Walking home

I am trying to take full advantages of the limited nice days we have by walking home from school with the kids as much as possible. Plus it's good exercise and I don't have to fight the traffic around the school. My favorite thing about walking home is seeing the other kids on the way. Apparently a lot of kids know Fred Rion. We constantly hear kids saying "hi" to him during our walk. There is one kid that gets picked up and as his parent is driving up the road we walk, we see him with his head hanging out the window, waving and saying "goodbye" to Fred. Today we saw Fred's fourth grade buddy from last year. She stopped and said hello which I thought was really nice of her. I told Fred she wasn't in fourth grade anymore and he said something about how they all moved up. There are a few kids that we see from Fred's class that walk home by themselves. They don't have far to walk, but that scares me. Maybe I'm a little over protected. We have a pretty good hike so it will be awhile before the boys can walk home alone. Anyway, I've already decided that in a few years when Cordelia starts school she will be my excuse to pick the kids up after school. If it embarrasses the boys, then so be it.

School

The boys have successfully made it through their first full week of school. Now they have a long weekend. I was a little worried about Torii since he was a little tentative about starting school, but he is really enjoying it. He has told me more about school than Rion told me all of last year. After school today Torii was singing a song he learned and Rion knew it and said he sang it in kindergarten as well. I had never heard it until today. I went through last year feeling like I really didn't know what a typical day for Rion was like because he never talked about it, even when I asked him. Torii, on the other hand, needs no prompting, he goes on and on about school. Rion is excited about show and tell, which they start next week. He is, however, very annoyed that he has to study for a spelling test next Friday. He got most of the words right, he just had trouble with back and sack. Kind of tricky at the end of those words. Torii has a field trip next week. They are going to the powwow and I'm planning on going with.

I think Cordelia is enjoying her time alone. She is spending the mornings with daddy and then by the time she is getting up from her nap, I get home from work. I felt a little dissed this afternoon as I tried to get her ready to pick the boys up from school. She did not want to go with me. She wanted to stay with daddy. She is talking a lot more and forming phrases and she kept saying "want daddy." I told Fred they are having too much bonding time because she'd rather be with him.

The new school year is going along great so far. Everyone, including me, was pretty tired this afternoon. We're trying to adjust to the new schedule and routine. On that note I should be off to bed.

Movie time

Last weekend my parents hosted a movie outside by the campfire. They've been wanting to do this for some time and with my sisters at home it seemed like a great time. Really, any time around the campfire is a good time. As part of the special movie presentation the boys opened up shop so everyone could enjoy snacks and beverages during the movie. It's was a great deal as everything was only a quarter. One of their first customers was Nathan. When he asked if they had change for a dollar, Rion replied, "Actually, it costs a dollar." In all they came home with about $22 to split.
I love non-posed shots. This is a great one of Kelly and Heidi. Little Heidi has gotten so big!

Torii was quite the salesman. He stayed up really late because he wanted to be around in case someone needed to buy something.

As Uncle Brian was getting the movie ready to go, Torii entertained everyone. He told some jokes and then when he saw his shadow he did some shadow puppets.

Why's Cordelia so quiet?

Because she figured out how to open the sprinkles. She was sent directly to the bath after this.

Torii's birthday

Last weekend we celebrated Torii's birthday with family and friends. He wanted his party at Snoopers so that's where we went. Cordelia was much more adventurous than the last time at Snoopers. She laid in the ball pit for awhile. She didn't seem bothered by all the kids bouncing all around her.
Cordelia wanted to go down the slides, but she couldn't make it up the ramp to the tunnels. Luckily, she has a good big brother who helped her out.

This is Torii's Candyland cake. We saw it in a magazine and Torii loves that game so we knew this was the cake for him. Usually I just bake a cake and throw some frosting on top so this was quite the deal for me. It took a couple of hours just to decorate it. And Fred had to go out for more Starburst so I could finish the path. Torii liked the cake. So did Cordelia who was caught more that once trying to take candy from the cake. She didn't get the gumdrop she is reaching for, but she didn't have to wait long because we had cake soon after this picture. We still have a ton of candy left since I only needed a bit of everything.

I'm tired!

First day of school

I can't believe it, but tomorrow is already the first day of school! Tonight the school hosted an open house. Over the summer the school had some major remodeling done inside and in celebration of that, they went all out for the open house. They served hot dogs, beans, and watermelon to everyone and then had four big inflatables outside for the kids. It was a perfect night for all of it. Doesn't Torii look so excited for school? At least I got a good picture of the mark Auntie Laurie gave him while she was here. Thanks Laurie for bruising my son for his birthday and first day of school pictures. Of course this is all in fun, I will never let her live that down.
Rion at his desk. The kindergartners shared tables so it was kind of exciting for him to have a desk now. He is sitting next to Hannah, the girl who always said goodbye to him after class last year. "Goodbyyyyyeee Freeeeeeed". I didn't really think it was a big deal for Rion's first day, but after attending the open house I'm more excited for him. It was fun to see kids and parents that we already knew. I think about half the kids in his class this year were also in his class last year.

Rion on his way down and Torii on the way up on one of the inflatables.

And now Torii on his way down.

It's doesn't seem like school should be starting already. If you went by the weather, it feels like summer is just starting. Torii goes back and forth on whether he wants to go or not. He is afraid of mean kids. Torii has the same teacher Rion had last year which is really nice. Torii sat in with the class when they had special programs and his teacher also taught the summer program too. He also knows one of the girls in the class who is the little sister of one of the girls in Rion's class. I think all of that will help him adjust. He says he will miss me, but I told him he'll have so much fun in school that he'll forget to miss me. I could never sleep the night before the first day of school. And now I find myself a bit wired. The kids are sleeping soundly, but will I be able to sleep tonight?

Really busy having fun

On Saturday I got out for a few hours and did some thrift store shopping, which I've been dying to do. I found Rion this bike for a whopping $5.00. The back tire needed some air and now it's good as new. We spent most of Sunday outside learning how to ride. Rion was also excited that he could wear his new Pokemon bike helmet. He still hasn't got the hang of the bike, but he can go short distances without falling. He is loving his bike. I think he thinks he is pretty big to have such a bike.
Meanwhile, I can't get Torii to go on either of the two smaller bikes that have training wheels. He also wanted to wear his new bike helmet, but he wore it while driving the tricycle.

While taking a break from learning how to ride a bike, (it wears a parent out), Torii was collecting leaves. It was a nice blustery day so a lot of leaves could be found in the yard. I told Torii I had a cool project we could make with the leaves. Laurie got me this book for Christmas last year and it's full of traditional crafts. There are a bunch of crafts I remember doing as a kid. One of them was making waxed leaves, which I did in school once.

Here's our waxed leaves. They look nice with the sun shining through the window. Rion's is on top, mine in the middle and Torii's at the bottom. I was looking in the book for Halloween projects and now I'm excited to get started on some of them.