Deja Vu

After years of being the best sleeper in the house, Everett came to our bed tonight at 10 o'clock because apparently his big boy bed is "juust a litttttle bit too small", told us to turn off his monitor, wanted to know why there was no pillow in the middle of the bed for him, and then asked us to pause our TV show so he could go potty and not miss it. Now, that he's established his presence, I am certain Amelia's jealousy buzzer will go off and shoot her down the stairs in no time.

Moving Up

Amelia was moved up to "level M" in reading today. According to a few websites, that is mid-to-late 2nd grade level.  She is the only child in her class to reach that level at this point. I know it is only first grade, but I couldn't be more proud of how well she's doing in school.

Hiking

We took Everett on his first hike this weekend. Amelia, having gone once before, was clearly a seasoned veteran. ....


Hanging with Uncle Butch

How a 3 year-old starts a hike...

How a 3 year-old ends a hike...

Trooper

Despite serious doubt, Amelia managed to stay up for the entire Taylor Swift concert and have the time of her life in the process...

And then this happened...

Nice Views

Amelia had this view of the mountains this morning and views from a luxury suite for Taylor Swift tonight.... not a bad way to spend your day...

Swift

Amelia is now 24 hours away from going to her first ever concert. She'll never know it, but she could have done much worse than having seats in a suite for Taylor Swift as her first concert experience.  She better give her Aunt Stacy a big hug for those tickets.

Practice Makes Perfect

I spotted Amelia doing this yesterday while we were riding bikes at the school...no need to adjust your volume, she's not making a sound. She's just silently performing for a crowd of 0.

Family Tree

After going 9 years without ever seeing a dog that looks Sophie, we ran into what may be her mom yesterday....


Dog we saw yesterday.....Sophie's mom? Grandma?...

 Sophie in her rebellious youth before she started getting sophisticated hair cuts...

Spirit

I was proud of Amelia at last night's homecoming game for her school. She stood alone, rocking her cheerleading outfit, and high-fived the players as they came onto the field before the game.  I don't know if this did anything to pump up the guys, but it went a long way toward making a 1st grader feel like she's a part of something bigger...

That's One Way To Do It

Amelia was up to her bedtime talking again. Tonight, after telling me I can live with her when she's married, she told me she knows how to get a girl. I asked her how and she said (in a deep voice) "Hey babe, marry me." and then she pumped her fist like a trucker honking his horn. So, two nights ago she was talking about Jesus's breath and tonight she is talking like a construction worker from New Jersey.

Laid Back

This guy knows how to kick back and relax on the way to school...

Deep

What do you say to your 6 year-old when they break the silence at bedtime by saying "you know, I would be happy to still be in mommy's belly as long as I could feel Jesus's warm breath on me." The only thing I could think of was "uhhhhhhh, okay"

Early Learning pt. 2

We had our first ever parent-teacher conference for Everett today.  To our surprise, we talked more about his academics than his wrestling.  We were also very happy to find out he is doing really well in school. They provided us a few metrics such as they want him to recognize 10 letter by the end of the school year (6ish months from now) and they want him to count to 50 by the end of TK (18ish months from now).  As of today, he currently already recognizes 21 letters and can count to 40 on his own. So, despite the fact that he never really talks about school like Amelia did, he apparently is following nicely in her footsteps.

Early Learning

My daughter, who is in first grade, gave me a 15 minute lesson on fulcrums and levers.  She even included a demonstration explaining how the fulcrum has to be in the middle if the loads are equal and it has to be closer to the heavier load if they aren't equal because the lighter load will feel heavier the more distance between it and the fulcrum.  I kid you not, I'm not sure what there is going to be left to learn by the time she gets to high school.

Say Cheese

This is the smile I hope Everett made in his pictures today...

However, this is the smile he keeps making whenever we ask him to smile for the camera...

Show

When you have kids, this is the type of show you get to watch all the time. And by "watch", I mean stop whatever it is you're doing and give your undivided attention to before acting like it is the greatest thing you've ever seen.  At least I enjoy the dance in this one.  As you can tell from the sounds of crunching in the background, Sophie wasn't even interested enough to look up...

Artists

We were at the craft store and they had a big sale on painting supplies. So, Amelia and I decided we'd give painting a shot. Obviously, if we were going to paint, we had to include our little partner in crime.  I was at a major disadvantage given they paint all the time and this was my first time ever attempting it.

Here are our final products...

The primary artists...

 Everett's piece - "All My Paintings Look Like Mud"

Amelia's piece - "I'll try to paint whatever my dad paints while saying "I have a talent for painting" the whole time"

My piece - "Better than I expected. Worse than I hoped."

Bride to Be

Thanks to Amelia's teacher's upcoming nuptials, Amelia rode the whole way home like this... and thanks to that, I had to explain to her why she cannot marry Everett for the hundredth time.

PieFace

Is there a better way to wrap up your week than playing a game that randomly smashes whipped cream into your face? I think not....

Saving Up

Everett came home today with a few treats from his schools playground.....Any guesses as to what they were....?


If you correctly guessed 11 acorns, I'd be impressed. However, if you correctly guessed he had all of them shoved inside his socks, I'll buy you a drink.