First Field Trip!

Aidan's Kindergarten class took a field trip to McGarrah's Pumpkin Patch last week. I volunteered to go on an adventure to help...along with lots of other parents. It was so fun and I really liked getting to know his classmates. Now, I know who he is talking about when he comes home telling us stories!

First, we learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin...

...by this guy!

Silly boy!

Aidan and his friend, Cade.

Jumping off hay bales is always a favorite with boys!

Aidan and his friends, Cade and Ethan.

The hay ride.

In the "Land of the Giants."

At the relay races the teachers wondered about whose pumpkin was the best shaped for the job. Aidan's class won!

I believe this was many of the kids first time to play tug of war. We had to explain how to play and they played best two out of three. Aidan's team won! They were then reminded to be "humble winners" after taunting the other teams!

The corn maze! We made it out with all 20 kids!

We even made it out of the EXIT. Many teams came out the same place they went in! Aidan was proud of his class. Humble winner was then re-explained!

Mrs. McCulley's class

Everyone brought home their own pumpkin!

Aidan's 6th Birthday

On Aidan's birthday, his grandparents came to spend the afternoon with him. He loved the attention and the Star Wars gifts! It was not a planned party or a themed party but all of the gifts were Star Wars just like he loves!

Six candles on a cupcake is just about the max!

He chose to go to the Marketplace for dinner because he heard that you get a free chocolate mess on your birthday. (Saving the parents money, right?!) It was huge and delicious...all he had hoped for!

The next weekend we planned a little get together with a couple of school friends. The excitement level for this outing was through the roof!

We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for all of the gaming these kids could handle!

Then, we went to TCBY where the boys picked their own concoctions to eat. It was beautiful outside so we sat on the patio (which I assure you, the inside customers appreciated).

Happy 6th Birthday, Aidan!

Soccer soccer soccer

Our lives have been tied up in soccer these days. Zachary is playing on The Incredibles and coached by his Daddy. He has been impatiently waiting to play soccer for two years now. He is thrilled to play every single time we let him. It also played a part in the potty training motivation. I mean, really, what kid has a pullup on in a soccer game?! Not this kid! He is potty trained!

Aidan is playing for his third year. It is the first year that Jake is not coaching him, but his new coaches are great. Their team is The Alligators. Soccer has suddenly become a lot more serious with offense, defense, out of bounds, etc and Aidan is keeping up just fine. He loves to play too so I guess we better get used to this chaos every fall and spring.

Zachary's prayer

I have been crazy busy with new schools, new soccer teams, new job! I will leave you with this precious video.

First day jitters

Monday we sent our big boy three year old to preschool. I say he is a big boy because we have been working on a particular part of potty training for more time than I care to write. Well, we got it and now that he is a "big boy" he can go to school! This is the same school we sent Aidan to last year and we LOVE it. For scheduling with my new job, this school is going to work out wonderfully. We are excited for Zachary to get to learn and grow at his new school with his teacher, Ms. Erin.

Isn't he precious?!

For scheduling reasons, we requested a transfer to a different Elementary school than where Aidan was supposed to go. We waiting rather impatiently until August to find out he is going to Smith Elementary. We are all so excited. Aidan has several friends there and feels right at home. We met his teacher earlier this week and we love her. Aidan thought she was so funny!

Ready for action! Aidan later told me that he had an "awesome wicked day" at school today. He was all smiles when I picked him up! Success!

Run for the Grapes

The Marathon Mamas ran in the Run for the Grapes 5K last Saturday. It was hilly, but fun!

Jake and the boys came out to support the Mamas!

A little cool down job with the boy. He wanted to participate too!

Picking up the awards for the Marathon Mamas. We actually placed 1, 2, and 3 in our age group! The other girls did not think we won anything and went home so I took their awards home for them.

Silly boy!

God made us family

Starting this school year is like nothing our family has ever done. For years, I have wondered, with my current job at the hospital, how I was going to juggle schedules when Aidan started school. This July I still had no idea what I was going to do, and my friend and previous co-worker called me with a job possibility. She called me knowing that I was a mom of small boys and thought the job would be perfect for the flexiblity of juggling parenthood. She knew that, last she heard (one year ago), I did not know what I was going to do when school started. After lots of discussions and prayers, I took the job as the Director of Nursing at the Elizabeth Richardson Center. This is a residential facility that teaches life skills to developmentally disabled adults. I had to put in a four week resignation notice at the hospital putting my last day of work, tomorrow Aug. 16th. School starts August 17 and I will be able to bring Aidan to school and pick him up! Zachary started preschool today and did fabulous. With all of these changes this week in our family and with Aidan being anxious and hesitant about his new school, we made our "God made us family" bracelets. We all have matching bracelets that we will wear as we each go to our different places each day. We hope these bracelets will connect us together no matter how many miles and hours seperate us during each day. I cannot explain to you how many prayer requests and little details that God has smoothed out and literally handed to us. Such blessings.

Summer hiking adventure

Last week we took the kids hiking at Tanyard Creek in Bella Vista. It is a great hiking spot for kids with a waterfall, easy hiking, and signs up everywhere to tell you what kind of tree or other interesting thing you are looking at. In case you have been in a hole (which would not be so bad), it has been a record breaking summer, in terms of heat. We had to go at 8 in the morning so we were done before we melted. This is actually not hard for our family because the boys get up before seven EVERYDAY!

We splashed around at a creek. The boys looked for crawdads and threw rocks.

We finally found the waterfall. With all of the heat and no rain I was pleasantly surprised that it still had a lot of water running!

The last part was a big downhill that even the most tired boy ran down. It was very sunny on this part so it was perfect to be done and headed to McDonalds for a fruit smoothie!