whobody is nervous for his 5th 1st day of school?

Oh Keaton! I swear he looks exactly the same in all of these pictures....just taller.

 

Today he started 2nd grade. His 5th first day of school.  He actually seemed more nervous for 2nd grade than any other one. It is bothering him that he is one of the 'big kids' at school.

 

 

His school career began when he was 3 years old. He went to "Little Preschool" here in Garnavillo with Lisa. He was very timid...and I (felt the need to) stay for the first 5 or 10 minutes of school for quite a while.  It was a whole new thing being "left" somewhere without me (other than Grandma's house.)  Because I stay home, he had never gone to daycare or anything like that before. He was extremely nervous...which I'm sure partially stemmed from ME being nervous too.  He adjusted to school very well though...He is a gem in the classroom. 

 

Keaton IS a people pleaser and a task completer. He loves to get things 'done'.  He is a perfectionist...and loves to follow directions.

 

 

 

His 2nd year of school was at "big preschool" with Ms. Vaughan.  He enjoyed being at the Clayton Ridge middle school building...and seeing his babysitters.  Keaton had a great time in preschool and loved the structure of the room and the new friends that he made.

 He really started to come out of his shell in his year of 4 year old preschool....being much more willing to try new things and do more without my help.

 

 

 

 This was the picture when Keaton was 5...on his FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN. 

Funny thing: Nash is actually wearing this shirt today. It was Keaton's favorite shirt for 3 years....and now Nash is choosing it all of the time...although a little big on him....still adorable.  Keaton loved Kindergarten, but really had a hard time adjusting to being engaged all day long.  7:30 to 3:30 is a long day for a 5 year old. Especially a 5 year old who LOVES to play by himself in his room.  We quickly learned that as soon as Keaton got home from school....we should give him a snack...and send him into his room for a little alone time.  He is such a hard worker.  He loved the new challenges and tasks in Kindergarten, and most of all...he LOVED to come home and teach Lola all that he was learning. He started SO many sentences with "Lola, when you are in Kindergarten...." 

 

 

 

When Keaton started 1st grade he was 6.  He was extremely nervous.....and I had a very hard time with it.  Keaton and I both have a hard time with change. I never let him know that...but he lets me know. :)  I will never forget when we went to the open house for 1st grade (I wrote a post about this last year) and we walked in the school door and instantly ran into Mrs. Tujetsch...his beloved Kindergarten teacher.  After he got a big hug...we walked away, and he said "my eyes are itchy".  Mine were very itchy too....because, as my friend Shannon pointed out one year ago.... Kindergarten is for little boys....but grades are for big boys.  We met Ms. Streich...and after about the 1st week of school....all nervousness and longing for Kindergarten went away...and he settled into 1st grade.  His favorite thing about 1st grade was, of course, the homework. As I said before....a task completer at heart.  What a GOOD kid.

 

 

 

 

Now, here we are at 2nd grade. Unbelievable.  Of course we ran into Ms. Streich last night...and she got a big ole hug from Mr. Keaton. He has expressed his fears about 2nd grade to me.

 

He is venturing into unknown territories this year. The 2nd-4th grade classrooms are UPSTAIRS...not downstairs...so the environment is completely different. He now has to ride the BIG KID SHUTTLE not the little kid one. He desperately wants to stay on Bill's bus.  He doesn't know Linda as well...so he is nervous to ride Linda's bus. He is covering this by saying that he should probably ride Bill's bus for about 2 months....you know, til Lola is comfortable on there by herself. :) He is just not sure about being one of the 'big kids' at school. 

He will LOVE the increased homework and increased responsibility, though.  We did visit his classroom and teacher last night. He has Mrs. Reichard...and he is pretty excited about her (now that he figured out which one she was).  The coolest thing is that Keaton has an AWESOME view from his desk. I am not kidding when I say, he has a perfect view of the lock&dam and the river from his seat. He will LOVE watching the barges go by.   

 

As in other years, I am sure that Keaton will settle into 2nd grade just fine....and then NEXT year as he is getting nervous about 3rd grade....he will be crying and saying he just wants to go back to second grade.  I know the pattern. I have been there (and am there every year).  I spent my whole senior year of high school crying about my "last first day of volleyball practice" and my "last homecoming" and my "last show choir trip".... but, like Keaton, I always adjusted to the new year ahead just fine. It just takes a little getting used to.

 

 I am so thankful that Keaton enjoys life SO MUCH that he isn't always looking forward to the NEXT THING. 

 

We are SO lucky that he is such a good leader for the rest of our kids (and a good introduction to our family for the teachers).  I have a sign hanging right by our door....and I think of it all of the time....especially on days like today when I am a little bit emotional about our kids doing exactly what they are supposed to do: grow up.

 

 

Don't cry because it's over.

