Squeezing it ALL in!

The week before school started we made a list of all the things we hadn't gotten to do all summer long.  It was quite a list!  But we made a very concentrated effort at crossing as many things off the list as we could that week.  I tell you what - I was super tired by Friday!

We started out on Monday going to see the movie Planes and doing the grocery shopping.  It will be JHP's last grocery shopping trip for a while.  And he wasn't too sorry to see it pass.  In between we squeezed in a short trip to the Lego store to get some new mini-figures!

Tuesday we went to the children's museum.  We haven't been in over a year and he had a great time climbing all over Power Play!

They were having a super hero theme all summer and on the day we visited, they made capes and masks out of plastic sheeting and an iron.  Way cool!

We couldn't pass up a mirror for a self-portrait.  The first mirror seemed kinda warped so we tried the other one.  I love the photo only I wish I had noticed the mark on the mirror which makes me look like I had a bad plastic surgery procedure done!

John loved his cap and mask, although like most things he brings home, he hasn't worn them since.

We spent a lot of time playing with the atoms and bonds at the museum.  He didn't' want to leave even when I told him that I had a set just like that at home in the closet (thank you, organic chem professor!).

Wednesday we went to Jump-n-Jungle.  It was his choice and I could have done without the craziness.  But thankfully we had other things to do.  We needed to go see our friend Mr. Robert at Whataburger.  He's the GM at the best Whataburger (and closest) in the area.  He loves John (who doesn't?) and has often treated us like part of the family there.  We often went on Wednesdays after I picked John up from school so it was a must to see him before school started!

As an unintended side trip, we went to the craft store.  I couldn't resist posting some of this silliness!  The day wrapped up with an impromptu pool date at our friend A's house.  Talk about lots of fun!

 

Thursday was a big day!  We went to Palm Beach at Moody Gardens.  We got there when it opened at 9am and left about 1:30p, having played nonstop.  Lunch was a requirement on the way home.  We were starved!

Neither one of us had ever been to Palm Beach and we had the best time.  We met lots of old friends there that we hadn't seen in a while which made the trip even more pleasant.  Unfortunately, I never took the camera out.  I was too busy having fun!  And I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs.  John called me "lobster legs" later that night!  

On the way home we had to stop at the church for me to sign checks.  John actually fell asleep on the way home.  He was so beat!  I was too, but Daddy and I had Kinder parent orientation that night.

By the time Friday came around I was so tired!  We had to visit the library that day and Meet the Teacher was that night.  I honestly don't remember what else we did that day except dinner with friends after meeting John's new teacher!

Overall it was a great week!  But we didn't get everything done we wanted to.  We have crossed a few more things off the list since school started.  I kept our list so we wouldn't forget what we need to do.  And I told JNP that we need to get out more, spending at least one Saturday a month doing something fun around Houston.

-EBP-

Read more...

Busy Saturday

Man, yesterday was a busy one!

JHP had a good week at school.  In his classroom they have a system to track behavior.  Everyone starts on green (ready to learn) and can move up the scale (blue - excellent effort then pink - super student) or down the scale (yellow - make better choices then orange - teacher's choice then red - parent contact).  We made a deal with him to encourage good behavior last weekend.  He needs to get green or better all week and then he gets to select the restaurant for lunch on Saturday.  Then on Monday, he told us the teacher introduced a Treasure Chest with the same weekly requirements. He ended the week with green, green, blue, green, green.  So he chose Mickey D's and got to choose a ball from the Treasure Chest.  Double Bonus!

After a kinda slow morning, we started our busy-ness at McDonald's.  It was crazy as there was a student group in the building and then some screamers in the play area.  Needless to say, we didn't stay long by JHP's choice.

We went home for a bit and the John and I went to a birthday party for a while, stopping at ToysRUs for a gift.  The stop at the store was kinda crazy too.  Saturday after lunch at a toy store.  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking...

The party had a Rock Star theme.  Activities involved lots a crazy hair glue and paint followed by crazy dancing to music.  John had a blast.  We got to see some friends from our old school and I got to compare notes on Kinder at other schools.

We couldn't stay too long at the party because we had plans later.  And once we left, I decided we better remove the hair glue and paint before we left.  I didn't have a problem with him wearing it out, but since we planned on staying out past normal bedtime, I wanted him clean enough to go straight to bed.  As it happened, that wasn't possible after all.

We had tickets to an Astros game!  I always love the first sight of the field  when I get there.

Daddy hadn't been to a game yet this season, so it was on our list of things to do before the season was over.  We had originally planned to go Labor Day, but then we changed our mind when we saw there was a group going from church.

And we invited our dear friends to join us!  The boys had fun, especially when S took them to the Squeeze Play.  After a long time there, JHP totally needed a bath.  He was sweat-y!

Daddy was hoping for a rally last night, but it was not meant to be.  :(  The Astros lost the game.

-EBP-

Read more...

His kind of modeling

I had some "work" to do for the church last month.  The assignment was for a photo of a drippy ice cream cone and a cute model.  Baskin-Robbins supplied the iced cream and the model lives at my house.  He picked a very brightly colored sherbet. So I shot while he ate.  This was the shot they selected to go on the cover of the children and family ministries calendar.

