Back to School

Okay, I'm pretty much caught up from summer. The boys were SO ready to go back to school. They woke up way before me that morning and were all ready to go by the time I got up at 6:30. Spencer's in 7th, Tyler's in 5th, Dallin is in 3rd (in a 3rd/4th split), Brennan is in kinder, and Levi wanted to make his lunch too.

I was all stressed when school began because I was unhappy about a few things. A new charter school just opened this year, but I didn't want to do it for several reasons. The problem was that many good, strong, involved families sent their kids to it, so I was worried there wouldn't be anyone left at our school. I didn't recognize almost any of the names in their classes. But my boys were just fine with it. They like their teachers and don't want to leave their school, so I'm okay now. Why do I let these things stress me out?

After we got the oldest three boys off to school and before kindergarten started, we went out to breakfast with a few other moms. Brennan got icing all over his clothes, so we had to go home and change his clothes quick before school started. He loves his DC shirt because it looks like spin art.

First day of kindergarten! Brennan was very excited, and he wasn't at all sad to leave me. Of course it helps that he was in transitional kindergarten last year, and there is a set of twin boys from TK in his class again this year. Even though he's one of the oldest in his class (he turns 6 in November), he's still the shortest one there. Poor guy. At least he's the cutest!!

Butterfly egg hunt

Brennan's TK (transitional kindergarten) class has been learning about butterflies, so they had a butterfly egg hunt on the last day of school before Easter. That's one clever teacher!

They had to find the eggs that had their names written on them. That way it was educational (reinforcing name recognition), and everyone got the same amount. Great idea!

Dave's family was visiting, so I left Levi and Chloe with them and went to take pictures. I had been stuck in the house with sick kids for two days, and it felt good to get out of the house. Brennan was off school for two days, and he was hoping and praying he'd be better in time for the party. He slept in until 9:45 that day and woke up feeling great. Yay!

We love Mrs. Root! And we're really bummed that the TK program will most likely be cut due to the state's budget woes. I wanted Levi to go there in a few years!!

Here's some of Brennan's class. That blonde kid sitting next to him is his hospital roommate. His mom and I shared a room when they were born!

They were allowed to eat one piece of candy when they got back to the classroom.

I feel like I've been such a terribly uninvolved mom this year! I usually try to volunteer on a regular basis or at least help out at classroom parties, but it's been too hard with Levi and being pregnant and such. Since I was alone this time I decided to stay a little longer.

They had free play and were able to choose whatever station they wanted. Brennan had fun showing me around.

TK is such a perfect mix of preschool and kindergarten. He has a lot of fun, and he has learned so much; he's totally ready for kindergarten now!

Rubber Ducky Party!

Saturday was Brennan's first ever friend party. His birthday is actually next week, but that gets complicated with Thanksgiving. I'm all about the theme, so I asked him what kind of party he wanted. He didn't know, so I gave him some suggestions - pirates, monsters, etc. - all the things he likes. Then he came up with the "duck" theme, which seemed odd to me. The last time we had a duck cake was when Spencer turned one. But he said he wanted the kind of rubber duckies that are dressed up. That made more sense, since he loves dress-ups. Actually all my boys like to play with those silly ducks, and not just in the bath.

I started out making a basic rubber ducky cake . I used one cake mix to bake two 8" round cakes (actually I only had one 8" cake pan, so I used a round casserole dish for the other one) and a small ball-shaped cake I made by changing the shape of a mini loaf pan (Dave's idea - he's so creative). I used toothpicks to attach the candy fruit slices for the tail and a chopstick to attach the head and beak - Tyler suggested I use an ice cream cone for that, since the orange slice they used on the website just looked like fat lips. I used chocolate chips for the eyes, since the non perils they used looked freaky.

Then we dressed up our duck. First we put a Mr. Potato Head fireman hat on it. That was pretty cute.

But we especially liked the pirate version. I used a fruit roll-up for the bandanna and a chocolate melting disc for the eye patch. Then I drew the lines with melted chocolate chips.

We surrounded him with bunches of fun rubber duckies I found at a party supply store.

As the guests arrived they decorated their treat bags with ducks and stickers. Our first game was Duck, Duck, Goose.

Then everyone chose a rubber ducky to use in our duck races. Dave made a little race course in our turtle sand box using water, irrigation tubing and rocks. Three kids raced at a time, using straws to blow the ducks around the track.

The ducks were a little top-heavy; but it worked great, and they had a lot of fun.




Next we went to our neighbors' house to feed their ducks. They were a little intimidated by us and didn't want to come out, but they did eat some of the bread we threw at them.

