1st Day of 1st Grade...

This photo collage created with Smilebox

The Mini enjoyed his first day of school. He was excited to see his friends and reported it to be "WAY BETTER" than kindergarten. He has the same teacher and class as last year, but she has changed the room around and moved the pencil sharpener. :)

He ate a breakfast all in the shape of ones to get him ready for his day. He took a turkey sandwich, ritz bitz peanut butter crackers, a small can of Sprite, grapes, and cheese in his lunch. All of which he picked out to take on the first day. (I thought he did pretty good). 

He said he has to read a password to get in the door everyday. 

Instead of moving a clip for undesirable behavior (which he only did ONCE last year for talking), he will have to remove his magnetic gumball from the machine. He said he's NOT going to move his gumball at all this year. I hope not. 

Their sight words are called "bubble gum" words because they stick in your head. Yep, his teacher is VERY CREATIVE. 

As a whole, their class will be trying to earn "brownie points". If another teacher gives them a complement or they are working very hard then Mrs. G. will give them a brownie for the class pan. When the pan is full then the class will receive a reward. Doesn't she sound great for a 1st grade teacher? She is. 

I'm glad the Mini loves school. It makes the first day easy for the momma. 

You know it's been too long....

when you can't remember your password to sign in to your own blog! Great.big.sigh!
...and when blogger goes all fancy and changes the post formats. Another big sigh....
Well...I'm here..alone on a Thursday night. The minis are enjoying a last minute vacation get away with the grandparents while the Commander is teaching a class in Little Rock. I don't like being alone at night. It's too quiet. The days are TOTALLY different. I love being at home by myself during the days, but the nights...NO WAY! So in the mean time, here's a quick summary of our summer.
VBS x 2...the minis LOVE a VBS and so do I. I taught crafts this year......perhaps I'll request  a class next year. Craft class is WILD!

OH, and an even bigger event happened right at the end of school that deserves  a post of it's own. THE MINI TURNED SEVEN....HOW?! He enjoyed a party at the infamous Chuck E. Cheese which was another milestone in and of itself. I LOVE to put together themed parties at home, but he's all big and grown now with opinions and demanded a Chuck E. Cheese party. OH.. I tried hard to persuade him otherwise. That place puts me in sensory overload, but he wasn't having it and since it wasn't my birthday we spent 2 hours with a race car themed party at a very loud, very proud Vegas for kids.

Fast forward to July....a first trip to a beach for the minis. They.are.hooked.

Can you blame them? The Destin/Fort Walton area is fabulous. We had fabulous weather and the whole trip in general was relaxing and fun. It was our first road trip as a family. I learned that the minis are pretty good travelers when we have lots of electronics and games in tow. 

This might be my favorite vacation yet....even over Disney World. It was easy..and fun. I read books and I'm not a big reader. The minis loved the sand and catching sand crabs at night. We'll be back. 

Splash Bash on a Fishing Trip.

I'm up late...WAY later than I've been in a long time, but I can't stop looking at the pictures from the past 48 hours. They are so priceless. We spent the past few days with limited cell phone service and NO modern toys (except for a pair of night vision goggles) to enjoy family time. It was GREAT!

I noticed that my mom is not in any of my pictures, but I promise you she was there and her presence known. She took one for the team this go around and spent most of the time in the kitchen instead of in the water fishing, but let me tell you WE ATE.
We started our days with a HUGE breakfast and ended them with gourmet meals. We ate pulled pork sandwiches with Dad's BBQ sauce, chicken and dumplings, and Gumbo with fried fish. We snacked on cucumber dip from the garden. It was all so good. I'm sure you can imagine the let down we felt tonight eating frozen chicken nuggets from the oven. Yep, that was our reality check..we are home. Vacation is over.

We had a guide to take us up and down the river so we each caught fish. Here is the Wild Thing catching a trout. I caught a brown that was 19 inches, but the Commander beat me with one that measured 20 inches.

..And the Mini enjoying the river and having a good time in general. He won a contest in his boat with Grandaddy. He caught 5 to G'dad's ZERO! Don't worry. Grandaddy came back and won in the afternoon with 20 fish! I think cousin, Scott finished with 19.

What a fun weekend to remember! 

Kindergarten Graduate.

First day of Kindergarten.

Last Day of Kindergarten.

 The whole year went too fast! I think this has been the fastest year yet...He just turned SEVEN!
* He's a leader amongst his peers.
*He was awarded the Kiwanis's Terrific Kid award in front of the school at the first award ceremony.
*He was awarded Student of the Month at the last award ceremony.
*His teacher says "he's a reading machine."
*He made a new best friend.
 *He learned about different countries and created a passport.
*He made a Truck out of a shoe box for his Valentine's Day box.
*He's "brought, not hot" when it comes to school lunches.
 *He says the best thing about school is "playing outside".
*The best thing he learned this year was discovering "different patterns...like A,B,A,B"

I think the last day was harder than the first. It's amazes me how he's matured this year. I am SO VERY glad he waited to send him to kindergarten. His wonderful teacher switched to kindergarten this year so we would not have had her last year. The class is looping so she'll be moving up with them to 1st grade. YAY!!! We are excited to keep this class for another year. We had a wonderful experience with kindergarten. I hope the years to come as just as great.

Perfect Saturday.

