Kindergarten! A New Adventure!

Today was Kaleb's official first day of kindergarten!  I am so excited for him!  Now, I know all of you are thinking what will you do with yourself for the two hours and forty minutes he is in school all day (Except for early out on Friday.  Then it's only two hours :P)?  Well, I will do whatever the heck I want on Wednesday and Friday.  But on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I am babysitting three beautiful children out of my home.  Tyler is Kaleb's friend and goes to kindergarten with Kaleb.  After we get those two off to school, it's just me and the girls.  They are 2 and 3 months, and super super sweet.  After we get home, it's nap time, so I get a break for a bit, too.  So nice.  Kaleb is really liking having his friend over all the time.  People have told me how nice I am to watch my friends' kids, but she's paying me, so I don't really see how it's so nice.  It's a job.  I needed a job.  I am really actually quite grateful that she would ask me.  She's the nice one.  She's a saint, really.  She's a first grade teacher.  Yep.  She rocks.
 Kaleb told me his first day was "good.  Better than ever."  His words.  He loves kindergarten.  His favorite part is story time.  That's not surprising.  He loves stories - especially silly stories.  Right now, I am reading him Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  He is loving it.  He likes the movies, too.  He told me he got to school right on time, so he missed recess.  Oh, well.  Today, it was raining, so Tyler's mom drove over during her lunch break from the school and picked them up.  I mentioned she teaches first grade, but I forgot to mention she teaches it at our school!  Awesome.  Any way, they missed recess.  Kaleb said Tyler really wanted to go to recess, but he wanted to go to recess more than Tyler.  Oh well.  Tomorrow we will leave in enough time for them to get to play on the playground before school.  It's not supposed to rain.  Of course, by the time she got to our house, it wasn't raining anymore.  I am so happy that Kaleb is going to kindergarten now.  There were no tears of sorrow.  Nope.  No tears at all.  Just a feeling of peace and freedom.  :)

 Kaleb says Tyler is his best friend.

 Silly faces to show how excited they are to go to school! :)

 

Mom! Look at Me!

Kurtis and I took the boys to our church parking lot today, and forced the boys to finally learn how to ride their bikes without their training wheels.  Well, except for Kaleb.  We just forced him to practice pedaling.  He still thinks he needs someone to give him a push before he can start pedaling.  I would move to a line, and say, "Okay, when you get here, you can have a drink of water."  Then I would move a little further away each time.  It worked unless he wanted me to walk back over to him and push him first.  Sometimes he would say, "No, I can do it."
Zachary learned first.  Once he got it down, he zoomed all over the parking lot.  He loved it!  So, I said, "Was I right?"  And he said, "Yes."  Yep.  When am I ever wrong?  Never.  That's right.  Unless I say I am wrong.  I have done that before.  Zach just said to me,  "I discovered the loving of bikes!"
Riley, on the other hand, can ride his bike.  He did it!  He just needs a little more practice because he has trouble pushing himself off.  Kurtis says part of the problem is he needs his seat lowered.  My kids are rock stars!

 I am surprised he decided to pick it up so quickly.  I am so pleased.

 Now, it's Riley's turn for Dad to help him.

 I love the look on Kurtis's face in this picture.  He's so excited for Riley.

 Riding on his own!

 Falling.  But we told them they would just have to get right back on their bikes until they got it down.

 This picture is a little blurry, but I love the look of determination on his face!

 Kaleb didn't want to ride any more, so I said his bike was lonely.

 He got back on.  No more lonely bikes!

 My little bikers.  We could start a gang.  Well, once Mom and Dad get their own bikes. :D

Back to School!

It'S the MOST WonDerFuL tImE of the yEAr!  