He wants to share his cone with you!

His favorite part was the fact that the ice cream turned his tongue blue!

He started to show off for the camera.

Surprise!  Surprise!

Silly Boy!

This shot made the back cover of the calendar.

I can't got to B-R without getting me some Chocolate-n- Peanut Butter.  So since we had a fresh cone. I shot a few more photos.  He got to taste the ice cream.  I think he might have eaten it all if I let him.

When I uploaded these photos, Google made some collages and such and saved them to the album.  When I first saw this, I think I laughed out loud.  Just so funny!  So I couldn't NOT include it here!  ;)

-EBP-

Read more...

Summer cuts

  

One week in mid-August we had responsibilities to go feed a friend's cat.  The cat's name is Tiger and he sure missed his owners.  He would have sat there all afternoon had we not been on a schedule.   But we were squeezing duty in between picking JHP up from a day-camp and another appoint.

A back to school haircut!  And since it was kind of a special occasion and John was super sweaty from playing outside, Shannon decided a wash was in order.  He looks like he's enjoying himself!

John was feeling pretty special that he even got the Mohawk treatment in the bowl!

His hair was WAY overgrown!  I think it had been close to 3 months since his last "summer" cut.

And since I had my hair done too, we had to get a pic together.  You can't tell it from here but I got quite a bit cut off.  Our second summer cuts!

-EBP-

Read more...

Party!

A friend decided that her soon-to-be Kindergartner needed a reason to get excited about the upcoming adventure.  So she threw a kick-off party for all the soon-to-be Kindergartners.  It was a big hit!  Until the rain came, that is.

One of the funnest parts of the evening was drawing what your new teacher would be like and getting to finger paint the drawing.  John imagined his teacher to be very tall with short appendages.

He was very serious as he filled in his drawing.

And I learned just how neat he could be with finger paints.  He was quite methodical about not mixing the colors.  He was taught well at school!

There she is:  a tall blonde with red flowers.  Wonder what she thought of that when he presented her with that poster at school today?!?

And so what do you do with leftover paint on your hands?  Make your mark on the poster, of course!  I'm still not sure I'm use to Class of 2026 just yet.

-EBP-

Read more...

Lots and lots of Lego's

One major projects of the summer was the organization of John's Lego's.  We took them ALL apart, with the exception of 2 or 3 pieces.  This alone took a couple of days.  It wasn't until we had completed this did I realize just how many Lego's John really has.

Then we had to sort.  And sort.  And sort.  I had already decided how I thought we should sort and John willingly went along.  We might need to rethink that plan next time because sorting took a lot longer that way.  This is mid-sort.  I never really realized just how many mini-figures he has.  The square tub he's sitting next to and pile on the floor are all mini-figs.

We ended up with 5 of these shallow bins and a slightly larger one to hold bricks.  We also opted to segregate within a bin the tiny pieces so they could be easily found.  We sorted like this:

• bricks
• plates
• tiles / smooth edges
• specialty pieces
• mini-figures

In all I think we worked on it over about 4-5 days.  Once I got started I kept finding a few minutes here and there to keep working on it.  And then at some point, I just wanted it to be done.  I'm pretty sure it won't be before next summer that I take on that project again.

-EBP-

Read more...

Summer of Movies

This was the summer of movies for JHP.  We saw Monsters University as a family in June and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  I had the realization that my little boy had grown up with regards to movies.  No longer was he afraid of the tiniest amount of suspense which all but ruled out movies in general and some TV shows.  Instead, he sat quietly in his own seat and munched on popcorn until it was all gone.

We also went to see Turbo and enjoyed seeing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in cartoon form.  The movie itself was funny, but I missed some of the Indy 500 traditions that did not make it into the film.  And who couldn't love that sweet little snail face!

Lastly, JHP and I saw Planes.  Daddy wasn't much interested.  John loved it, but it was my least favorite of the summer trio we saw.  We managed to see a few other movies on TV this summer including Lion King and Despicable Me.  Hopefully we'll be able to catch Despicable Me 2 on video when it comes out.  The minions are so cute!

-EBP-

Read more...

Technology and Captain America

Hard to explain why but I couldn't resist documenting this.  :)  After the first week of school, John reacquainted himself with some things he hadn't really had much time for during the week.  For some reason, past Halloween costumes were near the top of the list.  Additionally, so was the iPad and snow boots (which have never been worn outside the house).  Captain America was from two years ago.  Man, does it really show just how much John has grown in height.

-EBP-

Read more...

A New Adventure: Kindergarten

First, I have to apologize.  I had great intentions of turning over a new leaf and getting this blogged at the end of the first week of school.  And guess what?  It's much harder to turn that leaf over than I figured it would be.  :(  But I'll get moving, I promise.  So as of the end of the second week...

It's official!  John has started Kindergarten.  It has meant some changes for all of us, but he's happy to be in school each day.

