It's Summer!!

 

Summer is officially here for our family! Partly because it's HOT and we have already been running through sprinklers and swimming in pools and partly because...

 

This little guy is a Kindergarten graduate! We spent our morning watching him receive his promotion certificate and saying our goodbyes to friends and teachers and maybe a little bit of crying on my part. We celebrated with pizza and family and now summer is officially here!

My Dancer and Smarty Pants

 

Brygit started taking a dance class a couple of months ago. She had a little performance at our city's Orange Harvest Festival a few weeks ago and it was probably the most adorable thing I have ever seen.

 

  Later that week Liam got an academic award at school and, though he was squinting into the sun, it was also pretty darn adorable. 

Parenting is definitely a thankless job but I must admit that these little moments that fill you with pride at their accomplishments makes it all more than worth it.

Pierced ears, amusement parks, awards and loose teeth

 

I remember the first couple of weeks after Brygit was born, my blogging hobby took the longest hiatus it ever has. Until now, that is. So I'm going to do a little catching up before I get much farther behind. Also, 99 percent of these photos were taken with iPhones because, apparently, my camera has taken a hiatus as well.

 

First up, I'm not sure I ever mentioned that my little girl got her ears pierced in December shortly after Christmas. She had been on the fence about getting them pierced because Paul was encouraging of it and I kept telling her how bad it was going to hurt. She became pretty insistent one day so we headed to the mall and let her watch a couple of people go before her. She kept saying she wanted earrings and she wasn't going to cry. She picked out a pair of Hello Kitty earrings then she had both ears pierced at the same time. She did cry, of course, because it hurts like heck but she got the pink sucker she had her eye on and then moved on. They are now completely healed and ready to be changed whenever she wants.

 

 

In January, Paul and I took a trip alone to Knott's Berry Farm to ride roller coasters without the kids. It was probably the most fun we have had on a date in a long time.

But, it was so much fun that we had to bring our kids back a couple days later. They had an equal amount of fun and they keep talking about it. Also, Liam rode his first roller coaster and loved it which is really saying something. I'm always so amazed at how mature he is becoming.

 

 

The highlight of the day was when these cowboys called Liam out to do a quick draw. I should post the video because it's pretty adorable. I guess I should figure out how to do that one of these days.

 

The first week back to school Liam received his very first award for academic excellence in Language Arts for mastering sight words and reading skills. I was so incredibly proud of him and the certificate is still on my fridge.

 

This was also the first day the flu/ cold hit our house and it kind of hasn't left yet. Is that bad?

 

Mr. Smarty Pants soon met another milestone by losing his first baby tooth. Another is on the way out as well.

 

Now, we head into T Ball Season and a little someone in my house is turning three in a couple of days. More posts and, hopefully, pictures coming soon.

Happy Halloween!

 

Halloween is in full swing over here. Liam took his first Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch last week where he experienced a hay ride, fed some goats, picked a pumpkin and learned a little bit along the way. He had a great time but I'm pretty sure the highlight of the day was his very first ride on a school bus.

 

A couple days later we had a fun family day at our community's Fall Carnival. The kids rode ponies, jumped in bounce houses, played carnival games and won prizes. Liam actually won a ring toss game and picked a big Pluto stuffed animal for his little sister. Is he adorable or is he adorable?

 

They got balloon animals and Brygit got her face painted. Liam loathes the idea of getting his face painted and he was very concerned that Brygit was even getting it done. He fretted over whether it would come off in the bath and we had to assure HIM repeatedly while Brygit sat perfectly still and got her entire face painted like Hello Kitty.

 

We have since carved pumpkins in our front yard and took a walk through our neighborhood to check out a few houses that like to go all out for Halloween.

 

 

Liam had to wear his shirt backwards to school for a Red Ribbon Week event. Thought I should explain.

 

Tomorrow holds way too many fun Halloween plans. Here's hoping I survive it all and the kids make it to bedtime without a sugar crash.

 

It's Fall!

Temperatures have officially dropped below 100 degrees so I thinks it's safe to say California's fall is here. We spent our evening yesterday at Liam's fall festival for his school. The kids ate way too much sugar, got lost a couple of times, had a ton of fun and made it to the bottom of our stairs at home before both completely melting down. Liam slept in until 7:30 which is a miracle in this house and Brygit continued her meltdown throughout the day today. The plan is to put them both to bed early and head to Sea World for some Trick or Treating first thing in the morning. I can't wait to kick this season off and I am hopeful that we will be graced with some pleasant attitudes along the way!

 

Kindergarten tears and rainforest dinners

I'm going to try to cover a lot of ground in this post since I haven't found the time to blog in recent days.

First, I need to announce that I have aged like 10 years this past week. Liam has attended 8 days of school so far and he has cried 5 of those days. Sometimes from the moment he woke up until the moment he arrived. And once, periodically throughout the day at school warranting a phone call home. Knowing he was so unhappy was/ is seriously heart breaking. I'm pretty sure I have shed more tears than he has. He has been gradually getting better at going and I have been gradually realizing that even when he does fine, I still feel physically nauseous and like an emotional wreck because dropping your first born off at full day kindergarten feels like you're slowly being murdered from the inside out. Or am I alone in that emotion? 

Either way, it's been rough. I found solace this week in celebrating Liam's birthday. We promised him dinner at the Rainforest Cafe so it gave us all something to look forward to in the middle of the week. It was his turn to take home the class "pet," Callie Bear, and take her on an adventure so she joined us in the Rainforest. 

Brygit was a little in love with Callie Bear but, luckily, Liam was willing to share both his bear and his birthday cupcake.

He was also the "star of the day" at school where he got to be line leader and teacher's helper and I was able to bring cupcakes to the class and see a small portion of his day. 

I really am just so proud of how brave he is and how hard he tries. I miss him so much during the day and the sweet things he says when he's upset like, "please think about me today," seriously melt my heart (and possibly contribute to the aforementioned internal murder I have going on).