I can’t get over how long he looks!
Headed out to an art festival!
Category Archives: Owen
Our new turtle is official!
She finally got her new cap today!
Playing before class:
Since there’s no convenient Turtle class (i.e. adjacent to Owen’s Shark class), Katie is staying in her Minnow class and the instructor just teaches her swimming vs. floating. So today was attempting to get her face in the water, kicking, with arms above her head. She did pretty well. She had fun “swimming like a mermaid.” 🙂
Playing after class:
It was cute. Katie had been on the raft by herself with the instructor. Owen’s classmates all jumped in and were a bit aggressive getting up on the raft and Owen kept shouting “Be careful! That’s my sister!” 🙂
Submings Gavin Gun
That was supposed to be Siblings having fun but apparently autocorrect wasn’t working. I thought it was funny so I just left it. 🙂
The beginning stages of daddy roughhousing with the kids…
I haven’t snuck in to see Owen sleep in a LONG time.Â
He still has the B, of course. 🙂
T-ball Tuesday
New socks and shoes! (I wasn’t planning on getting him shoes, but I found them on clearance at Marshall’s!)
This is what Katie does during the games.
This might be the kids’ favorite part: snack time! (I seriously wish we could do away with it—it’s not like these are serious athletes who played a rigorous game and need sustenance.)
My boy is growing up. Sniff.
Owen decided that he wanted to walk to the bus stop by himself. I’m perfectly fine with that as he’s a good kid, he needs the responsibility, and there are lots of other parents down there. 🙂
Katie wasn’t happy—she wanted to go so she could play with the kids. (We’ll go sometimes but not every day.)
She watched for him from the back steps. When all the leaves are gone she should be able to see them, if barely. We can hear them now because they run around playing and screeching.
This is what she kept saying. Poor kid.
Owen at bat…in slo-mo…again.Â
He’s pretty good at hitting the ball!
Welcome to Minotaur Forest!
We were all on our Sunday morning walk and Owen, as usual, talks about his video games the entire way. Stuff about zombies and poison shields and earning gems and potions for magic sticks…and when we got to this point on the trail, it was “WELCOME TO MINOTAUR FOREST!” 🙂
Then as usual we stopped at the bridge to throw over some sticks and stones.
And then we told them this was a zombie house and they should go check for zombies (it’s an old prison building).
We have fun on our walks. 🙂
Apparently it’s family couch day.Â
Tom is watching the MSU game, Katie is watching a movie on the iPad, Owen is watching the game and Katie’s movie, and I’m writing the blog (with Maggie on my lap).
Owen at bat…in slo-mo.Â
See, I told you. The second game? No pics and one measly video. 🙂
Our first homemade ice cream!
I’ve had a simple/inexpensive Cuisinart ice cream maker on my Amazon watchlist for awhile now, and it hit it’s lowest price ever the other day, so I finally bought it. I figure we don’t eat that much ice cream anymore, so why not be able to make whatever flavors we want in much smaller quantities when we want it?
So we made peanut butter Oreo tonight. The kids helped me get the mix ready (no pics of that because I was too busy helping hold the mixer) and they were EXCITED.
She would have spent the entire 15 minutes like this if we let her. 🙂
I didn’t get any pics of the end product or of us eating it because we snarfed it down pretty quickly. (Also, we all had very small portions—maybe 3-4 spoonsful—with the rest going in the freezer.) It was quite tasty—and a soft-serve consistency which I really really like (similar to a DQ Blizzard!). So it was a success!
Owen’s Good Character Award
Owen’s teacher emailed me last night to let me know he was getting the award this morning and that he didn’t know about it—so she left it up to us whether or not to tell him. We opted to keep it a surprise—and Tom was luckily able to make it, so we kept that a surprise, too!
He doesn’t see us…
Doesn’t see us…
Then sees daddy!!
Such a happy little boy!
Owen’s part is about at 2:11.
Mrs. McLenigan and Mrs. Stulman did a great job with the kids—all four 1st grade award recipients were from their kindergarten class!
A new family picture!
Tom was home this morning…because he was going to surprise Owen at school for Morning Program (Owen was getting a Good Character award—which was also a surprise for him!). So I took advantage of us all being home to snap a new pic! It turned out great!
These were the other pics I snapped beforehand. You see what trying to get a picture of the kids together can be like? Not one “good” one in the bunch. 🙂
Owen’s first week of schoolwork!
I won’t be doing this every week, but there were a few good ones this past week (they got sent home today).
(Click to see a bigger version.)
I had to get a few translations:
- HOME: My family picking trash with me.
- SCHOOL: My whole class is picking up trash. (Grades are the numbers above their heads. 1G is the 1st grade teacher.)
- NEIGHBORHOOD: I am lawnmowering my house. (My favorite one. Lawnmowering.)
- BUS: Everybody stays seated.
I actually had to ask Tom about the first one because I read it the same way Owen did! 🙂 But, the teacher was right—there should have been one number on each line. But Tom and I still aren’t sure about the wrong triangle and why it should be a square. He did the same thing with the third line that he did the first—put too many numbers on the lines (but he had the right numbers!).
