Only THIRTEEN Years Until College

THIS BOY.

I cannot believe that last week we did this - meet his Kindergarten teacher. More on that in a second.

This boy who played his first game of Settlers of Catan (cult-following-German-strategy-board-game) ever on Labor Day - the last day before the start of Kindergarten. Kyle and Carlos were his teachers and opponents.

Yes, I'll trade you some ore. And I'll eat my snack while I'm at it!

Our two neighbor friends E & H came over to see if Owen could play and instead ended up watching a good portion of the game - his entourage, Catan groupies.

You should have heard Kyle and Carlos both trying to use Owen against the other to their advantage. And yes, they both helped him some. But they didn't let him win. And he did!!!

To the victor go the spoils!!!

Okay, so that's how the week started - not a bad way to kick off Kindergarten. 

Here is the little man, in his uniform, eating his breakfast (seemingly in the dark) on Tuesday morning. We had been working with him the week before to get up to an alarm (6:45!) and he had been doing great. For some reason this morning it didn't work because the time on his clock someone got adjusted so 6:45 came and went and then it went off. We've fixed the glitch and this little stud gets himself out of bed and dressed and comes down for breakfast all on his own. He began the year with a leftover Torchy's taco and a specialty Carlos smoothy - lucky little guy.

I was really glad that Kyle was off that morning so we could all go to his first drop-off.

We all still have sleepy eyes!

Parent fail #1 for the week: He was supposed to be wearing the pants version of his uniform this day. Oops!

Owen and the precious Mrs. Jill Adams - World Famous Kindergarten Teacher (We feel especially bless to have Mrs. Adams because we knew her and her husband Mark from Austin Bible Fellowship days!)

Proud, not sad (yet) Momma

Same for Daddy

Getting started at his activity table

All the parents taking pictures and trying to force themselves to leave

Okay, so I wasn't thrilled with the totally uncreative photos we snapped that morning - where was my first day of kindergarten sign? Why did I not have an arsenal of pinterest-inspired photo ideas? Because it was really stinkin' early in the morning. So when we got home, even though it was hot hot outside...we went for round 2, just me and the little man.

Pretending to take my picture.

And now its silly time - his idea.

Are we done yet?

Just a few more!

So, Owen had a great first day, really a great first week. He has handled the transition SOOOO much better than I have. Its not that I've been the weepy-miss-my-baby-mom (which I get, but that's just not me) - its more that the transition and new routine is just a LOT. (Owen has made the transition as easy as it could be on us - he's been so ready for a while!) Granted, it's the first week and so there is still just sooooo much newness and new info and new procedures, AND neither one of our carpools (yes, we're in 2) are in full-swing, AND the girls just started preschool on Thursday (a post on that is coming)...so it WILL get easier. But lets just say I almost ran out of gas this morning on Mopac in morning commute traffic and it wouldn't have surprised me a bit. A couple of nights ago I went to bed at 8:30. Lets just say I'm ready for the weekend. And really thankful for the other mom friends I have that are going through this transition with me - at our school and at other schools - because its a big transition no matter the exact circumstances. And I'm thankful for the mom friends that are a few steps ahead of us that can remind me that it will get easier - not necessarily simpler - but easier. Hang in there mommas!

*I just realized all of these photos look a little blurry - it's not your computer - I uploaded them in a smaller size and clearly that's not working. Live and learn. Mommy kindergarten.

Call Me Picaso + ME-CATION

I wouldn't have ever really said I have a creative side, but its been coming out a lot more recently. 

Here was my set-up the other night on the back driveway - canvas, kids craft paint, brushes, other junk, wooden plank shelves I'm determined to do something cool with.

Haven't finished the wood project, but I did finish the canvas project for the playroom. I wanted something for over the tv - we have a couple of globes in there and the fan blades have maps on them, so I stuck with map colors and just did a bunch of free-form lines. Fun to do and really easy. And I'm happy with the finished product - looks a lot in person or zoomed in than this picture shows (that's actually 3 equal-size canvases).

Painting in a crafty way is fun but what I really love is taking pictures. In early August Kyle had some time off and I got to do a little worship with a local photographer/instructor named Randy Kerr. I'm a big fan. We went to Umlauf Sculpture Gardens and I couldn't believe this little gem was right in the middle of Zilker and I had never been there! He taught me a lot about light so a lot of the shots were just experiments but I got a few shots I really like.

Angel statue left side.

Angel statue right side

Mother statue through trees

Mother statue through through trees again

And then my sweet (and beautiful) friend Michelle let me practice on her - a statue that moves when we ask it to!

Check out those gun!

I also got to spend two luxurious nights in a hotel in downtown Austin all.by.myself. I am an extrovert, but boy, did I need this! I spent the first night in my hotel bathrobe eating a package of twizzlers for dinner (so I wouldn't have to interact with a room service person) and watching old episodes of Project Runway. I slept in. I woke up and slept in some more. Then I wondered around downtown taking pictures and ducking in different shops and Starbuck's to beat the heat for a bit.

