Lucy's First Day of Preschool

This was a big week for our family. Not only did Tyler turn six and start kindergarten, but Lucy also started school this week. She is now going to Busy Bees and starting in the class that Tyler started in three years ago. She was VERY excited to be a big girl in school now. Tyler starts a little bit earlier than her, so we dropped him off and came home to get her ready for her big day. She needed the rock star treatment...hence the glasses.She looks so excited right here! Lucy has done this walk into the school so many times, but it was always to pick up or drop off Tyler. Today she got to do it all for herself. Backpack and all! After washing her hands she went out and found her friends Samantha and Greyson. She wanted to paint right away, so we will probably get lots of paintings sent home this year. Our little Picasso.
Her next stop was to greet another friend, Gabi, at the Playdoh table. It looks like Lucy will have no problem at school. She already has plenty of friends!When we picked her up from school the teachers told us that she did criss-cross applesauce very well and she was fabulous to have in class. Aw shucks!

Tyler's First Day of School

August 11, 2010: Tyler's sixth birthday AND first day of kindergarten. It was quite the monumental day for the little guy. We had been practicing our morning routine for two weeks and we were finally able to put it to the test...and we passed! We got up and got ready for school, snapped pictures, and even made it out of the house early. Tyler seemed excited to get to school, but some of that excitement might have been because he knew he'd be opening his presents when he got home later that morning. Here he is posing with his new backpack and showing excitement for kindergarten.

Lucy was excited for Tyler to start school too. She gave him a good luck/happy birthday hug. They are so cute!

Here is the obligatory picture by the Blue Oak sign. It's unbelievable that we have a little kid in elementary school. He was just a baby the other day...or so it seems.

We said goodbye and he walked into Mrs. Brawley's class. He's so grown up and we are proud of him!
Luckily for Tyler the first day of school was on an early release Wednesday, so he didn't have to wait long to get home and open his birthday presents. We chatted with a few parents at school and Tyler was tugging at our shorts and saying, "LET'S GO!" I think he had a feeling he was getting this for his birthday:What a special day this was for Tyler and what a special guy he is to us. We love you Buddy!

Happy 6th Birthday Tyler!

Happy Birthday Buddy Bear Cub! For Tyler's 6th birthday party we decided to do a carnival party and the theme was Super Mario Bros. We had a ping pong in the cup game, knock the cups down, a dart game, ring toss, a bean bag toss, balloon animals, face painting, and a photo booth. We even had hot dogs and cotton candy! It was a really fun party...if I do say so myself.

Here are Tyler, Mommy, and Lucy in Their Super Mario shirts

Here we are having some fun in the photo booth Lucy is displaying the fine face painting skills of Auntie Michelle. She did such a good job painting things from the Super Mario video games.
The kids carried around popcorn bags to collect their candy and silly bands at each game station Tyler and Mommy decided that it would be fun for everyone to wear Mario or Luigi hats and to put fake 'staches on with them. We knew it wouldn't last long, so we dressed everyone and got them in for the picture right away. Even still...you can seem some mustaches in some interesting positions. Aren't they the cutest Italians ever?!
We rented a cotton candy machine to make it seem more like a real carnival. We had NO CLUE what this experience would be like, but it was really neat. Messy...but neat. We have to give BIG thanks to Grandpa Gary for being the cotton candy man. We even made some cotton candy dreams come true...

Uncle Matty was our amazing balloon animal man. Uncle Ryan was a spectacular hot dog hat maker. At the end of the party the kids just started having balloons blown up into straight pieces and they proceeded to hit Jenn. And she's on crutches. So not fair!

Tyler got some really great toys from his friends!

Should we go on Jersey Shore as the new Guidettes?! Check us out.

We hope that Tyler had an amazing time at his birthday party. I think most kids really enjoyed themselves...despite making them dress up with a caterpillar on their lip! The party was full of sugar and full of fun! The only sad part is that Tyler is turning six. Where did my baby go?! Maybe he ran off with the circus...

Arts Camp

From July 19th to July 23rd the kids and Jenn participated in Arts Camp at Lakehills Church. Tyler was part of the mixed bag K/1 class (along with best buds Lucas and Payton), Jenn was a volunteer shepard for that group of kids, and Lucy participated in the nursery/preschool program for the volunteers children.

The mixed bag class was mainly about doing art projects and making crafts, but for the first hour of each day they learned new genres of the arts. The first day they participated in dance (NOT fun for Tyler), the second day was watercolor, the third day was Spanish, and the fourth day was music. The kids had a really good time for the most part and learned a lot! Along with each different class we also participated in crazy days. There was pajama day, crazy hair day, and crazy sock day. The week was CRAZY hectic, so the only time we snapped some photos were of crazy hair day. Aren't we cute?!

Well, maybe not so much in this one...

Auntie Judy Outfits

Every year (once or twice) the cousins all get clothes from Auntie Judy in Ohio. She buys the cutest thing from Janie and Jack, and most of the time they coordinate. This year we decided to get dressed up in the outfits and go out on the town. To see the play Cinderella, specifically. Try as we might it's not that easy to get a fabulous picture of all four kids. This was the best we could do...but they all still look precious in their coordinating outfits. Quillan (4), Tyler (5), Lucy (3), and Everleigh (11 months) (at the time of the picture)