First Day of Kindergarten

Dear Barrett,

I just dropped you off at your first day of Kindergarten. Big. Day. This is the start of a great wonderful journey filled with joys and struggles and learning experiences. I am so proud of you and yet so sad that the little kid chapter of you life is over. Up until now, I was your world. I have always been here to protect you and guide you and shape you. Up until now, I have always been there to kiss your boo-boos and hug you when you were sad. I have been the one to give you high fives when you did great. I have been the expert on the subject of You, but soon I will sit in a conference with your teacher and she will tell me something I do not already know about you. Up to this point, most of your friends have been the children of my friends. This is the day that our worlds will change.
Today you will make friends with kids I do not know. If you are lucky, some of these friends may be your friends for the rest of you life. Choose your friends wisely. Nobody is perfect and even friends sometimes hurt your feelings. The good friends are worth making up with. On this journey, you will learn to read, and solve complex math problems. You will learn about history, science, music and art. You will also learn how to be a friend, a student and an independent person. You will make important little choices like what to eat for lunch as well as important big choices like whether or not to cheat. They will be your choices. You will learn responsibility, and respect, and integrity. Some lessons will be easily learned, others will not. You will have successes and failures. I hope you learn from both.
I cannot be at school when you scrape your knee to give you a band-aid. But when you get home, I can give you a hug. I may not be there when you finally figure out long division, but I will be here with a high five when you get home. And when you make a choice you regret, I will love you no matter what. You are a big kid and you don’t need me to hold your hand anymore, but my hand is always available…and my arms are open, and my ears are ready to listen whenever you want. I love you and I am always proud of you.

Love,
Mommy

Ready for Kindergarten?

It's the Sunday before the first day of school. All day long I have been going over a list in my head, trying to make sure I don't forget anything. Getting ready for Kindergarten is not easy...There's school supply lists, new school clothes, haircuts, backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles, PTA, spirit day shirts, voluteer lunch duty, meet the teacher, label everything...and then there's preparing the student for a different routine. He has to pick out his clothes ahead of time because tardiness is not allowed, gotta go to bed early and wake up early, we have to talk about the school nurse, where to go after drop off and where to go when it's time to pick up...and so on! I *think* we're ready.

Watch out world, here comes Barrett! He is an outgoing blue-eyed sweetheart. His laugh is contagious, and his heart is warm and fragile (even though sometimes he puts on a tough facade.) He is confident and cuddly and genuine. He is my bear.

Annabelle's birthday party

The house sold just about as soon as I sent out the invitations for Annabelle's birthday party. With all the packing, we decided it would be best to postpone the festivities until after we were settled in the new house. We still are not completely settled in, but we had the party last weekend anyway. The best part of a first birthday is watching the baby eat the cake. I love it. Annabelle did not disapoint.




We had lollipop, soda pop, and flavored popcorn. Jellybeans, bubble gum, and pink lemonade. There was a Guess-the-number-of-gumballs-in-the-jar contest and jellybean bag game.




She was a little confused about all the singing.










Gigi, Grandma, and Aunt Pam whisked Annabelle off to the tub after this shot for a quick bath that seemed to take a very long time. They asked themselves, "How many grandmothers does it take to bathe one baby?"

Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating her first precious year!

Beaver Bend State Park

Just before we moved into our new house, we took a trip with some friends to go to Beaver Bend in Oklahoma. I had heard great things and I have been wanting to find an easy getaway that we could do yearly. We booked our "cabin in the woods" which was a 4 bedroom fully stocked house with a gameroom and full kitchen. We went swimming in the lake by day and the grown ups played games by night. We had s'mores which seemed more for the amusement of the adults than the kids, but at least someone was amused.

dipping my toe in the blog water again

Okay, so I am the one who's been missing. We have moved in and we are mostly settled. My new office is a complete wreck but the rest of the house is livable. We are getting back to a normal routine after being without a home for a couple weeks and then the late nights spent unpacking after the kids go to sleep. I actually sat down on Monday night and watched the Bachelorette Finale. I got Kyle registered for school, and I go next week to register Barrett. We have been to the neighborhood pool, but it is too hot to go to a playground. I think it got up to 111 degrees today! Every time we go in the car somewhere, the boys say, "we're already there?" Barrett says he's glad we live here now and Kyle is too but he says he misses the old house a little. There are things I sometimes miss about the old house, too, but I am very happy with the new house.
We took one last picture the day we moved out of the old house.

Kyle has a teddy bear with him in the picture. He has never had an attachment before, but I think he needed a constant during this transition.
Cody took this funny picture of Kyle with our giant teddy and the same teddy bear as in the other picture shortly after we moved in. Kyle is actually sleeping in this picture!


Here's a couple more pictures taken in Farmersville shortly before we moved.

I took this the day of the inspection. We came back home a little too early so I went down the road to wait for them to leave. I looked over and saw the old truck bed and begged Barrett to humor me. This great photo op was right next door the whole time!


This is Kyle eating his ice cream cone at Charlie's.