Birthday Pictures!

There was a pretty big surprise waiting to be revealed for lil' peanut's birthday.  The battery was still charging, so we hadn't planned on showing it to him until it was up and running.  But, C had seen it the night before and couldn't wait to show little brother as soon as he woke up.

I think he likes it.  Haha!  He played on it most of the day, just crawling around on it and pushing it back and forth.

He got a "happy birthday donut" as he called it.  He was soooo excited to have a donut for breakfast.  It was too cute!  The night before we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday.  "Bwow candle."  A pretty easy request to grant. :)

After we dropped C off at school I took him to the bookstore for a birthday date.  He was very happy to get some apple juice from Starbucks and then get to play at the train table.  He had some birthday money and picked out a little tractor book and toy.

The tractor is finally ready to ride!

We went out to dinner to celebrate.  We tried to let him pick the restaurant but every time I asked him where he wanted to have his birthday dinner he answered with "donut."  Ha!  I told you he loved that donut for breakfast.

Later we lit two candles and took a few minutes to think about his first mom and foster mom.

We had a great day celebrating our little three year old.  He was super cute singing "happy birthday to you" to himself throughout the day and wishing everyone else "happy birthday" when they would say it to him.  This was the first birthday he's had that Daddy has been able to celebrate with him, so that was pretty special.  Happy 3rd Birthday little munchkin!  We love you.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Celebrating our sweet and silly little boy today!  

1st day of 1st grade

Wow!  We have a first grader!  Hard to believe.  People kept asking me if he was excited or nervous.  I honestly think he was indifferent. ;)  School is something he can take or leave (at least last year it was).  He doesn't dread going but he doesn't wake up asking to get to school either.  I think it's great for him and his sociable personality to be engaged and around his peers and I know he enjoys that aspect of it.  As far as the whole "learning" thing...he's sordof over it.  Unfortunate, I know, considering he has at least 12 more years of school left.  Last night I filled out an "all about my 1st grader" sheet for his teacher.  When asked about his learning style I responded with "Hands on/experiential.  He learns best when he doesn't realize you're trying to teach him something."  Ha!

 

A fun lunch to start the year off!  That's Pikachu and a pokeball for those of you who don't have a child currently obsessed with all things pokemon.  

After checking it out he decided it needed a few finishing touches. 

It was raining so we did our obligatory 1st day of school pictures inside.  Funny story...hubby walked him in to school and we had this conversation when he came back out to the car.
"It's crazy out there.  People are taking pictures in front of the doors and the sign.  All kinds of nonsense."
"Aww, were they kindergartners?"
"No!  One kid was like 10!  I'm like, can't you do that at home?  He's about to graduate."
Guess in hubby's book I made the right call on taking our pictures at home. :)

 

I did snap these sweet pictures from the car while they were walking in.

1st day commentary...
"I didn't meet the principal."  First words out of his mouth, haha!

"So, first day of first grade!  What did you think?"
"Um, it was pretty good."

"You know what some girl said to me?  In the hallway she said 'hey you're pretty cute.'  I told her, what do you want?  You want to be in the line with all my girlfriends?  Go ahead get in line with Kaylee, Lizzy, Rebecca..."  Oh dear!

"What was the worst part of your day and the best part of your day?"
"The worst part was that we didn't get to go outside for recess!  And there was no good part because we didn't get to go outside for recess!"  It was rainy again this morning but the sun has been out for a few hours so hopefully they got to go outside today!

"I decided to save some of my lunch for later Mom.  And you know what?  I don't like cheese."

"Swimmy and Bubbles are two of the turtles.  I can't remember the other one's name."

Better late than never...Kindergarten Graduation!



I can't believe I never posted pictures from this!  At least I'm getting it done before he starts 1st grade (one day, ha!) 

 

This was when we realized that we hardly ever have a need for him to wear a tie.  I think this one is from when he was 3 or 4 years old.  Haha!  

Hubby deemed it too short so he decided to go with one of his own ties.

This was just a couple of days before hubby and I left for that first house hunting trip to TX.  My dad was already in town and able to stay home with lil' peanut, which was wonderful.  We had him with us for C's music program and it didn't go well...hubby actually missed all of the kindergarten's performance!  It was really nice to just be able to focus on C and his big night.

Hanging out with his bestie before the ceremony.

The kindergarten class had a little processional at the beginning. 

Then they all sat on the stage for the entire program!  Every grade gave out awards to all the kids.  Now, granted they had really small classes, but still I was super impressed that they all sat quietly for that long.  What kind of threats did their teachers make? ;)

They did the pledge of allegiance and then the pledge to the Christian flag and to the bible.

His turn to receive his awards.

Loved his proud little face when he got back to his seat and was looking at his packet.

I think somebody was getting bored. :)

When I see this picture, my mind jumps ahead 12 years.  The arms around each other, a girl on each side, that expression on his face!  It just says "high school grads!" to me. 

Looking so handsome and sweet in his graduation get-up.  (We got to keep the cap!)

With his teacher, Ms. Shannon.  She was so good with him throughout the year...especially in those early weeks of adjustment.  I'm so glad he had a teacher as sweet and compassionate as her for his first school experience.  He really enjoyed her too.  In fact, he made several comments at meet the teacher night at his new school that made me think he was missing Ms. Shannon. 

I was so proud of my little man.  He is super bright and went into kindergarten more than prepared academically, so that part of school was easy for him.  But, I know he worked hard in other areas where he struggled and he made huge improvements over the school year.  My hope is that first grade doesn't start out as rough (can it really?!?) and that school would continue to be something he enjoys.