a final fall recap!

It truly was a fun-filled Fall! This was Way's first year to recognize and learn what a pumpkin was! Perfect, since he's such a cute little pumpkin!

 It was Miles' special JK year, so we had our first field trip together (though this was my 3rd time to attend the JK pumpkin patch field trip)! I was so excited to go with Miles! We had a blast!

  James, Miller and Miles and then Miles and Walker

Thanks for having me, Miles! I love you!

And of course, Halloween comes with pumpkins! The boys and I were so proud of Daddy carving our Baylor and "Wink" pumpkins! You did a great job, Daddy!

And this year, we had a ninja, Harry Potter, a punkin' and Spiderman! We went out trick or treating with our neighbors and had a fun evening together!

Finally to wrap up Fall in one fell swoop (or blog post). . .Thanksgiving!! Again, JK is a big year and in JK, they also have their big Thanksgiving Feast! So before Thanksgiving break, Miles invited us to his classroom where he and his friends, sang songs, told us what they had been learning about the Native Americans and Pilgrims and then served us beef stew they had made!!!
Flying Eagle, we loved the Thanksgiving Feast, and love you even more!!

Then, we were off and headed to South Carolina for Thanksgiving! This year we were particularly thankful that Chad was okay. He had just suffered a severe ear trauma incident on a plane ride to NYC. He was incapacitated for over 2 weeks suffering from hearing loss and extreme vertigo! But praise the Lord, he has been restored to full health!

It was wonderful to be together with Mimi & Grandpa and Mary and Kevin! We made s'mores, played spy outside, had a big family photo shoot, watched lots of football (even if the games ended poorly), ate and just spent time together. We are thankful!

 Happy Fall, Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! ;)

wrapping it up

May always comes as a hurricane around here. It's predicted to be wild and crazy, but there's not really a way to prepare for it. We just hunker down and try to stay afloat. But unlike a hurricane, it is fun. Exhausting, but fun! And since today was our last day of the school year for all of us, I better go on and get JK down in the record books, because summer starts tomorrow!!

JK is just a sweet, sweet  year for our boys! The school they attend has a special area for JKers and is so nurturing and truly bonding for all of the kiddos! This year for field day, we headed to a family farm! The entire JK was able to go fishing, ride horses, plant sunflowers and partcipate in traditional field day activities! What a fun-filled day! I'm so thankful I was able to take the day "off" and head out to spend field day with Charlie. It was a treat!

 And as a JK wrap up, Charlie and his friends had a special program filled with sweet songs about the year and all they learned!

 

 Thank you Mrs. Anderson for taking Charlie under your wing and for a wonderful, loving Junior Kindergarten year. We love you Mrs. Anderson!

a JK Thanksgiving feast

Today was the highly touted JK Thanksgiving feast in Charlie's class! Because we had been before in Luke's JK class, we knew what to expect and we were excited! I remember being excited with Luke because we didn't know what to expect at the "feast" and also because he was our first child to have any sort of program. This time around, I think I was excited to celebrate with Charlie, see his pack of friends and observe him in his surroundings without his big brother. See, little Chuckles LOVES his big brother and we often find him following along and doing whatever Lukey tells him to do or doing whatever Lukey is doing. So it's fun to see who Charlie is when his big brother isn't influencing him for good or bad! :)

AND. . .the Thanksgiving feast was cute! All the little kiddos were proud to present what they have learned about the very first Thanksgiving, Pilgrims and Native Americans. Each boy and girl had a Native American name and were adorned with Indian headdresses and outfits. Charlie and his friends sang songs for the parents, after telling us what they had learned, and then served us the Thanksgiving stew their class had made! It was tasty too!

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Luke and Charlie's school, Charlie's teacher, who was clearly chosen by the Lord to wrangle all that boy energy, and Charlie's little friends--who make it fun for Charlie to go to school!

Here's little Red Feather (being shy at first, of course)

We love you, Red Feather! Thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving feast with us!

JK and first grade!

Crazy unbelievable, but 4 weeks ago, little Way was born! And though I've been in a little fog of nursing/bottle feeding/pumping and diaper changing, we've also sent our 2 oldest boys off to school!

Charlie has started at his new school, same as Luke's school, and is in JK this year! It's the big time for him, quite an adjustment from his Parents Day Out last year. 5 days a week---though 2 of them are for only 3 hours. I've been sappy about it, but now that he's in full swing, I know he's in good hands and will learn lots and lots this year! He's probably the youngest and smallest in his class, but he has a big heart and we are praying and trusting that the Lord is taking care of him! It's hard for this Momma not to worry about him--he has a zeal for life and a sweet heart, and I don't want it to get crushed. I just want to be able to protect him, and all of our boys hearts from discouragement, but I know it's a way to grow. I also know that Isaiah 40:11 tells us that. . ."He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart." What more of a comforting feeling is there?? Thank you, Lord!

