1st Day of 2nd Grade

First day back was a success.  Kevin seems to like his teacher and he has several friends that he was in Kindergarten with, but not 1st grade, that are now in his class again.  He was a little disappointed that it felt "just like 1st grade."  I guess he was expecting something bigger.  

Yes, he thinks he's a rocker.....

Showing off his new backpack.  This wasn't his first choice....he really wanted High School Musical everything, but they only make it for girls.  

Quick Update

Before.....

After

Before.....

After

Amazingly, the boys were in bed tonight just before 8, and both were sleeping by 8:15!  We are ready to start a new school year!!

A Day of Rest

The weekend wore us down.  More specifically it wore Zach down to the point of being sick yesterday.  He had a fever all day and had the privilege of watching t.v. ALL DAY.  Not typically what we allow, but what else is there to do when sick?  Thankfully he slept all night last night and looks like he is feeling much better.

So today is the last day of summer vacation for Kevin.  I am trying to think of something fun to do..... although I know for sure that the day will include haircuts for the boys.  I told them I would let them grow out their hair all summer, but Zach has been begging for a haircut.  

And lastly, before we get this party started, let me do a quick run down of how I've been doing with my running.....mostly to keep me on track:

Monday: 3.3

Tues.:  5.4

Wed:  3.0

Thurs. 5.5

Fri:  2.0 (walk)

Sat:  16.5 (furthest so far)

I finally tried Bob's suggestion of running 10 minutes, walking 1 and it seemed to work well as far as not feeling completely dead afterwards.  I haven't officially signed up for the Santa Clarita marathon, but it's on my list of things to do.  I have signed up for the Rock N Roll half marathon in San Jose though, which is going to be October 5th.  This looks like a fun one and it looks like I will have some good company with me too!! 

Aquatic Center

Another busy day yesterday.  I think that I am trying to pack in as much fun as possible now that I know our summer is coming to an end faster than originally planned.  We started off the day at the park, but since it was already about 95 degrees out at 10 a.m. yesterday, we didn't stay long.  Long enough to hit the baseball around a little bit and for Kevin to make a new "lego friend", who was another boy that likes lego about as much as Kevin.

After lunch we headed to the Aquatic Center.  We probably hadn't been there in two years and Kevin surprised me by not only going down the big water slide but also passing the swimming test for the big dive pool (swim all the way across without stopping), and then continuing on to jump off the high dive.  I was so proud of him!  After jumping off the first time he said, "That scared me to death", but then he continued to jump off two other times.  

Unfortunately the only bad part about yesterday was that they had to close the play area pool early due to "unsafe water conditions".  You can guess what that means, gross!  Hopefully we will not be getting sick from that water!!  

Sorry about the quality of the pictures.  I forgot my camera so I used my iPhone (yes, I got Garrett's hand me down iPhone).  

Back To School

Remember back in June, when school was just out, and I said that this summer the mornings were going to be filled with some kind of educational activity or art?  Well, now it's August and we are finally getting around to doing that.  On Monday the boys wanted to pretend they were in preschool, which was fun except for the baby voices they both decided they needed to use.  We did arts and crafts, played with play dough, learned about shapes, and made homemade english muffin bread for a snack.   Today they amazingly were already in Kindergarten where we learned about letters and then took some field trips.  One trip to the free movies to see Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium followed by Cold Stone ice cream.  Then in the afternoon we took a trip to the library where a ranger was showing the kids all kinds of animals, insects, and reptiles.  A fun day of "kindergarten" I would say.  Almost makes me think I could homeschool these boys.......no, not really.

In the midst of all of this pretend schooling though Garrett and I have been discussing Kevin's real schooling.  We had decided to put him in a private school this year but after months of thinking about this we started changing our minds.  Now, his old school starts next week.  The new school would start in September.  So we needed to make up our minds.  Thinking, talking, thinking, talking.  Ok, so we came to a decision and Kevin will be returning to his old school next Wednesday.  So tomorrow we are going on a date, Kevin and I, to do some back to school shopping.  (And yes, Susan and Sandy, this means we need to discuss the plans we had made for the end of the month.)  I'm feeling good about our decision and feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  Kevin's feeling good too (after the shock of finding out school starts next week).  

Free Fun

On Saturday we went over to Whole Foods where they were having a free kid's event.  Of course I love free things, so I "made" the kids go.   They had a music area with Zach's old music teacher, face painting, planting seeds, and food tasting.  Kevin was excited about his face painting but Zach opted out at the last minute.

Good Reads

Today was going to be my one morning to sleep in.  I didn't set my alarm, but who do you think came in a 5:50 insisting that his bed and p.j.s were wet from water?  And once I'm awake I usually can't fall asleep.  So, I've made some tea and am going to read.  I have finally discovered the joy of reading.  Some of you may have gotten an e-mail from me about this week about the "Goodreads" website.  It's been fun thinking about the books I've read.  I'm not much for books that make me work to get through one sentence.  I read to get away and if I have to think to much then it makes me fall asleep.  I think that's why I never was into reading growing up because reading was always related to school work and I never learned the joys of it (sorry Matt, I'm sure you made reading fun for your students!).  But now that the boys are getting older I've found that they can entertain themselves for a little while and I can actually read during the day instead of waiting until they go to bed and then I fall asleep.  

Anyway, I'm gonna go read now, but feel free to recommend some books for me to try out.  I go to the library almost weekly with the boys and am always looking for a new good book.