School Days Once Again

 When school started, the boys were definitely ready to go. S is in 6th grade, O in 2nd, and H started Kindergarten. I love how these brothers are best friends!

 When did I get old enough to have a 6th grader?!? How did my fat little baby turn into someone ready for Jr. High next year? Ah!!

 H was ready to start school the same day as his brothers. Sorry, little man, one more week for you.

 O with his teacher this year, Mrs. Cullimore.

 Packing up his scooter by himself like the big boy he is.

 I got to drive carpool to S's school the first day. How fun!

 H, after waiting for a week (and asking me every day, multiple times a day) finally started school!

 Oh wait -- that wasn't H on his first day of school. That was him wanting to go to school before he started. This is what he wore on the first day:

 What a handsome little man!

 H with his teacher, Mrs. Smiley. (Yes, that is really her name, and yes, perfect name for a Kindergarten teacher.)

 Busy at work coloring. Did not even care that I was leaving. *sniff, sniff* (And Hooray!)

 S went with us to drop the younger two off at school. What a handsome group of boys!

On the second day of school, S came home complaining of a headache. Coming in from recess, he had tripped on someone else's feet, fallen down, and had the owner of the feet plus another person fall on him and knock his head into the ground. After comparing his pupils (they were the same size) I told him to drink water and rest. The next morning his headache was worse. He felt sick to his stomach and could barely walk straight. I told him he should stay home from school, but he couldn't bear the thought (his teacher this year and his friends are fabulous!! I love them all!), so he got dressed, and told me he was going to practice the piano. I was in the kitchen making breakfast and heard him start playing. "Oh wow," thinks I to myself, "He really is feeling better! I'm glad he's upright enough to play that song!" Um,
…no. It was memorized, played like this:

 I was really impressed. And I kept him home that day. It was a minor contusion, and he was back to school the next day.

We had a friend come over and bring her daughter to play. She really likes H :)

The Haps

Here is a rundown of what has been happening lately...

We put a great and spacious play set in our backyard. It is a pirate ship, club house, picnic spot, and all around big hit.

J has been working on our garden. It is beautiful in its organization, layout, and function. He is a mad genius perfectionist gardener.

The school year ended. Programs, Pioneer trek, and dance festivals. I walked into the house one morning after a run to my boys having a shirtless dance party in the front room to Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" thanks to not only Scera Park Elementary but also Cherry Hill Elementary. Now H walks around singing, "I'm only gonna break break break break break your heart," S "Pop it, lock it, polka dot it...," and O "I wanna celebrate and live my life..."

School is out. My boys are all home with me for the summer. Bliss and boredom. Fun and fighting. The usual. But all day now.

We met my parents in Moab for a weekend. Toasty fun. Chuck wagon, Arches National Park, hotel pool, Hummer ride.

I ran the Wasatch Back for the 3rd year in a row. I am addicted to this painful, sleep-deprived, exhausting kind of fun.

I will post on these events one by one. Stay tuned...

Kindergarten! And 4th Grade

That fat little baby with whom I was on bedrest 6 years ago started Kindergarten this year.

Here he is, ready to ride to his first day of school in style:


And here he is starting to get anxious that mommy was going to leave him:


And here he is about to start the terrified clinging and not letting go of my leg for 10 minutes:


But let go he did, and leave I did, only to pick him up from school 3 hours later happy to be a monkey in Mrs. Smiley's Kindergarten class:


Whew!

S began his public school adventures this year. He still tells me sometimes that he likes Reagan Academy better for certain reasons, but I wouldn't give up his teacher this year for anything. She is amazing and he is doing so well!

May

The 3rd Grade put on their program a few weeks before school let out. It was entitled, "We Make a Rainbow" and was so neat! They had been learning their songs and practicing for weeks and it showed. S did so well. He was so serious throughout the whole thing because, during the performance for the school, he missed one cue to stand up and was still living in the shame of that experience. We tried waving and yelling and pointing at him, but he would not look away from the teacher in charge. Funny boy. I'll post pictures of the program and S with his teacher as soon as I am able.

(Now I am able)
Here is O waiting for the program to begin, wearing a hat that Grandpa Kim custom made.


J & H waiting. (And looking exactly the same, I might add.)


There's S in the middle. There are a number of girls who think he's cute and that's one of them right next to him.


Mother's Day was nice. J bought me a really soft pink fuzzy robe from Bath & Body Works. When I opened it, he asked me if I remembered what I had said a few weeks earlier when we were in the store just looking around. I didn't, so he reminded me, which totally explains why he bought the robe: "If I had a robe like this, I would never wear clothes!" Apparently that translates to, "Must buy wife robe. Must buy wife robe," in J-speak. Men.

Here are some pictures with the three stupendous reasons I get to celebrate Mother's Day:


Here's a picture of one of the best pizzas I've ever made. Mrs. Renfro's jalapenos make all the difference.

The Astronomy Project

S had an astronomy project to do for school. I like our system: I oversee homework and J oversees projects. Here is S, positioning the sun while J looks on:



Meanwhile, O diligently created clay blobs. Work that awesome gut, boy!


This is their happiest picture:


And the finished project on display at the school's Core Knowledge Fair tonight:


Have I mentioned how much I love this school? The Geography project; being Wilbur/Orville Wright; the Astronomy project; the research paper (in 3rd Grade?!? How awesome is that?); Folk Dancing at the Core Knowledge Fair; homemade kalimbas and oil pastels in the style of Vincent Van Gogh in Art; Peter and the Wolf, Vivaldi's Four Seasons in Music -- the list goes on and on. I love this school!

