5th Grade Camp and Reading

Brynn was so excited to go to 5th Grade camp. I really wished I could have joined her, but it was in the middle of Joseph's work mess, so there was no way he could take over my responsibilities. We missed her so much, but she had lots of fun.

One of my favorite times of the week is when I get to go volunteer with the first graders.  I love reading with them and I especially love reading with Aaron.  I don't know if it's the one on one time, if it's the fact that he hasn't seen me in a few hours or what, but he is always happy to see me and gives me the best hugs when I come to volunteer.  I love it!

First Day of School

Brynn - 5th Grade, Abby - 3rd Grade - Aaron-1st grade

My buddy for the year, while he's not at preschool a couple days a week.

Aaron's Kindergarten Graduation

Aaron had a great year in Kindergarten.  He gained a great base for reading and met some awesome friends.  We formed a soccer team for him to play on with some of those friends.  Friends are a very important part of his life.  It was fun to see him grow through the year.

Aaron's 6th Birthday

Aaron decided that he wanted to have birthday party for his birthday in May.  The list of guests kept getting longer and longer.  We ended up inviting all of the boys in his school class and some of the boys from the neighborhood.  It was a huge blessing that the weather cooperated because it was crazy having all of these boys running around. 

We served pizza and played lots of games and then had cake and ice cream.  He ended up having a great time with all of his friends. 

He was bombarded with gifts!  The boys were all so excited to have him open each of their respective gifts that they pushed them in his face.  It was craziness!  He got tons of Beyblades and Legos and was so pleased.

We are so happy to have Aaron in our family.  He is a thoughtful, sweet boy (most of the time) and loves to be with his friends. 

Swimming Boys

I love my cute boys.   They are my little bear cubs.  Full of so much love, energy and life.  They make me smile everyday.  

Boys!

You would think that I would learn.  I told the boys to go get their clothes on without my help.  Every time I do, this is what happens.  Aaron gets something specific in mind and the proceeds to empty out his closet until he finds it.  Argh!  The article of clothing happened to be in the wash so every.single.item. in his closet was pulled out.  Lovely!  The difference between girls and boys?  When my girls were this age, the only reason all of these clothes would have been on the floor would have been because they would have tried every single one of them on. 

Our Little Scientist

A few days after Halloween, Aaron told me he needed some paper to eat his Halloween treats. A few minutes later I looked over and found that he had graphed all of his Skittles. Clever! I must say that takes patience!

Breaking the Ice

Nothing breaks the ice in the neighborhood like your son wearing a wrestling singlet from the moment he gets home from school to the time the sun sets at night. When we moved here, one of my mom's friends gave us a box full of hand-me-downs for our kids and this little gem happened to be in there. Aaron was in love at first sight and has probably worn it everyday since. The funniest part is that everyone thinks it's Joe's old uniform. I guess it's not a far cry from some of the cycling jerseys he wears. Some have told me that they would hide it, or wouldn't allow their son to wear it, but sometimes I believe in going against the grain and I always believe in letting my kids express themselves. Go ahead Aaron, express away!

Kindergarten Wolf Walk

Today was the Wolf Walk/Jog-a-thon fundraiser for the kinders. Aaron was happy to be there, but not happy to have his picture taken. I asked him if he would like me to come and walk with him and he told me that he wanted to walk with his teacher. He ended up running and walking alone and with friends and I respected his wish by not walking with him, but ended up handing out water to all of the runners. Isaac was my trusty side kick.

Aaron is just Aaron. I try not to force any affection on him, but he has finally gotten to the point that when I ask for a hug, he will give me one. Everyday when I drop him off I tell him, "I love you!" He always responds with an affectionate "Bye Mom!" and sometimes he will run back to the car to ask me a question or to tell me something random (like that he wants me to buy a Starwars costume that is blue with brown boots while he is away at school). A couple of days ago, I dropped him off and shouted my, "Bye Aaron, I love you!" He responded back with his, "Bye Mom!" I replied back with a "Bye Aaron, I love you!" He again hollered, "Bye Mom!" Repeat. Repeat. I could see this might be an endearing thing for him to do, maybe it was his way of saying, "I love you too Mom!" Then he turned to me with a furrowed brow and said, "Mom stop saying WUV!" Well there you have it! He's come along way by giving me a hug, but we're not quite ready for the mushy stuff. Obviously he does not follow in his father's footsteps. Joseph is overly affectionate in word and gesture. Aaron, I will tell you I love you everyday of my life, even if you don't say it back, because I never want you to forget it!

Aaron and the Rockstars

Aaron had a great time playing soccer this year. He had a coach that was so great with the little boys. We all had so much fun watching him. We were in stitches laughing at moments because little 5 year-old boys can be sooooo funny! We had to yell at him a few times to stop pushing people. He got this idea that pulling on shirts or pushing people helped to get them out of his way. Boys are so much different than girls. I loved seeing him after any contact with the ball. He had the biggest dimply grin every time. I love this boy!

Creative Art

I was out pulling weeds and talking to our neighbor when the kids ran in our house to get a snack. When I came back in I found this treasure. I was so MAD at Aaron. He thought it was so funny and I did NOT. It was a pain to clean up, but he's back in the will. Ugghhh! Joseph reminded me of all the dumb things I did when I was a child, just because. Apparently he never did anything of that sort, angel child that he was....

Neighborhood Play

Wow, what a difference a few days makes. For the first couple of days, the boys wouldn't go outside for fear of the cat and creepy crawly worms. Now we have just the opposite taking place. We've never lived in a place where we've felt safe for the kids to just wander over to the neighbors to play. My sweet neighbor brought Aaron back home about 9:00 on the second night we were here and I had no idea he was even gone. I was busy unpacking. This happened a couple of times and I felt like the worst mom. She wasn't even phased by it. It was totally normal for her to have kids over playing back and forth. I am so used to a scheduled playdate arranged with a mom. I apologized over and over. Now I call every time he's gone and ask if he's over there. She laughs and tells me that he is. She's so natural about it because it's so normal for the neighborhood kids to go back and forth to each other's homes. I think I'm getting better with it and Aaron is getting better and telling me when and where he's going. :) The challenge now is that Isaac wants to run with the big guys. Time to set some ground rules for this new phase of life. We are so happy to be here.

Aaron's First Day of Kindergarten

Well, we did it. We sent Aaron to kindergarten. This is a decision we labored about for about a year. I won't go into all of the details, but simply put, we just weren't sure if he was emotionally ready for school. His birthday is near the end of the school year, so we went back and forth about what to do. Have him be the oldest in his class or on the younger end? He is on the taller side for his age so I was worried about him towering over everyone next year (if we didn't send him), but I really wanted him to be mature enough emotionally to enter school. He's grown up alot in the last few months, even with this whole transition we've been through. Ultimately, we decided that the structure that everyday school would provide might be really good for him. We'll see how this year goes. Decisions that affect our children are so hard to make.

One thing that I didn't mention is that he was so excited to go to school! So excited in fact that he wanted to ride the bus to school on the first day. Luckily there wasn't a bus that came to our area yet, so I told him I had to take him, but that he could ride the bus home. I went to make sure he got on the correct bus and he had a perma-grin across his face the whole time. He was so excited! I'm so glad Brynn and Abby are there to help him get home. They take the job of looking out for their younger brother so seriously! I love it!