Owen was home for a teacher work day and Katie was napping…so we built this Lego city. Complete with a pool (with mermaids and a diving board), a fenced tree, pathways, and random buildings. 🙂
Category Archives: Owen
Our first family nature walk!
It was a nice cool morning so we decided to take the kids exploring at the park down the street (literally less than a mile away, right down from the entrance to our subdivision). I had intended to just check out the playground and the lake, but we thought “Why not just walk along the .4 mile path?” Well, we didn’t see signs for that path, so ended up on the 1.4 mile path. But it was really nice—through the woods on a well-worn path, up and down hills, over the stream, etc. Of course it was a little too rough for Katie so she spent most of the walk on Tom’s shoulders (so he definitely got a workout) and we were all sweating by the end. But Owen did really well and he loved it and wants to go again! It really was fun and I can’t wait to go back, too!
Excited about the surprise trip!
Heading down the path!
Checking out the pond!
Owen learned what dismount meant!
Walking across the rocks to cross the creek!
Of course Owen picked up some sticks guns to help protect us.
Owenisms 54 & Katieisms 9
Owen and I were sitting at the patio table and it was tipping because our back yard really slants.
Owen: This is not the house we want to have.
Owen: We need to go to that restaurant with Boomerang [a TV channel]. [It’s a local sports bar we’ve had dinner at a few times.]
Me: Why?
Owen: Because it’s Taco Tuesday and they have tacos today!
He’s right. We made note of the “Taco Tuesday” specials sign last week when we were there. And he remembered!
Owen said something and we weren’t sure who he was talking to.
Tom: What, buddy?
Owen: I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to her [points at me].
Tom got a big frown on his face.
Me: Owen, you made daddy sad.
Owen: Never mind! I was talking to daddy!
Owen: How do you spell to?
Me: What kind of to do you mean? The number two? Or like ‘Do you want to go to the store’?
Owen: Just the word to.
Me: Different words can sound the same but mean something different. Like ‘I want two cookies’ and ‘Wave goodbye to grandma’. Use it in a sentence.
Owen: Mom, how do you spell to?
Me: 😐 🙂
Owen: Mama! Look at your daughter!
———————————————–
Me: Katie, you have to pick all this up.
Katie: No, I’m busy.
Me: Katie, come here, we need to get you dressed.
Katie: No thank you.
Taking her upstairs for her nap.
Me: Katie, can I hold your hand?
Katie: No.
Me: Can I touch your head?
Katie: No. You can touch my back.
Fun with rocks and mirrors.
The living room is torn up since Tom was painting, so things were on the floor. Katie spotted the mirror right away so I put it on the floor so she wouldn’t drop it on herself (it’s HEAVY). She spent a good amount of time looking at herself.
Then she noticed the petoskey stone print: “Mama! Those are big rocks!” 🙂
Then since she seemed to be having lots of fun, Owen had to get involved.
We surprised daddy on game day!
We had been in the basement (I was keeping the kids busy while daddy painted upstairs) but we snuck up to get them changed before kickoff! (Of course, I hadn’t thought of it early enough to make sure I had Owen’s jersey. It has apparently disappeared and was nowhere to be found. I was then going to put him in Tom’s jersey but I couldn’t find that one, either! So the Rose Bowl tee had to suffice!)
I told them it was a surprise, so once downstairs, Katie went right up to Tom and said “Surprise daddy!” 🙂
Donut Faces
Kindergarten Apple Week
It was apple week in Kindergarten! They tasted different apples, did apple activities, and even made applesauce in class!
And a Johnny Appleseed puppet!
Baths before 7? Sure.
Both kids were up before 7 but both had actually slept in so I considered it a win. Don’t you love Katie’s outfit? She slept in it because she LOVES that tutu.
I love finding things like this.
First rainy school day!
Luckily we all had raincoats because we apparently lost all our umbrellas (minus Katie’s from Grandma Marsha!) in the move. Katie was thrilled because she got a new (new) coat and new (used) boots to wear for the first time! She couldn’t quite get the hang of the umbrella so Owen held it.
