Way to impress the Kindergarten teacher

Alright, I just had to add this. In my previous post I made mention of Lee being upset about "forgetting the yellow" Today he came home from school upset and said "We forgot the green and I didn't get to put it up!"
I looked at his homework sheet for the week and I feel like the biggest ding bat. I looked at his days wrong on his homework schedule and we have been turning in his homework a day late each day. His teacher must think I'm going to be one of "those" parents.
Yesterday he was supposed to turn in a picture of his favorite thing to do and make something yellow in the picture, today he was supposed to draw something that starts with the same letter his name begins with and make something green in the picture.
First week of homework and I have already messed the poor kid up. The sad thing is, he has been looking forward to homework allllll summer. How ironic.
At any rate, we did the rest tonight and he is happy to have both the yellow and the green for in the folder for school tomorrow.

First Soccer Practice and the red phone

GO EAGLES! Lee had his first soccer practice yesterday. He loved it! After practice he said "Thank you for bringing me to the soccer practice Mommy" When I told him he gets to do this once a week he was super pumped.
It was HOT and MUGGY and miserable outside though (as if you can't tell by the sweat) We were all getting eaten alive by the bugs. The parents sat in the shade and I wasn't even willing to get up to get some closer action shots...that should tell you how hot it felt. They cut practice short and the kids drank all of their water. Next time we all decided to take bug spray and more water.
I think Lee will enjoy the season. The instructions were pretty fast paced but I watched him really concentrate on watching others to fill in the blanks. I am just so happy we have gotten to this point. Part of me feels like FINALLY I can have a normal little boy who can talk and play with others and not have to lean on me so much for clarification on the small stuff. Not to say we don't still have communication issues somedays, I expect this for a long time. He almost started crying before school this morning because he said we missed the yellow thing. I don't know what he means by this so I will email his teacher today to find out if it is something we missed from school. We have done his homework so I don't know what he means. This happens a lot in school, he will start talking about something but not know all of the exact words to describe it so I usually contact the teacher (last year during Pre-K) and get clarification. He never knows I do this because I don't want him to rely on me for that, but he does need assistance sometimes.
He is doing very well in school, though and dictated a very funny story to Eva over the weekend. I will try to post it. He is quickly becoming a pre-reader and talking about what letters words start with. So unbelievable for a 5 year old who is still learning English. He is also still very excited about puzzles. It seems the 100 piece puzzles are getting too eazy for him so I am going online this afternoon to look up some superhero or cool robot type puzzles. He loves those best. Anything very science fiction looking or action hero related.
Okay, on to the red phone...as pictured we have a red cell phone in our house. We still have our home phone number, but transfered it to our cell phone service. It is all the way around much cheaper to do this and Eva thinks it is super cool. I decided to get a red phone so it can be easily spotted. So now, instead of us saying "home phone" we call it the "red phone" ("The red phone is for you") It sounds very official. So just know, you call our home phone, you are actually talking through THE red phone.
Good day to all.

After School

First day of school

This is from the first day of school. What an exciting time it has been. Eva loves her new teacher and is thrilled to have her best friend in class with her. The beginning of this year has been smoother emotionally for Eva than last year.
This storm, Fay, is just hanging around. I have had some family and friends contact me to see how things are and really it's fine. We are not in an area that floading would be such a concern. Compared to "Charlie" that hit 4 years ago this is a piece of cake for us. I really don't mind several days of rain and wind in a row. It's just such a nice and peaceful change from the hot hot and humid weather we are used to this time of year. Without a doubt, August is the worst weather of the year for us, even September and part of October can be miserably hot.
But with the glass half full...cooler weather is just around the corner. ( or maybe two corners)
Lee loves his teacher as well. He has the same Kindergarten teacher Eva had. Lee is so great about getting up in the mornings and getting ready for school. He just hops out of bed, gets dressed, eats his breakfast and brushes his teeth. I rarely have to ask him to do anything. His big excitement each morning is asking me what I am packing in his lunch box. Lunch is a true event for him. He starts thinking about what he wants in his lunch box during dinner the night before. Today he is having left over meatballs from last night, oranges, raisins, crackers and a shortbread cookie. He already said this morning that tomorrow he wants tuna.

Notice in this picture of Eva her NEW backpack that she is in love with. She has gone on and on about how much she loves the look of her backpack...the girly tendencies are starting.
She is super sweet and working so hard to accomplish her chore list every day. Trip and I have gotten down to business with the kids chores. Before we were always kind of inconsistent with what we asked them to do, but now, through the advice of a child psychologist friend of mine, we have learned how consistent chores and accountability is really helping them feel in control and successful with their life at home.
She needs to make her bed everyday, unload the dishwasher everyday, help clear the table, sort laundry on Fridays, feed her fish and change the fish bowl water once a week. She also runs the bath water for the younger kids. She has been handling it very well. Lee is the collector of all of the garbage pails on Monday and Thursday to help take out the garbage. He also loves to help clean windows and he makes his bed everyday. I guess I just kind of always called out random tasks I needed the kids help with and I think that is ok on occasion, but I can see the advantage for everyone of the kids knowing their responsibilities each day and knowing there are rewards there. (Ellis helps clean up toys, gets the mail and makes her bed. I will have to post a picture of her bed once it is made...very interesting technique.)

Eva's old teacher's baby

One of Eva's teachers from last year just had her baby.
I just ran over real quick last week and took a few
photos while she was only 6 days old.
how cute.

They love each other

Visit to the Fire Station

Friday I took Lee and Ellis to the firestation of a friend of mine. The kids thought it was very cool. I went to elementary school with my friend, Todd, who is now a firefighter in Orlando. How bizarre is that considering we went to school in Indiana?
It has been a quiet weekend, Eva and I did some school supply shopping yesterday. It was her friend, Skylar's birthday and she went to a rock climbing party. I heard she was one of the craziest climbers there (she has been a crazy climber since she could walk)
Other than that, one week and counting for school to start. As always, I am happy and sad at the same time.

New blog design

Hey, I'm sure you notice something different. I am so happy to have a new design on my blog, Jenna did it from Serendipity Designs. She is awesome, her link is down a bit further on the page. I kept thinking I would try to figure it out myself but it was just too time consuming and too complicated for my basic blogging mind. Thanks Jenna!

I switched my music a bit as well, although I can't help but change it around a lot. The song I have put up is an "oldie but a goodie" Just hearing it not only takes me back to the days of high school freedom, but also makes me think of a few people in my life whom I love dearly who are going through some especially difficult times. So as they say on the radio "This one goes out to you!" Cheesy? I'm sure, but heartfelt the same.

We are getting some school shopping done. It's really not so exciting when it just means getting new uniforms. I think Eva keeps wishing our school would change to no uniform policy, but there is NO chance of that changing. Otherwise just a casual Saturday which I always enjoy. Trip took the younger kids to see the movie Wal-E (is that right?) He said it was great and the kids enjoyed it. I can't believe my kids are all at an age where they can kind of sit through a movie. Hoorraaaay!