We attended Race for the Cure again this year with some friends. The little 4 year old boy with us called it "breast fest". HA! Close enough. I forgot my camera AND my phone so no pics! The kids enjoyed the games and we got there early enough to beat most of the crowds at the vendor booths. BIG BONUS! Then the boys and I went to Chick Fil A as promised for their good behavior. (I'm not above bribery). :) We enjoyed a LONG nap and then finished the afternoon working in the yard and eating pizza.On our way to get the pizza a song came on the radio so I asked the mini if he remembered singing it in church last year. He replied "no, mom. That was back in time. I don't remember back in time". Where does he come up with this stuff??? I love those moments of random entertainment. Tonight we watched Cars II for movie night. PERFECT DAY! The only thing missing was the Commander. He's working this weekend.

Wednesday.

I think it's Wednesday anyway...I had to stop and think about it this morning. I've worked too many days in a row, so today I sent the kids to school and played catch up so we didn't have to keep sharing a 1/2 roll of toilet paper between three bathrooms. Yes, it was really that bad!
There is milk in the fridge, the snacks are replenished, AND I conquered the laundry. THAT was a challenge!


Aren't tulips just the best flowers?? I think I've texted a picture of these in the yard to everyone I know. I wish they would stay around longer. I cut some every few days so we can enjoy them inside too which might explain the gap in the middle. :)

This afternoon we worked in the yard and played outside. The weather has been fabulous, but it's making me a little nervous about the temperatures for July. Our local weather man promises that we will not have extreme temperatures like last summer. I hope he's right!
I think I'm going to attempt a garden this year so I've been planting seeds and replanting seeds. I'm not getting off to a good start! Feel free to leave me some beginner gardening tips! I've been finding some good stuff on pinterest that I hope will help. Here's an interesting tip I found on killing weeds.
*Use undiluted, white vinegar instead of Round Up.
HELLO Cheap! Good bye Weeds! I'll be trying this!

Shame On Me!

Shame on me...for neglecting my blog. This is my record of our daily lives and I've let Pinterest, Facebook, and life in general get in the way. I.will.do.better!
This little blog might become a book of "tweets" or "status updates", but I want to have something documented here to look back on these memories.

Part of my avoidance stems from a difficulty in getting the pictures from my phone to the computer. Thanks to the Wild Thing, there were over 600 pictures sitting in my phone that he took of various ceilings, floors, his fingers, and everything in between. On top of that, my hard drive is maxed out so I've been in technology overload, but the Commander has me back in business.
I found these pictures in my phone amongst the Wild Thing's photo shoots and they reminded me that no matter how fast things seem to be moving...some things never change.

Life from the battle field--A Dental Adventure.

I was NOT ready to talk about this yesterday..to anyone! Today I can somewhat laugh at the events from yesterday.
Who schedules a dentist appointment for herself and TWO rambunctious kids in the same visit? I do.
Today I can say LESSON LEARNED!
Let me just give you a play by play from our day yesterday. I started off with a NO TOLERANCE stance. Sit on the couch and keep your hands to yourself. It didn't work.

1:00-1:15 Me:complete paper work for all of us (new dentist).
Kids: jump off couches. Run from one side of the room to the other. Race each other. Have relay races.
Me: I start the counting "that's a ONE", That's a TWO....I said stop! STOP IT! I'm failing miserably at getting things under control.
1:15-the first mini is called back so I'm left with one...the wildest one!
He continues to jump. Now I'm wondering if they are ready for us to leave.
1:45-the first kid returns and the other goes back. I get some peace. Both did well in the chair.
2:00-It's my turn to be in the chair. I inform bribe the kids with a trip to Chick Fil A.
The Wild Thing climbs UNDER my chair, spills my purse, and wrestles the older brother. The older brother can't stop moving, fidgeting, and talking...NON STOP while the younger one can't stop bumping the chair.
There I was...stuck with my mouth wide open trying not to appear mortified. Our new dentist was very nice. He offered a polite "well, it looks like you've got your hands full". At 2:30...an hour and a half later, we finally left the dentist and headed to Chick Fil A, but it was NOT because my kids were so well behaved. It was because I did not have the energy to put together anything resembling a meal. Did I mention the Commander has been out of town for 7 days? ENERGY DEPLETED!

Tonight I came across this link and related to every single bit of it so I'm passing it on to you.
Take a goat to the grocery store is my personal favorite! Just insert dentist instead of grocery store and I can check that one off the list.
Isn't it good to know that we moms aren't alone? I'm happy to report the Commander is back so I can kick back and document our adventures from the battlefield.

Disney World

Santa surprised the boys with a trip to Disney World for Christmas so we just got back a few weeks ago. It was A LOT of fun! The wait times were minimal to none for most of the attractions which really helped make the trip a success.
I asked the Mini if he could go back to any park and ride one ride what would it be? He stated without hesitation "the golf ball at Epcot". He really enjoyed Epcot even though we only had a 1/2 day there. I thought it would be too old and a bit boring for the kids, but there are a few rides in the different countries that suited them and they got swords from Norway were a hit. He rode Soarin', but thought it was scary. To pass the time, the Wild Thing rode the escalator and loved every second. :)


We all loved the safari ride in Animal Kingdom, but I especially loved the parade. I love any and all parades. The Wild Thing gave an expression that I wasn't quite expecting. LOL!



We watched the parade and fireworks at Magic Kingdom three times! The Mini proclaimed it to be the "best July ever!" He's funny!

We ate breakfast with Mickey and the gang which was fun, but we enjoyed seeing them in the parks even more. They took pictures with ALL of their favorites including Lightning McQueen and Mater, Buzz Light year and Woody and even the green army men.

It was a fun trip, but it should come with a warning...I've STILL got It's a Small World stuck in my head! :)