Yesterday was the first day of school for my boys.  Mostly for Zach, and Riley, though.  Kaleb only went to kindergarten for an hour, and then he won't go back to school until Friday for half an hour to take his kindergarten assessment test at eight o'clock in the morning.  So school officially will begin for him on Monday.  Any way, Riley did not want to go back to school, and was quite upset about Kaleb getting the rest of the week off.  He claims it was not like that for him when he went to kindergarten.  Well, he's wrong, so we decided to prod him further to find out what was going on.  Riley likes school.  Turns out, he was afraid to go back because he wouldn't have Mrs. Gally any more.  He did not want a new teacher.  Mrs. Gally is the best.  We assured him Mrs. VanDyke would probably be way awesome, too.  But he would not listen. 
When he came home yesterday, I asked him if he liked his new teacher.  He said, "Yes!  She is the best teacher I have ever had next to Mrs. Gally!"  Ha ha!  I love it!  Zach also loves his new teacher.  He said, "Mrs. Crittenden is the best teacher he has ever had next to Mrs. Jones!" (his first grade teacher).  I'm glad they are excited for the new year.  Riley was put out with me this morning because at 8:20, I told them it was time to go to school.  Riley said, "I wanted to leave at 8:15!"  Ha ha!  Funny kid.  They don't need to leave that early.

Zach is in fourth grade now, and Riley is in second.  

What a great year they are going to have!

The wanted a picture of their backpacks, I guess. :)

The first day is always exciting!

Sometimes My Kids Surprise Me

Friday night at the dinner table, I was telling Kurtis we still need to get backpacks for the boys before school starts.  Riley said, "I don't need one.  My backpack from last year is still good."  Amazing!  So I said, "Okay, we will need to get two new backpacks then."  And Riley says, "No.  We decided Kaleb can use the Speed Racer one."  That was Riley's when he was in kindergarten.  It probably won't last the whole year, but it will do for now.  But I was pretty surprised because I expected them to all want new backpacks.  Zach had to duct tape his by the end of the school year in May, so his wasn't usable this time around.  Way to save me some money! Yesterday, we went on a hike in Adam's Canyon.  I didn't really want to go.  I wasn't feeling all that awesome after I ate my breakfast/lunch.  I don't want to talk about it.  Any way, I got ready for the day, and about one o'clock, I turned to Kurtis and said, "When do you want to go on a hike?"  He said, "When do you want to go?"  I said, Eleven - no, eight this morning."  It was supposed to be 95 degrees yesterday, and I get hot and I don't like being hot and sweaty.  I need to move to Hawaii.  So about two o'clock, I said, "I need to take Zach to get a new backpack for school.  It starts Monday, you know."  So Zach and I went backpack shopping, and he wanted the one with wheels but I was on the phone with Kurtis when he was picking it out, and dad said no wheels.  Whatever.
When I got  back, I said if we didn't go now, we weren't going on a hike that day.  We left at around 2:50.  Adam's Canyon is like seven minutes away.  Apparently, the hike is 1.5 miles in and 1.5 miles out, and there is a waterfall at the end which is really pretty.  We made it to a big rock, and stopped for a drink.  Kurtis decided we'd gone far enough because it was 4:30 and we should go back home to make dinner.  We got home at 5:30, but we didn't get to see the waterfall.  I like waterfalls.
I have to say, Kaleb has gotten much more adventurous about hiking.  He fell on his bottom, cried for a bit, and walked it off on the way down.  He's so much better than when we went on our first hike to the waterfall near my parents' home.  Kurtis also commented that he may not be completely recovered from his 12 mile hike last week.  We're gonna go back.  In the morning.  And have a picnic at the big rock.  Or maybe by the waterfall.
Here are some pictures I took.  Some were blurry because it was windy (that helped me not be too hot), but it pushed me around a little and made it hard to hold the camera steady.  Sorry! :)

Heading up the mountain.

Cliffs

Riley kept asking me to take his picture so I could remember him.  He's funny.  This one could be his head shot.

We walked past a stream most of the hike.

Big tree in the middle of the trail!  Watch out!

If Kaleb felt the trail got a little steep, rather than freak out and refuse to move on, he did this. :)

Kurtis's new head shot.

This is the large rock we stopped at.  We've never been on this hike, so we don't know how far away from the waterfall we were, but we estimate our total hike was around 2 miles.

The stream on the way back down.

The kids thought this grass looked like a lion's mane.  I said a lion could hide in it pretty well if he were hunting.  They thought that was awesome.

Here is an idea for your next painting, Michele! ;)

Oh, and Michele, we've decided the next time you guys come out here, we should go on this hike.  It's really pretty, and even though I didn't want to go at the time, I'm glad I did.  I think we will go in the fall when the leaves are changing.  That would be even prettier.  And we will actually go to the waterfall. :)

Okay. Now You Guys Are Just Showing Off!

