Ladies Man

On Tuesdays I pick up Jason from school so we can get to Elizabeth's ballet lesson on time.  Jason's teacher takes all of her car riders to their parent's car.  Normally Jason is really excited to point out our car to his teacher.  As they walked over to our car this Tuesday I noticed Jason holding hands with a little girl as they walked over.  It was pretty adorable!  While Jason's teacher was helping him in the car she told me that he explained the hand holding so that they didn't get smooshed by a car, but the little girl whispered it was because they kind of like each other...Oh boy!  I asked if that was Bailey, who we had heard a bit about, but it wasn't.  In fact he couldn't tell me what her name was at all, maybe Riley.  I knew our guy was cute, but I didn't expect him to start attracting young ladies quite this early.

Birthday weekend and Elizabeth's big day

When people ask for an interesting fact about me I almost always tell them about Jeff and I sharing a birthday.  This year it happened to fall on Labor day weekend and we were down visiting Jeff's family in San Antonio.  We were joined by his cousin's family and Great Grandma.  We went Frisbee golfing and the kids played on the playground in the morning and Jeff and I went out on a date in the evening.  We love taking advantage of our grandparent babysitters!  The next day we all headed over to the water park for one last summer splash around.



Sweet baby!



Elizabeth had a huge day after we came home.  It was her first day of preschool and ballet lessons.  I'm glad she is so photogenic because as soon as we went outside to do first day pictures I got a call that Jason had gotten sick at school and we needed to pick him up.  I guess I will need to wait a few days for that kid free time.  There was such a difference between the two kids.  Elizabeth was just fine with me leaving her at preschool and didn't even seem to think twice about it.  I look back and remember Jason being so much more tentative with this transition. I think in part it is because for the last two years she saw big brother going off to preschool and has come to expect and really wish she could go.  She did great her first day, but I don't think she slept enough, especially considering what else was going on that afternoon.



When we got home from picking her up Elizabeth was excited to see that Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma had arrived.  She was even more excited about going to ballet class.  Elizabeth has been talking about ballet for months now and has been counting down the days until she could start.  Today was her big day and she did wonderfully!











She learned first and second position



And of course there was a lot of spinning.


This is one happy ballerina!

One week in

Jason has been in school for a week now and loves it!  He comes home every day telling us how amazing his day was.  The first day I walked him in and picked him up, but after that we allowed him to ride the bus.  He was so excited!  I must say I was a little nervous letting him go ride the bus, but it made me feel so much better to find that our bus driver is a lady from our small church. 

Toward the end of the summer Jason was getting to be very difficult.  It didn't seem like we could go very long without him disobeying or fighting with his sister.  I was pretty concerned that with all the activity of school and no rest time he would be worse then ever, but I was happily surprised.  Jason has been in wonderful spirits when he returns from school.  I think by the end of the summer he was getting bored and had not been challenged enough.  I'll have to remember that next summer.



Of course while Jason was off at school Elizabeth needed something to entertain her.  Lately she has been interested in paining, especially with water colors.  She loves to paint rainbows, herself and the letters of her name.









We are so happy when he comes home to us!



Today after doing a few chores we decided to go out and splash around in the rain.  Elizabeth loved doing it!

wordless wednesday's back to school edition

First Day of Kindergarten

Jason started Kindergarten today!  I can't believe he is so grown up.  He was excited to go and wondered what they would do during recess.  He said he wasn't nervous at all.  Most days he is going to ride on the school bus, but today I dropped him off and got to walk him to his classroom.  He is such a smart, sensitive guy that I know he will do great!








He came home telling us what a great time he had that he liked getting to play on the playground, but not that the kindergarteners aren't allowed on the swirly slide (we tried to get more of an explanation, but he could only tell us that he would be in trouble)  He was really excited that they watched a Magic School Bus episode about space and was thrilled to see us at the end of the day.  I can't believe my boy is growing up so fast!

swindled

Elizabeth is the money finder.  Where ever we go she seems to find loose change.  There are goldmines like my parents house where there haven't been many kids by to dig around for coins and there are random places like in the back of our car after Jeff has just vacuumed.  She gets so excited when she finds the coins too.  I think we will have to start working on identifying them since she calls them all pennies, even this one:

We thought that Jason would be the first to be interested in monetary gain so we got him a piggy bank last Christmas.  He is interested in the money, which is why he so kindly offers to keep Elizabeth's change safe in his piggy bank.  Little swindler!  And a piggy bank is going on Elizabeth's Christmas wish list.

swimming in the summer time!

The kids were so excited to start swim lessons a few weeks ago.  This was Jason's third year and Elizabeth's first and we were a little worried that Jason wasn't getting that close to swimming, or so we thought.  We have been taking lessons at the YMCA in a town about 45 minutes away.  They have three levels and for the past two years Jason had been at the first levels.  This year I was debating on if he was ready to move up, but he was put into the next class up and seemed at about the same point as his classmates.  Elizabeth has been sitting on the sidelines for the past two years and was thrilled to get to join in this year.  It also made it easier for me because I didn't have to try to entertain her while keeping her out of the pool. 

They both did pretty well listening to their instructors.  They worked on freestyle and froggy (breast stroke) swimming.  Elizabeth's favorite part of the class was at the end when her instructor got out a few pool toys and let the kids throw them and swim for them on the shallow area of the steps.

 

Jason's instructor started the class working on strokes with each kid then as the days progressed she worked on getting them to work more and more on jumping in and swimming (or trying to swim) to her.  Most of the time Jason's swimming looked pretty frantic, but by the end he was starting to get it down a bit.  His form needs a lot of work, but he is able to get his head out of water to take a breath which is a huge improvement.



 

At home we practice with them in our pool, but have their continue to wear their lifejackets when we are playing to be sure they are safe.