And then she noticed WATER and of course HAD to play in it. 🙂
Then walking home with the umbrella…
Someone wanted to sit on my lap!
I’ll take it as it rarely happens anymore.
First day of school artwork!
I didn’t quite have my scanning schoolwork system in place yet…but I did save the stuff so here it is (from 9/2)!
Shape Graph, Colors, and a Puppet
I love seeing all the stuff he brings home! The first one was (as best as we can gather) some type of game where the teacher put a random assortment of shapes in front of everyone and they had to color in what they were assigned. The other one was him reading the colors and knowing what they were and a puppet of himself that we could get NO story on.
“I had none rectangles.” 🙂
Babies and adults!
A special treat—a new water sprinkler!
Just like her brother used to do…trying to drink out of the sprinkler.
Our first circus!
Today we took the kids to the Big Apple Circus! Tom and I had watched a PBS special on them years ago and always wanted to go…so when I found out they were going to be local, it was a no-brainer. Owen was SUPER excited to go and knew all about the circus, though I honestly have no idea how because I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it, read books about it, or anything.
We opted for the cheap seats since they claimed there was not a bad seat in the house. They were pretty truthful and I was happy with our seats—they were perfect for us because we were right at the top of the steps in the very outermost ring with no seats in front of us right below the A/C! (As it turned out, there were lots of empty seats and we likely could have moved closer, but we just stayed where we were.)
This is where Katie sat to watch about a third of the show.
Another third was from Tom’s lap. And the last third, well…you’ll see a picture later. 🙂
We all oohed and ahhed as one girl got into the little box. AND THEN A SECOND GIRL CRAWLED IN WITH HER!
Goats riding on ponies! They also had dogs riding on the ponies!
Spinning brothers! Amazing!
The last third of the show was her running around in that section of seats. 🙂 She did really well overall and I was happy to let her run there since she sat still the whole first part.
Amazing balancing act. All of those pieces she’s standing on wobble and roll.
The final act—trapeze artists! Owen LOVED them.
The butterflies on the walls at the end.
As we were waking out, I asked Owen what his favorite part was.
Owen: The boing boing at the end!
Which, of course, referred to the trapeze artists doing their final jump/dive into the net to get down from the high wires. 🙂
Then we stopped to eat and didn’t get home until almost 8:00. At which point Owen was still talking about it. 🙂
Not only does Owen eat burgers…
But tonight at Red Robin he tried an onion ring…and liked it! Of course it had to be dipped in ketchup but I’ll take it!
This was while we were waiting for our table. They loved the hamburger seats (new) and they were both entranced by the hanging plane with spinning propeller:
Little Boy Laundry
Do you see what I see?
Owen’s handwriting and color book.
These came home from school last week. I love this stuff. 🙂
First chilly school morning!
We haven’t done one of these in awhile.
Owen’s flower and numbers
This came home in Owen’s backpack today. I was trying to figure out the words (?) on the top (blop? brb?), but then he told me they’re NUMBERS. Well of course, then it was obvious. With an extra 9, a backwards 7, a missing 5, and an extra 2. 🙂
Me: 1, 0, 9—
Owen: NO! 10!
Me: Oh, yes, you’re right, 10!
🙂
A pretzel for Owen.
So Owen came home with his sandwich still in his lunchbox. I asked why he didn’t eat it and he said because he wasn’t hungry. Hmmmm. Odd. But okay, kids are kids, it might be possible.
Fast forward a bit and he says “GUESS WHAT I HAD AT LUNCH TODAY?” And proceeds to excitedly tell me he had a [soft] pretzel from the lunch line!
Wait. What?
Yes, the cafeteria has them available for purchase—and he’s talked about them before and how he wants one—but we hadn’t yet gone over his lunch account/account number with him so we had NO idea how he actually got the pretzel since there was no way to pay for it. And of course, asking him questions got us nowhere.
