Andrew's first day of music class with Mommy

I taught my 1st grader music in public school today! First time ever. It was awesome. He is in the navy shirt/khaki shorts and his class is so very sweet.

We worked on moving through the classroom in our bubbles of space.

Freeze!

Keeping the steady beat to "Move It," led by a classmate

I love the joy on the leader's face here.  She's in yellow, although you probably already spotted her.

Our school of over 600 students in grades PK-5 is larger than anything my boys have ever imagined.  They are both fitting in famously and I could not be a prouder mama.  Or music teacher.

Changes

Things have been gradually changing around here.  Wish I could say I was happy about all of it, but most of the changes mean everyone is getting older, which saddens me a little bit.

Dora has been getting grayer and grayer and slowing down a very slight bit, but that still hasn't stopped her from working on her latest project: digging a dirt pit beneath the guys' playset.

We tore out the tomatoes today and discovered a few beautiful caterpillars
 that must've come straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

Ethan is at that wonderfully cute and inquisitive stage in life and I want to take a snapshot
of this moment in time and never have him grow older than this.

Andrew lost a tooth at school on Friday and got to visit the school nurse for a special treasure chest to put it in.  We forgot to put it under his pillow for a couple of nights, but finally tonight the tooth fairy will pay him a visit.

We said goodbye to the Thomas toddler bed and got Ethan a full-sized big boy bed of his own.  His brother is happy about this because Ethan has been sleeping on Andrew's bottom bunk and often driving him bananas.

pre-bed shenanigans

Big boy in his big bed!  We still need to get him some cool bedding (we are sure he'll choose Angry Birds).

The Boys' First Day of School!

Today was awesome! Both of my guys are attending MY school and I will get to teach music to Andrew on Tuesdays! This is all surreal to me. I love it.

Here are some photos from last night's "before school magical confetti" and from today. Oh, and they were donning new pjs to help celebrate the eve.

Worst before-school photo ever.

Better.

Jon came with me this morning to be with the guys before my 7:15 am duty.  They loved it.

My classroom is across from the cafeteria, so I sneaked in to snap this photo
of Ethan and his new buddies at the first breakfast.

Ethan and his teacher, Mrs. Hinks. Love.

Mrs. Cline is Andrew's 1st Grade teacher.  She is as sweet as can be.  He loves her.

Here's to an amazing school year for my boys, Jon, and myself!  We have got this!

Final Day of 2013 Summer Break

Well, it has arrived.  Final day before being back on Wednesday. 66 days sped by at record speed.  This was the busiest summer I can remember. Although I did not get around to all the items on my list, I added a few more since the last post about it: Go to the state museum, walk hounds, take the family to the dentist, consign, read Catching Fire (also went on to finish Mockingjay), improve at photography, take the kids somewhere new, send some letters via snail mail, and do the mani/pedi thing.

Goodbye, summer of 2013.  You were so good to us, I created a cloud photo about you.

Fearless Fellas

My cousin invited us up to Lake Wylie last weekend for some family time. It was great, and the boys really enjoyed jumping into the water time and time again.

In Our Yard This Month

 

 

 

Zoo from the Eyes of Babes

Our family spent this 92° morning at the zoo.  The boys took along one of our point-and-shoots and took all these photos themselves!  I think they are great.  We have a couple of little shutterbugs.

Ethan took the first few of the animals.

Here we are waiting in line for the choo choo...

And these were taken by Andrew while riding the choo choo.

The rest are of leaving and then hitting up the Mellow Mushroom before heading home.