My playdate

Every Thursday Elliott is in school until 1:00 but Nolan gets out at 12:00. I didn't want to pay for late stay, so I pick him up and we try to go somewhere "special". Twice I have taken him to the park to eat a picnic together and then we play on the playground or I come up with something else. I would like to deceive you into thinking that this is an hour of bliss with my first born where we have deep discussions, laugh, and play, (because that's how I envisioned it when I first made this plan) but the reality is that both times we have done this his teacher has come to the car to tell me that he's had a rough day and would not do his work. Our "date" has consisted of me trying to get out of him why he won't do his work, lecturing on the importance of working hard, and him being completely distracted by the flies buzzing around his food. I mean- so distracted that he can't eat. Wow- I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type the words! So, it hasn't been ideal. This week I tried really hard to address the issue and then move on and enjoy our time. I came prepared with his soccer ball and my camera. Once I forced myself not to be frustrated with him we had a good time. He wanted to use my camera and it was fun to see him look at life through the lens.

These are the pictures Nolan took.

So the moral of this story is:

• life isn't always as blissful as you plan it to be
• my child might have focusing issues- or he might be a normal 4 year old. No idea, never done this before.
• maybe I should chuck the park idea and plan to eat inside
• parenting is the hardest thing I have ever done. Ever!!
• I love him to pieces and he'll be just fine!! :)

First Days

School started here last week...FINALLY!!! I will say, June and July were fairly delightful and August was long!!! We survived, and even thrived at times this summer. I keep meaning to do a longer post to recap the summer, you know- thoughts and musings- but it might not happen, so here are the required first day pictures.

On Tuesday Nolan started K-4. He will be going 4 mornings a week. I think that his teacher is going to be a great fit and he's starting to get glimpses that school isn't all about playing. Hopefully he will fully understand that before K-5 or he'll be in for quite the shock!!

Elliott started on Thursday in the 2 year old class, two mornings a week. He has the same teacher that Nolan had at that age and we love Ms. Pam!!

I was going to get a picture of the boys together but the battery on my camera died the second after I got this shot. This seems to be a trend in my life!!! Maybe I'll charge batteries now that I have two "free" mornings. But probably not! :)

Zoo & Lake

Jerel had another week of vacation this past week and we were able to do a few fun things with the boys. We had always heard that the Columbia Zoo was a great place, and since we hadn't taken the family truckster on a road trip yet, we decided to go on a mini-adventure.

It really was a great zoo and a highlight of the day was feeding the giraffes. The zoo must make a fortune on this gig alone! :)

Isn't she cute???

I tried to get a picture of the boys together. This is the best I could do...

The other 300 looked more like this...

or this...

I'm already dreading getting a Christmas picture. And I have no idea what's going on with Nolan's hair!

Another highlight was riding the merry-go-round. Nolan picked the tiger and Elliott picked the rhinoceros, of course.

On another day we took the boys out to a friends' lake house. They had been asking to go fishing. It wasn't exactly a hot spot for fish, but they had a good time.

We took Bailey also. She wasn't 100% sure about the situation but became quite the swimmer that day.

We took the boys on kayaks to "pirate island" to look for buried treasures. Jerel went back to get Bailey and brought her over to the island and she was in puppy heaven. I don't have any pictures. Two small boys, kayaks, a dog, a island, and a camera don't mix well!! :) I didn't risk it!!

In other news, school starts tomorrow. WOO-HOOO!!! Not that I'm excited!! :)