Back in session

The boys have been back in school for some time now (clearly I get an F for punctuality) but I wanted to finally post their first day pictures.

Will is in Kindergarten in Room 5, Mrs. Teachout's Islanders. So far he is doing really well and enjoying it. Of course, his favorite parts are lunch and recess. Ha! I don't blame him; the weather is always gorgeous and they get to eat and play outside. They also move between classrooms for reading, social studies, etc. Oh and they have 3rd grade buddies at the "big school" (the Elementary school is a few blocks away from the Kindergarten)and they get to walk down and visit their buddies once a month. Will is pretty excited about his buddy, Jeremiah. Once he learned that Jeremiah's favorite food is apples, Will's quickly changed as well. Already Jeremiah is a good influence!

Archer is attending Resurrection Preschool, which is where Will attended a few months of pre-K when we first moved here. Since he's a young 3 year old, Archer only goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings for a few hours. But that's better than nothing! :) He's doing really well and comes home with a lot of art projects (for which I have no room). He likes to ride the bikes and play in the sand box. Archer has a handful of teachers because it takes force to tame preschoolers. He's discovering new vocabulary words every day; his favorites right now are "especially" and "actually". He's quite a ham, as any good second child is!

Summer 2013

Well it flew right by with hardly any posts so I'm doing one big post (mostly pictures) to try to capture the longest/slowest summer of our lives. On one hand, it flew right by. I can't believe Labor Day is this weekend! On the other hand, every day seemed to crawl and I would have done anything for it to speed by. Now that Will is back at school (Archer starts Sept. 10th) I feel like we had a good summer. We managed to get in some fun outings (beach days, concerts in the park, museums and Legoland!), swim lessons, 3 birthdays, and several weeks of camp. Phew! No wonder I'm exhausted. Will writing his first letter, naturally it was for Dad! Will's yard sale. He managed to sell a few pieces of our gently used "stuff" to some kind neighbors. Pretty sure this is against the HOA rules... Swim lessons! These were Archer's first lessons and it took him a week to get used to putting his face in the water. By the end he was a champ (no screaming and flailing!). Will did great and can swim across the pool mostly by himself. He was also not afraid to jump off the board. What a brave boy!

Smallest of the big

The big Will turned the big 6, which is of course the smallest of the big numbers (as he instructed me upon rising at 6am). I'm not exactly sure what that means but I'm pretty sure it's a nonchalant way of telling me he's now a big kid and I need to back off. Hahaha...good luck with that, buddy. Good luck. We celebrated with a trip to the circus (sorry elephants), dinner and games at the Corvette Diner (which included the biggest platter of cotton candy in existence), and of course a Ninja cake featuring the 4 ninjas from Ninjago. If you don't know what Ninjago is, you're missing out on lots of cool moves. Will is pretty sure he's going to be a ninja someday so he too can practice "Spinjitzu", which happens when the ninjas circle around super fast and defeat all their enemies...or something like that. I have a feeling he really just wants to use Spinjitzu to get away from Archer. As he moves into the big 6, Will's favorite color remains red. This has been true since he knew his colors so I feel like it will stick. His favorite things to do are run around, do cool tricks, practice his ninja skills, read, build Legos and watch as much TV as I'll possibly allow. If he is unable to perform his duties as a ninja someday, he will settle for being a scientist instead. "What kind of scientist?" I asked. "All the kinds" was the reply. I look forward to that. His favorite sport is football, his favorite food is ice cream (good boy), and his favorite animal is the tiger. Last week Will started Kindergarten and is in Mrs. Teachout's class. She seems like a great teacher and he's excited to be in "real" Kindergarten this year, as opposed to that transitional business from last year. I'm sure he'll have a wonderful year. So far his favorite parts are lunch and recess so we seem to be on the right path! I have a lot of summer catching up to do...I have finally uploaded my pictures and will eventually post them here, most likely with minimal explanations. :) Feel free to add your own excitement to our summer as you look them over. Until then...

He's how old???

So Archer Dean has turned 8. No, that's not right. 34. Oh wait, that's me. Actually I think he just turned 3, although according to him he's a variety of other ages, none of which are close to 3. But, for sanity's sake, we'll go with 3. And really, once he opens his mouth and talks back or throws a tantrum in the middle of a restaurant, there's no doubting what age he actually is. 3, glorious 3. We didn't have a party for Mr. Archer this year but we did have a race car cake (per his request) and ice cream. And of course, birthday waffles for breakfast! He got plenty of fabulous presents...Legos, pirate gear, a Batman jail (complete with electric chair...seriously), and more. We also hit up Legoland to celebrate both boys' birthdays. Maybe we'll have a big shindig next year. Until then, this is Archer at 3. What he wants to be when he grows up: a fireman OR a window washer (very closely related?) His favorite color: black (for today...yesterday it was green and last week it was purple) His favorite animal: cat Nicknames: Arch, Archie, AD, Goose on the Loose, Squish (additions always welcome) Favorite shows: Team Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies, Cars movies Fun facts: He's doing pretty well with his alphabet; he sings clearly until he gets to LMNOP...then it sounds like "manamanap". He loves to call people "punch punch" or "punchy" and is often threatening to punch people and objects. I'm not sure where his fascination with punching came from but it's intense. He doesn't say it to be mean though (really!); he thinks it's funny. Odd sense of humor in that kid. He thinks every semi-good deed he does deserves "m's and m's" as a reward. (bribery backfire!) Not so fun fact: Potty training remains a struggle. #where is Keith? Actual conversation today: Archer: Mom, can you crash the car? Me: No, that wouldn't be safe. Archer: Yes you can! You're good at crashing. You're the best broker. Me: Thanks, Archer. Then later, when I took his water away because he was spilling it all over himself on purpose: Archer: Mom, I'm going to put you in timeout. Me: Archer, don't sass me. Archer: Yes! I'm going to put you in timeout and crash the car. Yep, he's definitely 3. But seriously, I can't believe 3 years have gone by. As a family, we are in a much better place now than we were 3 years ago. Every birthday for Archer is a celebration for Keith being farther from cancer too. Win win! Of course, it would be great if Keith were actually here to celebrate with us. I have a feeling next summer will be our lucky year! Until then, punch punch!

Cowpoke Round-up

Today was an exciting day for Will's class; they put on their annual rodeo. It was so cute. His class is the Cowpokes and his teacher, Mrs. Schneider, takes the theme very seriously. She puts on the rodeo every year and the kids spend months practicing. They performed many feats: lasso tricks, galloping, barrel racing (of which I got video, not pictures and will try to post), roping Buddy the Bull, hog tying a stuffed animal, and rescuing another Cowpoke in trouble. Will had a great time and I really enjoyed watching him ride his horse "Ninja". We may have a cowboy in the making here. For some reason he kept saluting the crowd. Patriotic cowboy?

Nesting Instinct

Archer is in full nesting mode lately. Every day for nap, I have to build him a "nest" to sleep in. Some days he even pretends to be the baby bird who sleeps in the nest. I never know where he'll end up; sometimes the nest, complete with 10 blankets and 25 stuffed animals, migrates during nap time. I wonder how he can sleep in such odd positions...behind the rocking chair, under the train table, in the laundry basket. Strange kid.

Spring Rewind

A lot has happened since my last post so I'm going to give a very condensed version here. We celebrated Easter with Uncle Matt and Aunt Jill...fun all around. We're still doing t-ball and Will has a few more games before the season is over. Keith left on deployment and Allyson has begun figuring out how to keep her sanity for the foreseeable future. We're also counting down til summer, which means Archer can start preschool and Will can do a bunch of camps. Perfect!