Draw Me A Map

Jack's teacher uses a green, yellow, red behavior system. She colored the day for them and showed them how to do it themselves today...unfortunately, Jack was talking too much with his friend, Dylan. Hopefully, this will be the last yellow we see. After spending some time in his room, Jack wrote her an apology: 'Sorry, Mrs. C but Dylan and I get really excited when we see each other. Sorry again. It won't happen again.'

Harry's homework was a little autobiography. They are both moving from stick figures into some version of a body....at least I feel better about his Mother's Day drawing of me ;-) He thought it was hilarious to make his eyebrows blue. Silly boy!

Dierks Bentley

Ring, ring goes the bell

What a great day everyone seems to have had! The boy got home from school via one of their favorite friend's moms - thanx Ms. Angela :-)
Jack playing it all cool...."1st grade is AWESOME!" Thanx, Mrs. C :-)

Harry looks a little, well, harried! I guess he miscalculated the time he had to pack his things back into his backpack....the boy loves that agenda, has been reading Jack's all weekend. Thank you, Mrs. W., for giving him his very own :-)

Jack has decreed that "1st graders walk up the driveway!"

Who knows why, but they both love to walk like old men lately, and this is Jack about half-way up the drive

And this is so Dean!

Harry took pity on Jack and ran back down to try and go with him...there was actual hugging involved. It's good to be apart for hours at a time ;-)

This was one of their activities today. The writing prompt was 'last nite I felt...'

Harry didn't bring his writing home, but I'd be willing to bet money this is a pretty accurate depiction of some portion of his bus ride from today ;-)

Chuck Berry's School Days

Pre-FIRST

The nite before kindergarten last year, we topped off a really fun birthday party with a trip to Red Robin for burgers and games...these are my favorite men :wub:
Dean had to leave for a trip yesterday, so we made the newly minted tradition of nite-before-school dinner at Red Robin as a three-some. They were sweet and silly ....and oh, so ready!

We decided Daddy needed to feel like he was there and took a lot of pix. We squeezed in for a shot

Harry tried out his photog skills

and the kind and patient waitress even took a picture for us Leaving the restaurant, we saw this beautiful rainbow....sometimes I can be pretty superstitious, so I'm taking this as a great sign ;-)

JB's Pre-you

On the first day of first grade

Oh, I had a moment of envying all the parents out there whose kids pose wonderfully for pix...then I realized these are the kids that make my heart happy, bring light and laughter along with frustration and loss of temper, snuggle us and tell me how lucky they are. And these are the goofy faces they make when asked to smile.
They really are excited about today, and I'm excited for them. Dean is traveling but was able to talk with them this morning, and that always makes our day more complete.

When we go down highway exit ramps, everyone in the car yells "WHEE!" I guess this is the kitchen version It was so great to see old friends at the bus stop, the boys were playing and testing limits, but L&C are such great kids that no one really pushed too far. Harry was the first to get in position to anxiously await the signal from the amazing Mrs. Grady.

After she waved the boys along, they RAN to the bus

Jack couldn't be happier - he was telling me that he HOPED he would get to sit further back on the bus now that he's a first grader "I've never gotten to go beyond the third row"...well, he made it all the way to the fifth row this morning...wonder if anything will top that today?

Best of luck to the wonderful teachers who will shepherd our boys thru another year of learning and growing....

Now onto my first 'homework'....

Veggie Tales' Billy Joe McGruffey

where the map said it would be

Today was the boys' last day of summer vacation, so we lit out for a few adventures, and guess what we found at the museum....

Harry's dream room! The boy loves a map more than just about anything. One of his major pasttimes this summer has been STUDYING a map for an area where I used to work - he can tell you just about any route from any direction...now, if he just had a reason to visit ;-)
They had all sorts of maps, including a display about GPS...remember the Garmin? Ahhhh

Jack has a slightly different approach, and they had all the bells and whistles for his style as well

He was all over the sextant and finding the North Star

They both had fun pretending to be pilots

We took in the IMAX theater and I couldn't get a good perspective shot, but thought this was appropriate since I'm always telling him he's a natural cartographer

I made another attempt during the movie, Deep Sea, not great- but you can see Harry's sweet profile and long lashes if you look near the bottom left...and squeeze in a little lesson about the coral reef ;-)

Thanx also for the fun pool time, CC - hope you survived the sleepover and we can get our schedules worked out for something fun SOON!

It was a really nice way to end the summer break, and after a few fun things this weekend we'll all be ready for a schedule

JB's God's Own Drunk

gotta go... back to school ... again!!!

The boys got to meet their new teachers and put their supplies in their classrooms last nite....they are a leetle bit excited!

Harry lucked into the awesome long-term sub from his Kindergarten class, so he knows her and loves her already. He has this awesome big-boy desk and a lot of old and new friends in his class. Should be a great year :-)

(no, he's not quasimoto, just wanted to show off the cool desk features)

Jack got a lot of Harry's old classmates, and a few of his favorites from last year, along with a few new friends. He told me he'd seen his teacher's face "up close once, and it was so nice. I bet she's nice!"

Here's to a great year in 1st grade!

The Four Tops' Back To School Again

Time well wasted

This is about as motivated as I've been:

And this is about as happy as I've been:
Happy Anniversary, babe! Starting our second decade is pretty cool :-)

Brad Paisley

Should've Been A Cowboy

Their friend Summit hung out with us today - it was fun at the movies, fun at home, fun in trees, fun with hose, fun in cars.

Boys can turn anything into cowboy lessons ;)

Shootin'

Ridin'

Stoppin' at the waterin' hole

Cute boys hamming it up in a photo booth....

Harry, Summit and Jack

Cute boys climbing around

since people keep telling me how much they've grown, I thought comparing them to last year would be good...I'd say a solid few inches Grayson, Harry and Jack - July 2009

I got caught up in nostalgia and realized this was a familiar pose -

today (6 1/2 years) above and October 06 (2 1/2 years old)

Hit the road, Jack

We took a road trip last week to see our good friends, and I introduced them to the delights of gas stations

They helped pump the gas
before entering the road-trip mecca

They spent quite a while deciding on just the right little gifts for Jake and Sarah

mulled over the perfect road treats

and settled in for the ride.

Who knows what happened to the camera when we got there, but we had a great time with good friends we hadn't seen in WAY too long - thank you for all the fun, JSD&E!

Next time, it's our turn :-)

Ray Charles

Keep it in your pantry

The boys are in Hero Headquarters VBS this week, and we took a little trip to the grocery to lend a helping hand to their food pantry. They did a great job picking non-perishables. They are talking about heroes in the Bible that aren't as well-known this week, stressing that we can all make a difference and don't have to be superstars to do good.

Lyle Lovett

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

The boys went to their first 'real' baseball game and hosted their first sleepover on Sunday

Isn't there a rule about getting kids wired on blue drinks and foods?

It was a wonderful nite for a game - the clouds threatened all day, but ended up just cooling things off and making for a beautiful sky. They let the kids play catch before the game

and the players were great about signing autographs

They walked away with these great bats and a ball

They tried for some balls, danced and played with all the silly entertainments, and basically had a great time!

And imagine my surprise when I saw this poster of Aunt Libby's league in the bathroom?

Not sure if the blur is equipment or operator error

Zach came home with us, and introduced the boys to Billy Exterminator, a mulleted animal do-gooder - there were possums and rats and all sorts of vermin in the episode we watched

Zach and Jack practicing good oral hygiene

and the three of them pretending, with varying success, to sleep - this picture was taken at about 10:45 PM...silly, giggling boys!

Jack Norworth