Brie and Chris had the BEST idea!

I've been meaning to get photo's and share this for a week now, but I'm me. I'm lazy, I procrastinate, you know. Me.

So anyway, Brie came up with this awsome idea for the kids so they wouldn't be sad about moving so far away from everyone. They both have them on their bedside tables and just adore them! I do too. I look at them often. I miss everyone too!

I know that everyone involved didn't get to see the final product so I am posting pics.

Brie, you are just awsome! Thank you again!

Evan's first day...a bit of a let down.

So the new school does this thing with kinders. The parents and students get picked up later in the morning and ride the bus together, then we get off at the school, the teacher meets them like they normally would, and then they go to school for an hour and learn about the class then ride the bus home.

Only...the bus never came. So we waited impatiently for 25 min. then Shawn called the school and they had no idea what happened, so we drove over. By then we made it for the last 5 min. of the thing and so about 1/3 of the students were not sure what was happening along with their parents. Evan found his desk and cubby and met his teacher anyway, it just wasn't as planned, and then tomorrow is the real first day and he just rides the bus at the normal time with Kira.

We took him out to lunch at McDonalds to offset some of the disappointment of having to ride in Daddy's car. Then he went and got a hair cut and life is good again.

So he looked cute as a bug anyway, and I took pictures for you to see!







Walking to the bus stop. Reminded me of the Beatles cover. :)



Waiting "patiently" for the bus, while complaining "My legs hurt too much to just stand here!"





Here he is showing off his name tag, sitting at his new table.



And then here he is getting his private tour from Mrs. W! Should be a great year!

One down, one to go! Kira's off to second grade!

Whew! Shawn got up and got the kids off to a yummy start with cheesy eggs, fresh biscuits, and blueberries! The kids also just started the Accountable Kids program yesterday so they had morning chores to do before school as well. Kira, I have to say, is a much more pleasant child when she gets 45 min. of additional sleep! In Tucson she had to be up at 6a.m. for the carpool. The bus here comes 5 min. after Sycamore starts the day! She was much more ready to wake up than she ever was back home.

She got right on the bus, sighed heavily at my making her stop for a photo op, (and I was not the only mom getting sighs and dirty looks! Darn kids, I curse them all with kids that sigh and roll their eyes when they want a pic!)then she got right on the bus and sat right at the back. Isn't that where the cool kids sit?

I haven't included her photo getting on the bus yet, I'm having trouble with my photo editing stuff for some reason, and can't crop out the school district and route info.

I'll add it later.

School starts tomorrow!

I love the first day of school. It was one of my FAVORITE things ever growing up. I have such fond memories of my new outfit and how it made me feel. My new back pack and pencils and crayons and glue. The way I felt climbing on the bus, walking into a new classroom, and thinking how it smelled weird.

I think the only thing I loved more than the first day of school was Christmas. Seriously. I'm a geek I know, but I was never sad to see summer go, just thrilled at what I had to look forward to in a new school year!

I had Mrs. Wiesenburg for first grade. I don't really have many memories of her or her classroom interestingly enough. I remember kindergarten clearly. I remember 3rd and 4th grade clearly, but 1st-2nd are something of a blur in my memory. What I do remember about 1st grade is my lunch box. I'm pretty sure this was the most fabulous lunch box ever. I really hated eating hot lunch. So my mom (what a trooper!) packed me lunch every day until 4th grade. But Strawberry Shortcake made me feel soooooooo cool that year.



And thanks to the internet, you can have a picture of anything you ever owned as a child!

Isn't that just cool? I never thanked you for that mom and dad, but I am now. Bet you never expected a thank you for a lunch box from 1981, but there you go!

So as I get ready to send my big second grader off tomorrow and take my baby to kinder, I just want to give a little shout out to all my teachers over the years, and to my parents for putting value on an education. For raising me to see that learning is fun, I still enjoy learning new things to this day, even if I no longer get to keep the pencils and crayons and shiny new folders for myself. ;)

Morton Arboretum! Cool Place!

Warning: This got super long! And there are tons of pics...hopefully you won't be bored!

