Mousercise

We found a Mousercise CD at the library.  Best music for dancing ever!  Sidney has the cutest little booty shake goin' on.  It's a lot cuter when she's wearing a skirt that swishes back and forth, but this girl's got moves!  Dancing in her future?  She'll dance for a half hour straight.  This isn't my favorite video I took, but the longer one with more moves won't upload.  I'll try later and maybe take some more.

Our Summer

Here's what we have filled the rest of our summer days with.

Snuggling up in mom and dad's bed to read books and watch cartoons.

Fun with water balloons. 

Slip-n-slide down our backyard hill. 

Sno-cones.

Sno-cones on the slip-n-slide. 

Sno-cones while sliding all the way down the slip-n-slide. 

Getting into mom's make-up. 

Carowinds and the waterpark. 

Finding these funny sunglasses at a garage sale.

Eating s'mores, even though we didn't go camping. 

Playing outside. 

Having a fun and busy summer!  Sad to see it go, but not sad to see the 95 degree weather go. 

Kindergartener!

Jayden started Kindergarten yesterday!  I still can't believe it!  I knew the day was coming, but I don't think I was as prepared as I thought I was.  The house is a little quieter, I think about him all day, wondering if he's ok, making friends, not being too shy, wondering what he's doing, if he's finding his way around, all that stuff that moms worry and think about.

Jayden woke up to his alarm at 6:00 a.m. and it was like Christmas morning!  He couldn't wait to get up and going.  Josh left for work a little late so he could be here to see him off on the bus.  Jayden has been sooooo excited to ride the bus.  It's like a big, fun adventure for him.  Unfortunately the bus was over 20 minutes late, adding to my nerves.  Jayden just wanted it to get here already!  Josh was trying to get Jayden to look at him for a picture right before he got on, but Jayden said, "No Dad, I have to go!"  He was last in line to get on, my short little 5 year old, who just looks too small and fragile to be going off somewhere all day, especially with his weighed down backpack full of his new supplies.  I was fine watching him get on the bus.  Then I walked into the house to the kitchen and saw his breakfast dishes still sitting on the breakfast table, and that's when I lost it.

Before school.  It was still kind of dark out, so I didn't get any really good pictures, which is why I took more after school.

After school.  He had a great first day.  He was the first one off the bus and when Sidney saw him she ran as fast as she could with her arms in the air, shouting, "Yay!  Jayden!  Yay!" and gave him a giant hug.  She missed him all day long.

I'm going to miss having him around.  He is such a fun kid, with a bright and happy personality.  I wish I could protect him from the world a little longer, but I guess I'll have to let go a little.  I'll miss jumping in the car to head off to a museum or park anytime we want, having him and Sidney argue over who gets to sit by me at the table, and sleeping in, let's be honest.  Good luck on your new adventure, little man!  You've filled every day of the last 5 (almost 6) years with so much fun and joy, I'll look forward to the bus every day!

Heading out the door.

Spy Week

Our last theme week was Spy Week.  This week was not our best week.  I usually have more things planned than we have time for, but I had a hard time coming up with ideas this time, and we were getting ready for school to start, but Jayden wanted this theme really bad, so we did what we could.

Unfortunately we don't have a spy museum, or a spy park, or anything like that around here (that I'm aware of), so I made up a spy mission for the kids to do surveillance and take pictures.  They were all dressed up in their baseball hats and sunglasses for a disguise, but at the last minute Jayden didn't want to do it, no matter how much I tried to re-write it, so we didn't have any big outings for our theme this week.  Instead we sat in the food court at the mall and played "I Spy With My Little Eye."  Does that count?

So if it's not totally obvious since this is so realistic looking, the kids crawled through "laser beams" to steal something from the other side.  They weren't allowed to touch the lasers or they had to start over.

They started out with plain white paper and when they painted them, there was a hidden message there. 

This was a total stretch, but I set out some ingredients for a treat we were going to make.  I gave them clues to what it was going to be, and then we made them.  These are little "hamburgers" made out of vanilla wafers and grasshopper cookies with colored frosting for the condiments.  Spies trick people into thinking something is what it isn't, right?  A stretch, I know.  Doesn't matter, the kids didn't complain! 

We dusted for fingerprints.

We made secret spy ID cards.  If these were real, they would be the worst spy kids ever because they reveal too much, but that's beside the point here.

Bombs.  Do they look like bombs?  Sort of, if you use your imagination, but once again, the kids didn't care.

Waking Up

Sidney likes to sleep pretty much anywhere but in her bed.  Jayden's room, her tent, Jayden's tent, her tent in Jayden's room, Jayden's tent in her room, the floor, the floor on a pile of pillows.....you get the idea.  I don't normally wake her up from a nap but did this once because she was sleeping too late.  I was surprised to find her in the chair in her room because when I put her to bed she was in her bed.  I was even more surprised to find the light on, books on the floor, and her little hands clutching her precious toys under her blanket.  It was a precious scene, so I had to snap a few photos before waking her up and just kept snapping away after the sound woke her.  This little scene put me in the best mood for the rest of the day and as I sit here and type this am reminded why I love this little blog of mine, to be able to capture a memory like that forever and get to share it with her when she's older.

Josh's Graduation

Josh is finally done with his MBA!  It hasn't sunk in yet and probably won't until we realize how much extra time he will have.  His graduation was back in July, but didn't actually finish his last class until yesterday.  We all went to watch him graduate.  We had already moved away from Idaho when his graduation for his Bachelor's happened, so I wanted him to have this experience.  It was a good ceremony and I'm glad we got to witness it.  Here he is with a few of his classmates.

Here he's shaking hands and getting his diploma but unfortunately our seats were to his back. 

 

The kid's favorite part were the bagpipes and drums.

Our little graduate coming to meet us after the ceremony.

Sidney greeted him with lots of big hugs and kisses.

We're really proud of his hard work and accomplishments.   

Josh's dad was also able to come out for the graduation.