Charlie on his first day of school in JK and with his teacher, Mrs. Anderson! The best part of my day, is everyday when I pick Charlie up, I see him in the carpool line with his little blond head bobbing up and down and hearing him scream with a smile on his face, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"

And then there's Lukey, our little first grader! I'm just not all that nervous with him and school work. Sometimes I get nervous about other things, but he's got the school work part down! He sailed through Kindergarten and is not looking back! He's so ecstatic that he will be studying the rainforest in first grade, among lots of other exciting things! I am thankful that I've been pretty at ease about the start of the year with Luke. It helps that he seems to have a good class of kiddos and some great friends learning along with him! Luke told me before school started that he didn't want to go back to school, he loved summer and he wanted to stay home with me. He wanted me to home school him. Oooohhh, pulling on my heart strings, he did!! Not like I don't think about home schooling every other day. But, at least for this year, this is our plan, so I reminded him of all he liked about school, encouraged him and prayed with him, and the Lord helped ease his way. Luke's been beaming after school since day 1! Hooray!

Lukey on his first day of 1st grade! Love that smile and love hearing that everyday so far is better than the day before!! :)

t ball and jk wrap up

Not the most creative blog post title but I realized I hadn't closed out Luke's JK year yet and needed to do so! I've been turning my blog into blog books--can't remember who started me on this, but I now have 2 (1 from my first 3 years of blogging and 1 from my last year of blogging) and plan on making a blog book at the end of each year! It is so much fun already going back and reading stories and the boys LOVE looking at themselves in the books and asking me to tell them about the pictures! So, click here if you ever want to make some blog books for your family. It's a perfect way to journal the big and small events in our lives!

So, on to making sure I document Luke's end of the year in JK! Grandparents Night and Open House were conveniently combined into one night! Luke had been talking about showing us all of his creations for weeks, so he was thrilled when the day finally arrived! Hooray that Mimi and Grandpa were able to come!

 One of the last units in JK was studying the rain forests! He made a paper mache snake and was so proud! One of my favorite things they did in JK was his picture journal. They had journal titles at the top of each page of their journals and were to draw pictures of what the journal title described. For example, one was for the day the JK went to the pumpkin patch. Luke drew a picture and said he got stung by a bee and had fun kicking up dust. In fact, his bee sting was a HUGE deal for him and I remember being so thankful I was able to go on the field trip (less than 2 weeks after Miles was born) to comfort him! There were lots of other entries, but I know it will be something we pull out many times down the road---to remember the cute things he thought about when he was 5!

And what school year is complete without a Field Day? You know, one where the kids all run around on the lush green grass in May? Well, this year, we were inside the gym due to the torrential rain we had been having. It would have been a mud fest! But the gym was fine for the 3 legged race, which Luke and Sophie tore up! Good job team!! There was also good traction for the classic tug-o'-war! Great sportsmanship, Mrs. Patterson's class!

Luke also had an end of the year program, where he and the rest of JK sang songs about the seasons and different events that happened during their JK year. It was really sweet---or would have been--if Chad and I hadn't been so distracted by our little "shark!" See him in the middle?

 Luke was determined to be a shark the ENTIRE program, making these frightening adorable faces non-stop. Chad and I kept looking at each other throughout the program thinking, "What are ya suppposed to do?" I apologize to all of the other JK parents out there whose lovely pictures of their children included a fiesty shark in them! I mentioned our shark to Luke's teacher after the program and she laughed and said she would try to encourage him to smile during the program and every time his eyes caught hers he made a fiercer shark face, so she stopped trying! Ha! Yeah, us too! Aaaahhh, my dear Lukey, one of these days you will laugh reading this!

And finally, Luke was up to bat again this year! His second year of playing t-ball had a stormy start. We had practices and games cancelled, but just wrapped up this week. Luke wasn't a fan of the outfield, because the players were told if they caught the ball to throw it to first base. There were some positions that never touched the ball which led to a bored Lukey--he even sat down in the middle of the outfield during one game! However, the games where he played short stop he was thrilled to run and dive for balls and was so proud to tell us he "fielded lots of balls!"

He loved batting of course and was thrilled to get a triple one game. That same game, after his triple and his next at bat, he ran right by several other teammates on base and was told to go back to first. He didn't get it--he wanted to keep going to home! We may need to hit up some minor league games this summer!! Way to play, Slugger!

What a fun school year this has been, Luke! We love you and are so proud of you!