So yesterday we met Patty and the boys to hang out for the afternoon at the Morton Arboretum. I cannot tell you how happy I am that Patty introduced me to that place. My kids loved it and Shawn would like to see it too, so we are heading back as a family soon and we are going to get an annual pass.

It is about an hour drive for us to get there, so I will happily admit to being really glad we purchased the kids Nintendo DS's before our trip. They saved us then, and they save me all the time in Chicago traffic. I can drive, try and not get lost, sit in a parking lot/Freeway forever and they never even notice.

We only had 3 hours to play and it was barely time to see the Children's garden. The kids didn't want to leave and we actually got chased out...(not literally)by a volunteer at the end of the day.

Here are the kids at the entrance. Kira just seemed to match the gardens in her bright summer attire. She is quite the little fashionista these days. ;)





We did a little shopping in the store there and I got some really great things to do some science experiments with. I'll post about those with pictures later this week when we get them done. I was really excited by my finds, and even picked up one extra thing for Collin to try too! (You know, because he needs to get presents in his mom's birthday package too!)



The first thing the kids found was this giant ball that spins in water. We stood there for quite a while letting them play. Then we headed off into the "Backyard" to explore!








These flowers were really cool, they were musical instruments and the kids loved them! You'll note that my kids were using their water bottles to make music...we never saw them again. Then not surprisingly, they were 'thiiiiiiiiiiiiiirsty!' and wanted my water. Of course.







This was a "race" the kids had to blow the propeller across the cable. Michael won and was really proud. Evan and Andrew were disappointed to learn it wasn't a jungle gym. And they sort of "cheated" a little bit. ;) Try not to notice that part. It's not the Olympics after all.





Then there was the giant Acorn thing to climb on! It was a little boring for the grown ups, but it did make a cool backdrop for pictures! I was a little concerned about Evan, but he did great, and only needed a hand to get down. The panic over heights occurred a bit later...






Next up was the water pump. Patty had warned me about the kids possibly getting wet. I thought this was what she was talking about...I was in store for a big surprise. I'll get to that in a minute.





So this is what Patty meant by "The kids might get wet". This is the frog pond. For wading and "looking for frogs". I'm certain that unless a frog is entirely suicidal he isn't within 10 miles of this "Frog Pond". My children didn't just get wet. No, they fell in, Kira cried, but I'm not sure why. She was mad that all I did was take pictures of her the moment I realized what happened. Patty joined in. We laughed and snapped photo's like any good parent would do. Then Evan fell in but didn't manage to stop himself before he face planted into the water. Oops!








Then just beyond the frog pond is a stream where the kids can move rocks around to their hearts content building dams. And hey, why not, they are already drenched from a visit to the frog pond anyway. On the way though was this gorgeous site:




And this funny sign...it just tickled this Arizona girl pink to see that warning! LOL!




Here are a couple of Kira and Michael in the stream.








Then the next spot was one that about gave me a heart attack. I'm sitting on a bench, letting the kids play on a giant playground structure when I hear that scream and cry that you just KNOW is your kid. Then you can't get your bearings and figure out where your kid is and how to get to them. I fought my way through a herd of kids to find my poor sweet Evan shaking and crying in a wooden tower. He couldn't move. Frozen in fear I had to climb up and get him, pry him away from the wall he had a grip on and carry him down. He kept crying and sobbing and shaking and finally said "I tried really hard, but that is too high and too scary and I was going to fall!".
Here is the culprit:



But, we all know Evan. What did that boy do? With a little help from Kira, he stopped crying and shaking (ok, I'm pretty sure he was still shaking) and crossed that damn thing. It took him a painfully long time, and Kira would stand with her hand on his back while other kids ran by, and just stayed with him, encouraging, loving and helping him along. I was beaming with mommy pride!

He did it. It was agonizing for me to watch but he was so proud. Then he just kept going until he could run across it without being afraid. He must have done it 6 or 7 times after that. If only I could face my fears that way. Can you imagine? He amazes me every time.








Doin' the happy dance at the end:




Getting a high five from his big sis:



Do I have cool kids or what?

I'm sure lucky! And I'm so glad we have this great opportunity to live here for the year to explore and see things we never would have seen otherwise!