Us: Owen, how did you get the pretzel?
Owen: The lady behind the pretzels gave it to me.
Us: But how did you pay for it?
Owen: She just gave it to me.
Us: You were IN the cafeteria line?
Owen: Yes.
Us: Was everyone getting pretzels? (Thinking maybe it was some special school-wide thing.)
Owen: No.
Us: And no one asked you to pay for it?
Owen: No.
So I emailed the teacher asking if she had ANY idea what might have happened, as we were somewhat concerned he got a pretzel without paying for it (though we didn’t mind that he got a pretzel).
Then I attended the PTO meeting and asked the principal about it, telling her we did have a lunch account but hadn’t yet explained it/taught him about it yet. She said that for the first week or two, the kids can tell the lunch ladies their name and they will deduct it from their account. So I figured okay, that’s obviously what happened. Except Tom asked Owen if they asked his name and he said no. Hmmm. When I got home from the meeting, the teacher had emailed me back saying that right now they are giving the lunch ladies the lunch numbers, so Owen was probably not aware that they told the cafeteria worker his lunch number. Which I guess is good…but you’d think they’d LET THE PARENTS KNOW THAT.
We told Owen it was okay he got the pretzel and we’re glad he took the initiative to do it on his own, but he can’t just decide to do that whenever he wants because a) he doesn’t eat the lunch we packed and b) it costs money. He said he didn’t want any more pretzels, so we’ll see. 🙂
Welcome to the PTO!
So, in an effort to make some friends and be a part of Owen’s school, I went to the first PTO meeting tonight.
HOLY CRAP. On a few things.
- Wow, they do A LOT of stuff.
- There was so little involvement I thought it was pathetic…but what was sadder? They were THRILLED with the turnout! There were like 30 people there. Out of a school of about 600 students K-6. I assume this lack of participation was normal (and my online friends confirmed it), but I was still floored.
- I want to do a lot, but with Katie it’s hard—night time stuff I can’t do because she needs to be in bed and daytime stuff I don’t want to drag her along. They did tell me there would be some things she could come to (like setting up for book fairs) so I’ll try to help with what I can. (Most of the evening events are things we’d like Owen to attend, which means either Tom or I have to go with him…and the other will stay home with Katie. There maybe a select event where the whole family can we go but I won’t know until they happen…and then I’d want us all attending and not volunteering. But there may be things that we don’t care about attending at which point one of us can volunteer.
So, it will be an adventure! Stay tuned for stories!
Owen’s second loose tooth.
He proudly showed me as soon as he got off the bus (but after he hugged Katie).
Then, at dinner:
Owen: Mom, you know what the tooth fairy is going to bring me? A chocolate Popsicle!
Me: Um, that’s not going to fit in your tooth pillow.
Owen: No, the pillow I put my head on. She’ll put it in a freezer bag.
Me: Don’t get your hopes up.
Rules for a happy day
I really miss knowing the details of Owen’s day.
So, how does Owen like school? He LOVES it!
Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of details out of him that make sense to us. For example, today was something about letters and a coconut tree (and a song?) and stringing rubberbands on boards. We ask if it was art or math or what…he doesn’t know and doesn’t really add more info.
Me: Were you stringing rubberbands to make patterns?
Owen: If you pull them too far they will break.
Me: Right, but what exactly were you doing with the rubberbands?
Owen: [BIG SIGH] I told you we were stringing them.
Yeah, I want him to be independent but I miss being able to go in the classroom everyday and talk to the teacher like I did in pre-k and see what they’ve been working on.
A typical morning
Katie gets into Owen’s bed…
And a superhero appears!
This is what we do when the pool is closed and our A/C is broken.
Of course the day the A/C goes out is one of the hottest and most humid days this summer. It wasn’t too bad if you didn’t move too much, but we finally had to open the windows to get what little breeze we could in the house. I gave up when it hit 84° and took the kids to the basement…but that only lasted until Katie found the caterpillar water toy. Then it was outside!