I have this image in my head of the Dave Matthew's Band getting together to come up with songs for their new albums.  They get together, and jam.  They come up with something marvelous, and then they have to say to each other.  Okay, now how do we cut that down so it will be a song for the album?  Because last night, at their concert, that must be exactly what their jam sessions are like.  They take a three minute song and turn it into a fifteen or twenty minute song.  It was amazing.  Seriously.  By the time the encore came along, I was just thinking to myself, "Okay. Now you guys are just showing off.  Oh, but I love it though!" :D
Kurtis wouldn't let me try to sneak our camera in, so the pictures I took were ones on my phone, and in my opinion, my phone camera is not awesome.

 Brett Dennen was the opening act.  He was pretty mellow, but I liked him.

 Just the two of us!

You can kind of see Dave Matthews on the big screen - the middle one.  This is as far as my phone camera zooms in.  Not nearly as awesome as my 18x zoom on my regular camera. :P

Last year, Kurtis and I were going to go to this concert for our ten year anniversary.  It didn't happen.  They canceled the show the day of.  I was pretty bummed because they are one of Kurtis' favorite bands, and he's never seen them play live.  I know, that's crazy, right?  So I thought it would be a nice gift to give him.  The year before that, Dave Matthew's saxophone player died, so understandably, they canceled that show.  Then they rescheduled it, and canceled the rescheduled date.  So I was worried this concert would be canceled as well.  I was very excited when I got there, and they actually came  out onstage.  Dave Matthew's said he was more embarrassed about it than anything.  "Won't happen again!"  He claimed.  Kurtis had a really good time.  He's not one to get up and dance like me, but he thought it was awesome.  I danced alone, and said to myself, "Oh, yes.  This is why I usually drag Nicole to concerts with me."  She'll dance with me.  But I didn't care.  Kurtis and I had a great time, and that's all that matters.  We're just different.  Kurtis also discovered that he does like concerts.  It just helps if he actually likes the band he's going to see.

I'm an Artist!

Okay, so now that I have calmed down, and don't want to bind and gag my middle child for taking his anger at his father out on his brother by yelling angrily at him, I can tell you how wonderful I am. :D 
I got put on the activities committee (so did Kurtis), and I volunteered to design the flier and poster for the event.  Here's my awesomeness in a giant poster that took two days to make!  Well, I probably could have finished it in one day if I didn't have to drive to the big city and back home three times Friday.  That's right three!  Kurtis' boss decided that he, Kurtis, and his boss should take a day off and go hiking.  They scheduled this hike for July 30th.  July 30th, there was too much lightning possible, so it didn't happen that day.  August 6th, Steve (Kurtis's boss) decided too many other people had taken that day off, and they couldn't leave the office unattended and in such incapable hands as the people who would actually be there, so finally, they went on Friday.  Meanwhile, Tuesday, Zach had an orthodontic appointment with our dentist (he's also an orthodontist).  They put some little rubber bands between two of his back teeth to make them separate a little.  Then, we had to come back on Friday to get the molds made.
So Friday, I got up at 4:30 in the morning, and drove Kurtis to where he was going to meet his boss's boss, and then back home.  The kids were still in bed, when I got back, so I snuck upstairs and crawled back in bed.  Then, at 11:45, I drove Zach to his appointment, we ate lunch after (at McDonald's - not even my last choice, but the kids wanted to go there), and back home.  Then, at 5:30, I left to go pick Kurtis up, and bring him back home.  He was beat up and ready to die, and still can't move, but oh well.  I tried to get him to train on the treadmill, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it.  He said he was going to train on his exercise bike, but he really only did that once.  He hiked 12 miles that day.  That's a whole freaking lot of miles.
So, yeah.  I could have finished my poster Friday, but I didn't finish it until Saturday.  Here it is:

The flier pretty much looks just like this (I made it first) only in black and white.

Close up on my shooting star.  I glitterized it! :D

I have no idea if the people at church liked it or not.  Kurtis was/is still a mess, so I didn't go to church today.  Kaleb was pretty excited about that. :)  Hee hee.

I Seem to Have a Child With No Will to Live

I mean, seriously.  Does he not understand that if he hurts my baby, I will kill him?