Bus Day at Story Hour

 Today was Wade's first day of Story Hour. He started by painting a school bus, which he loved.

This was the finished product.

 During circle time, he preferred singing his songs laying on his tummy.

 I whispered to him that he had to raise his hand for Mrs. Donna to call on him. He sat up immediately and raised his hand. Right on cue, Mrs. Donna called on him to choose a song.

 The Wheels on the Bus...his favorite!!

 

 At the end of class, the kids were invited to ride a real school bus. Wade was excited to talk about it, but when it was his turn to get on, he was pretty nervous.

 He looked out the window nearly the entire time.

And he never let go of my hand. I wished I could read his mind. I know he must have been so puzzled about the whole experience of riding without a car seat. We rode from the school to the park, so he pointed out all the familiar scenes along the way. He ended up loving it and didn't want to leave. We are going to have a great year with Mrs. Donna and Mrs. Pam!

Girls' Night Out

Leigh Ann is always in charge of planning our Girls' Night Out. She outdid herself tonight by booking us a private party at a Painting Studio on Murray. She pitched it to us as a "Paint by Numbers" canvas. I was convinced I could do paint by numbers, so here we go!

 

 We walked in to our own stations already set up for us. We were excited until....we saw that there were no lines or "numbers." Hmmm, we figured out that Leigh had duped us just to get us there!

 This is the canvas on display to show us what we will be painting throughout the evening. It is called "Funky Sky." I was ready to run for the car! The instructor talked me (& everyone but Brittney) off the ledge by assuring us she would guide us step by step.

 Ok, here goes nothing! How much do I love these gals?

 This is my canvas at the halfway point. Still having doubts....

 Honestly, I don't know when I've had SO much fun or laughed so hard. We had the BEST time and are already looking at booking our next date.

Ta-Da! Here is my finished Funky Sky! I am very proud of it, but I have no idea where I'm going to put it!

Henry County Fair

 

 We started our evening at the Fair with a Kiddie Tractor Pull. Lee had several friends competing, so he had a lot of fun, even though he didn't win.

 Lee selected several categories to enter in the Youth Craft Department. He won a ribbon on his tie-dyed shirt.

 He entered his fish in  the pottery category.

 I entered several pictures in the Adult Photography Category for the first time. I was thrilled to win a few ribbons. My picture of the Miss-Lou Bridge won Third Place.

 This recent pic of my boys in the Sunflowers won First in the "Family" category!

 I was most proud of this picture of Lee and Paul that I entered in the "Sports" Category. It was my only picture that wasn't posed. It was a real life scene, and those are my favorite!

 Lee tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe and won a blue ribbon. Judging from the empty plate at our house, I can attest to their yumminess!

 Lee's last entry was this wooden flag. He was pretty thrilled with his ribbons!

 On to the carnival where I vowed never to ride the Pirate Ship again! So, Matt was a trooper and took Lee on it. There they are right in the middle.

 The carnies would not allow Wade to ride the slides, so Matt and I took turns with Lee.

The last ride of the night was the ferris wheel with my big guy! What a fun night!

First Day of Second Grade

 When I went to wake Lee up for his first day of Second Grade, this is how I found him. He had recently gotten the new Wimpy Kid book, and he couldn't resist reading a few pages before breakfast.

 Here's my big Second Grader at our wonderful Rhea School!

 He had equal parts excitement and nervousness on going into his new room.

 Once this precious lady's arms were around him, he melted into a puddle of relief. He was instantly at ease and ready to take on the day. She is an answer to our prayers for a loving, firm, brilliant teacher, and she happens to be a blessing to anyone who knows her. Can you tell I'm a FAN?

We are going to have a great year!

 

(Yes, I shed the usual tears as I drove home. It was only because I knew how much I would miss him during the day. And it didn't help that Wade started crying immediately for us to go back and get him. We love that boy more than words can say.)

TGIF!

There is a new blogspot format, so my pictures posted out of order...bear with me! Although it's not Friday yet, I'm very ready to see it. It has been a long day around here! On our way home from karate, it started to look cloudy. About 15 minutes after we got home, it started hailing like crazy. I had left my car out of the garage so Matt and Lee could take it to their Cub Scout meeting later. So I made a mad dash to my car and quickly got it inside. I don't think I have any dents, but I won't know for sure until I can get it out in the sun tomorrow. My arms weren't so lucky. I had such an adrenaline rush that I didn't even think about the hail hitting me. When I came back in, Lee said, "What happened to your arms?" I looked and had red whelps up and down both arms. I'm pretty sure those will be bruises tomorrow. Lesson learned: do not run through a hail storm to move your car!

