Can you spell D-R-A-M-A club in our future????

So...Ryan seems to be our little creative. He loves playing with his action figures, loves to dress up and loves to entertain us all...he has such an active imagination! A picture is worth a thousand words.

We decided to all play into the shirt/tie look. It's funny...Todd doesn't wear a tie to work, so how/when he decides to get "dressed" in the shirt/tie is funny to us.

Clone Wars...Opening Weekend

So, Clone Wars - a continuation of the Star Wars saga, but in cartoon format opened this weekend. We, of course had to attend. We went to the movie with a bunch of the boys' friends who also totally enjoy Star Wars. Here are a few pics.

My review - adults were bored...a little too long - the kids enjoyed it.

Who is this beautiful Snow White?

It's JACK!!!

Well, today was the last day of the first week of school...so what do we do??? We have a celebration party at a friends house...ok, really, it's happy hour for the Mom's. Boy, it's amazing how exhausting it is to send your oldest baby off to first grade! :-)

As you can see, Jack decided to try out this pretty snow white costume! It was really funny...I found myself telling my 6 year-old son..."when you walk upstairs in a dress you need to hold the front of the gown so you don't step on it." It was a lot of fun. We spent the hour or so after the dress up fun swimming in their pool. Just what we all needed after a long first week! :-)

The Ending to a GREAT First Day of School...

Ok, so the kids survived the first day...phew! :-) No really, I knew they would not only survive, but totally enjoy it. I wasn't sure that I would survive...but I did! First day down...I can handle the rest of the year. :-)

Let's see...pick up was uneventful at Ryan's school...all his old pals...and some pretty tired kiddos! Then we raced back to Jack's school to attempt a drive-thru pick up. Sound funny? Well, it kind of is, although I must admit it was pretty smooth. So, here's how it goes down. We were luckily informed by a fellow parent before we left for pick-up to have a sign in the car window w/Jack's name and grade taped to the window. So, at 2:50pm we pull into the parent pick-up area with our sign in the window as directed and we wait. School gets out at 3:10pm, with about 10 minutes to go and a line of cars in front and a line in back, Ryan announces that he has to go potty...NOW!!! Frantically, I search the car and area nearby for any good bathroom location - keeping in mind that I'm not supposed to get out of the car or leave it unattended. Sooooo, as a last resort I realize that I have a trashcan in the car that it would have to work as our portable bathroom. Thankfully, he had decent aim...today. :-)

Ok, so we jump that hurdle...back to the pickup adventure. I am directed to move forward as children are matched with waiting cars...Jack's name and grade (from the sign in my window) are radio'd back to staff holding students behind the school gates. I slowly watch kids make their way to waiting parents, cars, buses and bikes until there are very few students left. Meanwhile, I am still sitting in the parent pick up line...other parents who have arrived after me are leaving...Jack's name has been radio'd at least 10 times by now..again more students are escorted to waiting parents. I'm beginning to panic, but can't leave my car and am stuck in the front of the line of waiting parents. FINALLY at 3:30!!! I see Jack being escorted to my car...phew...the staff member reminds me to practice recognizing our last name w/Jack as she sees this as the reason he took so long to make it out. However, upon closer questioning in the car, I find out that my dear 6 year-old boy thought he was going to after-care (called LEAP) today, even though I had told him many, many times that I was picking him up today (so we could get a special treat after our first day) AND after his teacher had put him in the parent pick-up line. After all of this, he managed to convince another faculty member that he should be going to LEAP and moved himself to the courtyard to wait for the LEAP staff!

See, see...I was not the paranoid parent...I have reason to be worried about Jack going off to the big school. The boy half listens (he gets that from his dad) and is confident he is right (he gets that from me). :-)

Anyhoo...the first day is over, and thankfully we don't ever have to do it again! Next year they will both be at the same school and we will have a whole year at the big school under our belts! Change is hard people...change is hard.

