1st Day at Sunshine

Wednesday Dylan had his first day of preschool. It rained that day so they weren't able to go outside for recess.

Ms. Christy is at the door waiting for the parents to sign them out. The person in front of me was being told that their kid needed to work on sharing, etc. Then when I was signing Dylan out, Ms. Christy said, "Oh, I love Dylan. Great 1st day." Then Ms. Shannon chimes in, "Yes, super sweet kid." I told them I was glad they got him on a good day. He loved it. On our way out of the school one of the teachers said, "good bye Dylan." I asked Dylan how he knew her and she said, "Oh, I am the music  teacher so I just met Dylan today. He is great." So his class is small--9 kids, but there are a lot of classrooms...so it is impressive that she remembered Dylan. Hopefully he will continue to love school. 

Of course it didn't help that he got to make and eat this necklace and they have ImagiNext toys in the room. They got to play with the toys since there was no outside recess.

I also had fun while the boys were at school. It is a heavenly time...even if I was getting my teeth cleaned, cleaning the house and running errands.

He was sad that he had to wait until Monday to go to school again.

Handsome Boys

Sunday before church we thought we would try to get a pictures of the friends while they were all dressed up. Dylan, Grant, Chase and Blake.



Silly picture...they had no problem with these.

The Canlas' left after Sacrament to head back home. We had so much fun with our friends. Thank you for coming!!

Canlas Family Visit

Friday night around 9, our friends Jason and Karen and their kids Grant and Chase arrived from their drive up from Houston. The next morning, we went to Home Depot to do a project, then we went to the park. After the park, we came home and ate lunch and then went swimming and the kids jumped on the trampoline.

We had a bbq and  made smores.

The kids had so much fun together and the adults had fun together. What a fun day...and BYU won...what a great day!

Jump Street

Wednesday (day #2 of roof installation) we wanted to go to a jump/bounce house place, but we needed to stick around our house. They roofers did finish at about 5pm on day #2 and then Aaron got home about an hour later from his short trip to Arkansas.

The next day we went to the bounce house place with Beckett and another friend, Khloe. We stayed for 3 1/2 hours and probably 3 of  those hours it was only Beckett and Dylan playing together...then the other 30 minutes Khloe joined in. The boys are a little rougher.



There is Khloe. These kids were nearly impossible to get a picture of...they were all over the place. They got in trouble on this for touching the red pad and then they climbed too high on all the other things and got in trouble. I'm sure they weren't the first kiddos nor will they be the last.

That night after dinner, I went to Blake's school for his curriculum night. After Blake's school, I went over to Dylan's preschool for their orientation. We also got to meet the teachers and ask some questions...and fill out some paperwork. I got home right as Aaron was bringing the boys home from soccer practice. The next morning was meet the teacher for the kiddos, so we went. Dylan's teachers are Ms. Christy and Ms. Shannon. They seem like great teachers and I've heard great things about them. Currently there are 3 girls and 6 boys in their class....there is room for one more, so we will see, but still that is a pretty small class, which is great. Dylan was excited about some things in his room..his name was written a lot throughout the room (birthday calendar, picture wall, etc), there is a bathroom in their classroom that has a toilet his size....but then his teacher gave him animal cookies as he was leaving and that made him very excited. If Ms. Christy keeps giving him food they will be instant friends.

A New Roof

Do you know that for little boys watching a new roof be installed is super exciting?!

The roofers came at 7am yesterday morning to start. Blake had to get to school at 7:30 so he could participate in Happy Feet, which is like a running club. He was so sad that he couldn't watch them. But when Dylan and I got home from taking Blake to school, we watched them from inside the house

and outside the house

and on the playset.

We did not go swimming yesterday. The noise is ridiculous so we went over to Beckett's house and played there all day. We then picked up Blake from school and came home so that Blake could check it out.
They said they would be done for the day at 7, so I thought they would be gone by the time we got back from soccer practice, but they weren't. They finally left at 8:20. So quick story for my own records. We got to practice a little early for the boys to play and practice. Well, then the coaches daughter, Hannah came over to Blake. The next thing I know, Blake asks me if he can go play with Hannah. I didn't see him again until there was about 10 minutes left in practice. It was nice to have go off and play so I could help Dylan with practice, since Dylan's practice involves parents. Aaron left for a trip around lunchtime so he was able to miss most of the fun.