By Golly, He's "Wright"!

A few weeks ago, S had a book report presentation to do in class on the Wright Brothers (the flying ones). We put together this little outfit:


I went to his school early to eat lunch with him and help him prepare. He couldn't decide whether he was Wilbur or Orville for the presentation, but by Sunday (when he wore his outfit to church) we settled on him being Orville, since Wilbur was hit by a hockey stick in high school, resulting in the loss of his front teeth. I stayed to watch a few presentations, namely Albert Einstein (whom S's friend picked because he had awesome hair) and JK Rowling (done by a boy dressed up as Harry Potter because he didn't want to dress up like a girl.) I love S's school.

A Weary Week

This week has not been stellar. It is looking up now, so I can (hopefully) objectively recap...

Monday:
I had a follow-up with the podiatrist who was very pleased with the surgery and very optimistic about the good it did. I am ready to kick off the cast; it's a cumbersome inconvenience that slows me down -- except for when I accidentally kick something and then I'm glad it's still on.

Tuesday:
I desperately needed to make many batches of peanut-butter cookies, so I did. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll deduce that Tuesday was not good.

Wednesday:
I went to S's school to watch the school spelling bee. He was #1 out of 18, the youngest and the tiniest. It took a little coaxing to get him up to the mic to begin, but when he finally did and spelled his first word, "glad," he was just fine. I expected him to be nervous and was proud of how he conquered his nerves, but I wasn't prepared for how nerve-wracking it would be for me. Every time he stood up to spell, I held my breath. Every time he completed the word, I'd let it out with a sigh (along with everyone else in the auditorium. It was so cool -- you could just feel everyone rooting for this tiny shy boy.) He stayed in to spell, "cartoon," "piano," "significant" (that was impressive -- I had no idea he knew how to spell that one), and "monarch," before incorrectly spelling, "scruple." As he explained to me later, "I thought it was a pole made out of screws," which explains "S-C-R-E-W-P-O-L-E."
Here he is before everyone started filing into the auditorium:














Wednesday night was bad for everyone, boys and mom. Yelling, crying, grumpiness all around. I went to bed determined to do better on...

Thursday:
3/4 of this day were great. I woke early for some quiet, spiritual rejuvenation and handled the morning grumpiness around me calmly and graciously. When we returned home from dropping S off at school, O and H painted. I was proud of myself for doing that since I rarely get crafty.














Thursday night was bad again. More yelling, screaming, crying. So bad that everyone was in bed by 6:30 (not happily) and I was very seriously considering abandoning my post as mother. My neighbor came over later to visit and buoy up my spirits. It worked. She's an angel.

Friday:
Today was great. Somehow a good night's sleep made me love my kids again and we passed a pleasant morning playing with cars and making chocolate cookies in preparation for J's homecoming tonight. For lunch we drove down to Springville and spent $2.34 on 3 kids' meals, a taco, a burrito, and 3 frosties. (Love those coupons!) We came home and rode bikes and now the younger two are settled in front of a movie. Life is good and my three little monkeys are fantastic, caring little people. I can't imagine a better trio with which to spend my days. And J will be home shortly -- hooray!

He's D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S

My little S spelled down his whole class today to win their spelling bee with the word "dangerous." Tonight I'm one proud mama.

Pilgrim

Tuesday was Early American Day for the 3rd Graders. They were encouraged to dress up as an early American, so S went to school like this:

Not bad for putting it together in an hour the night before.

The Completed Project

It's done and it's good!

The Project, Part III: Almost Done

After a few more colors, a few more coats of paint, this is what the project looked like:


However, since we bought blue cellophane for the water, we had to use it!


Master S, glue-gunning the moss on. The sand went on with Elmer's glue, and the rocks will go on tomorrow.


What do you think?

The Project, Part II

The second weekend in October, while I was in Bismarck at a cousin's wedding, J assumed the role of Mr. Mom. He and S worked some more on S's Geography project.

S painting the lake:

...and priming:

The next day they painted the mountains:

Pretty amazing!

A proud boy, and it's not even done yet!

The Project, Part I

S has a World Geography project that is due October 23rd. When he brought the assignment home a few weeks ago I wanted to make sure that he knew it is HIS project. I'm trying to teach the kid some responsibility and accountability. No mommy staying up late the night before it's due, frantically trying to finish the project. He had an idea of what he wanted, and I've given him some suggestions, but he drew out the plan for it and collected a few pebbles from our yard for the finishing touches when it's time for that. I suggested to J that he could help him form the mountains out of plaster and then S could take over from there. I should've known better.




J making the wire forms for the paper mache


S providing tape for J, who is still making the wire forms for the paper mache


S working the paper mache (which is slimy and yucky and gross-feeling and yet oddly satisfying too)


S managing the paper mache, but --

J is putting it on the forms. Then, since the newspaper strips were getting a little too soggy, J (old man that he is) was getting a backache, and I was tired of hearing S freak out every time the strips broke from being too soggy and J complain of his old, aching back, I stepped in and handed the strips to S. J hovered, patching and adjusting until...

Looks good, doesn't it? J purposely put an arrete on the right that he'd like to spend some time on. When it dries, J wants to spray paint it, but I keep reminding him that, "It is Sam's project, and it has to look like a 3rd Grader did it, not the 3rd Grader's dad." We'll see if the 3rd Grader's dad can restrain himself.