Smile because it happened.

-Dr. Seuss

 

 

 

I am so proud of my BIG KID.

whobody is excited for her 4th 1st day of school?

I know.

It is crazy that Lola's 1st day of kindergarten is actually her

FOURTH 1st day of school.

 

So, it is funny....as much as I don't like sending my kids to school...

I did send Lola to preschool when she was 2 (almost 3).

 

In my defense...she needed it. :) She gets awful bored here at home.  So, when she was 2 and school was starting, I was like 12 months pregnant with Nash (okay, only 7...but it felt like more).  A few days before school started at the 'little preschool'....the wonderful teacher, Lisa, and I chatted on the street....and she mentioned that the class was small, and Lola was very verbal...so if I wanted to send her to 3 year old preschool as a 2 year old....I sure could.  This explains Lola's blue backpack with the name "Lauren" on it for her first day of school. (Garage sale find from our toy room).    Lola loved school right away! She is very social, and really doesn't like to play independently. *very unlike Keaton.  So, below...Lola on her first day of Little Preschool (2 years old)....isn't she cute? and so little?

 

 

 

 

The next year when Lola was 3 we sent her to Lisa again at the Little Preschool.  She also had a great year...and was joined at the hip with her best friend, Colton. (Some day Colton and Lola will be so embarrassed about how we made them best friends when they were little....I think they will always watch out for each other...even though they will be a grade apart).  So...below is a picture of Lola getting into the car. I had lots of other pictures...but she is so silly in ALL of them.

 

Then, when Lola was 4 she finally got to go to Big Preschool with Ms. Vaughan.  She loved this year too...but still really felt like she was missing out on all of the fun that Keaton got to have at Clayton Ridge Elementary.  She made some new friends at preschool (since Colton was still with Lisa) and loved to play with Olivia, Mia and Lily.  I should mention that she has already decided she is marrying a boy named Caleb from her class too.... (again, she will love me for saying that.)

 

 

Now, as a 5 year old, she is finally in Kindergarten. She is very excited. She gets the same teacher Keaton had (I should also mention that this teacher was also JASON'S kindergarten teacher....AND a teacher that I taught with back in the day!)  We have a lot of connections with Mrs. Tujetsch. She is wonderful....she really is. Lola is most excited about the classroom pet...a tortiose named Scooter...AND Mrs. Tujetsch always hatches baby chicks in her room in the Spring. 

 

Lola can't wait.  She will love being in school all day...and she will love not having to do "quiet time" at home.  I am amazed at how much Lola has grown up in the last year...and how much she has picked up from Keaton academically.  Lola can SERIOUSLY READ.  She really can. She can read as well as Keaton did at the END of kindergarten.  She picked it up just from watching Keaton. Amazing.

 

She will love learning new things...and meeting new people.  She will also love being busy all day.  She may get herself into a little more trouble than Keaton ever did.  Lola is not a people pleaser....she is more of a people entertainer. This sometimes tends to get her into trouble.  She is a daring adventurer that likes to make people laugh...and have fun.  She said she is a little nervous about today...but I know that she will love it and do JUST fine.

 

I can't believe that she is in Kindergarten already.  Keaton has big plans of "helping" Lola at school and on the bus...but she is not going to need any help at all. I am so proud of her.  She is a lovable little lady with a strong personality. I know she will thrive in Kindergarten...but I will sure miss her around here (most of the time anyway).

whobody is on the bus?

Boy, my house is QUIET!

 

It is just me, Nash and Cruz today (and Cruz is already napping.)

 

Today was Lola's first day of Kindergarten, and Keaton's first day of 2nd grade!

 

I can't believe my kids are already getting so old. We just realized last night that when Nash is going to kindergarten....Keaton will be here in Garnavillo at the Middle School!!!! Wow. Time really flies.

 

This morning we had our annual first day of school photo shoot....

 

I have  noticed that when my kids are nervous, they get silly.

(They get that from me.)

 

They both got up early and were ready by 7:15.  The bus doesn't come til at least 7:35. I guarantee that Lola will NOT be ready by 7:15 every day....Keaton might...but, Lola needs a lot of reminders....and tends to dawdle.  But, not today.

 

 

 

 

 

 I really am excited for my kids to go to school. I hate to have them out of my 'controlled bubble' for so many hours of the day....and I miss them terribly...and I worry about their little hearts getting hurt (or knees) and me not being there to comfort them.... but I am excited for them.  I do know that having them in school, things will be much more under control around here...and we will have a better daily routine. (I thrive on routine.)  But I really do hate to miss out on so much of their day. Such is life, I guess.

 

Of course the kiddos had to ride their bikes around until the bus got here. Shelby was a little late, so they were a little worried that I forgot to tell the school that they were riding the bus!

