A Late Finish

My friend had her baby boy 2 weeks, but late is better than never!  Hopefully I'll get it out in the mail today.  I had exactly enough flannel from the last quilt for the back of this quilt.  It felt like a sweet victory!

 And just so you can get a sense of reality around here...this is what I'm seeing as I'm taking the pictures.  This is the face of a girl who is very unhappy with her mother, because she was told she wasn't allowed to wear a short shirt and tight leggings to school.  Little Lady claimed she had NOTHING else to wear, but amazingly enough she came down wearing an appropriate outfit 3 minutes later.  Oh the joys of parenthood!

In the Trenches

I have had at least one child in diapers for over 10 years now.  I'm more than ready for this particular phase of life to be over.  Little Guy starts preschool in a couple of weeks and potty training is required for attendance.  I tried over Christmas, and he basically just laughed at me.  It didn't go well.  This time around I was really hoping it would stick.  He was already peeing in the toilet at night before bath time, so I knew he had the ability.  It made it so much easier this time, because he could already pee on command.  It was just a matter of learning to recognize when he needed to go.

I've kept him upstairs away from the basement, because that's where he likes to run and hide to do his business.  We've read a lot of books and played a lot of Planes.  He had 3 accidents the first day, but he was also regularly peeing in the toilet.  Day 2 was amazing and he only had one accident.  He was also telling me when he needed to pee.  My main concern is that there hadn't been any movement of #2 either days.  He finally achieved #2 in the toilet Day 3 with no peeing accidents, but then at the very end of the day he was running around playing with BB and pooped in his pants.  Sigh.  He's still doing way better than any of my other kids at this point, because he's even been waking up from his naps dry and we've gone multiple places with no accidents.  I think I am finally on my way to a diaper-less household, and I'm getting excited!  His reward chart only needs 2 more stickers now, and he's pretty excited.  He has asked for his own soccer ball.

Jacked Up

Our back patio was pretty much hollow underneath.  The dirt had eroded away with the settling of the house, and we realized it was cheaper to have it filled rather than build a new patio.  The top of the driveway also needed to be mudjacked to level it out with the garage.  Little Guy was fascinated by the process, but the drilling was a bit too loud for him.

 It provided a whole morning of entertainment.

Happy Quilt Front

This quilt top is brought to you by my scrap pile.  Wahoo!  My 2 youngest were my helpers this morning.  One of them you can only see his hand.  Little Guy doesn't quite make it to the height of the fence yet.

Soccer Season is Upon Us

BB is a Blue Shark this season with boys all from his school.  The amazing thing is that this is the first time I've seen him legitimately passing the soccer ball during a game.  It was really awesome to see him using some of the skills he's been learning.  It's going to be a fun season watching #6!

Successful Firsts

I was so relieved when all three kiddos came home from their first day of school really happy.  In fact, this may the first time Little Man has ever come home from the first day of school smiling.  He was excited to tell me about his science class that was fingerprint forensics, and a math STEM challenge building a tower using triangles.  His team won, so he was pretty excited, and he also had Spanish class and loved it.  I'm thrilled that they have a real art class now, and they also rotate through Spanish class as a special.  Little Lady told me she was so busy that she didn't even have time to pull out a book and read.  BB said his teacher is so nice!  What a difference a good school district makes!  We celebrated with our traditional ice cream!  They tried dipped cones for the first time and I got 4 thumbs up!

 Little Guy doesn't start preschool for a couple of weeks, but he had his first piano lesson with Mr. Scott, and he loved it!  He was so excited to come home and play for everyone Hot, Cross Buns!  He said Mr. Scott is so nice!  He woke up the next morning thrilled that he "got" to practice.  We're working on teaching him the musical alphabet.  He's got down the first three of A-B-C so far. 

First Day of School

It's a new year at a new school, and it's the last year that all 3 will be in the same school together. 

 This shirt made me laugh out loud when I saw it, and I knew I needed to get it for him.  Little Man loves to add -ish to just about any word, and sometimes he'll respond to you with just "ish" as if it's its own word.

 Little Lady is over the moon about her unicorn backpack.  Also, she's wearing sandals, because the sneakers I bought for her that I thought were going to be on the bigger side were actually way too small.  She keeps growing and growing.  After only one month her cello teacher is already telling her she needs to get the next size up in cello as well. 

BB also wanted a picture of his Black Panther backpack.

Little Guy starts preschool next month, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to be a part of the picture action.

Traditional questions for the beginning of the school year:

Our 5th Grader:  He has Mrs. Schooley
My best friend's name is: Grant
My favorite thing to play: Blockus
My favorite color: Black
My favorite book: Hard to choose...National Geographic Kids 2020 Almanac
My favorite TV show: He doesn't really watch TV
My favorite food: Chocolate
When I grow up I want to be: A robotics engineer
Something I really like: Reading
Something I really don't like: Fairytales
My favorite thing about myself:  "I have a good memory"
Something I want to do this year: Do track

Our 3rd Grader:  She has Miss Harmeyer
My best friend's name is: Isabel
My favorite thing to play: with stuffed animals
My favorite color: teal
My favorite book: Land of Stories
My favorite TV show: Pokemon
My favorite food: mac & cheese
When I grow up I want to be: a teacher
Something I really like: books
Something I really don't like: peppers
My favorite thing about myself: I play cello well
Something I want to do this year:  make friends

Our 1st Grader:  He has Mrs. Her
My best friend's name is: Wyatt
My favorite thing to play: games
My favorite color: golden
My favorite book: Battle Bugs
My favorite TV show: Mickey Mouse Club House
My favorite food: applesauce
When I grow up I want to be: a gymnastics teacher
Something I really like: the basement in my house
Something I really don't like: getting punched in the face
My favorite thing about myself: "That I'm good at soccer"
Something I want to do this year: try a new sport

Bear Adventures

My new assignment at church is working with the 9 year old boys as a Bear Den Leader.  Most of these boys haven't had much in the way of scouting, so I'm kind of starting from scratch.  I quickly realized they needed an outdoor activity if I wanted them to pass a lot of things off, so we decided to have an activity at the Arboretum right before school started.  They went on a mile walk around the trails and had to identify signs of wildlife.  They also had to examine plants with magnifying glasses, and took turns observing with binoculars.  They loved it!

 My kiddos came along for the ride.  They're good sports, and enjoyed themselves as well.

 After a snack break they set up a tent.  They did a great job and completed two merit badges!  I think we're going to have a lot of fun this fall together.