We met his teacher Mrs. Rathburn on Thursday Aug 23.  He was beyond excited to meet her and we were happy about the selection of an experienced teacher.  While she is new to the district, she has 16 years of experience.  She's already told me how much she enjoys having John.  Then the bus driver mentions what a good kid he is.  Does anyone not love John?!?

One of the big changes is that we all get to see Daddy for a few minutes in the morning now.  This photo was taken on the first day of school when we all went together for drop-off.  But on a normal day, JHP and I must be up at 6:30a to manage to get dressed, fed, and prepared to leave the house at 7:15a-7:20a to walk a short block to meet the bus which is usually waiting there as that is it's stop-over between routes.

The first week, he was up and at 'em early each day.  There was little rush out the door.  Needless to say, that has not been the case this second week.  We did move his bed time up by 30 minutes to account for the getting up 30 minutes earlier (more or less) than had been our norm.  But he was oh so slow to move on Tuesday morning after the long weekend.  And that has earlier bedtime has put a squeeze on JNP to be home by 5:15p or so else he misses out on time with JHP.  Also, that means I must get dinner moving so that its ready early, especially since JHP is such a slow eater.  Still hoping that school will help out in this regard.

John was quite excited about his new backpack and matching lunch box, although it seems awful big when it's all packed out.  It was dreary on the first day of school but we managed to miss the rain when it was time to go to school.  He had to wear his new shirt that he had made a couple weeks back at a Kindergarten Kick-off party that a friend hosted.  It's not at all professional, but it's hand made by us.  Well, really by me.  He wasn't much interested in actually doing it.  It says Class of 2026!  Wow, that really made me feel old and really drove home the fact that we will be 55 when he graduates from high school.  What were we thinking?!?  It wasn't our thinking, of course.   God laid this plan for us and I trust that he will see us through.

We parked near the school which is in the next subdivision and ran into some friends on the walk over.  Part of their tradition is to take a photo in front of the school sign.  I think that's a cool idea so we did it too!

Here's John at his desk on the first day.  There are supposed to be 6 kids at this table, but for whatever reason there are only 4, which I'm personally liking.  They started the day with Play-dough and since there wasn't much for us to do, we left pretty quickly.  That worked out well because I wasn't far from bawling like a big baby.  JNP kept asking me if I was OK and I kept NOT answering him, mostly because I just couldn't talk without losing control.  JHP seemed a bit quiet and reserved, but he was totally ready for this adventure to begin.  Momma - not so much.  There are a total of 22 kids in his class - 14 boys and 8 girls.  I think the teacher has her work cut out for her.

I dropped JNP at home so he could head to work and I went to meet a couple of friends who had dropped their last or only child at Kinder that morning too for brunch.  It was a nice way to transition into the day, especially knowing that similar feelings were shared all around.  The rest of the day I did my normal Monday grocery shopping.

At about 3:20p  I wandered down to the bus stop.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  The bus was supposed to be there shortly after 3:30p.  It didn't arrive until 3:50p that first day.  I didn't panic (except for when it threatened to rain on me and my big girl camera sans umbrella!).  I knew traffic would be crazy and the the bus would probably be late.  Finally, it rounded the corner and John was all smiles getting off the bus.
When I asked him how he was doing on his first day he said, "Whew, I'm tired!" followed by "Can I watch some TV?".  He has since decided that TV is his preferred method of decompressing after school.  It's part of his "plan" he tells me.  So I'll give him a half hour if that is what he needs.  In other first day happenings, he didn't eat most of his lunch but that wasn't a big surprise.  He has gotten better at it, but I suspect that at least half of his lunch is eaten during afternoon snack time on most days.

I think it might have been Tuesday (the second) morning that he told me he didn't want to go to school because the day was soooo long.  By Saturday, however, he was saying that he was sorry he didn't have school on Saturday.  And while this week has been more rushed than I'd like, once he wakes up he's ready to go to school.

You might wonder how I managed that first week.  Well, by Tuesday afternoon, I needed a fix.  I needed to see how his day was going with my own eyes and not just through his filter.  You see, I've been very lucky to have not only talked with his teachers twice a day, but also to have forged a friendship with them.  So needless to day, this transition to Kinder has left me wanting.  And so I offered to go help at lunch.  I knew the teacher was looking for volunteers to help the class in the cafeteria during lunch.  It gave me a peek into his classmates and into his day.  And after Wednesday, I was feeling much more at ease not knowing every detail.  By Friday, I knew exactly who the "high maintenance" kids were going to be.  Thankfully, none of them sit at John's table.

I'm enjoying my new freedom of time.  And with that comes a definite adjustment.  I guess I was so used to being somewhere to drop him off and then pick him up 3 (or the occasional 5) hours later that this new 8 hour thing leaves me with lots of free time.  So I've given myself a few weeks to relax and then I need to get a bit more focused about scheduling my time.  Otherwise I will just fritter it all away and get NOTHING done.  One thing I will try to do is walk each morning after I drop him at the bus.  This might be an opportunity to get more disciplined about my housework.   I guess I will need to work on a daily list to keep me focused.  Wish me luck!

-EBP-

Read more...