Last Saturday at Blake's game, I was talking to Rhett's mom, Stacey and asked her if she was going to be room mom again. She said she didn't want to do it by herself. I told her I would help her if they hadn't already found someone. Well, last night I found out that there will be 3 of us, Rhett's mom, Ashley's mom (Angie...our neighbor) and me. Blake was really excited when I told him this morning.

The roofers were back at 7am and should finish up at 2. I will be glad when they are done. Then I can move on to our fence...sigh. One of our challenges is to figure out something for the fence that will prevent the next door neighbor dog from hopping over it. We can't go higher than 6 feet per HOA. Next door neighbor has tried a couple different things and nothing works. It is amazing that she can hop over, but also annoying and not fun for the kids.

Soccer

Saturday was the first soccer game for Blake and Dylan. Blake's team name is the Dragons and Dylan's team name is the Hot Shots.

Dylan does not like having his shin guards on the inside of his sock. So when the ref made him fold the socks over his shin guards he wasn't very happy because he likes his socks to be super long. He didn't play in the game for awhile because he was being grouchy, but once he did, he had fun. He has good hand eye coordination and a great kick, but isn't super fast.

At this age it is co-ed and it's a good thing because 2 of the girls scored all the points. This is the first year (age 3) that kids are allowed to play with the soccer group that we are in, so these are newbies, but completely adorable. They play 6 minute quarters. The coaches are on the field to help.

They played the Tot Shots, but the Hot Shots won. Hopefully Dylan will want to play more during the next game. Blake was playing at the same time, which I thought would be great because then it meant a shorter time at the soccer fields, but Dylan was sad that Aaron couldn't watch him. Fortunately or unfortunately this was the only Saturday of the season where they played at the same time, so hopefully future games will be better.

Blake was super excited to play in his game. This is his first year playing because this is the first year that he has wanted to play. He is some learning to do, but enjoyed every minute. He is friends with a lot of the kids on the team already so that makes it even more fun for him. He has become a little social butterfly. After school we have been playing on the play ground for about 15 minutes (that is about as much as we can tolerate of the heat). Blake is going up to everyone saying hello. Very different first week of school than last year. He is super happy when he gets out of school.


Coach Michelle and Coach Jake are Jonathan's mom and dad. Jonathan was in Blake's class last year so we know him and his parents.

Aaron and I switched at half time so I got to see Blake play in the 2nd half (they play 20 minute halves) and Aaron went over to see Dylan play. It was totally different at Blake's game. They are a little more strict with the rules, but they still have fun.




Blake did great. Rhett (the kid above) was awesome and the best part was he wasn't hot headed about it.


Aaron grew up playing soccer, but I didn't. Soccer isn't my favorite sport mainly because I think it is kind of boring. Yep, Aaron hates me whenever I say that, but how exciting can a game be when the teams usually don't score more than 3 goals? The nearly misses...don't get me started. So....when you have young kids who can't play defense and aren't very good at being goalies, but who love to run and score, it actually makes it more entertaining. Sure there are no cool moves, but it seems like a lot more is happening. Of course it also helps that they only play 40 minutes :)

Dragons won their game. The day was great for soccer because while we had a 9am game, it was only in the low 80s AND overcast.

We came home and went swimming and then watched "Home." Then we had Stake Conference.

Thursday morning went I went running, the moon was red. It was really cool, but then I heard a noise and looked over and saw an armadillo right next to me. We see a lot of them dead on the road so it was a change to see one that was alive.

1st Day of 1st Grade

Back to School! Happy Day! Blake was excited to start school again.



He gets his own locker.

Dylan and I were able to walk with Blake into his classroom. Rhett is the only other kid from his class last year. He was in there when we walked in, along with his parents. Rhett is on Blake's soccer team. Blake was totally bummed that we have a new crossing guard this year. He was telling me how nice she was, etc and then we walk into his school and there was the old crossing guard. She stopped us to say hi. I told her that we missed her...especially Blake.

