First Day Jitters!

Back to School already! Tucker looks as shocked as I feel! The summer flew by.



Derek is in second grade now. He has glasses now too! I should get a picture of that.



Tucker just started Kindergarten! He was nervous they were going to give him a hard spelling test on the first day. Derek told him that spelling tests don't happen until the second day. What a thoughtful brother.



We had a "notebook" cake to celebrate the start of a new year. There are two "pencils" on top of the notebook in case any of you were wondering. Andy started his semester as well. One more year . . .


Happy Learning everybody!

Sake's Alive - TUCKER IS FIVE!

Tucker had a birthday last week! Poor kid was not well at all. He got pink eye, then an ear infection, then spots on his throat. He was not quite the spunky birthday boy we thought he would be. He tried his hardest to enjoy it, but really just wanted to lay down. You can tell in the picture, he just doesn't look well. We postponed his party until a week later when he felt better.



I got him this bowling set. He loves games and makes up all kinds of games. Reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons where they play "Calvin Ball."



Here is his cake on his actual birthday. Notice how Zane is pluggin his ears. Is it our singing?

He wanted an M&M party, so we bought lots and lots of M&Ms. I made M&M beanbags to play with and made M&M pillows as party favors. We played Don't Eat Pete, BINGO, Musical M&Ms (musical chairs) and more M&M party games. We all had so much fun!

As I was making stuff for the party, I gave everyone some M&Ms. Tucker was still sick, but I thought he would still eat them. Nope. He told me he didn't like M&Ms. I was wondering why the heck he told me wanted an M&M party when he didn't like them anymore! As it turns out, he came to his senses and truly does love M&Ms. He enjoyed his party and we have since played all the games over and over again.



Here is his cake on his party day. What a difference! Notice how Zane is still plugging his ears. Are we really that annoying when we sing Happy Birthday?

Happy Birthday, little Tucker-man!

Big Toe, Idaho

There is really no such place as Big Toe, Idaho, but my sister Julie lives in Idaho. When we were growing up, she always, ALWAYS called it Big Toe, Idaho. Now I think it is so appropriate that she lives there! Long story short (too late!), I went to visit her for a birthday surprise last month. Her hubby flew me down and somehow, someway, we were able to keep it a secret from her. Andy took some time off work to watch Derek, Tucker and Zane so that Will and I could go there.


This is Julie with her little girl, Emrie.

When she saw me, we both screamed! Poor Will got caught in between two screaming, squeezing and psycho sisters! He was bawling. We tried fruitlessly to comfort him while we kept hugging each other in excitment. Brad got it all on tape!


These are her two boys, Lukas and Joshua.

I had so much fun hanging out with her and her family! We went shopping, made a quilt top, made a volcano with her kiddos, and mostly talked and laughed. I miss her so much! It was a blast and I hope we get to see each other again soon!

Derek's Jedi Training Party

For his birthday party, we decided to have a Jedi Training Party. Derek was concerned about how we were going to do this since none of us are true Jedi. I told him that Andy & I would take an online course. They believed that we did! So after completing our course of study, we had the boys do light saber training (bouncing a balloon with the saber) and blaster training (nerf guns with targets). Our friend down the street helped us (he, too was trained online in the ways of the Force).




However, our friend and Andy were truly bad guys and there was a small battle where they were defeated by a bunch of energized boys with light sabers and nerf guns!



We had cake and presents. The cake is supposed to be two light sabers crossing. The red saber was chocolate, the blue saber was white cake. Like dark and light. Good and evil. That sort of thing. One of the kids asked, "What's that supposed to be?" I replied, "Cake, now eat it!"



Derek and all the boys had a great time!

Derek is 7

My parents came out and spent the fourth of July with us this year. It was so much fun to see them and the boys were thrilled to have them here! It was extremely HOT - after all, it is Houston in the summertime. But the fireworks were great and Derek had a great birthday!



Each of his brothers got him a present. Tucker stood smiling next to him the whole time he was opening the one from him. He was posing for his picture with Derek.



While my parents were here, my mom and I got to play piano duets which is one of my favorite things to do! I was so glad they came! We live too far away!

Teeth

Hot Topic at our house: TEETH! Some want to lose them, some want to grow them. Take your guess - who wants what?



Derek has lost four teeth with four more wiggling around waiting to come out. I think we have a while though.

Will cut his first tooth today! That's perhaps why he looks slightly grumpy in this picture. It is more fun to get money from the tooth fairy than to have a baby tooth slice through your gum!

This might also explain why he drools and chews on EVERYTHING! It is so funny when he starts chewing on something because it is a whole body experience. He grabs the "chewie" and once it gets to the sweet spot in his mouth, his shoulders hunch over, his legs go up and his toes start to curl. He really gets into it. What a funny baby!

Volcanoes

We wanted to blow things up, so we built a couple volcanoes with some friends and had an eruption party. The results were "explosive."



Little baking soda, lot of vinegar.



I wish we see Zane's face! From the side, he looks thrilled and amazed!



We also experimented with the mentos in a coke bottle. That was really cool! I think Andy and the other dads had more fun than the boys did! We didn't get pictures of this one because it was too fun to watch in person. If you want to find out what it looks like, then try it yourself! Get a 2 liter of Diet Coke and a pack of mentos (extra mentos for munching on). Take the paper wrapper off and leave the foil one on. Drop it in the bottle and run! The mentos that are not dissolved can be used again for a second, less explosive eruption (perfect for the kids that want to drop it in). A few people got a little Coke on themselves, but no one seemed to mind. Andy also got the idea to put the mentos in, put the lid on and turn it upside down and toss it. That was REALLY explosive and you should watch out for people, cars, houses and things. We all survived. The neighbors think we are crazy now. Either that or they wish they would have thought of it themselves!