A Thankful Thursday!

Yesterday Paul had his Thanksgiving program at school and I played hooky from work to watch him perform!  Nothing makes me laugh more than preschoolers singing songs about fat turkeys!  Enjoy!

Random Friday Post!

It is Friday.  FRIDAY.  And we have a 3 day weekend.  Life can't get much better!!  Here is the most random Friday ever:   

I forgot to mention that Paul and I made apple cupcakes for his first day of school.  Paul loved the frosting and I think the final product mostly looked like an apple! :) Maybe I need red cupcake liners.  

#momoftheyear

Did you know pumpkin spice lattes are back?  I am sure you did.  I feel like I should wait until the calendar clicks over to September to have one, but maybe I'll sneak it in this weekend.

This blog post was hilarious.  I know from experience how competitive UNO can get.  Bitches.

This post made me cry.  I just love this message.  "It is what it is and it is what you make it."  I think we all could learn a little something from this article.  

I have some fall fashion crushes.  Elbow patches?  I'm into it.  

Are Converse cool again?  Am I too old?  The high school kids are wearing them which always makes me nervous.  But I love them.  

My best gal-pal Maureen has three fur vests.  I am obsessed with them.  I can't even tell you the measures I went to last year to try and find one.  I couldn't.  If I don't get my hands on one this season, I am flying to Texas and stealing one of Maureens'.  #yesimthisobsessedaboutavest.  

Lets be honest.  This is seriously the cutest thing in the world.  

Happy Friday my Blog Friends!! 

First Day of School!

My favorite four year old started his second year of preschool Monday.  I made my dad squeeze in a quick photo shoot before he had to go to work.  How handsome is this sweet thing?

Please notice the different color socks.  That is Paul's thing.  He thinks it is really cool to have crazy socks like this.  I'm just happy I can still get him in a shirt with a collar.

I didn't think I was going to be sad because this is our 2nd year of preschool.  He is going three days this year instead of two, but it is at the same school.  However,  when I hugged him goodbye my heart felt a little heavy.  He hugged me a little tighter than usual, but was ready to get started in the classroom. He did come back to find me after we said goodbye and I thought he was a little sad, but he just wanted to ask where his friend Kipton was.  Super.

When I picked him up he reported his day was AWESOME!
He said he learned a lot of things, but he couldn't remember them all.  He played outside twice.  His teachers were nice.  There were new kids in his class but he didn't know their names.  He took a nap.  He ate most of his lunch.  He went to the bathroom twice and washed his hands one of those times (super).  And then the thanked me for taking him to school.

I seriously hope that he always loves school and learning this much!  To many more four year old adventures!

Summer 2014

Well one week done with work.  My schedule is the most complicated thing on the face of the Earth (I don't even think I am being that dramatic) but it allows me to only work three days a week.  And although sometimes it is hard as I feel like I am doing nothing well instead of one thing really well, I know I would regret not spending times with these boys of mine if I went full time.  

So in celebration of week one in the books here are some memories from summer.  We had such a fun break: California, Mexico, a crazy amount of pool time, playing outside, catching up friends, and most importantly spending many days and nights together as a family!  How many days until the next summer again??

Boys getting their suntans

Spontaneous chips and salsa and margarita Tuesday. 

We cleaned the garage.  Can I offer you a scooter, bike, something to ride?

Charlie and his buddy Jed looking for planes.  I think they look like twins. 

Paul and Delilah deep in summer love conversation.  

Went to Paul's friend Charlie's house (not to be confused with his brother Charlie) and washed a car.  Entertainment for at least an hour.  A genius idea by Charlie's mom.  

Family pool time.  Paul was real stressed with the sun in his eyes.  

I love taking pictures of Charlie because when you say "cheese" he gives you this grin.  And he thinks Popsicles are pretty awesome too.  

We tried a night swim party, brought beer and ordered pizza, thinking we were real fun.  Of course it started to rain right as the kids jumped in.  They swam for a bit anyway, but were FREEZING when it was time to get out.

A lot of baseball.  The neighbor boy just started playing and has asked Ryan to play catch many, many times.  Luckily, Ryan LOVES this.  Then our boys want to join the fun.  As you can see, I just sit back and take pictures and drink a beer.  I'm really good at summer.  

My Boys, The Readers

Reading is so important to me and I would do many questionable things to pass that on to my children. So far I must be doing something right, because both children seem to love it.  Charlie now takes books and pretends to read them with all sorts of sounds and inflections.  You would die of adorable overload (it's a real condition).  

My mom gave Paul some early reader books which he memorized in 2 hours.  The other night he asked me if he could lay in my bed and read like I do.  Obviously I said yes.  He turned on the lamp and proceeded to read four books to me.  It was the sweetest thing I have witnessed.  I hope this love of reading continues.

Next week I'll share some of my favorite reads of the summer!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Before I get started, have you all read this article?  My friend Sarah sent it to me and it is hilarious!   Since I went on two vacations one with kids and one without, I can personally affirm how true this situation is.

Well back at it today.  The great thing about being a teacher is that it is a fresh start.  You can wipe the slate clean and start over.  Everyone is so optimistic at the beginning of the school year.  You can smell the freshly sharpened pencils.  The students seem excited about their newly purchased binders.  Who the hell know what happens by late September, but I love the buzzing around the first days of school.

To celebrate this school year I bought myself these amazing new grading pens from Amazon.  If you are a teacher you need these ASAP.  Even if you are not a teacher you probably need them.  Look at all these colors!

We were actually back to work last week without students.  And the air conditioning was broken.  I know many schools have never had air conditioning and let me just say AMEN to you.  It was awful. We were all wearing shorts and tank tops, which obviously not very professional but absolutely necessary.  Hopefully things are up and running this week.  Because no air conditioning with 30 high schoolers in a classroom can only lead to one thing: puberty stank.  And that my friends is disgusting.

A little classroom preview.  

I also bought Charlie some back to school kicks.  Guess from where?  AMAZON.  What did people do before this one-click phenomenon?  Is it even money?  It's amazing.  They are so freaking cute and he looks even more adorable when wearing them.  Side note: a nine year old girl thought Charlie was a girl at the park the other night.  Instead of letting it go, I made sure to correct her.  I'm very mature.

They boys have a big transition when we go back to work as well.  Paul asked me the other morning, "You have to go to work AGAIN?"  So another Amazon (should they give me money for all these mentions?) purchase for Paul helped ease his pain.  This little device pitches the balls to you for a fun baseball afternoon!  It is a big hit with the entire neighborhood.  If you're a boy.  

As I am starting my 11th year teaching I feel like I have a few things down.  For example, yesterday I treated myself to a manicure.  I went with a blue/teal color.  The lady next to me commented that it was a very bold choice.  I told her it was trendy now and I had teenagers to impress.  It is really great that I can catch some girl's attention with my fashion choices and nail polish color.  Ha!  Here is to another school year.  May my students be nice, the air conditioning strong and fall break be here before I know it!

California Trip 2014!

Again, summer is my season.  I love the relaxed feel, the sunshine and of course the vacations!  We went to California with my family and the boys LOVED it.  The plane was really exciting (obviously), the sand tasted yummy (gross) and they were enthralled with the ocean! 

I was a little worried about the flight.  I knew Paul would be okay because he likes to watch movies and he is obsessed with planes.  I was right.  Charlie was our wildcard.  My friend gave me a leftover drink ticket which I promptly used to order a bloody mary.  Nothing can be that bad with vodka and tomato juice.  Again, I was right.

Charlie was just fine on the plane.  He bounced around from person to person and even fell asleep at the end.  We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves until we started driving through the mountains of Mendocino.  Then Charlie got carsick.  SIX times.  At one point I just sat in the back seat with a clean diaper under his mouth and told Ryan to just keep going.  We just had to get it over with.

However, once we were there is was a great vacation.  I love that little boys are thrilled to chase birds, throw rocks, and build sand castles.  The drive back was much more successful as in no one got sick and Charlie was a little more restless on the plane, but we made it out with little to no judgement from other passengers and I call that a win-win.

Thanks for my dad for taking all of these pictures.

Exploring! 

He is so blonde and so cute! 

The windup to play croquet.  In case you wanted to know what that looked like. 

Someone tries to keep up! 

Life is good! 

Sometimes all you need are rocks.  

Eating Sand.  Yum?

This is what you do to your big brother when he won't pay attention to you! 

A little bit of Easter

I know that if I had a girl, she would have multiple Easter dresses.  But I don't.  So I have to settle with boys in button down shirts with collars.  Which I happen to think is pretty adorable.  My dad took all these pictures.  My mom hid all the eggs and did their Easter baskets.  I drank coffee.  

Things to note: 

• My brother gave Paul those new green shoes for his birthday.  He loves them because they are bright and he can put them on himself.  Thanks Velcro.  We get many comments on them from his teachers, friends, and strangers.  And no, they do not glow in the dark.  We tried.  
• We tried to put Paul and Charlie in the jeep together for a nice Easter ride.  Charlie cried about 10 seconds in.  If you've seen Paul's driving skills, you would cry too.  
• Silly string can entertain a four year old for a long time.  Especially when you can squirt the string at your grandfather.