At Blake's table are Brighton, Paxton (on his soccer team) and Deyana (new to the school). It is kind of fun to see all the parents again, especially at pick up. Dylan and I had fun at home. It was so much quieter and no fighting. It was super hot picking up Blake so we came home and went swimming since homework doesn't start for another week. He said he likes Mrs. Sias a lot. He had PE today, which is his favorite, so he was excited about that. I was talking with one of Blake's friend's moms about Mrs. Sias at pick up because her daughter had her and she said that she is the best and is great at communicating. She emails ALL the time.

Blake is friends with Mrs. Sias's son, Kenny (he has a different 1st grade teacher). He said that they were so excited to see one another at recess today, but then it was too hot outside so their recess was only 10 minutes. We are looking forward to seeing Blake learn this year and make new friends. He is hoping that I can help out more in his class this year. I'm going to try to do just that while he still wants me to come to his class :)

Splash Pad

Last Wednesday night it rained (but Aaron was able to make his flight back home okay) and Thursday it was cool. And by cool I mean it was in the high 70s. So, we have been in the low 100s so that is a big change. So we went to the park because it wasn't blazing hot.



And played at the splash pad. No one else was there. I thought that was crazy. Finally nice weather and no one is outside?






They had a blast. We then came home and I finally signed a contract with some roofers and submitted the HOA paperwork.

That night we went to Blake's Meet the Teacher. His new teacher is Mrs. Sias. She loves to give hugs and Blake isn't a big hugger especially to strangers. So she was saying good bye to him and tried to give him a hug and it was this super awkward thing for him...hard to explain but very entertaining to see. We then went to see his Kindergarten teacher and she was excited to see Blake.

After that, we went to Blake's soccer practice.

Friday I got notification from my HOA that they approved my roof. Wow, that was fast. The roofers will be coming out in a couple weeks. Saturday we nailed down our fencing contractor. I know no one else is excited but I am, well, I will be excited once it is done.

We also cut hair, gave father's blessings and got everything ready for school.

Dallas Zoo

Yesterday we braved the 100 degree weather and went to the zoo. The boys each had a free ticket and because it is so hot, the zoo discounted the tickets so I got in for half price. The trip was worth my $7.50 admission.

Penguins are just fun. One was swimming right by us.



We saw the safari animals.












Here is a crocodile. He wasn't in a great place to get a picture, but it was interesting to learn about this guy. We got there as they were cleaning his water. They treat these pools of water just like pools. The guy had a bucket of what looked like chlorine so I asked him if it was chlorine. Yes, they do the same stuff to pools that we do to ours. It makes sense, but I had never thought about it. The cool thing is that it keeps the water clear so we were able to see the crocodile, but we also saw his teeth at the bottom of the pool. They were not small.

My boys are obsessed with statues. Remember San Francisco?


The chimpanzees following one another up the hill. So it wasn't that long ago that we went to the SF Zoo. So I will compare. Dallas Zoo has a lot more space for the animals, which then means a lot more walking for us to get to each exhibit. The play area at SF was much cooler though.

We watched a show, but I only got a picture of the armadillo. This isn't a Texan armadillo because it only has 3 bands and it isn't gray.


The look on this bald eagle's face I thought was interesting.

Galapagos tortoise. They are huge.



They had a Jurassic area with the same dinosaurs (pretty sure) that were at the Heard Museum earlier this year.


I was talking to the zoo keeper while the kids played and she said the going rate for a TRex tooth is $1,000 per inch. This tooth is obviously not real.


The albino alligator.

I had to take several pictures for Aaron's mom because she loves snakes so much. Blake really wanted to pet this python. Blake! He is usually the one that doesn't want to touch animals.


Dylan pet him too.



I also did and it was super smooth, which I wasn't expecting. 14 years old and has never bitten anyone.

They played on the park.






I love this picture.

We spent 5 hours there, but we were hot so we went home and swam. What a fun day!

That night we found out Dylan will be in the Tiger classroom for Preschool and his teachers are Ms. Christie and Ms. Susan. We also found out that Blake will have Mrs. Sias, who is the teacher I was secretly hoping for. She also happens to be his friend's mom. Our neighbor, Ashley is in the same class, 2 kids from his soccer team, some kids from his previous class. All but 2 he knew. He is excited to start school. We go meet his teacher on Thursday night right before soccer practice. School is almost here.