 But she eventually showed up, they both threw down their bikes, and reluctantly turned around for one more picture....

 And, they're off.

For some reason, this year is easier for me than the last 2 have been.  I guess that there is something to be said about knowing that they are together. Safety in numbers. Now...I am going to look for their past first day of school pictures....and then spend the rest of the day playing with Nash (and hopefully catching up around here). 

 

Deep breath in, deep breath out. 

It is not easy for me to see my kids growing up.

whobody is getting ready?

Well. My kids start school tomorrow.

YIKES.

I will now have a kindergartner & and second grader.

 

 

A few weeks ago we got our school supplies ready to go.

Of course, Nash packed a backpack too...and Cruz wanted to be a part of the action.

 

 

Don't worry...he was safe. He wasn't in a bumbo or anything ;)  At this time, he wasn't crawling yet....and I was standing right there the whole time!  He LOVED to be right in the middle of it all.

 

Our school does an open house the night before school. THIS is wonderful.  They get their supplies to their rooms...and meet their teachers again...and see where they are headed the next day!  This is a great way to get those jitters out. (Which we needed....)

 Keaton is more nervous than Lola about school (which doesn't make any sense at all...since she is the one starting Kindergarten in a totally new building and everything).  Keaton would prefer to stay in 1st grade...on the bottom floor of the school...riding Bill's bus.  I think he feels better after tonight...but still a bit timid.

 Lola on the other hand said this "at kindergarten round up I was nervous, at kindergarten practice I was nervous, but tonight DID IT....I am SO excited and not nervous at all!"  No worries there.

I am not going to get too into my emotions....tonight at least. :) I do have a hard time seeing my kids pass into different stages of life and meet different challenges. Like Keaton, I am anxious about change.  But, I too will get used to only 1/2 of my kids being here during the day...and hopefully, that will make me a little more productive around here...and make the little boys' lives a little more routine. 

We will see how things go tomorrow on the BIG first day!!!

whobody is a rodeo cowboy?

So.....this is what was happening in my livingroom over the last hour...

Nash is wearing his bike helmet....calling Keaton a bull....and riding him around while Keaton tries to buck him off.

An obvious result of going to the bull bash at the fair.

Most of my pictures were this blurry because they were moving around so much.

At least he was wearing his helmet.

whobody loves to relax?

I know...the fair was 2 weeks ago....but I still have these last pictures to write about....

There are 2 parts of the fair that are relaxing :) the rest....well, chaos.  One of my favorite parts of the fair this year was the tractors. Yes, the farm equipment parked in the shade was very valuable to me.  The kids ALL loved to sit in the tractors and pretend driving them, and Cruz and I enjoyed being in the 'coolest' place in the fairgrounds.  There is always plenty of shade...and usually a decent breeze in this area.

While Nash and Keaton enjoyed sitting on the seats you are supposed to sit on....Lola enjoyed climbing up the tires and up the sides of the equipment :) We stopped that...but not til after I took a quick picture. Lola is always the one to 'push' the rules.

Although we have no green equipment at our farm...the kids enjoyed pretending at the fair. Nash insisted on buckling up....safety first!

This was Nash's FAVORITE....there was a backhoe on the back so he would stand back there and pretend to be working!

The kids spent a lot of time on this one too...they pretended to go on lots of trips....walmart and chicago mostly. :)

The other relaxing part of the fair for me is the live music! This is at the end of the night...and is always a great wind down before we go home.  The music is never anyone super popular or anything, but it is PERFECT. We grab some popcorn.... water....and usually sno-cones.  We lay out a big blanket (usually next to Hoegers) and we relax. By relax, I mean run around in circles, play tag, pick grass, dance, throw grass in the air, mooch Hoegers popcorn....well, I guess we parents relax...and the kids play play play!

Since there are NEVER any pictures of me with my children, I took a couple of self portraits....

Cruz's ABSOLUTE FAVORITE part of the fair was the music too!  He loved to be OUT of his stroller....and playing on the blanket. Turns out he LOVES picking and eating grass.....

He enjoyed stretching out on the blanket...and playing with the kids.

Of course, Nash got out of control sometimes... here is a picture of Nash after he said "Nashy nuggle you Keaton!)

Of course, our future rockstar was timidly dancing in front of our blanket to the music....(although, she was a little worried people might see her)....

And here is a picture of the kids...they would pick piles of grass....(Keaton would shove as much grass as he could into EVERY pocket he had...nice.)  After the grass was picked they would pick it up and THROW it into the air.  Fun times.

A picture of me and my sweetie!

A picture of my little sweet family on the blanket....yes, I know, it is time for Nash to 'lose' his binkie... he loves it SO much. Maybe when he turns 3. For right now, he only gets it at naptime and bedtime....

We really do LOVE the fair!!!

whobody won the race? (in opposite world)

Well...looking through my pictures I realized that I never finished with my posts about the fair....so here is one more part of our fair adventure.

The first night of the fair they have dirt bike races.  We just watched maybe 30 minutes of racing (standing here with Lola's friend Eva) and then they took a break. 

THAT was when the kids' favorite part of the whole fair took place....

THE RACE.

That's right....they had a running race on the dirt bike track. Keep in mind that we really didnt' know what was going on. The guy on the mic was standing right in front of us...but we had no speakers there...all we heard was something about kids and race....so we sent the older 2 out....and held Nash back. :)  As we were holding our son (who was struggling like a fish out of water) we noticed about 5 kids run into the track that were clearly younger than Nash....so we thought....why not?  Both Jason and I were thinking that they would just be running a short race out there...

Nope- as usual we turned out to be "those parents"...the ones who send their kids that are too little to do something too big. :) It wasn't THAT bad...but lets just say, everyone cheered when Nash FINALLY crossed the finish line....

we had random people stop and tell us how cute our little boy was at the race...

and oh, did I mention I had to carry him across the finish line???

You can't see Keaton in this picture...but Lola is in the pink tank top and jean shorts (and flip flops)...and you can barely see Nash...BUT if you look carefully...he is the boy to the right of the pole in the blue shirt carrying the RED BALLOON. Yes, he took his balloon elephant with him to race...he insisted, and we really had no reason to fight him....

 The older 2 kids LOVE to run...so they LOVED this race.  We really couldn't see much from where we were standing...but they crossed the finish line just fine.  When I started to see some little ones cross the finish line I walked out onto the track to try to see where Nash was.... then the guy on the mic said something like "look at this little guy....that is a big smile" and I look over the final 'hill' (the finish line was at the peak of this hill)....

I saw Nash run UP the hill....get just about to the finish line....then he made a QUICK U-TURN....and ran back down the final hill.  Of course on the way down the hill....going the wrong way....he did a face plant....and part of his red balloon elephant, well, it popped.  So...I ran to my kid (again, I love to be "that parent" and it seems to happen a lot....do you like I how say that as if it is something that is beyond my control?)...I got to Nash, assured him that the red on his fingers was not blood...just balloon pieces....and stood him up to finish the race. 

NOW....at this point, not only are all of the other kids done with the race...they are already back at the grandstands with their parents. :) I stood Nash up and brushed him off....I encouraged him to finish the race...BUT the kid had dirt in his shoes (imagine that) and wanted me to empty them out first...

SO I scooped him up and went across the finish line....

Of course, everyone cheered....and I felt terrible mom guilt... I didn't know if Nash was having a blast in the race...or was just running around scared looking for me....

 He was very happy when we got out of the fence...and the only thing that seemed to be upsetting him was the fact that there was dirt in his crocs.  The next morning, I called my friend Nikole (who was also there) to get her 'take' on things.  She reassured me that the reason it probably took Nash so long...was that he was LAUGHING SO HARD the whole time.

She said that from her view, he was having a blast.

Phew.  That made me feel much better... I just LOVE to be "that" parent..... Luckily, he was happy...and didn't seem to be too scarred by the experience.

The picture below is not the most flattering of Nash...but this was right before the race...

with his red balloon!

whobody is doin' good?

Oh Nash!

He is SO FUNNY.

This is one happy kid right here. He truly has joy pouring out of his eyeballs (most of the time).  Nash has really turned into a big boy this summer...and has become even more enjoyable.  We have decided that Nash is the kind of kid who is either 100 mph...or sleeping. He started out the summer being a little 'out of control' (a.k.a. a normal 2 year old) and he was a bit of a challenge....but here we are at the end of the summer with a boy who is SO sweet...and usually happy.

Oh, and as for the title of this post...

Nash always comes into the room and says

"What you doin' mommy?"

 (imagine him almost singing this...with "you" and "my" in mommy said in a very high voice....)

I usually answer with what I am doing "I'm cooking supper."

Nash's response "oooh" (he says ooooh instead of oh).

Then I say "What are you doing Nash?"

His response is always "Good!"

This conversation usually takes place at least 5 times a day! His response to the question of WHAT he is doing is always "Good."  Hilarious....

So now, everyone else in the house has started to do the same thing...answering that question with "Good" and always saying "oooh" instead of "oh".

Funny kid.

Well...I just needed a little something to brighten my day...it is pretty gloomy outside and I am feeling a little sad today.  Looking at these pictures and writing about Nash reminds me about the important things in life... My kids TRULY are a blessing....and today, I am especially thankful for Nashity-Nash....a.k.a. Smithers....a.k.a....Waylan.....a.k.a.....

the name he always refers to himself as, NASHY.