JTOK Chatter > Page 209

Home from school!

Posted on by

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! 🙂

Owen’s first day of 1st grade!

Posted on by

We bought a bunch of new lunchbags for Owen in various patterns—red owls, multi-colored dark stripes, pirate treasure map, etc…and what one did he want to use for his first day? The pink multi-colored hearts!

2015-09-08kids002

I figured I should prepare him for kids teasing him about it (I didn’t actually expect it, but better safe than sorry).

Me: Owen, what would you say if some kid made fun of you for bringing a “girl-colored” pink heart lunch bag.
Owen: [You could see his heart sink.] I would say that was mean.
Me: Yes, it would be mean. You just tell them you like pink and it’s a cool color.
Owen: [Getting sassier.] And if they ask me if it’s because I love anyone? I’ll tell them NO!
Me: You don’t love me? Or daddy? Or your sister?
Owen: Well yes. 🙂

And then it was time for pictures! I did Katie while Owen got his shoes on. She had to sit on the very top step.

2015-09-08kids003

2015-09-08kids004

2015-09-08kids006

2015-09-08kids007

2015-09-08kids008

2015-09-08kids009

“Mama, take a picture of me upside down!”

2015-09-08kids010

2015-09-08kids011

2015-09-08kids012

2015-09-08kids014

2015-09-08kids015

2015-09-08kids016

The same questions I asked him last year. The funny thing is that he usually just spouts something off the top of his head! Like I can’t remember the last time he asked for an orange—it’s always strawberries. And I can’t tell you the last time we watched Incredibles–it’s usually Lego Movie or Wreck It Ralph. And it was the very first time I heard anything about wanting to be a policeman. Kids are silly. Oh! And the favorite book? I think we’ve read it maybe twice that I can remember, so I asked why that book and he said “Because it shows how you take care of me and love me.” Awwww.

2015-09-08kids017a

2015-09-08kids018

And then it was off to the bus stop…where it was hotter than hell. Holy wah. It was horribly hot and the kids were sweating from running around. I love the first day of school, though, because there were more parents there than kids! 🙂

I was really excited about his new backpack—it’s from Costco and is much more well-made than the Minion one he had last year…but it’s really overkill for him (it has a laptop pocket, room for lots of pens and pencils, a phone, etc.). We’ll see how it works, but we may end up getting a bit smaller one. 

Last day at the pool!

Posted on by

Labor Day is officially the last day our pool is open, so we headed down early—hoping that it wouldn’t be too crazy busy because they were having a BBQ (free food brings out everyone and their brother who NEVER come to the pool any other time) from 1-4. Fortunately, it wasn’t that busy when we got there at 11, though it got steadily busier as the actual BBQ time got closer.

I took a bunch of pics with our waterproof camera which is always fun because it’s so bright out you can’t really tell what you took so you can’t tell if you got any good pics until you get home and check them on the computer!

2015-09-07kids042

2015-09-07kids043

I like this one because Owen looks like a stingray.

2015-09-07kids044

Katie enjoyed pouring water on daddy.

2015-09-07kids045

2015-09-07kids046

And throwing water at him. This was a lucky shot!

2015-09-07kids047

2015-09-07kids048

2015-09-07kids049

2015-09-07kids050

Another ham in the family.

2015-09-07kids051

Katie loves it when daddy goes to the bottom of the pool so she can walk on him.

2015-09-07kids052

2015-09-07kids053

2015-09-07kids054

2015-09-07kids055

2015-09-07kids056

2015-09-07kids057

2015-09-07kids058

2015-09-07kids059

2015-09-07kids060

2015-09-07kids061

They each had a hot dog and chips…then Katie had a second hot dog! EEK!

2015-09-07kids062

A full pool. Quite a difference from the empty pool we normally have when we’re there.

2015-09-07kids064

Tom ended up taking Katie home a little early and I stayed with Owen until about 3:30. He would have stayed longer but I was exhausted—we’re rarely at the pool that long and I was done with the sun.

Dinner with new friends!

