First Days!

 Great first days all around!  You can tell from the pictures that Joshua was a little hesitant at first, but at the week's end we are back to "same ol', same ol'" with school and he's having fun with his friends.  I watched him play with his "best friend" Eddie, who isn't in his class this year and still doesn't talk.  They were running around and then were called to go in and Joshua kept yelling bye to Eddie and Eddie kept waving back.  So wish we could have a little more window into Eddie's life, have him over to play, learn why he doesn't talk, but still no success in meeting his mom.

Gray was really excited about school and didn't seem a bit nervous.  We found his class ("the owl class", to Julia's delight!), and he sat right down and went to work on putting on his nametag and coloring.  I told him, "See you this afternoon," and he said, "Bye.  Hope I see you again someday!"  Silly Gray, just loving his new role as kindergartener.  I think his teacher will be great for him.  She is very young and excited about teaching.  Seems like a great school.  

Now Julia and I are at home listening to princess songs:)  And we're off to play with some of her little friends while the moms have a meeting.  Busy week, but so thankful all has gone well.  We are blessed!!

Lately

Lately, we've been enjoying our last days of summer.  This past week we went to the library and got books and movies.

 We've gotten into this and that around the house...stuff we'd forgotten we had, like old games or winter hats:)

 We've had a few museum trips.  First, Cindy took the me and the kids to the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh.

 Joshua LOVES Chihuahuas and wanted his picture taken with this one.

 Julia loved seeing the fake owl, of course.

 I think the favorite was the children's play room.  Gray got to dress up.

 Joshua got to play with stuffed animals.

 He especially wanted Mimi to see the pictures of these birds that make noise.

 Ah!  Dinosaur!

 And another!  So scary:)

 Next, we went to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, which we also went to last year before Joshua's first day of school.  Maybe it will be an annual 'last hurrah' trip.

 The weather was so nice and cool and we got to see the bear this time.

 Of course we have a bear of our own that we get to see every day:)

 The dinosaur trail is always a hit.  (no, we don't know these boys with Gray)

We also got in a trip to the pool this week.  We did *almost* everything on my summer fun idea list this summer.  We didn't try any of the free/cheap kids' morning movies, but that would be hard with Julia anyway.  We didn't pick blueberries, but that season is such a hot time and I don't think it would have been much fun for the kids anyway.  We didn't go to the lake, but we did get that surprise trip to the beach.  All in all, I think we have enjoyed our summer well!

Now on to the first week of school.  Joshua starts tomorrow and is a bit nervous, but his teacher seems great and he has several friends in his class...even sitting on either side of him at his table.  Gray doesn't start till Friday, but we have a tour of the new school tomorrow and his evaluation on Wednesday.  Going to be an exciting week!

New Gym

We've just been in the new gym a couple of weeks and already it looks so good, thanks to lots of hard work by Matt!  I have done some painting and hope to do some more decorative stuff, but here's the place so far:

Cow Parade and Loco Pops

If you're not from around here, our Saturday activities may require some explanation.  We went to an art show that featured 80 or so life-size fiberglass cows painted and decorated in a variety of interesting ways.  These cows are eventually auctioned off to raise money for the NC Children's Hospital.  Definitely not something you see every day and it was surprisingly pretty fun!  We did a few pictures with the kids' favorites and the exhibit gave me a little inspiration to hopefully start on a mural for the gym (not cows!) sometime soon.

After the cows, we went to a local popsicle place for a treat and then went straight home to give three sticky, red kids a bath!  This place has very interesting varieties.  Julia's was tomato watermelon basil.  I did not like it, but she had wanted pink and seemed to really enjoy it.

Later I will post some pictures from Saturday morning at the gym.  Jeannie had requested to see the new place and Matt wanted some new pictures of the trainers, so we came along with him and I got a bunch of pictures.  And we finished our unusual Saturday by watching Hunger Games (after the kids went to bed of course!)

Hope you had a good weekend!

Big Girl

New dresser!  Somehow I got it up the steps alone today.  Just got it in my head that I wanted it up there and was going to do it no matter what.  The top was easy but the bottom was HEAVY and I had to flip it end over end from the basement to the 2nd floor....and I wonder where our kids get their stubbornness!  

This girl is soo proud of her big girl bed and even has taken to calling herself "big girl" instead of owl butterfly.

picture with Daddy

so happy!

A few blurbs from lately

We took our first family picture since...sometime last year?  Not even sure when it was.  Had to take one for Gray to take to Kindergarten.  And this is as good as it gets, people:

 We had kids' camp at the gym all week.  Two hour classes, hot and humid, during naptime, sometimes while various equipment was loudly being installed...it was fun, but everyone got tired!  And our boys were the class clowns, so that part was not so fun.

-No pictures yet, but I did some painting at the gym today and Matt has done so much work.  We have been moved in for just over a week and it's looking really good!  Matt is exhausted though.

-As some of you know, I spent Thursday to Monday laying on the couch with the heating pad as much as possible with stomach pain.  Still not sure what it was (think gluten reaction), but it was no fun.  Thankfully it let up at times and I was able to be present for most of our scheduled activities.  Feeling normal never felt so good after all that uncomfortableness!!

-We did some cleaning out at church and ended up with various unwanted items for our house and the gym....fun!

-One of those items is a large white dresser.  Julia didn't have one so thought we could use it.  But to fit it in her room, we'll have to ditch the crib and start letting her sleep in the single bed. We are always very slow to let the kids out of their "cages".  i prefer confinement for as long as possible!  But tonight I mentioned to Julia that soon we may move her over and she was excited and then Matt asked if she wanted to sleep there tonight and that was the end of it!  She was sooo happy as I tucked her in the "big" bed.  I will take a picture soon.

-I think 5 year olds must feel invincible.  Joshua seems to have a better grip on reality, but Gray.....he can do anything:)  He has a game plan for saving the family from bad guys and tonight when I told the boys about Julia's bed switch, he said, "If I hear a bump, I'm going to rush into her room and pick her up and put her back in the bed."  Think he'd probably drop her on her head, but it's the thought that counts.  My little knight:)

-We've been watching tons of Olympics.  The boys' favorite has been fencing and they now practice regularly.  Joshua was also really into cheering on Gabby in the gymnastics when we watched a rerun the other day.  Julia just loved the horses and kept demanding that they come back on every time there was a commercial or a switch in sport.  The gymnastics was definitely my favorite, but I like the track too.  Anyone else notice how much the American track athletes like to talk about God?

-Just to keep it real, I do have almost all the school supplies for the boys packed and ready to go but my big plan of getting them to start fixing their lunches in August is so far 0-9 and I'm way behind in this "no more unglued mama mornings" Bible Study challenge I started in hopes of being better prepared for our early start.  Tomorrow's a new day, right?  And while the idea of waking everyone up early a week before school starts sounds like a smart plan, something tells me I'm just going to enjoy my late mornings while I can and deal with the crazy earliness when I must.   The boys are starting to count down the days till school starts and seem excited.  Hoping to enjoy our last bit of summer!

Last Day in FM--"We swim at the splashing park"

(Julia's description of our fun outing)