 This should be the last photo...after the storm. The most beautiful fog formed over the field immediately. Lee and I eagerly awaited a rainbow, but we never got one.

 During the storm, you can see the line of cars that had to pull off the highway until it passed.

 Front yard

 It piled up so fast.

 This is in the flower bed.

 Lee said this was the next best thing to snow.

 Sadly, it melted before he could go collect some to hold.

 I know he will hate it one day, but I love how his hair curls out the back of a cap. During karate, Wade and I went to a local store to purchase a gift. He was such an angel and stood by me the whole time we were shopping. (He is having some stranger danger issues, which works to my advantage right now!) While I was checking out, he left my side for a second, grabbed a piece of pottery and threw it down on the hardwood floor! The owner of the store was the one checking me out and was not concerned in the least about the pottery piece. I began to apologize immediately and insisted on paying if it was broken. We both checked it out, and surprisingly there wasn't even a chip in it. I was mortified, to say the least. The woman was so kind and reassuring that I won't have any hesitation going back to shop again. Next time, we'll have the stroller!

 Such a cutie, even with a spaghetti face!

 This is the look I got when I told him that he has the most beautiful eyes in the world. Apparently he doesn't want to have the "most beautiful" anything.

 Thing 1 and Thing 2

 Remember Baby Bossy Pants? He still emerges from time to time.

 Our school system has experienced a major flu outbreak this week, so Wade and I haven't left the house, except to shuttle Lee. Wade is oblivious to anything abnormal. He has just enjoyed the bonus time in the sun. When you don't go to story time, church, the grocery, the gym, or playdates, you have all the fun in the sun you can stand!

I do love a baby in a onesie! These little shoes were Lee's first pair of Crocs. He wore them forever, and the bottoms are as slick as butter. But when I got them out to show Matt, Wade fell in love with them. He quickly learned to put them on alone, which he thinks is similar to a magic trick. He says, "I did it!" every.single.time. I think he will be due his own pair of Crocs when the new Spring shoes arrive. Because of the flu outbreak, Lee's school is closed tomorrow, and believe me, we are looking forward to FRIDAY!

Lee's funnies

Matt found a tick on him tonight and was showing disgust at how early it is for them to already be seen. Lee immediately chimed in, and said, "I know, I know Mom. I'll use the special shampoo tonight." I was so glad he said something to us instead of using it and possibly sharing with his teacher that his dad had a bug on him, so he had to use a special shampoo. We quickly clarified that Dad does not have lice.

There has been a major flu outbreak at Lee's school, so the faculty has been stepping up the disinfecting this week. Yesterday, Lee said every fourth kid had to get a rag and wipe down their table in the cafeteria. Curious as to where he had to go get the rag, what was on it, and most importantly how clean were his hands after handling said rag, I asked him a number of questions. When I quizzed him on where he returned the rag, he said, "Mom, I put it back in the bucket of cholesterol." Most of the time, I can contain my laughter when Lee misspeaks, but I couldn't help it. I lost it and laughed until I had tears. I still don't know for sure what was in the bucket, but I lost interest after the cholesterol remark.

Lee got a Monopoly game for Christmas, and he LOVES it. But the best part of playing with him, is how he says it. He says "Mono-nopoly."

Lee only has homework 1 night per week. He has to bring home a wordbook with the week's "focus words" and read the sentences that correspond with the word. We do it every.Monday.night. However, he forgot the wordbook this week. As luck would have it, his teacher had already sent home the list of words, so I had Lee to write a sentence with each word. There were 8 words, so it was a big project. I hoped that he would see the difference in time spent writing versus reading his sentences, and he would be more responsible next week. FAIL. His teacher gave him glowing remarks on his sentence writing, including pointing out the improvement she has seen in his handwriting lately. So, he couldn't wait to get home to tell me all about it. I may never see the wordbook again.

Practice

Lee is reading to his Kindergarten teacher's class this week, and he wanted to practice reading his book aloud at home before reading to the Kindergartners. He chose a wordy Dr. Seuss book, so we were glad he brought it home to practice. He did a great job, considering his squirmy, disruptive audience. We assured him that his real audience would be much more attentive.