Aiden went off to his first full day of Kindergarten last Friday. The day before, all the parents had a meeting while the kids did a quick 2 hours in their rooms. I might have teared up a few times during the meeting (I’m telling you, it’s like they try to make you weepy talking about letting your babies “grow up” and how they “love your kids even though they just walked into the doors of the school”). I was sitting next to my friend Joel, whose wife is also the school social worker…one of the main culprits in the sappy talk during the meeting! He kept fanning me with a piece of paper when I would start blinking my eyes. Despite all of that, I didn’t shed one tear dropping Aiden off on Friday. He went right to his desk, sat down and started intently coloring. He’s so ready and he’s loving it thus far. In fact, they have a chance each day to earn “super blue” each day by doing something in the classroom that exhibits good character. Apparently, one of his classmates fell out of her chair yesterday (Monday). Aiden asked if she was OK and helped her up. At the end of the day, because he kept his “super blue” status, he was able to pick a prize from the prize box. He came out proudly waving a stretchy blue lizard. So far…so good!

pictures!

Kristin wandered by and took our picture in the hallway. She didn’t tell me my hair was all messed up ;)

This is Aiden’s friend Juliana from preschool last year. She’s not in his class, but she’s right down the hall. Another of their classmates from last year is actually in Aiden’s class.

He’s not in this picture, but there is a little boy named Logan (with a last name that starts with H) who sits right NEXT to him at his table. Too funny.

Today is Logan’s first day of 2nd grade! Everyone says this, but the “summer sure flew by!” I for one am NOT happy about it! While they often drive me, and each other crazy, I love having all the boys around. We went and met his teacher, saw his classroom and waved to friends in the hallway during Preview Night on Monday. Logan’s class this year is a GREAT size…only 18 kids as compared to the 29 he had last year! Of the 18, we only recognized one name, but that’s OK…Logan and I decided he might have all new AWESOME friends in his class. Luckily, his friend Elle is not only in his class, but sitting directly across from him at his table (for the time being anyway). Aiden doesn’t officially start kindergarten until Friday. Tomorrow he has his “round up” where the parents go sit in a meeting, learn all about the school, “meet” various faculty members and hand in paperwork while the kids go to their classrooms, get their bearings and put away supplies. Poor Brady doesn’t start pre-K until September 4th. The two of us will just have to find fun things to do for a week or so.

Pictures of Day 1, Round 1

Before bed last night, Logan asked me to make him a bracelet. This request is 2 fold: first, I gave him a little bracelet on his first day of kindergarten 2 years ago as a, “you can look at this and remember that we love you and we’ll see you right after school today” kind of thing and second, he’s recently into “boy jewelry” and has been wearing a knotted string bracelet since he bought it earlier this summer. I wasn’t really sure what to do…I worked with a few supplies I had around the house and made him 2 different bracelets – one just some knots and beads and 1 a braid of about 10 stands of hemp string. I also made him a card. The back of the card says “have a great day, go be awesome!”. He’s got a larger cut-out of a guitar in his lunch box that says something like “hope you’re having a rocking first day”.

Last year I put up streamers and balloons for his first day. I was a slacker this year (see home made and not store bought card above…like I didn’t remember before last night!), but I put out some school colored breakfast settings and we had special pancakes. His school colors are navy and orange, but again, this is what I had on hand :)

The neighborhood gang on our driveway. Logan is the one with the lacrosse stick…which he insisted on carrying to school (I took it back home after drop off, obviously)

Fist day (goofy) pic

Ta-da! Ready for action!

Meanwhile, back at the home-front, Aiden and Brady are enjoying a warm afternoon with a picnic in the fort

While I had my camera outside, I had to take a picture of the fireworks grass I planted at the beginning of the summer. With the dry season we had, it’s obvious which plants don’t mind the heat. Check out the after and then the before pic of these babies!

