'Twas the Last Day of Summer...

...and all on the couch:

'kay, I'm soooo not feeling clever enough to come up with a whole rhyming story right now. Sorry.

So, yeah, it's the last day before school starts. Well, for Easton: he starts kindergarten tomorrow! Oh how we're going to miss him! Last week we did a trial run to see how long it might take us to get to the school.

We saw the building through the window and Dalton asked, "Are you crying, Mom?" and I said, "I'm not right now but I might that first day...(which made me think about it) oh, yeah, I'm crying a little now." Dalton said, "I'mna cry too cuz I'm gonna miss Eassin." :( Easton said, "You'll be at your school, silly" but D's school is only two days a week...and it doesn't start till next week.

To commemorate the end of these 3 months of hanging with all three kids we took that above picture. I put my camera on timer and that was our one and only picture...not bad, eh?

As the last days of summer break have wound down...we finished up swimming lessons:




Each boy passed on to the next level with flying...

...colors!

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We also wrapped up the soccer season:






Easton scored a goal at the very end of his very last game! At the time it went in, I thought E just had the assist, then I saw the way he looked over at me, the other coach (with a baby on his back) giving him a high five, and people cheering "Good one, Easton!". Good thing I can re-watch it on this video whenever I want!

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Someone else is changing with the seasons...little Autumn has taken her first steps!



The very first two happened in the church lobby on 8/8/10! She was being too loud to sit in the service so Jason and I had her out in the lobby and trying to still listen to the sermon. I was holding her hands while letting her step around and when I let go she took a few steps towards me. I was blocking Jason so he didn't exactly see...but he was there. :)

She's not real brave still, even 9 days later, and I think her max amount of steps before falling or giving up is 4. But she's getting there! Here's a couple steps if you wanted to see her go:

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Now we're just about ready for school to start. Easton got his first pair of shoes with laces and learned how to tie them immediately!




Each boy got an end-of-summer hair cut and on Monday they each got to meet their teachers and see their classrooms.

Dalton (and A, E, and I!) went for his class visit at 9 a.m. Sure he's known Mrs. M in passing the last two years...but this was his first time to really get to talk to her much and check out the classroom. She brings the three year olds in to show them around as it's a tough transition. She shows them some of the class pets, shows him the potty and explains he can go whenever he needs to, he doesn't have to ask. They practice hand-washing. Then she shows each kid a few lessons. That's how Montessori is...the kids will come in and choose some work that they've had a lesson on. Dalton was very chatty and talked about random things, "You know what? I have a McQueen water and an Ariel one." "One time Daddy put a balloon in my pants and I tooted." Yeah, seriously. Jason and I were saying that we were glad he was on the comfortable end of the spectrum...even if he needs a little fine tuning. :)




I haven't a clue how D will do in school. I think he'll separate okay...he does fine at church and he's got several good pals in the class already. Mrs. L (the helper) has been in our house and he's watched Easton going the last two years. It's the other stuff I'm not so sure about. Will he be quiet when he's supposed to be? Will he beat anyone up if they make him mad? Will he actually remember to go to the potty when he needs to? Will he close the door? Will he sit in there and call for someone to come wipe his bottom? Will he remember to push in his chair and put away his work? There's so much to remember! I think he'll do alright...eventually. He's a super sweet little guy, even if he's a bit rascally at times. We don't work with him much on academic stuff because he's not into it like Easton was. But he did make his very first letter...a "D"...at dinner the other night!

Unfortunately, when he sees a D somewhere he says, "Hey! That's my number!" School will be good for him. :)

Last night it was Easton's turn to check out his classroom and meet his teacher. I dropped the littlest two off at Miss Tracy's and Jason met E and I at the school. We found his name on the list of 3 different kindergarten classes and headed to his new room. His teacher is young and adorable and seems sweet. She's pregnant. And apparently her husband and I have three Facebook friends in common. :S (She does not know this...Miss Tracy told us.) Late last night Easton mentioned how excited he was and how he thought Mrs. T was "so pretty".

We didn't spend a ton of time in his classroom but we looked around a bit and filled out some forms and such. We introduced Easton to the other kids that would be sitting at his table: Connor, Paige and Jayley. The parents weren't being particularly social nor encouraging their children to be that way. Weirdos. Interestingly, I read the name of one of Easton's classmates from last year on the roster: Chase! I was so excited! They weren't exactly close pals but they get along fine and I'm just glad there will be a familiar face for Easton tomorrow. We didn't seem him at Back to School Night, though. I got a little teary eyed as we were in the building and checking stuff out and when I asked Jason, "Gosh, what will we do on Back to School Night when we have 3 students here?" I could hardly get all the words out. Definitely tough to think about having a 4th grader, 2nd grader, and Kindergartener one day. Ack!

Easton doesn't seem nervous at all. He seems excited even. Dalton too. I think the fact that they're handling it so well helps me handle it better. It was so so tough sending a miserable Easton to preschool in those early early days. Poor guy. It was good for him. We really think that. One of our big goals was to make separation easier once Kindergarten rolled around...and here we are. He told me, "I might be a little shy at first but I won't cry like I did for preschool." Well, there ya go. I can put a little completed "check" next to that there goal.

My big guys. This summer with them has been a blast. I love these kids. All three of 'em!








*deep breath*

We're ready for this next chapter to begin!


That's all, folks!

Phoning It In

Just for fun I'm going through the last few months of picture on my Blackberry and posting just those pictures today.

I don't have a little point and shoot anymore which I used to bring in my purse a lot. While I am totally in love with my new camera, it's sorta a two handed thing and it's also big and just hard to imagine actually whipping it out to use sometimes.

But, it's not like I would've brought my DSLR to the latest Twilight movie anyway...so the Blackberry had to capture the moment when Lauren and I yet again went to the midnight showing with the other TwiHards:


I think her allegiance lies with Buffy as far as vampires go:

Traitor.

Here's a shot of Autumn watching the boys in gymnastics. Easton is swinging out over the foam pit from that zip line there where my flash is:


Sometimes the boys ask me to take their picture with various things we come across. Like this fabric display at Hobby Lobby:


Being a big girl at Borders:


Sibling love:


Here's Easton when he got his own library card.

If I had known he'd be doing it that day I would've brought the big camera but it was a spur of the moment thing.

People think it doesn't get all that hot here in Colorado...and sure, we probably don't have as many scorchers as some of y'all. We also don't have the humidity...but just to prove it sometimes gets toasty here I took a picture at 8:30 at night not too long ago. Notice the temperature on the rearview mirror and the time on the clock and tell me that's not hot.

But I will say I'm glad I live here in the summertime compared to where some of my readers live. This morning it was a pleasant 69 on our drive to get our doughnuts and 82 as I type this. I'm just trying to say it gets way hot here sometimes too is all. :) I'm from Texas, Jason is from Wheezy-ana...we know it could be worse. In fact, we even laugh about it some mornings after soccer. We'll pile in the car after games all panting and sweaty at, like, 9:30 and can't believe it when the temp reads a mere 73 or something. Perhaps that's why we moved away from Texas and Louisiana. :) Not really.

My poor children dying of heat exhaustion in the sub-80 temps:


Okay, moving right along. Here's Easton showing off one of his old stand-by tricks of the ol' hang a spoon off your nose variety:

He was not sure he'd be able to do it with plastic but whaddya know?

My darling girl killing time with me in the front seat of Gramoo's car while we waited on Jason that day when the boys were at Gramoo's for the night:


On a recent upper 90-degree afternoon we headed up to the splash pad just for the heck of it. I put Autumn in a swim diaper but didn't put on her suit. Look at her in all her chubby glory:




The boys had a blast but they always get so chilly. Even in 96 degree weather:






Another afternoon recently we headed to the mall. The boys spotted some wings at Claire's and begged to try them on then had me cracking up as they shook their booties at me:


Poor Easton is always getting pestered by Autumn in the car:

A foot like that is not so bad but sometimes she'll claw him or pinch him and he's usually quite surprised and unhappy 'bout those ones.

I took some pictures at soccer on Saturday. Just of warm-ups with J's team:



I, of course, did not catch either of Easton's two goals. (Yay, E!) Nor did I get either of Dalton's. (Yaaaaaay D!) I so wish I had video. They were D's first two goals ever. That team (that Jason coaches) has two very talented boys on the team. The other teams never stand a chance, honestly. Even when it's 3 on 4 with just one of those two talented boys the other team can't get by them or stop them. Well these boys know how good they are but they help out their team by passing them the ball and such (Jason gives them "secret passing missions"). For Dalton's two goals one of those kids acted as a blocker of sorts to make sure no one could get the ball away from Lil' Diddles and he could take it all the way to the goal. Which he did. So sweet! And Dalton was like a whole new player out there after his first goal. He really turned it on and was running around and trying harder. Just in time for the season to be over LOL!

Saturday night Jason had another of his poker parties so the littles and I cleared out of the way for a bit. I took the kids to Chick-fil-a for dinner and playing. Autumn got to get down and play since my kids were the only ones in there:


She thought it was so fun and the boys thought it was, like, the most fun ever to have her there.

Nearly a year later and they're still totally crazy about their baby sister. I knew they'd like her and all but I thought some of their excitement might wear off a bit but that hasn't happened yet. When she wakes up they're usually dying to come see her. After she's done nursing I let them know they can come in and they come tearing down the hall. She's just as crazy about them, of course. Ahhh, I love raising little siblings. So so special!