Posted on by

So last night at our dinner, some new friends (that we’ve technically known all school year—their twin girls were in Owen’s class—but we just never actually got together since we were all busy) said we were welcome at their house any time and to just come over. I said we would never just show up unannounced, but if they invited us, we’d be there. So he said “Great! We’re having people over tomorrow. Come to dinner!!” So we agreed immediately!

The kids had a BLAST. They actually have two sets of twins—the girls (in first grade) and boys, who are one. One of the twin girls is in Owen’s class again this year. Katie loved everyone and kept an eye on the babies! We had an amazingly DELICIOUS authentic Indian meal and met some friends of theirs that were really great. They have a huge back yard (probably three times the size of our Jacksonville yard!) so Owen was running all over. They have a playset, too, which Katie loved.

After dinner, this was happening—the kids all having fun taking pictures with someone’s iPhone:

We hadn’t planned on staying longer than maybe two hours (sleep schedules, you know) but we were all having such a good time and the kids were busybusybusy that we ended up staying until ALMOST 11! Holy wah! (We had prepped Katie by making sure she napped beforehand, but she still did really, really well.)

We look forward to many more fun nights with them!!

We have a shark in the family!

Posted on by

Owen graduated from Turtle 2 to Shark 1 today!

Working on his breast stroke:

And Katie still working on her floating.

She’s VERY good at the floating and she can jump in no problem…she just needs to jump in AND THEN roll over onto her back by herself…and then she will graduate to a red cap! I had a talk with the owner about what to do if/when she does graduate…because I honestly can’t see her swimming and I hate to pay $90/month to just play in the water and not learn anything. She said to just try it for a few weeks and see what happens—they don’t push the kids at all and if she isn’t afraid to be in the water on her own she might learn more than we think. But if it’s not working after a month, then we can reconsider—and also, she said they normally don’t do drop-in lessons, but if we wanted to come once a month for a drop-in lesson to make sure she still knows how to float, they’d let us do that. So, we’ll see.

Saturday Night Dinner—Tom’s Birthday!

Posted on by

Tonight was our fifth Saturday night dinner—and it happened to be Tom’s birthday as well! We had two new families (and one couple who’ve been to a couple dinners) join us—and it was fun (and crazy—with 8 kids!)!

Also as usual, I didn’t even think to take pictures because we were so busy visiting and doing food prep…so the first picture I took was a quick birthday shot of Tom with the dessert he picked (a caramel tres leches cake from Costco…with Owen’s birthday balloon!):

And then a panoramic of the table at dessert time…where it took me more than a few minutes to realize there’s a bunch of panoramic artifacts—like Tom’s hands reappearing on the other side of Katie and a friend’s squished face!

And Katie enjoying the blue frosting on the cupcakes a guest brought for the kids:

As a sidenote, I posted the invite for the next dinner in six weeks (Tom’s work schedule prevented a 4-week plan) and all RSVPs were filled within 24 hours! 🙂

Back to School Night

Posted on by

We were the first family in Owen’s classroom so he wasn’t too shy…and agreed to a picture with his new teacher, Mrs. Talley.

I took advantage of the empty room by taking a few room photos.

 

As more and more people arrived, he got more and more shy…and was eventually glued to my side. There are six kids total from his Kindergarten class (24 students total) so it’s nice that they start with friends. He also knows a neighbor girl (from our street) and a boy we met through t-ball (the older brother of a teammate) so he’s happy!

The teacher had a brief presentation and it was much less chaotic than the Kindergarten one last year! When I got home, I found this picture on the school’s Facebook page—you can see Tom and Katie at the very right edge and I’m sitting in front of them. 

What might have been the best part of the event, though, was talking to the preschool director about getting Katie in the Peer Modeling program (it was recommended by a friend). The actual pre-school program is for high-risk or special needs-type students, but they have preschool-aged peers come into the class to model behaviors and skills. And it doesn’t cost anything! (I just have to provide transportation and lunch/snack. I can do that!) I filled out the paperwork and now just have to wait—they typically invite kids to the classroom for a trial period and see how it goes or where the best fit would be. I’m practically jumping for joy to think about her being in preschool for three days a week! And she’d be in the same hallway as Owen!

So the night was a success!