First Day, Part 2

Daniel's first day of Kindergarten was Wednesday. He was so excited that he was up way too early, dressed, ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth with his backpack on, and practically ran all the way to the bus stop.

He had a great first day. According to him, his teacher is really nice,

and the bus goes REALLY fast.
After lunch, he and Julia sat down to watch Pinocchio and he was out in minutes. I woke him up when it was time to walk to the bus stop to get Hannah and Jay, and he was mad that he hadn't gotten to watch Pinocchio, denying that he fell asleep :)

He is eager and excited to go again tomorrow...I'm so glad.

The First Day

Well, I...uh, I mean, they, made it through the first day of a new school year in a new school. Here are Jay and Hannah standing in front of our house right before we walked to the bus stop. Thankfully, they were excited.

Here's the crew waiting for the bus to come.

The girl in the center is our neighbor and good friend, Danielle.

Hannah and Danielle were disappointed that they weren't in the same class at school.

I thought this picture was cute...Daniel and Julia sitting on the curb

waiting for Hannah and Jay's bus to arrive.Hannah and Jay both had glowing reports of their day, their teacher, their new friends...

I thought it was cute, though, when I checked Jay's bag to see if there was anything in it that I needed to see/fill out, I discovered all the supplies I had sent him with. When I asked him about it, he replied, "When Mrs. Jewett said to pack everything up and get ready to go home, I put it all back in my backpack." Apparently, he didn't realize that all that stuff just stayed at school :)

Tomorrow, Daniel goes to school, too. He's in half-day kindergarten, so he'll only be gone from 8:50-11:50. When I turned out the light in his room tonight, I heard his cute voice say softly, "Don't worry, Mom. It won't be too long before I'm back." Oh, I thought I was going to lose it. I laid down next to him and hugged him, and he added, "I'm going to miss you." Tomorrow might prove to be harder than today...

Hannah's Sunflower

Hannah planted this sunflower from a seed back in the spring. Oh, how it has grown! We have enjoyed watching it's progress (once we figured out that that particular sprout was a sunflower, since they weren't labeled). Now it is huge...

I'm not sure why it is drooping...anybody have any suggestions? Also, we'd love to be able to make sunflower seeds to eat...any suggestions for that?

A Trip to Western New York

I grew up in Western New York, but since getting married/having kids/being involved in multiple ministries, I haven't gotten back there much. Last week we made the trek up there, and had such a good time. Here are some highlights of the trip...

Mandie and Tim came one day and we took all 8 cousins (well, Erika didn't ride much...haha), to Midway Park. It is a small amusement park that has all kids' rides. The 7 kids rode and rode...they had a blast!

I was so proud of Hannah. She is not the athletic one (sorry, honey, you get it from me), but she took on and conquered all three levels of difficulty on this rockwall. She was determined to get to the top of the most difficult level, and before we left for the day, she did it!

Hannah with her toes in Lake Erie

John teaching the kids how to skip rocks on Lake Erie.

The kids, amazed, in front of Niagara Falls.

My Dad and Julia relaxing on a piece of driftwood on the beach of Lake Erie (notice Julia's toes in the sand!).

Mercer Museum

We live in a highly historic area. I enjoy taking the kids to see historical things, but with 4 kids, the admission price adds up pretty quickly. SO, I'm learning how to find free events or times. Last Friday we went to the Mercer Museum which is a castle filled (literally) with tools and simple machines that people in early America used to function in every day life prior to the industrial age.

I'm pretty sure that John and I enjoyed/got more out of it than the kids did, but at least it was a fun evening as a family...

Happy 9th Birthday, Hannah

Hannah turns 9 today. NINE. I can hardly believe it. I tried to tell her she couldn't, but she defied me and did it anyway...

We have parties for the kids on certain years. Nine isn't one of them, but we decided to invite her two new friends (since we've moved), Danielle and Isabella over for what Hannah deemed a "luncheon."

Isabella, Hannah, Danielle, and Julia

The theme of the party was VanGogh's Sunflowers painting, and after the girls ate, they all painted with watercolors. According to Hannah, it was "very fun, and I got to hang out with my friends which was awesome."

This is a picture of Hannah and I from Fall 2001. She was a little over 1 here. This has always been one of my favorite pictures of her and I.

Hannah is a wonderful girl: helpful and sweet and responsible. God has given her a servant's heart, and I wonder what He plans to do with it.

(So, now, sentimental, as Moms get, I'm going to go upstairs

and hang out with my not-so-little-any-more Hannah.)

Bowling

I had coupons that allowed the kids to bowl for free (I just had to pay for shoe rental, which by the way has gotten much more expensive compared to when we were kids). The oldest two have been bowling, but so long ago that I don't think they remember it. The younger two had never gone. I made it a surprise, and when they got there they were so excited.

It was funny to me how even in bowling their personalities really showed...

Hannah tried hard, but it didn't come easily. She kept with it and kept a good attitude (except for getting very flustered when she stepped over the foul line and set off the buzzer). Overall I think she had fun.

Jay was so excited when he got a spare (he actually wound up with 2 by the time we were done playing). He tried hard and did well for the most part (except for the time that his ball hit the bumper and bounced OVER it and into the other lane, WHICH was being used by some very nice people, and went into the opposite gutter and all the way to the end. Somehow, it didn't register as a gutter ball for the person who was mid-turn.) When it wasn't Jay's turn, he was either encouraging whoever was bowling or exercising in order to get stronger so he could do better when it was his turn.

Daniel's natural athletism showed even in bowling. He seemed to have the best form even if that didn't always mean he knocked down the most pins. He loved every minute of it, and in the end won the second game.

Julia was...herself. She started out SO excited and wanted no help from me. She wanted to struggle with the ball and barely roll it hard enough for it to make it to the end, ALL BY HERSELF. She could hardly stand to wait her turn. If she knocked down pins (which somehow she did most of the time), she was doing dances. If she didn't she grumpily declared that it wasn't working and that she didn't want to play any more. If she stepped over the foul line and it buzzed at her, she got really mad and grumpy. So, there is more than one picture of her, because one just didn't completely tell the story.

When I went to take this picture, I was actually trying to capture her EXTREMELY grumpy face, but by the time the camera "clicked" she had changed to a very cute smile.