Anyway, after our time at Chick-fil-a we decided to head somewhere else. We saw a beautiful rainbow on our way...


See where it ends? The ice cream store!


Dalton spontaneously prayed, "Dear Jesus, please let the rainbow be there every time and help Daddy have a good party..." and a few more things. When he finished Easton hilariously declared, "Now that's the spirit!" Love those goobers!


And my girl loves ice cream. She had her first tastes at Sweet Tomatoes not long ago and she was crazy about it. I'm really not the type to give sweets to a baby. Easton didn't have sugary stuff till his birthday party. Dalton didn't have it until about 18 months. But I wanted to see if Autumn was anti-soft foods still or if it was just healthy pureed foods.

Yeah...it's just that just doesn't like the healthy stuff. Girl's got a sweet tooth!




She's adorable. She's quite vocal about wanting more and will try her darndest to repeat whatever it is you're trying to get her to say in order to get another bite. So much for not giving her junk, eh?

As we finished our cones, Outkast's "Hey Ya" came on and Easton couldn't help but get up and dance. With his cone. Yeah he flung some ice cream on the floor but the people working there were enjoying his boogie so much they didn't mind at all.

He was much cuter than he looks here. :)



Anyway, that wraps it up as far as camera pictures go. Till next time....

Apparently I'm not just slacking on the blogging lately...I've been slacking on the picture-taking too. Hmmm.

I have only a few.

Autumn is finally doing better with solid foods. She's still not too fond of pureed stuff (we've offered applesauce and yogurt) but she did like ice cream. Kind of a lot. :) However she's doing the finger foods. She ate half a Nutri-Grain bar twice last week:


We've been playing quite a bit on the new Wii Fit Plus the Alabamaws blessed me with for my birthday:

Thanks again, Maws!

Autumn being cute:


At church nearly two weeks ago Autumn picked up a cold. She then gave it to Dalton. And last Friday night (a week ago now) Jason woke up feeling miserable and feverish too. Well, not too long after he woke up...Dalton woke up: puking. And puked some more. And E had a round of it. And I was sick on the other end. M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E. It was a rough night. We had to skip soccer except Jason coaches D's team so he had to show up and then find someone to cover for him.

We had a very lazy day and little Diddles even fell asleep on the couch:

Easton seemed to have faired the best through all of it and Jason missed the GI stuff all together. Whew.

We also had to skip church because of still running fevers. So we had some quiet time around the house. Dalton is back on a puzzle kick after months of not really doing them. You might remember he's a bit of a puzzle prodigy. Well, at not quite 3 and a half he is rocking the 70-100 piece puzzles labeled for 5+:


I can't really remember what else there is to report on. We finished up gymnastics last week. We've still got swimming lessons twice a week. Dalton is doing great in them (he's our more timid, sensible child). He's going to pass this session. His teacher says he's doing great. There is an Autumn in his class! Just this last week I saw him willingly doing "bobs" which is what the teachers call it when the kids hang onto the side of the pool and lower themselves into the water to cover the tippy top of their head. And Dalton does that now! They do a bunch repeatedly "bob"bing in and out like that.

Plus, he's quite the ladies man. His teacher just loves him and invited him to the hot tub after class once. The sign says they want you to be 6 so I never let the boys go in but if the teacher was asking for him who am I to stop them? So both boys got to hop in and D's teacher held him on her lap. Well the next time, his teacher wasn't there but some other teacher was in the hot tub and was like, "Dalton! Dalton! You're the cutest one! Come see me!" and pulled him onto her lap. (No idea how she knows him...I guess just from him being 'the cutest one'?) She was with one of her teacher friends and was having Dalton show off his smile to the other teacher going, "Isn't he so cute?" This mama would have to agree. :)

Then Easton...well, he's doing awesome as well. He's been able to swim (even coming up for breaths) since last summer and this summer he's working on refining his technique. His teacher is fabulous and really seems to embrace Easton's, um, "energy". And he's great about working with Easton at his ability because he's so far ahead of the other kids in his class somehow. Those kids do not share in Easton's fearlessness and so Tyler (the teacher) is always using Easton as the example, "Let's watch Easton" which doesn't go to E's head but clearly goes to mine, hee hee! (My brag...my blog, remember?) Easton is working on refining his techniques like side breathing and swimming long distances. Tyler always shouts something to me during lessons it seems, like about how brave E is (or how crazy on another day). One time he remarked on E's stamina and the next day said his goal was to wear Easton out. He wants to see what Easton does when he gets tired (in the water). We're still waiting. Ha ha ha. One day last week none of the other kids showed up for class so Tyler worked on some diving with Easton. Combining swimming with gymnastics (as you do in diving) is something right up little E's alley. So first Tyler taught him the technique off the side of the pool. Then they moved to those starting platforms that the swim racers use. Then he even dove head first (well, I guess it would technically be his hands that hit the water first) off the diving board many times! E was bummed he wasn't allowed to flip just yet, the goob. Diving classes start at age 6.

