and happy birthday, papa jerry!

Well, I can't find any pictures of Papa Jerry, but today is his birthday. We love Jerry and Cathy so much. (these are my brother's in-laws) They have been grandparents to our boys and parents to Kevin and me.

I'll post this one, because I know it's one that Jerry will appreciate.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JERRY! WE LOVE YOU!

happy birthday, collin!

Yesterday we got to celebrate my nephew, Collin's, FIFTH birthday. I can't believe he is already five. He was the tiniest baby I have ever held. He weighed just over 4 pounds when he was born. He's still pretty skinny, but as you can see, he has GREAT BIG muscles!!!


There was so much chocolate icing on the inside of Ben's mask we had to throw it away. He also had yellow icing on his belly and arms.


Mika had a blast lounging in her little bikini. She is so sweet!

T-E-A-M! Go Team!

This is my awesome team! I love them...they are the BEST!

Thanks, Emily! It worked!

TGIF!

nuff said!

funny kids!

Benji:  When I was a little kid, my fray-vrit color was blue.  But big boys like orange and yellow.

(that big boy will be 3 in one week!)

Andy:  Today we got to play Play-Doh!  

Me:  I love Play-Doh!  What color did you get?

Andy:  Well, first I had pink and L (friend) had green.  L was crying because she doesn't like green, so I gave her my pink and I played with green.

Me:  Wow!  You are a very kind friend to L.

Andy:  The teacher told me trade with her.  You HAVE to do what your teacher says, even if you don't want to.

Oh...well, at least he understands that much!!! 

Our first official week of back-to-school and all that goes with that is almost over.  I forget every year how hard the first week is!  Andy loves Pre-K, though I am still having trouble leaving him in the CAFETERIA with about 13 million other kids.  He's fine with it, but I'm not.  Luckily, another parent doesn't love how it's all going down, either, so the problem is being handled.  I just pray every day on the way to school that each morning will be smoother than the last.  I can't wait till next year when he will be on campus with me!

i'm frustrated!

Blogger isn't letting me load any pictures!  I'm not doing anything differently.  Is it just me???

it's almost time!!!

Here are some of my favorite people...

This is my team: Suzanne, Terry, me, Eileen, Erin, and Kim. They are THE BEST team. They certainly make going back to work after a great summer much easier to do.

The boys are doing great at school. They were super excited to see all of their friends and teachers. Andy starts pre-k on Monday. I am just a little nervous about that because I will be leaving him in the cafeteria at his school in the morning, and then he will go to class from there. I know that everyone in that building will be looking out for those little babies, but he is MY baby. I wish there were a way for me to be with him until he starts class. But, I know he's okay. He has several friends in there and is so excited to go to "real school!"

In other news, Ben seems to be the victim of peer pressure--in a good way!!! He is very interested in using the potty these days, and he is especially interested while he's at school. Yay! Way to follow the crowd, little man!

Tonight was Meet the Teacher night at my school. I got to meet most of my new students, which is so exciting to me. It's fun to see them and talk to them for the very first time. They all seem like FUN kids. I am ready for Monday! I also go to see some of my kids from last year, and that made me a little (well, a lot) sad. They are bigger and I miss them! But, I know they are going to have a great fourth grade year, and I can tell I am going to love this new class.

fun with the cousins

We got to spend some time with Collin and Mika today...

I love how Andy's leg is crossed...he looks just like Kevin!

Here is Mika eating her queso... So Cute!!!

this might be my favorite part of the day

mixed feelings

My kids are, at this very moment, fighting over a toy.  I told them to figure it out, or it's going to the Goodwill bag.  (This is not an idle threat.  It would not be the first toy to meet that fate.)  So, I think tomorrow is going to be a good day for all of us.  Because they are tired of each other.  And I am tired of them being tired of each other.  And Ben just came up to me, crying, because "Andy will not be a watermelon."  Huh?  I don't know what that means, but I'm sure the cure is in spending some quality time with old friends and new teachers tomorrow, not each other.  So, I am just not feeling too sad about going back to work tomorrow.

