Baby goes for a ride

The boys took Mark for a ride in their Cozy Coupe car.  This has been one of the most used toys in our house by Aiden, Ty and now Mark.  I'm sure he'll be cruising around it just like his brothers did before we know it!

 

There's a big grin under that pacifier!

 

First Day of Kindergarten

We have been talking about it for months and it has finally arrived; Aiden's first day of Kindergarten!  He was well prepared and had shown no signs of nervousness in the previous weeks.  He did great at open house and the other times we had to go to the school for paperwork.

 

 

He woke up bright and early and when I said, "You're going to Kindergarten today!" he said, "I know, I know".  The boy just doesn't show much excitement (unless we're talking about speedometers in fast cars).  He ate his cereal and got dressed, we headed out the door.  We walked in and looked for his classroom number (310)- he remembered from open house.  I could tell he was getting nervous.  We found the room and Mrs. Williams said to get out his crayons and showed him where to hang his bookbag.  He followed instructions and found a seat at an empty table that had a paper to color.  He didn't want to sit at the table where other children were already sitting.  As I spoke with the teacher, he fumbled with his crayons and broke the box; crayons rolled on the table and onto the floor.  I looked at him and saw that his eyes filled with tears.  I assured him that it was okay and helped him pick up his crayons (as I'm fighting back tears myself).  I gave him a hug and said, "I love you".  As his arms wrapped around me I could feel him shaking.  I walked out and practically sprinted to the car where I got in closed the door and lost it! 

 

 

Everything in me wanted to stay there with him, but I knew I had to leave.  He was trying to be so tough (exactly what we have been teaching him to do).  He knew that I would leave, and he was probably reassuring himself in his 5-year old little mind that it would be okay and that I would be back to pick him up.  His teacher notified me a few hours after we arrived (via email) that he was doing so well and she was using him as an example.  I felt so relieved.  I couldn't be more proud of him.  He is an amazing little boy and I know he will do great things one day!

 

Day 2 was very smooth- he walked right in and was much more comfortable; even said hi to some of his classmates.    

Lego Land

To end our summer days before school starts, Nannie treated us to a trip to LEGOLAND in Atlanta!  In anticipation, the boys were guessing how many Legos were at LEGOLAND and Ty guessed 25,000 and Aiden guessed 2 million.  We never did determine how many there actually were, but we know there was a lot!

 

Matching Polos so I can spot them!

 

On the Spinning Lego Ride, where the faster you pedaled, the higher you went (but Ty couldn't reach the pedals)

 

building a super fast car out of Legos

 

 Racing the cars they built.  They pressed the red button after a countdown, the cars were released.  Many times the boys' cars collided and there was no clear winner.

 

A ride-on motorcycle made out of Legos

 

The 4-D Lego Lego movie.

 

Mark had fun too in the giant playpen with big soft legos!

 

I think the boys could have played in this tunnel maze for hours.  It had numerous slides and so many different directions to go through.  Here they are coming off one of the slides (Aiden in front and Ty jumping off the slide)

Jumpy House Playdate

We met up with 3 other mom's and their kids today for a fun play date.  These are just as good for the kids as they are for the moms.  Originally we were planning to go swimming, but the weather just wasn't cooperating, so we headed to Woody's Jump N Play.  To our surprise, they had new inflatables!  The new slide is very steep, so the kids just flew down it- of course the boys loved it!  They were on the slide the majority of the time and Mark and I watched from the bottom; he wanted to get on so bad, he tried to crawl onto the slide.  I brought Mark in one of the less crowded inflatables and he loved it.  He laid on his belly and let the other kids bounce him around; he liked sitting up in it too.  After all the exercise we headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  We put the 8 kids at one table and moms and babies at the other.  We love spending time with our friends!

 

Little Brother

Army Crawl

Mark is officially on the move!  He just learned how to crawl, but his belly is so big he just can't get it off the floor.  So he "scoots" all around, but it gets him where he needs to go.  He's all over the floors and opening cabinets and finding tiny crumbs to put in his mouth.  Our house is pretty much childproof, so I can let him wander. :-)

 

Spin Art

Today we did a really fun art project.  I wish I was creative enough to think of this myself, but it was the result of another fun mom's blog.  The idea is so great because it is completely mess free and so much fun for the kids.  The boys had a blast with this one!  We cut out circles and picked three paint colors.  We put our circles and paint in the salad spinner and spun away.  We got our salad spinner as a wedding gift and now we finally have a use for it! ;-) Aiden kept asking, "how fast do you think it's going?" and then he tried to make it go faster.  They loved pressing the button to make it spin and the art came out really neat.  Because of all our projects this summer, our playroom is decorated on every wall!