First Report Card

Evan got his first report card today. We are so proud of how well he is doing! He did great on everything they've covered so far and he he had E's (for excellent) on all of the "behavior" parts. I was especially proud of that. I'd had a moment of fear last week when there was a "sideways" thumb sticker on Thursday and  "thumbs down" sticker on Friday. But, luckily after a quick e-mail to his teacher it turns out they were just randomly placed. Apparently we are good to go as long as there is a sticker there and not some other kind of mark. Whew! That was a relief!

We've had a very busy week.

Matthew was out of town Sunday night until Wednesday. That alone makes it "busy".

Evan had bookfair on Wednesday (Evan did not get my whole wallet or a debit card, but he did get some fun books).

Thursday they had an "Apple Feast" in kindergarten and Evan's class was supposed to bring Apple Bread. I'd never even heard of Apple Bread, but I googled it and found a recipe on allrecipes.com (love that site) and it turned out really yummy! The recipe was enough for two loaves, so I made one big one for Evan's class and 4 small ones. I had planned on giving them to Evan's teacher, assistant, the principal, and assistant principal (we're still going for a Wow Work, just kidding... kind of), but it smelled so good that I ended up saving two of the loaves for us and only giving them to the teacher and assistant. I was just too curious to not try it.

And then we kicked off our fundraiser at school today. I really wish I had had my camera to capture Matthew dressed up as a $100 bill, with a blue wig and giant sunglasses! And our principal looked pretty funny too in his dollar sign coat trimmed in gold, blingy necklace, wig, and glasses. It was funny, but oh my... the kids get SO wound up. And with our particular group of kids that is really not good.

Tomorrow is Color Wars day and all next week every day is some sort of dress up day. Yikes! Wonder if I can take the entire week off next week? Normally I enjoy school spirit activities, but this year with this group of students.... I just want to stay in bed next week. I'm tired already just thinking of it.

The good news? Next week is the last week before Fall Break. And over Fall Break?

We're going to DISNEY WORLD!!!!!

I can't wait! And neither can the kids. A two year old has no concept of time, so every night she thinks when she wakes up we are going to Disney World to see Mickey and Minnie and Daisy, and Goofy. And a 5 year old is not particularly better. He's understood that we are going for longer and so now it has seemed to him that he's waited so long that he can't believe it is really almost here. He just keeps saying... it's forever away.

Oh, but it's not! It's only 8 more days!!! Yippee!

Oh Dear.

Evan is going to the book fair tomorrow. I told him I would give him some money.

His response, "Just give me your whole wallet."

I told him it probably wouldn't do him much good since I hardly ever have money in my wallet. He then said, "Well, can I have a debit card or something? That will do."

Oh dear.

Chloe informed me tonight that Phineas and Ferb was "totally cool!"

Oh dear.

When we started to head up to bed, she was looking for her paci (Yes, she still has it. I'm finding that battle not worth the energy to tackle. I'm a bad mother) and said, "Come out, come out whay-ay-vor you are!" in the absolutely cutest little baby voice ever.

Oh dear.

She told me as I tucked her in to bed that she loved me "more than anything" as she "nuggled for just one second".

So dear.

Evan told me I was "the best mommy in the world." He also told me he would rather me wait so that he could make cookies with me than have me make them so that they are ready for him to eat (that is saying alot!).

My dear.

Love you so much, my dears.

A Beautiful Day at the Park

Star of the Week!

Evan was THRILLED that he was chosen to be the "Star of the Week" next week. One of the very special honors of being Star of the Week is that he got to bring Smokey home with him for the weekend. Smokey came with his own little overnight bag which included the poster for Evan to fill out, Smokey's journal documenting all of his adventures, a special book that Smokey likes to read, and a disposable camera. Evan carried Smokey with him everywhere (except when we went to the park and could have actually taken some pictures of Evan and Smokey doing something that did not involve wearing pajamas, oh well). He had so much fun and was just so excited that it was his turn!!

Sometimes I miss being a kindergarten teacher:).

By the way, being a kindergarten mommy is alot of work, LOL. But, we've had so much fun doing all of his things for school together.

Next weekend we are creating a model of the eruption of the volcano onto the city of Pompeii for his social studies project. He is basing on the book, Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House). I figured he might understand it a little better with the background from the fiction book.

the itsy bitsy.... SPIDER!!! AAAHH!

I spotted this very large garden spider and her beautiful web as we were arriving home yesterday. She lives in the flower bed right off our driveway. I decided to take a picture of her. Then, I discovered that she looks even more frightening when in the zoom lens. Actually, I'm not sure what was more scary, seeing her magnified 300 times or waiting for the camera to focus on her magnified 300 times so that she was just a blur and I couldn't tell if she was moving or not! It was strangely thrilling. I don't get out much, ok?

Anyway, I've decided to name her Charlotte and I'm pretty sure that she is trying to spell words in her web. Her handwriting is just really bad, so it looks like scribble. But wait.... who's the pig?

Evan's Community Helper

We had so much fun making this little construction worker. Evan did a great job cutting, gluing, drawing, coloring, and writing for this project. Mommy traced the patterns for most of it and supervised. Evan occassionally had to cut something out more than once, but he didn't mind. He was so excited while working on him. He couldn't wait to take him in. He was so proud of his work.

Next up, social studies fair. Oh my!

Summer's Last Bang!

We ended this summer just like we did last summer because we've decided it needs to be a tradition... with a FABULOUS, once a year treat, dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and great seats for Boomsday! We love it so much, we've decided to book our reservations NOW for next year.

We went with our dear friends, Robin and Dave. It was great for us to all have some adult time.

Robin and I have known each other since we were little tiny girls. We've cheered together in both middle and high school. She became my little sis in our sorority in college, we lived together for two years in college, and she was my maid of honor in my wedding. And throughout all of that, I'm pretty sure I've always been about 2 inches taller than her. So, I'm not sure what happened in this picture. I think she was on a hill.

Date nights are SO awesome!

And of course the fireworks were great!

No idea who the random people are worshiping the fireworks, but I thought they added to the picture.

One of the BIG and I do mean BIG advantages to eating at Ruth's Chris the night of Boomsday is the valet parking. You can, usually, get out of there quickly and miss a lot of the horrid traffic that usually accompanies that night. This year, however, our brilliant valet delivered our car the wrong way and then the other brilliant valets quickly delivered several other cars, blocking us in. We had to back about 1/4 of a mile up a hill through a sea of people until we could turn around. I thought Matthew and Robin were going to kick some butts. Dave and I cowered and stressed quietly as usual. We are such a well-balanced foursome. But, thanks to Dave's great driving skills and Robin yelling at several people to move or be run over we made it. Once we got out of the parking lot we were good to go!

And a very special thanks to Moppy and Poppy for coming down, (or is it up? maybe over?) to visit us and watch the kids for us to enjoy our night out. Evan loved his lobster dinner and Chloe loved her ice cream!!