However, I know the end of the day tomorrow will not come soon enough, because by that time I will be missing my boys terribly.  It's always hard the first few weeks.  

I am excited to see my team again.  They are the best friends to work with, and it's fun to catch up on each other's summer fun.

I really don't have much to say, but I got a mean text message from someone, telling me to update.  

Oh, Vegas!  That's why I haven't posted in a while.  Kevin and I went to Vegas and had a blast.  (THANK YOU to Le and Brandon for taking care of our boys!)  We came home broke! (Luckily, Kevin is a conservative gambler, but I'm not.  Anything he may have won, I lost.  I do not know when to quit.  I understand how people can become addicted.) We saw Danny Gans, and he was awesome.   We also saw Le Reve, which is a Cirque de Soliel show, and I didn't get it.  I think maybe it was a dream about Hell???  Anyway, not nearly as good as Love (we saw that last year).

So, there's the update of our fascinating lives.  Hope you're satisfied, Le!

make lunch--check!

Andy is so, SO excited about going back to school.  He has all his new supplies, and we recently found the perfect backpack and lunch box, after MUCH deliberation--Spiderman.  He decided, for both himself and for Ben, that the backpack needed to match the lunchbox.  I totally agree.  (Ben got Batman, by the way.)  So, for a few days now, Andy has asked if he could pack lunch in the new Spiderman lunchbox.  Well, that doesn't really make sense when we are eating peanut butter sandwiches in our kitchen.  Yesterday, he asked again if he could pack a lunch.  I told him that was a fantastic idea, because we were going to work at school for a while the next day.  A little while later, I hear him bustling around in the kitchen, and this is what I found when I got to him:

He packed "lunch" for the two of them.  As you can see, ha made excellent choices:  peanut butter crackers, granola bars, raisins, fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups, chocolate covered pretzels, yogurt, string cheese, and a drink.  Wow!  He put the same things in both lunches, because "that's fair."  I love that he thought to put all the cold stuff together on the bottom.  He's so funny!

I am so pumped to know that I will not have to make lunches for them every night...Andy obviously has everything under control!

I seriously wonder what their teachers would say about me if I sent this to school?????

okay, i'm getting there...

***I actually wrote all this on Monday, but forgot how to resize pictures on our new computer.  Got it figured out now, though!***

So, as I have been working on about 247 yards of laminated wonderfulness for my classroom, I have started getting back into school mode.  I am feeling a twinge of excitement about meeting my new students, and I am especially feeling ready to see my fellow teachers.  Most of you already know this, but I work at the best school, and I love the people I work with.  And this year we are adding a very exciting new friend--Deneise!  I am so happy that she will be in our building every day.  She just adds fun to everything!!!

Here are the boys enjoying some fun in the sun...I mean shade.

too much???

Okay, I really do not let my kids watch TV all day long.  I don't.  We do lots of other things during the day.  But, apparently what I am letting them watch is too much.  Because, the other day we went to my mom's house and as we walked up to the porch, the boys got really excited and start saying, "Nana got Aqua Globes!!!!!"  Wow.  This is a little glass thingy that you stick into potted plants so you don't have to worry about watering them and we know this because we have seen the info-mercial for them about a thousand times on this Power Ranger episode we have Tivoed.  (Is Tivo a verb?  Can I add -ed to the end of it?)  So, okay, that was kinda funny that they remembered that.

Well, then, this morning, the boys were sitting at Nana's table for breakfast and Andy sees a new grill cover, still in the bag.  "Oh, did Nana buy some Space Bags?"  I say, "Huh?  What's a Space Bag?"  He says, "You stick all your stuff in it and then put your vacuum in it and they get smaller."  

Proud moment, as I realize that this is another info-mercial that plays during Power Rangers.   So, I am feeling great guilt about the number of times they have watched Power Rangers this summer.