Monday, September 29, 2014

My baby is Six!

Earlier this month Nathan turned six.  We celebrated a few days early so he could open his presents on a Saturday morning and then have all day to play with them.  He got several lego sets that he had been wanting.
His sister Megan and Mom and Dad helped him to put the sets together.  This is his favorite set Laval's fire dragon.
 Nathan didn't want a party but he wanted to make sugar cookies with frosting for his birthday treat.
 It was a little tricky getting 6 candles to stand up in his cookie but we succeeded.
Nathan is my tough little boy.  He does not like hugs, kisses, or snuggling. He loves to pretend fight and tells me that he will punch bad guys in the face. 
 like this---of course his dad is not a bad guy.
 But occasionally Nathan does turn on his charm like in this photo session.
 His dad is still his best friend although only Mom can read him a bedtime story and tuck him in at night.


Sunday, September 7, 2014

The First Day

In the last week of summer Scott and I purchased a third vehicle.  We got this 2014 Hyundai Elantra that I am posing in below. Scott drives this new car and his old car became our teenager car.  Holly got her drivers licence in June and with the start of the school year we were anxious to get an additional car so Holly and Emily could drive themselves to school and seminary each day.
On the first day of school  Holly hopped into our teenage car wearing her red pep band shirt.  She needed to be there early so that she could play with the band in front of the school as everyone arrived for their first day.
I left shortly after with Emily.  We picked up Emily's friend and then drove to the high school for the freshman assembly.  When we arrived at the front of the high school we saw the cheerleaders in uniform, the band playing, a big balloon arch in school colors for the kids to walk through and several other dressed up leadership students ready to welcome everyone to school.  It felt very festive and fun.  

Then I came home and helped  the little kids get packed up for school. The girls joined their class lines in front of the school.  Both girls have several friends in their class and were not nervous.  
I walked Nathan around to the kindergarten area where he joined a line with half of his class.  For the first week of school just half the class came each day.  His class only has 12 kids in it but only 4 kids came on the day Nathan came.  This is typical Nathan giving two thumbs down.  He thinks doing this is so funny.

Holly and Emily arrived home from school together.  Holly said that she got to also play with the band at the freshman assembly on the first day.  Holly already had homework to do and was feeling stressed.  She has a very rigorous schedule this year and unfortunately not many friends in her classes.  Luckily all of her band friends are also at her lunch.  She ate lunch with them in the band room on the first day of school.  

Emily had a friend or two in each of her classes and thought her teachers were pretty nice.  She was disappointed that her first class of the day is PE so not only will she freeze outside at 7:30 am but she will be nice and stinky for the rest of the day.  For a girl that likes to have cute hair and makeup this is pretty bad news.  Holly and Emily started seminary on the second day of school at 6:10 am.  They both have great teachers and lots of friends in them.

Megan and Melissa both had a great first day of school as did Nathan.  Nathan has two friends from church in his kindergarten class and gets to ride the kindergarten bus home right before lunch.  He thought it was cool that you don't have to wear seat belts on the bus.

Good news!
*We got family pictures taken with this as the backdrop. It has been 3 years since our last family picture was taken.   One of our kids was crying and uncooperative but there was one family picture taken that is Christmas card worthy so I am happy. I'm keeping the picture secret until Christmas.
*Nathan has discovered that he loves to draw.  These are dinosaurs and dragons that he colored and had me hang on his bedroom wall.
*Megan had to say something unique about our family for her first homework assignment. She said that we eat cereal every morning and that we have over 50 boxes of cereal in our pantry so we never run out.  I guess that is pretty special!  We took this picture of her to share with her class.