I even went inside the state capitol for a little bit (hadn't been since probably sixth grade Texas History) and observed some ridiculously clueless protestors. Don't get me started.

The fancy grilled cheese I ate for breakfast.

I ended the weekend with a fabulous girls' night out - that's Christal and Katie in Carlos' pedi-cab. Sidhya and I and those two girls had dinner, then dessert, and had our own personal escort. Then Katie and I stayed up way too late w/ Carlos so he could show us the ins and outs of late night Austin (something these two soccer moms -  yes, I admit it) hadn't really seen, and probably don't need to see again for a while. But we had fun. We danced. Katie pretended to get a tattoo. We pedi-cabbed. We people-watched.

Be jealous of my friends people - they're awesome. :)

End of Summer Hodge-Podge

It's September and even though its still 100million degrees outside we've been in major get-ready-for-fall-school-end-of-summer-cleaning-out-organizing mode over here. So, its unacceptable that these random photos have been sitting in post no-mans-land for weeks and weeks. Let's wrap this up...

Maggie cooling off in a little bucket-pool sometime mid-summer. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Cheese face.

Jumping back - the long awaited play-date w/ Owen's preschool class (many of these kids he's been in school with at Westminster since we moved to Austin right before he turned 2). They're all off to kindergarten now (more on that in another post). Trampoline + hose + watermelon and cupcakes (off the trampoline)...good times.

Maggie flying. Kyle photo-bombing.

Maggie passed out at the kitchen counter in mid-snack.

Dont' worry mom, she was very stable and I got her down and put her to bed.

Owen & Rebecca gearing up for the neighborhood 4th of July parade. It was a real treat this year. Kyle stayed back with Maggie - I forget why - and I walked while both kids rode their bikes. They did so well on their own!!!

Checking out books from the library at Owen's soon-to-be kindergarten school. They had the library open each Wed (and the playground for the upcoming kindergarteners - we only made it to that once or twice because it was just tooooo hot).

Our favorite new neighbor friends moved to Japan. No, we didn't scare them out of the 'hood. They went for a year-long job opportunity and will be back. We got to host a little going away party for them - so fun! - and since she doesn't eat sushi (what???) we had some for her made out of rice crispies. (Booyah to all those pinterest nay-sayers.)

 Magalicious with crazy ice-cream hair at chick-fil-A.

 In general - the older they are the cleaner they are.

 Owen sporting a gift and Rebecca holding one from Bee/JoJo from one of those Nordic countries they went to.

 Maggie having a little second dinner w/ Carlos - aka: ARLOOOOOO! What he eats, she'll eat.

 Owen made his own PB&J (not real P). Stuff like this happens and I realize he'll grow up if I would only let him! Sweet and sad all at the same time.

 Rebecca sporting her multiple stickers covering multiple bandaids from multiple vaccinations at her four-year well-check. She was a total trooper. Not even a tear. (Remember the story of her getting her finger pricked when she was like two and she just stared the phlebotomyist down?) One tough cookie.

 A little playground time when we were fooled for a minute into thinking that it wasn't going to be very hot that morning...

 Mommy, can we go? We're frying out here.

 Our sweet Kimberly (babysitter/helper extraordinaire) moved and this was her last day. Saddness. But we'll see her again when she moves back to Austin - yea!

Can I be totally unorganized and throw in some other random kid notes to this one? I just want to cross it off my list. :)

Maggie

• Loves to high-five, and holds her arm way back (behind her head) for a really really long time before laundhing. sometimes the launch (and high five) doesn't even happen - she just leaves it back there and yells 'high five"
• Started sleeping in her big girl bed (6/20) followed by several nights of bed-febering followed by us throwing our hands in the air and putting her in her travel tent (which she loves) on her bed. zipped in. Tent gets moved to my closet for nap time so the kids can have free reign upstairs and I don't have a heart attack every time they make a noise. Everyone is happy.
• WORDS: Lots more. Our favorite are: OBIDEEE (Open it - usually screamed and repeated), HONREEEE (hungry), NAH (snack), I-DO-YYYYYY (I'll do it)...she'll try to repeat most anything you say, but a lot of times it isn't even close. She generally prefers the loudest voice she has when speaking. 

Rebecca

•  yoda-hay-he-hoo 
• she got a new bed the same time Maggie did - she generally stays in hers - but there have been a few nights that I've gone up to check on the kids and she's not in bed (minor panic) and I find her curled up with a blanket on the little couch in Owen's room 
• I GOT TO TELL YOU SOMEPIN MOMMA. I GOT TO TELL YOU SOMEPIN MOMMA.

Owen

• told me he was jealous of the pretty pillows I got for Rebecca's bed (little throw pillows) - gave me some ideas of what would look good on his bed (some actual good ideas!)
• loves Magic School Bus, Wild Krats, chapter books (yea for the kindergarten reading list that got us reading all sorts of NEW stuff this summer!!!)