I almost want to ask Tyler if he'll be teaching any of the next level up classes so Easton can have him again. He's been soooooo great with/for E. The day they decided to work on diving they swam side-by-side over to the deep end where the diving board is. And when Eastie was diving, Tyler wouldn't even get in the water. He'd stand on the side and give Easton tips and pointers and then just wait for E to swim back to do it again. At class on Wednesday Tyler wanted a kick board for the students but he didn't have one so he sent Easton swimming across the pool to get one from another teacher. I just love watching my little fishies!

Lessons end next week because school starts (for E) the week after that! Cannot believe this summer is about to come to an end...which also means my girl is about to be ONE!

I must go feed her now so have a good weekend, Blogland!

Deutsch Day

So our last name is German. Jason can speak (some) German. His first honeymoon was largely in Germany. So, you might say he's a fan of the country.

Well, one day while exploring our newest new library, we came across a book "Cooking the German Way" and an idea was born. We decided we'd surprise Daddy one day soon with a Germany Day. I told my amazing homeschooling friend Jessica and that evening she'd sent me several ideas and links. She's awesome.

First we planned our menu. Only, the German desserts aren't really our thing: lots of custards and puddings and I guess Jason's not THAT German if he's so grossed out by that. :) Even Black Forest Cake does not sound so very delicious. So, I opted for German chocolate cake. You know, at least it claims to be made with German chocolate. If Betty Crocker really goes to all that trouble.

My next issue was that I was wanting to find spaetzle. Well, wouldn't you know it but neither Walmart, Target or our local grocery store (King Soopers) carried it. On a whim I decided to check World Market and bam! it was suddenly Germany day.

So that afternoon I started the sauerbraten in the Crock Pot and the kids and I went to "work" online. We watched a little Star Wars dubbed in German. Yoda speaking German? Funny, it was. We also learned a few words and phrases. Then we listened to some German composers:


Autumn was moved.

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Easton says what he does at the end because I guess the picture we saw of the dude in the baroque wig reminds him of a certain founding father.

We then moved onto doing a little conducting:

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We had more plans but I was somewhat poorly prepared and the boys got a little bored of my Googling and were all, "Is it quiet time yet?" so they had quiet time and I made our cake.

Then they did some bike riding in the garage. I'm somewhat ashamed to say that it was the first time either boy had been on a bike in 2010. But...this year Dalton can reach the pedals enough to...well... PEDAL!


And Easton has totally outgrown his bike:


Well while we were in the midst of our non-German fun Jason called to say that he was on his way home (early!). He decided to leave right after his physical therapy and come straight home. We were excited but unprepared...so we had to rush to do some more of our German plans like painting flags:



(Psst, that color on the bottom of E's is the one he thought looked the most "gold".)

We were also going to have Easton practice his printing on a menu but we suddenly didn't have time for that either so I made it and E just colored in one of the flag outlines I drew for him:


We had also planned on a traditional potato dumpling but no longer had the time for those either. When Jason walked in the boys wished him a Happy Germany Day and had practiced that they'd greet him with a "Hallo, wie geht's?" but I'm not sure if they did. Maybe they got the "Hallo" out. When he walked in he saw our sad little "menu" and flags and we had Bach and Beethoven playing. He thinks we're fun. :)

So it was the sauerbraten, spaetzle, asparagus and German chocolate cake. The kids tried all of it but liked none of it. Well, Easton liked the cake.

After abendessen we moved on to a round of topfschlagen which is best explained by this:




It's a traditional German game where, you wear a blindfold and carry a spoon and bang it around the room while the rest of us shout heiß (hot--sounds like "heiss") or kalt to guide you on your way to a cooking pot hidden in the room and can tell it's the pot by the sound your spoon makes when it hits it:

Under it was supposed to be a piece of schokolade (say it outloud) but since we'd just had the cake and all we didn't do that part.

Herbst (German for "Autumn" which we called her all night) says, "Yay!"


Then we called it a night. In the bath that evening Easton was being a bit naughty and when he was hearing about the consequences he said, "But I couldn't understand you (my warning prior to the consquence) because you were speaking German!!!" However, I was speaking plain English. Nice try, das Kind. You clever thing, you.

Anyway, that was our fun day of learning about the ol' Fatherland. We have plans (secret ones) for more fun culture days coming up. And I'll try to plan a little better next time.

Auf Wiedersehen!