The whole group: my five boys plus ten friends from church and school. I was really happy with the turn-out, considering I didn't get the invitations out until four days before the party (somehow it snuck up on me), and the fact that there were two other school parties that same day. But I changed the time of the party so more people could come, and it all worked out. It's funny, because everyone in Brennan's class has a birthday between September and December. There were 4 other parties this week!

Then we went inside for cake and ice cream.

Brennan is not one to be shy by all the attention.

He had such a fun day. He was super happy before, during and after the party. In fact I'm glad we moved the time up to 11:00 in the morning, because it was even hard for him to wait that long.

He loved all his presents. He got a lot of craft stuff, which is one of his favorite things to do. We were busy crafting all weekend.

Levi knows all about opening presents now, and Brennan even let him help.

Finally, we went on a treasure hunt to find the treat bags. The clues were things like, "When you're hungry, don't go quackers! Eat some cheese and _______." And "Rubber ducky, you're the one. You make _______ lots of fun." After everyone left we had a few minutes to recover before we took Brennan and Tyler to other parties. I love birthday parties. They're a lot of work, but they're so much fun.

Fun with bath foam and ISO

Brennan had a blast finger-painting with shaving cream at school a few weeks ago. And that reminded me how much fun bath foam is, so we gave some to Levi for his birthday. Brennan and Levi have loved taking baths with it the past couple weeks! They looked so funny covered in foam that of course I had to take pictures; but there wasn't quite enough light in the bathroom, and the pictures all turned out blurry.

So I resorted to turning on the flash. But I just don't like the look of flash - too fake looking with unnatural colors. I really had to fix this one on Photoshop, but I loved Levi's expression.

Careful camera angles and cropping keep bath pictures modest.

If they held perfectly still then it could be clear, but how often does that happen? I played around with the exposure, speed and f-stop, but nothing was working.

Finally I remembered the ISO. I bumped it up almost as high as it would go, and the pictures suddenly became clear and perfectly exposed. I gotta remember that trick. Some are a little grainy if you zoom in, but I'll take grainy over blurry any day.

So if you are looking for a fun bath toy for a 2-4 year old, I recommend bath foam. Just make sure you wash it all off the tub when you're done or else it will be almost impossible to get off later. I remember that from last time.

There are many things you can fix on Photoshop - color, exposure, noise. But there's nothing you can do about blurriness. Look how clear - yay!

Preschool Graduation

We had a little preschool graduation at Kristen's house a few weeks ago. We had it in the evening so all the families could be there. First we had dinner (we all brought various dinner salads and rolls) and then we had a little program.

Emily Z. started it out like we did every time - with the Pledge of Allegience, weather of the day, days of the week and months of the year.

They wore the caps they made at Heather's house.

Then Hilary W. helped them sing a couple of songs (like If You're Happy and You Know It), and they each said what they wanted to be when they grew up. Brennan said he wanted to be a firefighter. Eric wants to be a knight.

Instead of diplomas, I handed out scrapbooks I made of their preschool year.
But I made them give them back to me because I still need to finish them. It's high up on my to-do list.
Then Heather and Kimber handed out sunflowers to each of the kids to give to their moms for teaching them all year.
Afterwards we ate cake and visited while the kids played 'till late into the night. It was such a lovely evening. We're going to miss our preschool friends.

Random updates

Tyler loves to whistle. Recently he said, "Whenever I whistle I am a Child of God I feel happier. Like when I fail a math test." But last week he got a 100% on his 6X test with loads of time to spare. Go Tyler!

Brennan (as I was putting his shoes on): "Mom, this is my right foot. And this is my right hand. And this is my left foot. And this is my left hand."

Me: "Good job, Brennan! Where did you learn that?"

Brennan: "From playing Twister, 'member?"

Me: "Wow, Brennan. Some grown-ups don't even know that."

Brennan: "What, they don't have Twister?"

A few days ago I got a call from a grumpy lady at the police department telling me someone at my residence had been calling 9-1-1. I apologized profusely and told them I'd take the phone away from my baby. Oops! I guess I can't give Levi the phone to play with while I change his diaper anymore.

Rainy day

I took Brennan and Levi to the children's museum last week for something fun to do on a rainy day.

It was the first time Levi was old enough to actually play there, and he loved it. He especially liked all the balls (although he did NOT like the ball pit - he kept falling over and getting scared when he couldn't get back up).

He ran around like a man on a mission, picking up balls, putting them in those vacuum things, watching them go up...it never got old, and he didn't want to leave.

Of course Brennan loves the part when the balls fall on them.

Once we were able to drag him away from the balls, he had fun doing other things too, like throwing play food on the floor and climbing on the firetruck.

Cute Valentine's craft Brennan made there.

Levi loves dogs these days, and he wasn't quite sure if this one was real or not.

Brennan loves this place too, although his favorite thing may have been using his Spiderman umbrella in the rain.