First Grade!

Noah has been pretty low key about moving up to the first grade.  In fact, until last night he didn't seem to even notice it's arrival.  His teacher this year is Mrs. Collier.  I know her pretty well having had students in her classroom each year since the school has been open.  At the open house she sent home a really nice poem.  Noah wasn't allowed to open it until bedtime last night.  It was very cute and it came with magic confetti to put under his pillow to help him get a good night of sleep.  It kind of had the opposite of the intended effect.  He suddenly got super excited and was telling us all the kids he couldn't wait to see tomorrow.  He was also pumped about all the science he will learn.  He wants to be a marine biologist in case you haven't heard.  This morning he was ready to go.  His mom had to fix the cowlick he couldn't fix himself.  A big breakfast he was set.  Jenna was pretty ok with everything.  She decided to not walk him in the building this year so her emotional time was last night.  This morning though, it was Cam who talked the most about Noah's first day at school.  She followed him everywhere and just had that look on her face.  I think I captured what both of them were feeling perfectly.

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Paint the Park Pink 2012

The Naturals hold a benefit for Komen every year.  This is the same one a few years back when Jenna threw out the first pitch.  This year she was asked to be part of a group of survivors recognized before the game.  This kids had a great time.  If it hadn't been 12000 degrees we probably wouldv'e stayed past the 5th inning.

Big girl bed

It had to happen eventually. Our Cam Moved up to a 'big girl pink bed.' Jenna's been looking for the right antique bed for the past month. We found one last weekend in Prairie Grove and went to get it Friday afternoon.
A little elbow grease later and she's finally a big girl. My sweet big girl.

(for the record her bedding isn't here yet so she's using a set of Noah's sheets)

Too difficult to imagine

One of the hard things is limiting the number of photos in photo gallery.  Personally, I'd put them all up but that is a waste of space and bandwidth.  The default limit on this site is 30 images so I try to adhere to that.  Picking out the 30 then becomes an exercise in how much editing is necessary.  Short version is I'm working on it.  

I'll share this photo with you now because I've flagged it as a favorite.

Back to normal

After only a few days we are back to normal around here. Noah was excited to see his friends yesterday. Cam couldn't wait to get to Stephanie's. Jenna and I...work was long and miserable :)

I'll post a photo gallery when I get a chance as well as publishing the posts I wrote while there. Just trying to get back in the swing.

Here's a pic from this morning that'll tide you over though.

Teachable moment

I pride myself on being the type of Father that imparts wisdom to my kids. I know some mistakes have to be learned on your own but I think it's important to reveal my own mistakes to my children so they may learn valuable lessons without the humility of some wrong turns.


Today I was able to teach Campbell green food coloring and vanilla look the same from the back and you should take the extra time to prevent a Dr. Seuss inspired breakfast.


I'm not sure she sees the error though. Maybe she's doomed to repeat my failings.

 

Self-inflicted busy day

Busy days usually make us grumpy but this one was self-inflicted so it just made bedtime easy. We went for a bike ride at Lake Fayetteville. Noah is becoming quite the bike rider. He made it 3 miles without nary a complaint. He had to walk up the big hills and had one good scare going down another but overall he's rockin and rollin. When we were done, the climbing wall at Lewis and Clark was open so we gave it a go. Jenna rang the bell and Noah made it about halfway. His legs gave out on him so I figure next time we'll do the wall first. Throw in church, 2 workouts, choir, and Cam's nap and it was a pretty full day.