The Yellow Fellow

On Wednesday, August 29, Joshua's elementary school offered kindergartners the opportunity to ride the school bus with a parent at either 9 or 11 am. I debated on whether to go or not because we won't ride the bus since we live close enough to walk. But, the paperwork said that important safety tips would be discussed, and I know that Joshua will ride the bus when he goes on field trips. Plus, this was another event to get him used to the idea of school and see his kindergarten friends, etc. So, I asked Grandpa Georgia what he was doing that morning. When he agreed to watch the two younger boys for us to go to the 9 am bus ride, I figured it was worth our time to go. Normally I don't like to leave Ryan behind with Grandpa since he requires a lot of "help," but I figured that the bus ride wouldn't be more than a few minutes since the driver simply circles the block in our neighborhood.

I was glad we went. Joshua was very excited to go on the bus ride, and it was more quality time I could spend with just him. I thought the tips were good, too (not that we'll need most of them). One was to always have a name, address and phone number card in your child's backpack in case he would ever board the wrong bus. I chuckled as I remembered my friend's mom (who drives school bus) tell the story of a child who didn't belong on her bus still sitting there after her run was done. She asked the child where he lives, and he answered "Pennsylvania." She said that wasn't all that helpful and tried to radio the other bus drivers to figure out where the child belonged. :) :) :)

As I read the safety tips, I reminded Joshua that bus drivers sit up high and don't see children. Always make sure the driver motions you to walk in front before crossing the street and stay far out in front of the bus for visibility. While this may not seem important for a walker, in our development there are often buses going through at school times. So, I thought it was worth noting.

Joshua saw some of his school friends, he was excited to drive by our house, and we were fortunate enough to get on the first of two buses going on the run so we were back to the house in a relatively short amount of time. I wished I would have taken my camera along that day, but I forgot it. So, I "borrowed" these pictures from a friend.

My sister took her kids to the school's open house that morning to see their classrooms and meet the teachers (available to everyone EXCEPT kindergartners who have their Open House on the first day of school). After they were finished, she took Daniel on the 11 am bus ride and Grace and Faith came to our house to play Wii with Joshua and Caleb. My boys had been begging for their older cousins to come play Wii again ever since Mamaw brought them one time with her. We had called and invited other days that didn't work out, and they had been at the beach the week prior. I knew that since this was the last week of summer, this would probably be one of the only days that might suit for awhile due to sports schedules and the girls being in full day school. So, they walked across to our house to play while Jen took the younger three shopping after the bus ride. I fed them all mac & cheese for lunch before their mom picked them back up. I laughed at listening to them play - it is a difficult game to play with four players! But they were having fun. :) :) :)

That afternoon, Joshua had his dentist appointment to get the spacer put in his mouth. He had been fitted for it previously, but this appointment was to cement it in based on the mold Dr. Miller had taken. It must have tasted awful because Joshua gave a shriek as it went in, and Dr. Miller sympathized with him. Then he said to Joshua that maybe Mom would spring for a milkshake. My little buddy got very excited, and I had no intentions of going for milkshakes. I was slightly annoyed that he would suggest something to a child that wasn't in our budget for the day, so I jokingly said "If Dr. Miller is offering you a milkshake, he should be the one who pays for it" and smiled. He got his wallet out and handed Joshua $1. I told him that wasn't necessary, but I think he could hear in my tone that I didn't think he should get a kiddo excited about something before discussing it with his parents. I did take Joshua for a shake afterward, and it cost me more than $5 as I had to get one for Caleb, too, to be fair.

Since we hadn't had the opportunity to go earlier in the day, that night we went to the gym. It was the first night that Ryan went into the "big kid" area of the gym. They section off a smaller area for babies with swings and bouncers and even smaller toys that kids who are more mobile can play with. But, bigger children aren't allowed in that area to keep the small ones safe. Ryan was getting bored there, and since he's walking well, they let him out to explore in the next size up area. This isn't the ball pit and maze yet, but he's having a blast playing at the train table and other toys that are out where you can see the maze and the other activities going on. While he used to cry at times when I'd drop him off, he seems much happier now going to the bigger kid area to explore and have fun and watch all the action! He is getting so big!

I loved these pictures of Ryan & Shawn from the previous night. This is the age where the boys start preferring their Dadda over their Mama and Ryan is no exception. He LOVES to play games with Shawn, who is enjoying this stage of him being more interactive and less cuddly. They have a blast together!

High five for growing so big and strong!

4x6 Family Pics

On Tuesday, August 28, we had agreed to meet our friends at the train in the evening... but then I re-checked the schedule and the train was only operating until 4 pm. It must have been some new 'off-season' hours that had recently changed. The evening ended up working out okay, anyway.

