Basketball Star!

 Luke dribbling down the court. He looks so tall!

He shoots!

Luke is playing Upward Basketball at a church this winter. Luke & Silas are on the same team which is fun. I have been very impressed with the organization of the league and the people running the program are so kind. Luke's coach is great with the kids. They have a little team devotional and earn stars to iron onto their team undershirt after each game. Different colored stars have different meanings. Luke loves seeing the stars ironed onto the sleeve of his shirt! He plays every Saturday. For the kindergarten team they practice 30 minutes and then have a 30 minute game. Before the game starts they call the team in and they run through the gym doors across to their bleacher. So cute. The kids think that is awesome. Luke is on the Pumas. They don't keep score, they are mostly trying to talk the kids through how basketball is played even during the game...you have to dribble AND run etc. We spend a lot of time laughing in the bleachers because it is just so funny to see them playing. Luke made 2 baskets this past Saturday at the game and earned the defensive star this week! Yay Luke! Oh, and he wants to be a professional basketball player when he grows up now. :)

Luke with part of his team & the coach. There are 8 kids on the team.

Go Pumas!

Cake Pictures

 Wilson's police badge cake (Lego City Police Dept. & he turned 8). He refused to let Andy put his name on it. I baked the cake. Andy did everything else on this one!

 Luke wanted cake pops. I wanted a way for him to still get to blow out candles and this was my last minute idea. Luke loved the little green monsters!

And that's a wrap on the 6 & 8 year old birthday party!

Party Pics!

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Yesterday was Luke's 6th birthday! He woke up to a 1 hour delay at school. (unfortunately none of them slept extra...they were up earlier than normal beginning at 4:45. They were officially up at 6. WHY?) He had donuts for breakfast and opened a Lego, dot to dot book (he loves those), the movie Despicable Me, and a green sweater before school. I was thankful for the delay because I still needed to ice his cupcakes to take to school. He wanted the same as Wilson, white cupcakes with chocolate icing and sprinkles. I just used the same recipes from Wilson's birthday post. He had a great day at school and chose O'Charleys for dinner. He wanted their rolls & chicken fingers! Today is the boys' party at an indoor gymnastics place. It has a foam pit & lots of trampolines. They are so excited!

I baked two more cakes last night. One chocolate to make cake pops & one vanilla for Wilson's police badge cake. The cake pops are DONE and now we just need to decorate the badge. I saw these candy eyeballs at Walmart and Luke and I thought they would be cute on the cake pops. This is what I ended up doing with them. Treat bags for the party are ready!

Luke lost his first tooth Thursday night! He was so excited. The tooth fairy came for a visit.

Luke has been busy- this morning was his first basketball game! He is playing Upward and I am so pleased with everything about it- nice coach, well organized, nice uniform, etc. Go Pumas!!

Back to School!

The boys both had a great start to school. Wilson has walked right into class every day with no problem. So thankful! We have come such a long way! He is really happy in his new classroom and has many of his friends from 1st grade in his class. Luke loves school already. Andy dropped the boys off for the first day of school and he said Luke walked right in, no problems. By day 2 Luke wanted to walk from the cafeteria to his classroom by himself. He said he didn't need Wilson to walk him to class! I was shocked but oh so thankful! Luke was so happy on the first day because he got to go to the treasure box and had 2 recesses! I think he is going to love going to big school with Mommy and Wilson. He has been EXHAUSTED but happy. He has been rather grumpy but we are trying to be patient with him as he adjusts to a school schedule. The pictures are from the first day of school!

A funny story

Today I needed to run some errands so I told the boys we'd stop at the library for new books while we were out. We had the books in the van on our way to Tar*get. Wilson was reading one of his new books about Castles. There was a section on how to make your own castle. This is our conversation during the van ride.

Wilson: Hey Mom it tells you how to make your own castle!! This is what you need: poster  board, masking tape, (etc, etc).
Me: Oh sounds fun! (Faked enthusiasm while thinking to myself how I reeeally don't want to make a castle).

Then Wilson started reading some of the steps. It continued until we pulled into the parking lot. I was half listening with the occasional ummhmmm and oh. But then he really caught  me by surprise.