On a less rambling note: we found these cool ABC tator tots at the store this weekend, so we enjoyed spelling our names in tators for our first day of school dinner! The kids thought it was great...a fun end to an exciting & exhausting first day! :-) Ok, pictures to come later...they won't upload right now. :-(

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

So - it's the first day of school. I know most of you are thinking, what?!? It's only August 4...didn't summer just start?! Frankly, I thought the same thing when I saw the school calendar. Geesh, as I type this I can hear the Today Show in the background reviewing the best outdoor summer toys for kids! Anyhoo - guess no one told them that here in the desert we like to start school in August. To be clear, it's not that we have more school days, they just take more breaks during the school year. For example, we have a Fall Break in October - 1 week, we have Thanksgiving Break in Nov - 2days, we have Christmas/New Year Break in Dec/Jan - 2 weeks, Rodeo Break (yes, we close our schools for Rodeo - not for President's Day - Rodeo?!?! Only in the desert I guess...) in Feb - 2 days, Spring Break in March - 1 week, school's out before Memorial Day - May.

Anyhoo, I digress...so today my baby's marched off to their first day of pre-kindergarten and first grade! Excitement filled the house and the breakfast table this morning. Ryan, who must have been the most anxious...oh I mean excited, woke up at 5am...ready to get the day started. He has been asking since last Wed. if TODAY was the day he got to go to school. He's at the same preschool he attended last year and upon arrival happily skipped off with his friends. Pretty uneventful really.

Jack woke up at his usual time - 6:30...seemed quiet, but excited. They had both laid out their special new clothes last night, shoes included. He got himself dressed, had breakfast and after a few pictures was ready to go. This was Jack's first day of first grade at the new school. 800 kids!!! That's a change from preschool and kindergarten he attended with less than 100. So, my anxiety level was at least as high (probably higher to be honest) than his. After parking a mile from the school and walking all of those heavy school supplies to his class, Jack seemed relieved to be there. He knows one student in his class already, so it was nice to see a familiar face. We briefly met his teacher last Friday - so that's another friendly face. So, after sitting Jack down and dropping off the 20 lbs of school supplies, I was just supposed to quietly say good-bye and slip out...according to the instructions on the board. Holy cow...that's it?? Drop him off and leave. Ok, so I did it, but left in a haze, thinking, now what do I do? Go home? (I had taken the day off to be able to drop off and pick up the kiddos on their first day). It was a strange feeling, wandering out of the school yard...leaving my 6 year old in a gigantic new place, but then a friendly face spotted me. A friend of mine with a 1st and 3rd grader chatted with me about his teacher and the cafeteria protocol, etc. It was a good rescue...from my wanderings.

So, we'll see...in 5 short hours how the first day went. More later....

Ahhhh...our friends and neighbors move

Man, it seems like every time we spend the time and effort - and it takes both - to meet a new family and we actually begin to like them and think..hmm...we should have them over more often...they MOVE! Tucson is just that kind of town...very transient. After experiencing this emotion for like the 5th time, we sent our neighbors back to South Dakota to be near family. He finished his residency and we knew this was the plan all along...it just stinks when it actually happens. It was sooo great having an orthopedic surgeon in the neighborhood...we never worried about cuts/scraps because Luke always had his suture kit nearby.

This was the last night we had them over...and while the adults were playing Rock Band, the boys - Sam, Ryan and Jack were cuddled in our bed watching a movie. Ahhhhh...it was too cute...and so sad at the same time. We will miss them a lot!

Time to get ready for school...

Well, as one last hoorah...we decided to make, bake and frost some cookies before heading back to school on Monday. This was great fun as you can see...oodles of colored frosting, slathered upon each cookie - with sprinkles added later...yum, yum goodness. Not sure why we have the angry cookie frosting face on for the picture...but with boys you just never know what you're going to get when you ask them to pose for a picture! With one more day of summer...we woke up to rain! The crazy desert!