Phew, last week was nuts! I thought that soccer practices for Logan and Aiden didn’t begin until the 13th, but found out that they were actually last Tuesday and Thursday. That complicated things a bit since I had signed Logan up for a lacrosse camp M-Th from 9-12. That camp is a 40 minute drive away…so early mornings for everyone. Also…soccer conflicted with the start time of Logan’s flag football game (Tuesday) and practice (Thursday). We also had family in town and met up with them at a really fun swimming area on Tuesday. So…our Tuesday schedule looked like this:

7:30 – eat and get ready

8:20 – leave the house

9-12 – Logan plays lacrosse while Brady, Aiden and I hit the nearby park, run errands and watch him from time to time

12 – run by McDonald’s, eat lunch, jump back in the car

1:00 – arrive at swim place, change cloths in car, apply sunscreen outside of car

1:15-3:15 – Have a total blast playing on the “beach”, jumping off the diving board etc etc

3:15 – leave swim place (Brady stayed behind with Memaw)

4:30 – arrive at soccer practice with Logan and Aiden (stopped by the gas station to purchase some ice for their water bottles which had been in the hot car all day – they also ate some pre-packed snacks during the ride)

5:30 – leave Aiden with my friend Anne who was coaching her own team (girls) and whose son is on Aiden’s team, take Logan to flag football game.

6:00 – Aiden’s practice ends, he goes with Anne and her kids. I meet up with Memaw and company at flag football, leave Logan playing on the field and Brady running around with his cousins, drive over to a different soccer place to fetch Aiden

6:30 – Arrive at soccer place to find out that Aiden is going to sub on a 3 vs. 3 team that Anne is coaching because they are short players

6:45 – Arrive back at flag football, minus Aiden, to catch the last 15 minutes of the game

7:00 – Leave football, go home, feed Logan and Brady. Aiden arrives around 7:40.

8:30 – bed time

Needless to say, we were all quite tired by the end of the week! Logan had another football game on Saturday. Daddy was there to man the camera:

Brian got some great shots of the game! Here, Logan has the ball near the end of the field. His teammate had a great run and got them close. Logan took a hand off…ran one way…

Realized that there was no space to get through…

Turned and ran the other way…

…had some great shielding by his teammates and TOUCHDOWN, Logan! Despite some great plays, this was their only touchdown and they lost 6 to 12.

Later, Logan got to be QB.

He loves him some flag football!!

subtitled: someday we’ll laugh about this

Yesterday, as I was making an early dinner for myself and the boys, Aiden and Brady swiped a pair of scissors from the kitchen, unbeknownst to me, and snuck off to the formal dining room in the front of the house. We had to eat quickly and rush out the door for Logan’s flag football practice. Observant mother that I am, I didn’t even notice anything was amiss until Brady asked me to push him on the swings located next to Logan’s practice field. As I pushed him, I said, “Brady…your hair looks crazy…did you lay on it funny?” I stopped the swing for a closer look and about screamed as I realized there were chunks missing all over the back of his head. I called Aiden over and, only then, noticed that he had a bunch missing right in the front (yes, again, I’m very observant!) I called our normal hair place right then and there and made an appointment for this morning. I told Michelle, the owner, “a couple of my boys got a hold of some scissors today and gave each other hair cuts. Can I bring them in for a fix tomorrow morning?” When she took down my info, she recognized their names and said, “ooooooohhhhh…Renay! I thought that was you, but you sounded so calm” then she moved the phone away from her mouth and yelled to the other girls, “Brady and Aiden gave each other haircuts!”

Last night we told them they would probably end up with buzz cuts. Aiden wanted to know if there was anything he could use on his head to make his hair grow faster. This morning he insisted that it had gotten longer over night! At the salon, the girls agreed there wasn’t much to be done besides buzz it all off. Aiden cried and covered his head while I convinced the girl to use a 2 blade instead of a 1. When it was over, he cried in my lap in the front seat of the car for about 10 minutes saying things like, “I look badder than I did before. I look ugly. I want to go lock myself in my room.” I reminded him that his sweet face was still the same and that I thought the cut really made his blue eyes stand out. I also gave him a talk on “owning it” and told him stories about a few embarrassing moments of my own. When we got back, I helped him and Brady make up a special “bald buddy bump” handshake…a slight interpretation of a “brother bump” they all made up a couple weeks ago. About an hour later, Aiden declared that he liked his hair and thought it looked cool. That’s my boy!

Before and After Shots: