Back to the grindstone...

We have one week under our belts so far and have already experienced our first early release of the year, and have another early release called for tomorrow already (both due to the heat).  I'm not going to lie - it is one of the simple pleasures that I absolutely love about being a teacher! :)  After all, who wouldn't love getting to spend more time with their wonderful hubby and fabulous boys!?  IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.  ~Henry B Adams

Summer Lovin' 2012

Another summer has already coming to an end all too quickly!  Mike and I enjoy our summers with our boys immensely and try to take advantage of the precious time together as much as we possibly can.  Here are some of the highlights from Summer 2012:

Family reunion at Ft. Robinson, NE

Swimming at the Pirate Swimming Pool in the hotel in Sioux Falls (Easton's 1st time swimming!)

Visiting Aunt Summer & Chase in Iowa (Easton's 1st time at the beach!)

Reading books from the Bookmobile

Visiting Scott & Adie in North Dakota

Playing at home

T-ball



4th of July

Reptile Gardens

Helicopter ride with Papa Gary!

Eating finger foods (or trying to anyway!)

Mike and Scott turn 30!

Xavier learned to tie his shoes (and earned the toy he'd been promised if he learned to tie his shoes this summer)

Going to the drive-in 

JWF Memorial Bean Bag Tournament

It always saddens me to see summer come to an end and have to start spending so much time away from my boys again.  I tell Mike that we must be doing something beneficial in the schools though otherwise we would have won the lottery by now (not winning the lotter is God's way of keeping us in our jobs)!

And because summertime is so wonderful, it deserves two quotes!

"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."  ~Henry James

"Summertime is always the best of what might be."  ~Charles Bowden

All tied up

Daddy showed Xavier how to tie his shoes this summer and he's been practicing and practicing because he was told he could pick out a toy and we would buy it for him when he learned how to tie his shoes. On August 13, 2012, he was able to tie his shoes without any help or guidance from anyone!  He was SO proud of himself, and we were extremely proud of him too!  He then informed us that he is "the best-est tie-er in the whole wide world."  Tying our shoes - check!  Next on our list of things to learn...modesty!?

Xavier with the toy he picked out after learning how to tie his shoes.

A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread. ~George Herbert

Dirty Looks

I'm not sure how or why, but I believe Easton has mastered giving me the dirty look (especially when he's doing something cute and I want to take a picture) despite the fact that he's only 9 months old.  You don't have to take my word for it though, judge for yourself:

I get irritated, nervous, very tense or stressed, but never bored. ~Catherine Deneuve

Ready (or not)

I'm not sure where the past 4 1/2 years have gone, or how they went by so quickly, but in a couple weeks we'll be sending our little boy to his first day of preschool.  He was extremely excited at the mere thought of getting a backpack for preschool.  In true Xavier fashion, he informed me in May that he was ready to go to preschool and wanted a John Deere backpack...and of course thought we should get one right away.  He may have been ready, but Mama was/is not!  So, I put it off for as long as I could and let myself be in denial as long as possible about the fact that he is growing up so fast and will be starting preschool this year.  A couple weeks ago I decided we better get that crossed off our to-do list before it's too late, so I asked Xavier again what kind of backpack he wanted and he said, "A BACKHOE BACKPACK!!!!!!!"  I'm not going to lie, when he said that I remember thinking, "Oh crap, not only is my little boy growing up too fast, but now he also wants me to find him a backpack that probably doesn't even exist!"  I've never seen a backhoe backpack before, so I decided my best bet would be the internet.  I found about 4 that I figured were related enough to backhoes that Xavier might be okay with it, and I threw in one John Deere one just in case Xavier could be swayed.  The next morning I showed Xavier the pictures of the 5 backpacks that I found.  He quickly informed me that the John Deere one was NOT a backhoe and it certainly would not do.  He picked out one that has pictures of all kinds of machinery (backhoes, cranes, dump trucks, tractors, etc)...right up his alley.  This backpack, of course, also had to be the only one that is only available in LONDON, ENGLAND!  But he's spoiled, so of course we ordered the machinery backpack from overseas.

Xavier could barely contain his excitement every day at the post office, hoping the little yellow ticket would be in our mailbox indicating that we had a package - then that day finally arrived!  He wanted to rip it open to see it right away, but because he has such mean parents, we made him wait until we got home (that way Mama could get out the camera and video camera, of course).

 

He thought it was pretty cool and decided he better try it on "just to make sure it fits, Mom."  I had to admit that it looked pretty good on him, and was certainly in keeping with "Xavier fashion."  Then he wanted to wear it all day long.  Hopefully he doesn't wear it out before school starts!

Today we got all of his school supplies and Xavier will be carefully placing them in his backpack in the morning.  So, it's official now - Xavier is ready, and I am not, but I guess it's like they say - "Ready or not, here it comes!"



I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.  ~Winston Churchill

The cutest, most elusive little thing...

Most of the time when a kid sticks out their tongue they should have their mouth popped.  However, I think it is just the cutest thing to see Easton sticking out his tongue!  He absolutely loves to stick out his adorable little tongue, but I haven't been very successful at being able to catch the cute, elusive little thing on camera - until recently!

 

There are many things which can not be expressed by words.
There are many words which can not be spelled by human tongue.
There are many tongues which utter one single truth.
― Toba Beta

Brotherly Love

I know I've said it before, but I adore seeing my boys playing together, laughing, and having fun.  At our house it certainly is a boy's world...and I'm enjoying every second of it!

Sometimes I swear these boys are twins born almost four years apart!  It amazes me how two kids can look so much alike and have so many similarities and yet be so different all at the same time!

There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother. ~Terri Guillemets