First Day of School!

Thursday was the first day of school and everyone was excited. We take a neighbor to school in the morning. Despite the fact that I reassured her we would pick her up in plenty of time, she couldn’t wait any longer and decided to just come over.

That was good because Seanelle was still in bed (so was I because she was 2 1/2 hours early.) She was able to wake Seanelle and get her motivated to ready herself for the first day of school. It wasn’t the routine that I had planned, but it worked.

They had several minutes of time to kill and decided to work out on dad’s treadmill. They each had several turns before they decided to find something else to do.

They each had a difficult time concentrating on eating breakfast. GaryTodd decided to eat cereal with milk like the older girls, and although he ate, he didn’t eat much. Seanelle only ate about half of what she normally eats. They were all just too excited.

 

 

 

 

 

GaryTodd is not usually the leader. But he was really excited to get to school. He already knows who his teacher is, and he doesn’t want to be late. The older girls followed, but not at the pace GT would have preferred.

We found GaryTodd’s cubby and he hung up his Transformer backpack. Then we went to find his seat.

He got to choose where to sit, and he chose a seat right next to his cousin, Ashton.

The teacher told the kids that their first job as Kindergartners were to tell their parents “Good-bye.” He did a good job of following the rules. What a sweetheart.

“Bye-bye my baby…” Now what am I going to do for the next 2 1/2 hours?

 

When we showed up at the school to check the list of names to find out who Seanelle’s teacher was, she wasn’t on any of the lists. We were able to find where our friend was assigned, but we couldn’t find out where Seanelle was supposed to go.

We had to go to the office and stand in line. Luckily Grandma came with us this morning and was able to stand in line in the office with Seanelle while I took her brother to his classroom.

Luckily Seanelle wasn’t completely forgotten. She was on the master list, and her teacher was all prepared to have her there. She was very excited to find out that she got the teacher she has been telling us all summer long that she wanted to have.

 

 

 

After school, GaryTodd waved at us as the teacher lined everyone up to show them where they will need to be in the morning.

It was a strange day for me to have my baby in school, but he had a lot of fun. He told me that he didn’t talk at all in school because it is the rule.

Then he told me that his backpack is too small and that he needs a bigger one.

That’s what they learn to do best in school, and it starts on the very first day of Kindergarten. They learn how to get more and more money out of the parents.

Autobots vs Decepticons

Seanelle is our little social butterfly and loves to play with her friends.  GaryTodd likes to play with the neighbor kids too, but he also is very resourceful.  Why go to play with friends and have to compromise, when there are willing participants to play with you at home… and you can sweet talk them into anything?

GaryTodd has a very good imagination, and recently his oldest sister took him to see the latest Transformers movie.  He really enjoyed it, and continues to enjoy acting it out. 

He asked Grandma if she would be the Decepticon.  She took her cues and instruction from GaryTodd and was almost destroyed by Bumblebee…

 

But somehow, the decepticon was able to get free and formulate another plan…

They circled each other for awhile, matching blow for blow.  Nothing seemed to destroy the other or even slow one another down. 

Then Bumblebee fizzled out, and was replaced with Optimus Prime.

 

 

 

But someone forgot to tell Grandma that he is the toughest of all Autobots… and she isn’t allowed to tickle him…

Discovering her mistake, she immediately assumed her role of the decepticon…

And Optimus Prime then took his opportunity to destroy the enemy…

 

 

And once again… Good Conquers Evil!

“Oh yeah! Oh yeah!  I’m the Winner… You’re the Loser!”

Grandma’s Castle

My mother always says she isn’t creative… but that really isn’t true.  She had a box, and all kids like to play with boxes.  At my house, they would just be playing in a box.  But at Grandma’s house… she fashions them a castle.

GaryTodd was the King at his birthday… and a couple of weeks later was a King in Grandma’s castle.  This provided hours of fun.

Maybe too much fun… because suddenly a little girl decided it was missing a Queen…

You gotta love that precious toothless face!

 

 

 

They look forward to going back over to Grandma’s house to keep an eye on the castle…

Another Birthday to Celebrate!

After we celebrated our 50th Anniversary of our building at church, we went to our niece's first birthday.  Her Aunt Donna likes to decorate cakes, and made this for the celebration:

Aunt Donna is really quite talented, and we were amazed that she just does this for fun.

It was probably the best cake I have ever seen for a first birthday.  And it tasted great too!

It was really hard having the courage to cut it.  It was like a present in itself.  Who wants to be responsible for messing it up?  Well, Grandma didn’t want to do it. 

 

I’ve never had to cut into a cake like that but it doesn’t appear to be the easiest task by the look of this picture:

 

I actually think that Meghan was worried about tipping it over.  You can’t really see in this picture very well, but the cake was on a cake plate, not just on the table.

Grandma came over and helped to steady the cake to prevent tipping, and the kids were forming a line to get a piece of the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids all enjoyed helping Alesana with the presents she received.  And as you can tell from this picture, Alesana was enjoying watching the kids helping.

Happy Belated Birthday!

Because GaryTodd was in pain and recovering from surgery when his birthday came this year, Todd and I decided to wait until he could walk and actually enjoy his birthday.

He is really such a sweetheart.  When dad took him shopping for presents, he decided (before his dad) that he had enough presents.  But before he would allow his dad to leave the store, he needed to get one last present.  He and his dad found an employee and asked where the girl toys were.  He explained to the man, “I need a Hannah Montana for Seanelle.  You know, my name is GaryTodd.”

He really didn’t want Seanelle to have her feelings hurt or feel left out that it wasn’t her birthday. 

He was able to celebrate his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese, and was even willing to share his birthday party with his grandmother… since it was actually her birthday.

When GaryTodd was ready to leave, he was ready to leave.  He was happy that everyone showed up to celebrate, and the birthday presents were an added bonus.  He didn’t even expect them.  I had to track him down and tell him it was time to open presents! 

He and his sister were very excited when they heard that everyone was coming to our house afterward too.  They didn’t want anything more than to be with the family they love.  They truly are special kids.