Wilson: You also need paint, paint brush, and...cock
Me: What? I don't think I heard you correctly. Spell it for me.
Wilson: C-O-C-K
Me: Hmmm...I don't know what that is (while dying inside!). Let me see what it says.

Finally I get the book and it says cockTAIL sticks. Too funny. But keep reading. We start walking into Target and Luke who has been listening this whole time says:

Luke: Where will you build a castle?
Me: oh at the kitchen table
Luke: how will it fit?
Me: realizing that he thinks we have been talking about building a REAL castle. and I just laughed and said - we'll build a MODEL of a castle. Not a real castle. I'm laughing about it now typing this. I hope it was funny to you because in real life it was hilarious!!!

Luke is a Kindergartener!

Luke graduated from preschool at the end of May. We loved LE Preschool. Luke attended for the past two years and had wonderful teachers. He is so ready to start Kindergarten at "mommy & Wilson's school"! I keep telling him it is his school now too!

Here he is walking in. Love that little grin.

A cookie and lemonade for celebrating!

With his buddy Ethan. They are good friends from school and church. They were in the same class at LE this year. Ethan will be moving to Africa in August. Luke is a little sad about that.

Bumblebee Scare

My sweet Luke has been terrified of bees at bedtime the past two nights this week. Monday and Tuesday night he cried in his bed because he was afraid of bumblebees. I'm not sure what has brought this on - he said he hasn't talked about bees at school/with friends/etc. It's only February so he hasn't seen any outside. He was sobbing both nights. We prayed that Jesus would take his fear away and one person (ahem) might have prayed that he would never get stung by a bee - ever...that wasn't the best thing to pray for in this situation! Anyway, the next night the prayer was WAY better. Tonight we made it through bedtime with no talk of bees and no tears. My poor little guy. Andy said he thinks Luke holds stuff in...not sure WHERE he gets that trait. Here's hoping for a bee free summer...and no stings for Luke!

On another note, I registered Lukie for Kindergarten last week! (Do I have to stop calling him Lukie when he start elementary school?) I can't wait to have him at school with me and Wilson. It will be so fun to see him in the hallways. LOVE that they come with me. Even though it makes the afternoons rough sometimes! Wilson said to Luke today that he couldn't wait until he was at our school with us. I thought that was really sweet. I can't wait either. :)

Happy 5th Birthday Luke!

Luke is 5 years old today! I can't believe it! He is growing up...and will be in Kindergarten next year! Wow. He had a great birthday! He wanted donuts for breakfast and pizza for dessert. Super easy for mommy and daddy! Since we'd already had cake pops and cake at the other parties he chose brownies and ice cream for dessert. I woke him up this morning so I could watch him open his gifts. That allowed him and Andy to have fun with the gifts throughout the day. He opened a robe, train station Lego for his train set from Santa, and the Guess Who electronic game. He was happy. After dinner, the Mc clan came over for dessert. He got the game Pop the Pig from Mac 5 and the cousins played that for a while. Such a cute game! He also opened an art portfolio that is super cute from his Mimi and Poppy. He had several Happy Birthday phone calls today and seemed to really enjoy his day! Tomorrow he gets to bring the snack to pre-school and he chose sherbet cups. He is super excited and planning to wear a birthday sticker from one of his cards that says "I am 5 today!"

We love you Luke, Happy Birthday!

An early morning wake up call from Mommy and Daddy! It was almost 7... :)

His little cheek was so warm!

Reading the birthday card to him woke him up with a smile!

Opening Guess Who. Lottie was quite interested. She's hoping to get in on the next game.

Dessert time! Look at that adorable grin. He is so cute! Before this picture I had him change out the of Christmas shirt he picked out to wear today. Luke has his own style!

Opening Pop the Pig - a cute game!

A Beary Good Time!

Luke with his friends and green cake pops!

Wilson with his friends and orange cake pops.


Starting our party at Build*A*Bear

Luke ended up with a bear wearing roller skates and a hat!

Wilson made a police dog.

Washing the bears before getting them dressed.

Wilson and Luke agreed to have their birthday party at Build*A*Bear. They each invited 2 friends. We started at our house for cake pops (green for Luke, orange for Wilson), ice cream, and presents. You can't bring any of that into the store. Then we drove over to the mall for the rest of the party. It was so much fun! The store did a great job with the party. The kids had a blast making their animal and choosing clothes or accessories.

