First week of School...

Hip, Hip, Hooray! We did it! We made it through our first week of school!
Now that the weekend is here I can clearly reflect on our successful week of back to school craziness.

DILLON...
This week marked Dillon's first "official" week of school. Official because he went to Jumpstart just a few weeks ago. Dillon was placed with the same Teacher; Miss Ptak. He has a;ready made a new best friend named Logan. He is the younger brother of Jordan's Kindergarten girlfriend. Dillon was very excited that the share a love of Annoying Orange. Especially because Mom has outlawed Annoying Orange around these parts. Since Dillon is familiar with the school grounds he got to be the office helper this week. That means Mom got to get little sneak peeks of him throughout the day! Love it!

JORDAN...
Jordan is our big 2nd grader this year. He is lucky to be "looping" with his teacher Mrs. Wooden. This means she moved up with her 1st grade class and keeps to keep all of them. It also means the skip over the introduction period and get right to work. Jordan was already in the STEM lab doing experiments with "corn flour" (cornstarch) and water. Reminded me of being in my Grandma Vowles kitchen and doing the same thing! Last year Jordan had a frenemy in his class that he was constantly competing with academically. He moved away this summer so it will be interesting to see if he is still as driven. I bet he is. After school the boys go to Extended Day where the finish homework and play with other students. On the first day of school Jordan thought that he was in charge of picking up Dillon and getting them both to the Library (wrong, Dillon gets taken by his Teacher) and he came into the office in tears because he couldn't find Dilly. I am glad he is such a responsible and loving older brother!

MOM...
I can't believe I am starting my third school year at Freedom! I have the working mother's dream job! I am thankful to be so close to the boys and also to have the same days off. More than anything I am grateful to have 1st hand knowledge of every person they come in contact during their day.

Happy 2012-2013 School Year to us!

The Lazy River...

Just got back from a little overnight getaway to our favorite lazy river in the desert. This is the last weekend before Mom has to go back to work. Summer is over! Boo!

The boys decided this was the summer they were going to conquer swimming. Poor kids don't have a pool and have a Mom who is not getting up early for swimming lessons. The got to learn the same way my brothers, sisters, and I all did... sink or swim! After a couple of summers with flotation devices of course.

Jordan spent a week with Grandpa Hunt and some cousins at "Gramp Camp" where he learned to swim the entire length of the pool. With all that confidence it is hard to hold him back!

While at the lazy river Dillon decided he wanted to be just like his brother so off came the floaties and he kick, kick, kicked along. Unfortunately I was too busy on lifeguard duty to snap any pictures of said feat.

We had such a great time ending our summer with some fun in the sun. Lots of sun... apparently!

Aspiring to Lofty Heights...

I have been wanting a specific couch from IKEA ever since we moved to the new house last year. A few months ago I found one for a steal on Craigslist. Ever since the boys have been hooked on their new favorite thing... sleeping in the loft on the COUCH BED!!

Jordan begs for it just about Every night. The deal is that they can have movie nights on Fridays (during the school year) or earn it for good behavior (like tonight). Today was the last day of Jumpstart for Dillon, and two long (and boring) days of watching Mom redecorate her office at work for Jordan. Both have been great. A little wild, which for us is totally normal, but really good.

Nothing like a couch bed, Wimpy Kid books & Little Avengers on Netflix to make a boys night!

Getting a Jumpstart...

Dillon has started Kindergarten Jumpstart this week. It's an interesting program, two weeks before school starts they have the Kindergarten students come for half a day to do testing and learn some early skills. They are working on learning the expected behavior for the year and getting  "jumpstart" on it before the year starts.

Dillon was totally ready to start. He was in Miss Chiemi's Preschool last year so has thankfully had a little bit of classroom training. Here he is in a new outfit ready to go:

He enjoyed shopping for school supplies. Especially his backpack and lunchbox. He chose a Yoda lunchbox and a Lego Star Wars backpack:

He was selected to be in Miss Ptak's class for jumpstart. I originally wanted him to have the same teacher as Jordy did for Kinder. But this week Dillon has found a soft spot in Miss Ptak's heart and she says she wants him for the school year. I think he will be excited either way. It is always nice to find someone else who is willing to love this crazy handful of a boy I have.

So far he has:

• Been declared "crazy" on the playground by his Teacher after pretending to be a pirate on the rock climbing wall
• Pretended to shave his legs in class
• Made friends with a girl with yellow hair & a round face who is "Beary, Beary nice!"
• Told an Aide that his teacher "puts him to work all day"

A Camping We Will Go...

Our family has never been much for camping. Ever since Blair and I were married I have wanted to go camping but he hasn't seemed to want to. Truth is he didn't think we "knew how"to camp. This summer we weren't able to make it on one of our big roadtrip/family vacations so we decided it was time to try out the camping thing.

After a lot of searching we found a campground that sounded right for us, The Potato Patch campground near Jerome, AZ. We decided to invite my family and it turned into a family reunion of sorts.

Everybody gets a Cup!

The boys had a great time, even if their greatest wish (peeing on a tree) was not granted. Thankfully the campsite had facilities! The had a lot of fun playing horse shoes with the cousins and Pa:

Grandma Hunt set up a tent and area called "Kid Camp" where the had a great time playing all day. Except for when the spilled bubbles attracted giant black bees and Pa had to rescue them!

Cousin Tim brought along his Leatherman (which Jordan now highly covets) and whittled swords for the boys. Dillon was extremely helpful in finding twigs for Tim:

Uncle Eric took the kids on an early morning fishing trip at Mingus Lake. The boys each caught a fish. No keepers though!

My little camping men had the best time and can't wait for the next trip! Maybe Fall Break! :)

Star Wars Night...

My boys love all things Star Wars! All three of them (my boys, not the movies which of course they love all 6 of!)

Blair found out about the Star Wars nights at Chase Field and decided we should take the boys. Grandpa Hunt even braved the nosebleeds to have a night of fun with us. The boys were disappointed to find out that it was okay to dress in costume and bring lightsabers, both of which this mean old Mom said no way to. They enjoyed meeting these fellow fans though:

I'm sure the boys could name each of these guys, and probably have a figure to match!  It was a fun night. next year they have been promised to go in full costume. That should be fun!

Blogging in reverse...

I stopped keeping my blog up to date and lately I have been missing it. My boys used to love coming on the computer and seeing pictures of themselves and I know Jordy would love to read the stories... I know I do. I just plugged in my SD card with 3000+ pictures on it and I am going to make an effort of reminiscing these images and telling their stories. My kids deserve it!

Stars N' Bulls...

Another season of Little League has come and gone for my Little Sluggers.

This year the boys played in different division. Dillon played t-ball again this year and was on the Stars. Fielding was still a little bit of an issue this year but Dill sure liked being up at bat. All in all he played great, and most importantly had FUN!
Some of Dillon's action shots:

Jordan played machine pitch this year for the Durham Bulls. It definitely was an adjustment for him but his coach couldn't believe the progress he made this season. Jordan mostly played in right field but too his turns at the Pitchers mound and also as catcher. He did great! JOrdans team finished the season undefeated 13-0!

Some of Jordan's action shots: