A weekend well spent

After a long week of school and work, my family was ready to take it easy this weekend. Claire was pumped that she was getting an extra day to relax, and Landon was excited that she would be around longer to play with. Geoff, on the other hand, wasn't exactly excited...he was on hurricane watch pretty much the entire weekend (plus VT lost...). Friday and Saturday evenings we got together with our favorite neighbors, the Symons', for dinner and catching up. Saturday morning we went to a birthday party, and then Sunday after church we all went to the lake! We of course met the Symons' there, where hanging out on the water and eating some burgers were the only things on the agenda! Yesterday, we tried to just lay low in order to get the kiddos back on their regular schedule. It was a nice weekend, and I'll only ever remember it in my brain because I didn't take any pics!

No More Tears

I think it is safe now to say that we are past the tears when going into the KG classroom. Claire has done remarkably well the last three days, and is even letting me leave her at the end of the hallway! She walks all the way to the end of the hall where her room is, turning around to wave and blow a kiss before going in. It makes my days SO much easier to know she's happy starting off...and Claire agreed it makes her happier too! Claire is exhausted after these last two weeks, and since Wednesday morning has been asking, while still laying in bed "How many more days of this?". It's a little amusing because she is such a drama queen about it!

It is thunderstorming while I write this...I love thunderstorms! The rolling thunder just makes me feel soothed and calm, and the patter of the rain on the window reminds me that God is here...renewing and refreshing. Which is how I feel after a thunderstorm. I know to most that sounds a little odd, but that's just crazy me!

Early Morning

Okay, not really early, but early for our family is 8:00am. After we've taken Claire to school and had some breakfast...it's time to go outside before it's too hot and play. This morning a cement truck was in the back yard of the house behind us pouring a patio. Landon immediately climbed up his playset to have a look. He moderated everything that was happening, right down to the color of "the mens" shirts. He had lots of questions, one of which the driver of the cement truck answered: "How does that cement get in your spinner?". We also enjoyed watching one of our many hummingbirds having breakfast. Landon finds it amusing when the birds are brave enough to come eat while we're playing. The pic isn't a great one, but they are too darn fast for me to catch up close! I now have a recipe to make my own nectar, which will be a fun project to do with the kids (Thanks Ann and Doris!).

PS: Claire went to school today without tears!!! We walked to her room and we barely made it to the door when she hesitated...I was thinking the worse. But she looked at me and said "Mommy, give me a kiss so I can go in", which I did, and away she went without looking back. Whew! If we can keep this up, I will be feeling much better, and, I think so will Claire.

They came to visit

Claire and Landon were so excited that Nana, Papa and Lucy came to Arkansas to visit us! We've had a grand time. We started the visit off right with a trip to Doe's for steak, which is a favorite of everyone. Sunday Gaga (Geoff) set up the backyard water park so Lucy could partake in the fun. She had seen our blog from the original set up and I think getting to go down the water slide was the only reason she came down here! Monday while Claire was in school, the kids, Nana, and I went to the mall and played around in the toy store, the water fountain, and of course did some shopping! We went to Red Robin to eat lunch, and by then, everyone was ready to go back home to rest. But once Claire came home, we all headed out back again to get some wet and wild fun before dinner. Everyone leaves tomorrow morning first thing, and will be missed!

Stories of the one left behind...

Landon has adjusted well to Sissy being at school all day. He gets plenty of play time with Mommy, he gets to watch whatever he wants when it's TV time, and he gets to come up with new and interesting ways to entertain himself. The other day he found some wrapping paper, and wrapped up one of his small monster trucks for me. I could hear paper tearing, and was thinking he was in the office tearing up scratch paper, but found him in the front bedroom with tape and everything! He was cute, and very adamant that the truck was for me and that I keep it. This morning we were playing in his room and trying to find a specific toy he wanted to play. We had been looking for quite a while through the toy box, when he started rooting me on. "Keep looking harder Mommy; It's got to be in there, dig deeper". He decided to take matters into his own hand and said "Move over Mommy, I'm going in". He looked around a little bit and then came up saying "I'll have to dig deeper than you Mommy". He proceeded to put his whole body into the toy chest...head first. If I hadn't been saving him, I would have taken a picture!!!

The 2nd Day Blues

Claire's second day of school did not go as well as her first, at least this morning. She got out of bed just fine, did her duties and walked into school. Once she sat down, however, she would not let go of me! Then the crocodile tears appeared. She wasn't alone, several other children were crying in her classroom. Did this make it worse? Probably! Mrs. Machan asked Claire to walk me to the door, reminded Claire that today was computer class and off they went. I HATE that I have to wait the whole day to know how she did...at least at preschool it was just a few hours! Anyway, I'm sure she's fine and was too busy to keep being sad.

On a more fun note, Claire had a blast yesterday. She told us all about lunch, recess, art class (where she learned to draw a crab and lizard), reading books, making friends and learning about her school. Landon was an absolute riot after we picked her up. He couldn't stop talking to her, touching her and getting her attention. We went out to eat last night to celebrate the first day and Landon was asleep before we got there! Speaking of Landon, he's on his way to Wichita for a quick visit with Nana and Papa because Geoff had to go for work. He was super excited to see his Nana, Papa and cousin, Lucy!

First Day of School!

Daddy woke Claire up this morning. She greeted us with a groggy grin, and eventually got out of bed. She was excited when she came in the kitchen and came face to face with a plate of cinnamon rolls (one of her favorites). As she ate those, Claire finally started to grin and smile, and talk about this being her first day at Kindergarten. She said things like "I can't wait to learn new things, I hope we have PE today, I hope I don't get sent to the principal's office". Then she brushed her teeth, put on her outfit that took hours to pick out yesterday, let Mommy do her hair and declared herself ready for the pictures!

I had her write out the page you see in the pic that says "2008, KG, Central Park Elem." and she was ready to show off her handy work. From the point of getting dressed, she had a HUGE grin on her face, and couldn't stop talking...really. Mommy does this when she's nervous, and I think maybe Claire will have that trait also. But she was excited as she talked and after we said hello to everyone else in the neighborhood out taking pictures before the first day of school, we hauled in the truck and drove around the corner. We are lucky that Claire's school is very close to us. Amidst the traffic and chaos at school, we got our picture taken by the professional photographer and then let Claire lead us in. She did this without hesitation, went in her room, hung up her backpack, found her table and started coloring. That was it, she quit talking once she sat down, and the calm that I wasn't sure would happen, was apparent. She was ready, grown up, sitting at her KG table working hard on her coloring, looking at Geoff and I with big blue eyes, waiting for us to leave so she could get busy. I held it together until I was in the hall, and then have done fine until right now. It helped once again that I knew enough people to be embarrassed if I had started bawling. So there you have it...my baby girl is a big girl now. And will be forever.

I love you Claire, and am so proud of you for being brave and smart, and going to school without any problems. You are such a great girl, and I will miss you terribly while you're away, but will be so excited when you come home so I can hear all about how much you've learned and grown!!!