plants in our courtyard, we gave up. We planted Lantana in the pots and at the base of the fountain. I swear those things are like weeds and will grow in any kind of situation, at least they have color. So here's hoping to saving a few bucks at the nursery.

Our little herb garden bit the dust by July too. I planted a new one with some basil, rosemary and cilantro. I'll see how it goes. We also decorated for fall. I love my little scarecrows.

I'll share a few more fall decoration pictures later this week, but here is a glimpse of one arrangement I have around the house.

This week's assignment at ScrapTiffany was to use 4 photos on a page. I tend to use 1 to 2 photos on a page, but I have been trying to use more recently. So this was a good assignment

I cropped down 4 standard 4x6 prints to 4x3.  I put new Recollection's border punch to work. I picked it up at Michael's for $5.50 after the 50% off sale and Friday's 5 hour coupon for 15% off entire purchase. This was my only scrappy purchase that day, since my shopping mission was to find fall decorations.

I also used Studio Calico's Mr. Huey's Mist on the chipboard. I love that navy, and that white I'm pretty smitten with that one too. All 10 colors are a must have whether you like to mist or not (because you will want to after you get your hands on these)!

Check out the rest of the design team's work over at ScrapTiffany today and Friday. Lot's of good stuff.

Check back tomorrow for ScrapTiffany's Tuesday Tutorial. I have a freebie to go along with it.

Friday Fun Stuff

Just one more work day to get through and then a 3 day weekend! Yippee! Yesterday I got home from work and  found this on my front porch. I can't wait to open it up and play...

I'm pretty excited about trying out making my own stamps, and I didn't know it but you can make your own embossing dies too. I know what I will be playing with this weekend.

Here is a quick card I made this past weekend.

I love that Dear Lizzy ribbon. It can dress up a simple card super fast.

Nicholas loves school and it makes me happy. Just a few minutes ago Mike told him they needed to get moving to take him to school. Nicholas said "School today, I love school. I'm going to school mommy to see Mrs. Jacci". I hope he always loves school. I finished up one more layout from his first year in pre-school.

Two more layouts and his first year will be finished. Then on to this year. Happy Weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

School Day Layout

Nicholas recently started his second year of pre-school. I thought I should probably scrap a page or two from his first year.  He started in January when he turned 3.  Recently I saw a post on Stephanie Howell's blog about her thoughts when her daughter started her first day of school and how she felt seeing her walk away that first day. Her writing inspired my journaling on this layout from Nicholas's first day of pre-school.

Supplies from Mosh Posh August 2010 Kit.

It is almost the weekend and I cannot wait! It's been a long busy week. I am planning on making these on Saturday. And Nicholas told me he would help.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great Thursday!

First day of pre-school

Today was Nicholas's first day of pre-school. I think it was much harder on mom then Nicholas. I don't even think he noticed when we left, he had so many new things to explore. He had a great time. He loved his backpack too.

Looking for our classroom.

The classroom was so much fun, lots of new books to explore.

After a full morning, we picked him up and headed back home.