The party group with finished bears/dogs! Notice all of the boys chose accessories instead of clothes (except Wilson - he wanted a police dog!). I thought that was so funny - girls of course would choose an outfit as Luke's friend Eva did on the left! Boys surprise me all the time!

Luke's Pre-K Class

Luke loves school most of the time! He has had one classmate that he says is mean that has caused him to not want to go to school on two occasions. But tonight he is a sad little boy because his Christmas party was supposed to be tomorrow but we have a snow day. He is the royal blue wise men in the picture above. This is a picture of his class. We had teacher gifts ready for tomorrow and a book for the book exchange. Maybe they will have the party in January...

Fall Ball

Up to bat!

Nice Swing!


He looks so grown up here to me.

Running to 2nd base.

Score!

Technically it IS still fall...though t-ball has been over since the beginning of October! Luke played fall ball with his cousin Trey and enjoyed it most of the time! He was on the Wildcats this fall. I think his favorite part was the snack after the game!

Whirlwind

That's how life is feeling. Like I'm in a whirlwind. I'm trying to keep things running smoothly at home and school. So many things to juggle. I've been sick for two weeks on top of my allergies. Went to the walk in clinic this past Sunday and didn't get much help. I did get a cough syrup that allows me to sleep so that was good. Finally made it to my pcp today and found out I have bronchitis. Thankful for the antibiotic and an inhaler so I can breathe a little easier. I'm taking 3 OTC medicines for allergies, 2 medicines for bronchitis, and a cough syrup at night. I'm ready to feel well again! Thankful to have a pharmacist for a sister - she helped me out a lot last weekend in knowing what all I could take. I never would have thought I could be taking this many medications at once. That seems kind of crazy to me but she assured me it was ok as did the nurse practitioner today!

School has been good but busy of course. My student teacher has been a HUGE help. I keep getting new students. Four new students have joined my class in the past 3 weeks. It's been a little wild. I get one settled and then the next day it seems another new student is at my door. I knew it was coming- I started the year with 19 students. Now I'm up to 23. It's just been a lot of new students in a short amount of time. Next week is my student teacher's solo week and my list of things to accomplish is LONG! I'm soo grateful for the time to work. It's always weird to be there, watching in your room, and not teaching!

The boys are doing well overall. Luke loves pre-k at his preschool. He started walking by himself from the drop off lane on the second day. Tyler is cute as can be and talking a mile a minute. He loves playing and eating peanut butter now. Wilson is having set backs in the anxiety department. It's been quite difficult at times but I was so proud of him today. He had been worrying about something happening in his class at school for 3 days. Up at night trouble sleeping, wringing hands, biting nails, saying he didn't want to go on Friday etc. But today with bribing of a piece of cake after school and a trip to the public library this afternoon he used his courage and went to class by himself. That was HUGE! I was kind of dreading today because of what I thought he might be like. He surprised me and I told him many times today how proud I was of his courage. He got 9 books at the library and a piece of cake! :)

I've stopped the thankful journal and I need to start again. It really helped me to focus on the positive things from the day instead of being bogged down by the overwhelming craziness of life. I just keep telling myself to take things one day at a time. Even one step at a time. I'm an organized procrastinator. But I think my procrastination often stems from being a working mom from 7am-8pm when the boys go to bed! LONG day. EVERY day. I remember when I used to come home from work before kids and think I was soo tired. Wow. Somehow things keep getting accomplished, maybe not as soon as I'd like - but I'm getting it done! I'm so thankful for my friends and family who help me!

Luke's First Day!

Luke had his first day of preschool today! He was excited to go back to school. I didn't get too much info out of him but Andy said he walked right into his class and was all smiles after school. He had fun with his friend Ethan. Luke is looking forward to lunch bunch this year when he will get to stay an extra hour 1 day a week to eat lunch with his friends and have extra play time. I can't believe he'll be in Kindergarten next year. Time flies!

School shopping with Luke!

Luke and I went pre-school shopping a couple weeks ago. He had chose a fun backpack and matching lunchbox. A new shirt for the first day, and his new green chucks. He looks so cute wearing them! His foam placemat was found by my friend, Gayla. At his preschool they use the placemat as their circle time seat. Twitter can be so helpful sometimes! We have had parent orientation this past week and Andy took Luke to meet the teacher. He is looking forward to going to school 3 mornings a week! His first day is on Wednesday.