Joshua's kindergarten teacher mailed a letter to him and to us, and one of the things she requested was a 4x6 picture of just Joshua and a 4x6 family photo. She explained that there would be a class album and the photo had to be that size to fit in. All our professional pictures were at least 5x7, and it's a rare occasion otherwise to get a picture of all five of us together. Typically I'm taking the pictures and not in them!

So, I asked my friend Lisa if she would still like to meet after she got off work, but with her camera along to snap a couple shots of our family. She agreed. We met at Long's Park and then let the older kids play afterward (Joshua, Caleb and Isabella) while Shawn left with Ryan to go get some groceries (thanks, my love!) when we were finished. He had driven separately, knowing Ryan would not necessarily enjoy the park as much as our other boys.

The sun was starting to set, but we still got a couple nice pictures that I was able to get printed at Walmart and take in for the photo album.

Most of our shirts matched, and I had not purchased them for this occasion but just grabbed what I could find that looked like they would go together. Joshua's shirt was new for school from Old Navy, my shirt was from Banana Republic, Ryan's sweater was a hand-me-down from Children's Place, Daddy's shirt was from the Gap, and Caleb's was an Angry Birds t-shirt from JCPenny's that I asked him to turn around for the pictures. If we had more time, I may have tried to find different shirts for Shawn & Caleb, but they worked for this purpose.

It was a beautiful night as the kids played on the playground. We had a fun time!

Thanks for taking our pictures, friend!

These were the two of Joshua that I thought turned out well:

Here were some of the pictures I took at the park of the kids playing:

Joshua always makes new friends! And we saw some old friends there, too. I ran into one of our former youth, Britt (and her husband and two kids), from the days Shawn & I helped in youth group; I also saw Jude, Kate and Dan (minus my friend Julie). Small world!

Baby Aiden even got in some smiles with his mommy:

When we got home, Shawn took a picture of Ryan and me. There were two that Shawn liked. He laughed out loud at the first one below. Doesn't Ryan look like he sees something crawling out of my hair?!?!

The next one was my favorite of the evening. I love Ryan's big smile!

The younger kids took some pictures of Daddy & Mommy outside our house. While some were fuzzy, they turned out okay. The boys love to be the picture takers, especially Caleb. He's always asking us to let him have the camera to take a picture!

 I love my husband! And our family! :) :) :) We are blessed.

And while at first I panicked at having to have a 4x6 family photo for the teacher, I'm glad it gave us an excuse to get some pictures of all of us. Thanks, again, friends for meeting us at the park!

The Gift of Time

Most children went back to school on Monday, August 27. But, due to the construction of a new middle school building, Manheim Township didn't start this year until after Labor Day. So, while I had my first night of classes that evening, I was bound and determined to enjoy the day with my boys. After all, this time was a gift from heaven. I didn't want to miss even a moment by being unintentional! You can see in the pictures above that we started by playing with the animal puppets (gifts from their friend Kyler for going to his birthday party).

I gave the boys a list of other activities we could do, and they both picked painting next. I set up the easel and dug out the paints and brushes. Then, as soon as I laid Ryan down for his morning nap, we went down to the family room to paint. Here's Caleb with his blank canvas (or large coloring book).

He LOVES the color blue!

This was his finished masterpiece on this side of the easel.

Joshua chose the other side, which had the real "blank canvas." He started with his favorite color green.

Then he took a sponge and added read. He said "this is Jesus' cross" and the red is the blood He shed for us. I was surprised! And pleased... art is a great way to worship and express what we're thinking about. He was very happy doing his artwork.

I asked him to pose for me as he was going.

This was his finished masterpiece.

Then the boys switched sides. Joshua painted one of the pages of the coloring book we had, and he was more careful to paint inside the lines (even though the brushes aren't fine-tipped). They loved having painting time!

Can you tell?

From there, we went outside. I filled a bucket with water and dug out their water soaker. Joshua had gotten one from Nathan when he went to his party and Caleb had gotten one for his birthday from us. I set up empty water bottles out of the recycling bin on our water table. Then I told them to go ahead and shoot!

They had a blast. When the bottles didn't all get knocked over from far away, Joshua would cheat and go closer. I just laughed at his silliness!

Caleb had extremely good aim and loved knocking the bottles over with the water shooter!

Target practice was really fun for him!

They would each take turns. Joshua would set the bottles up for Caleb, and Caleb would set the bottles up for Joshua. They had fun.

Caleb acted like he was going to squirt me - no thanks, little man!

Thereafter, we played soccer. It was a beautiful day outside! We were so blessed to be home rather than in school!

We took turns being goalie and trying to kick the balls to score a point.

Many times we just decided to run around and be silly!

When we went inside, we played more games like our typical Yahtzee, Memory and Trouble. We also read our Berenstein Bears books (over and over and over again!). It had been a really fun day!

I didn't get pictures in the afternoon because the Schnook takes my hands and attention, too, but he joined the fun when he woke up.

Thank You, God, for the time I have with my boys. May I never take even one moment for granted!