He didn’t quite circle the correct words. When I asked him about it, he said he was circling friends. Earm? Koln? Then he said “Well the teacher marked it TERRIFIC!” And I said yes, but she probably just looked to see he had circled anything and didn’t look for the right words.
I didn’t notice until looking at this one a third time that he attempted to write his middle name on the Name line. 🙂
Owen’s first fall Nationals t-ball game!
The first official game was rained out last Saturday, so tonight’s game became the first actual game! It was held at a field in a neighboring city (if you wonder why it looks different). As usual, the first game has many more pictures than I’ll post for subsequent games! 🙂
Tom is the Assistant Coach this season! The fall season isn’t as big as the spring season, so no official shirts for the coaches (boooo!)—only hats. (The kids also just get plain colored tees with the name of the little league county on it instead of a team name and logo.)
Once more, he’s a head taller than everyone else on his team!
Of course she doesn’t ever really watch the game, and tonight she was exploring a new park—throwing stones in the river.
(No, he didn’t have to go potty. Apparently he’s a natural at the baseball moves.)
Me: Katie, don’t play in the dirt.
Katie: Mom–it’s sand!
How did she get to be such a smart[ass] little girl? 🙂
They’ve been trying to teach the catchers to tag out the runners (it still doesn’t count as an out since it’s t-ball) so Owen is doing his best…
And actually CHASING them down. 🙂
Homework time!
Kindergarten Artwork
I’ve been working on Owen’s kindergarten Shutterfly book and found these. I love them all.
Water sticks nuts squirrel day moon dad
(This is Owen sitting on the couch in front of our TV playing xbox with daddy behind him.)
Tree flower house stairs house (not sure what done is—maybe down as in downstairs?)
Me and my mom play Robot Turtles. The flowers are blue purple yellow.
I am at the pool after dinner.
(More Xbox—that’s our entertainment center and the colored letters on the Xbox controller.)
If I had a tall black hat I would keep Legos in it.
Kindergarten Teacher Letters
As I was making Owen’s kindergarten book, I realized I hadn’t taken pics of what his teachers wrote in his memory book!
What I like best about school.Â
I like to go outside for recess. I like to play with my friends.
Fall Festival
Our local town center was having a small fall festival so we took the kids since it was a gorgeous day. When I saw small, I mean small—there were about 10-12 booths on the outside edge (cotton candy, face painting, Pampered Chef, jewelry, etc.) and there were a few kids projects in the center island. It was perfect—the kids had fun and things didn’t take too long. 🙂
Eating his special chocolate-covered Oreo treat once we got home.
Katie graduated to Turtle 1!
Pllaying before lessons started.
Then Katie had some successful jumps…
…and she graduated to Turtle 1 (red cap)! (It took her 11 classes, or just under 3 months of classes!) Unfortunately they were out of red caps, so hopefully she’ll get it next week and then we can take her official photo!
Now I just hope they can rearrange some students so that their classes are more convenient—there’s no Turtle 1 classes adjacent to Owen’s Shark 1 class so we have to be there from 11 (when his class starts) to 12:30 (when her class ends). They said they’d try to get us something better so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Sunday morning walk
It was just me and Owee this morning. I was feeling good in my new walking outfit—XL pants and XL shirt!!—after hitting 60# this week…that I had Owen take my picture!
Then I wanted a nice picture of him. This just reminds me of a senior picture…which is far away but will be here before you know it. /sniff
Our little Sparty fans
Owen didn’t want me to take the picture.
New JTOK artworkÂ
Owen noticed it within about a minute of coming home: J-T-O-K. Jen and Tom okay!
Me: Really? Who is O?
Owen: [Brief pause] Ohhhh! Me!
Katie: And K is me!
Patriot Day and first Morning Program of the year!
And from the school’s Facebook account (back in class):
Weather alert dog
I was putting Owen to bed and he heard what sounded like thunder. I didn’t think we were expecting any storms so I told him I thought it was someone moving their garbage container. And then Maggie appeared, trembling. Maggie never comes in his room…which means it was thunder.
I practically had to carry her out because she desperately wanted to stay there. Poor thing.
Grade 1 Morning 2
I wanted a closeup of his hair but the pic didn’t turn out too well. And I’m still practicing getting the front spikes just right—it’s a good thing he’s not picky!
He took a book this mornimg. 🙂
I know the number of parents will lessen after the first week…but WOW there’s a lot of people at our stop this year.
I’m actually kind of looking forward to NOT having to go (it’s only a requirement to be there for kindergarteners) but then I miss chatting with my friends…so I’m sure I’ll skip some days (so Owen can gain some responsibility) and go some days (so I can talk to other adults). 🙂
Yes, we have this much time in the morning.Â
School doesn’t start until 9:20—so we don’t go to the bus stop until 8:40-8:45—which leaves enough time for the bounce house before school.
Home from school!
Katie was super excited to have Owee home! (The buses usually run late the first week, so it should be way earlier than 4:45 from now on.)
Owen told me someone asked about his pink lunch bag and he told them he liked pink and he loved his mom! 🙂