Recent Pictures

Tyler will be 2 on September 12! So soon! He answers almost every question with "yeah". So cute!

So we have a working camera again, time for some new pictures. Luke is starting preschool next week. He is also playing fall ball (t-ball) right now with his cousin Trey. Cute as ever!

Hello, Blog.

So much going on. Back to school has kept us BUSY! I've had things to post about but it hasn't gotten done...here are a few updates for now!
- I have a wonderful class- of only 18 students!
- Wilson has had a few rough days with going to class, but overall doing very well at school.
- Lots of intense behaviors to deal with at home from Wilson. I'm thankful that he is well behaved at school. Really. But that means he saves up all of his intensity for home. Some nights are rough!
- Doing pretty well with my thankful journal. Trying to keep perspective!
- Haven't run but 1 time since Andy left for Colorado. He was gone two weeks and now has been home for two weeks. Hmmm...guess I need to get back at it so I can do Race for the Cure in October!
- Overwhelmed is my normal state right now. Which isn't healthy. I've lost 7-8 pounds which hasn't hurt me any! 5lbs while Andy was in CO. I'm happy, just trying to take each day one thing at a time!
- I'm really enjoying being on our Leadership Team at school.
- Luke got some kelly green converse and he is absolutely adorable in them! I'll post about his back to school shopping this weekend.
- Tyler is doing well, talking soo much! So proud of my big boy. He'll be two in a few weeks. The way he says light is hilarious! He rolls his l and then adds ight. lulight is the only way I know how to type it!
- Andy and I have laughed the past two evenings watching the double rainbow on you tube and then the double rainbow song. So funny!
Hoping this weekend to catch up on some cleaning around the house...

No concept of time!

My Lukie really struggles with the concept of time. I'm sure it's a developmental thing but he refers to anything that happened yesterday as last year. Tonight, he told Andy he didn't need a bath because he had one last year. We were cracking up! If only he knew what he was saying. :) The reason this sometimes concerns me is that on days I have been at work and I ask him what he did that day or what he ate for lunch, he really struggles to answer me. I don't know if he just doesn't want to talk or if he truly doesn't remember. We usually have to help him remember and jog his memory and then he starts to remember things. He does the same thing if Andy has been gone and asks him questions. Hopefully he'll start to understand and develop his concept of time soon!

Funny things that happened today:

* Luke tells Tyler almost every night at bed time "Don't let the bad bugs bite."
* Luke told me today that his pillow sometimes gives him bad dreams. :) I asked him if we needed to change the pillowcase and he said, "No, they all give me bad dreams." Poor thing.
* Luke rocked his new stuffed animal to bed tonight!
* Tyler took his train whistle to bed with him. We kept hearing the whistle from his room for a few minutes after I put him to bed!
* I put both contacts in my left eye this morning. Everything was blurry. Then I figured it out.
* As I was hanging posters this afternoon I accidentally bumped my clock. It fell of the wall and hit me on the forehead as it fell down. I was glad there wasn't anyone in there to see! The clock hands spin freely around now. Had to email the custodian and ask for a new clock. The clock I broke today was a new clock from last year. Oops!
* Luke smashed his silly putty into the TV remote. Not good. I've gotten most of it off. Not really funny but fitting with the day!
We went out for icecream tonight after dinner. It was the hottest day we've had so far this year. Miserable! I'm ready for cooler fall weather. And I can only admit that now that summer is over for me. If it's time for back to school, the weather should cool off now.

Off to WV

Wilson and Luke are about to go on their first trip without Mommy & Daddy! They are going to WV with Andy's parents, Mimi and Poppy this weekend. They'll visit Nanny B and have tons of fun playing with 3 of their cousins. They have been so excited this week. It has been cute! They've been counting down the days and started packing yesterday on their own. This afternoon I keep answering the question of "How much longer till they get here?". I am so glad they are looking forward to the weekend and feel comfortable going without me and Andy! I think they feel like big stuff! I'm looking forward to a break for a couple days and only having Tyler in the house. It will be weird, quiet, and a nice little break!