Nathan's First Day of Kindergarten

The day finally arrived. The day Nathan's been looking forward to for months - his first day of Kindergarten! He wakes up in the morning like his mommy... SLOWLY. But today, I went in to wake him and he literally bounced out of bed and got dressed in his new uniform quickly! He downed his Raisin Bran as fast as possible and was ready to leave before anyone else. 

(uniform logos removed digitally for safety reasons)

Nathan got to meet his teacher last Friday. She asked us to bring all his school supplies then, and leave his backpack there for the weekend. So he doesn't have his backpack for that traditional first day of school picture. But that didn't damper the excitement!

When we got to school, we walked him in and he wasn't too shy. He greeted his teacher by name and shook her hand, then posed for a photo before giving us the "look" that said, "you can all leave now."

As you can see, Nathan is almost as tall as his teacher! She's a sweet woman who taught elementary and was a principal for many years. She retired a few years ago, and when her grandson was preparing for kindergarten (last year), she remembered how much she enjoyed teaching that age. All his 4 year old friends ended up coming over to learn from her, too. So she told God, "if you want me to get back to teaching, give me a sign." She said that Sunday morning, a woman she didn't know came up to her and said, "I heard you use to be a teacher, we have an opening at the school, would you be interested in applying?" I sure wish God was that clear with all life's decisions!

So Nathan's teacher has come out of an 8 year retirement just to teach this class. She claims to have no life and not need the money, so she told parents that all her time, and her paycheck, will just go back to the 10 kids in her class! Yup - 10 kids! That's IT! How awesome is that? Not to mention an awesome teacher with the wisdom from 30+ years of teaching and the excitement of a brand new college graduate :)  Nathan's going to have an awesome year!

Faith and Ruth, on the other hand.... they missed their brother a lot today. But they're learning to play on their own and will become best buds. Ruth already thinks Faith is THE BEST GIFT EVER. She adores her brother, but she is mesmerized by her big sister! They'll have a fun year together. And then there's baby brother... he's due any moment now and sure will add some chaos, I mean joy, to our busy schedule :)

Happy first day of Kindergarten to Nathan and all his friends!

Nathan's 6th Birthday Party

Nathan recently turned SIX!

He is really into ninjas and legos. He loves the reality TV show "American Ninja Warrior", it's an obstacle course that "real ninjas" run through, it's a competition. Family friendly and he enjoys rooting for the guys and gals that compete. He also loves Ninjago - Lego's version of ninjas. So we decided to have a "American Ninjago Warrior" themed birthday party.

 

 

 

 

Because it's summer in south Texas, no one would want to run an obstacle course during the day! So we had an evening party, and made outside time the last thing we did. First - it was pizza dinner!

 

Nathan's table was decorated with ninjas and some of the lego creations he's made recently.

 

 

Then we pulled out black t-shirts for all the kids and turned them all into little ninjas. You can google how-to on you tube. It's super easy. A lot harder to get the kids to keep it on right though ;)

 

 

 

 

So the idea of ninja masks was grand in my head. Not so great when you get a group of kids to wear them. They looked more like a mini Taliban than ninjas. haha! But they LOVED it!

 

Later it was time for the obstacle course!

The kids started on the swing-set and had to cross without touching the ground.

 

Then the mushroom caps (buckets of different sizes) that the kids had to walk across.

 

The sandbox was meant to be a "spider jump", but the kids chose to walk the sides

instead of jump to the seats in the corners.

 

There was a balance beam.

 

And a climbing wall (thanks, Daddy!)

 

And the big balls to jump, run, or climb across.

 

Then off to the tunnel

 

And the pool noodle hurdles.

 

Finally, they climbed the mountain and ended their run!

 

Here's a few fav pics of Nathan's friends running the course.

 

 

After the obstacle course, it was time to cool off with cake and ice cream!

 

Mommy attempted another challenging cake... and the cake won this year.

It was a bit of a mess... But Nathan still loved it!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

 

I attempted to put ninjas inside each cake. As I said... challenging cake, and the cake won.

I really wanted a photo of all 3 ninjas clearly in the cakes, but I messed it... but, the kids still thought it was cool! And I learned some tricks in the process, so maybe I'll try it again another time. And maybe not ;)

 

The kids all loved the cake, Nathan was so proud.
And it tasted good, too. So all was not lost.

Except Nathan begged me to make him a lemon cake. His favorite color is yellow and he loves lemons... but apparently not lemon cake. Whats up with my kids asking for a certain cake and then not eating it? Faith did the same thing last year when she asked for apple pie instead of cake, and then chose to eat a cupcake instead. ha ha

 

After cake and ice cream, it was time for presents!

Nathan got a bunch of lego kits - he's put almost all together now. Some of them he's done 100% on his own. He's getting really good at following directions and being creative. Not so good at keeping the legos off the floor for mommy's bare feet to find...

 

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER!

Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy has been visiting our house a lot lately. And, the dentist has warned us that there will be many more visits before the year is over!

 

 

After much drama, and three days of trying, Faith lost her first tooth on June 6th!

 

 

 

And it wasn't long, at all, before her big girl tooth took over. In fact, you could see the tips of it when we wiggled her baby tooth.

 

 

 

Faith had a dentist appointment recently, and we learned that big girl tooth #2 is even more impatient! Can you see in the xray, her baby tooth has a long root still, but that big girl tooth is getting close to the surface! So she's going to have to have that baby tooth extracted... The sort of good news is the dentist doesn't have to waste the sedation on just one extraction.... Faith has a couple very small cavities, in between her molars... She also has something called hypoplasia on two teeth - they're yellow, rougher and softer, the enamel never formed properly. We've been watching them for over a year now. Our pediatrician said it could be due to a high fever she had as a baby? Dentist said it could be due to a high fever I had when pregnant with her? Neither every happened though... so no one really knows. We do know that one tooth will be fine, it'll fall out before ever causing trouble. But the one molar already is susceptible to cavities. And the dentist said she'll have that tooth for as much as 5 more years. So, while Faith is sedated, that dentist will pull a baby tooth, fix the cavities and seal her hypoplasia molar. Poor girl doesn't have a clue what's coming...

 

Oh, and Faith has one more weird thing with her teeth - poor girl got the short end of the straw as teeth are concerned! Her upper left lateral incisor (between front tooth and canine) is appearing to be cone shaped... It should be flat. It could be a bad angle on the xray. So we're hoping and praying that's it. But if not, it's not a huge deal... she'll just have a cone tooth for a few years until it's in far enough to fix. But it'll be a year or more, most likely, before we even see that tooth come in.

 

 

 

Then there's Nathan! He lost tooth #4 just 3 weeks after Faith (June 23). His first came out October 13, 2013. The boy has no top teeth now, although his one big boy tooth is slowing poking in.

 

 

No front teeth has not stopped Nathan from eating his favorite food though - corn on the cob.

He's determined!

 

 

Even when it means getting the side of his face covered in butter ;)

The dentist said Nathan has 2 loose teeth, too! One should come out within the month, the other may take longer. The dentist also says his molars are almost in far enough to seal, so they'll do that at his next appointment in January.

 

 

And, of course, no one can forget about adorable Miss Ruthie Bear. This was her 2nd trip to the dentist. The first time, she laid on my lap while the dentist just counted teeth. This time, though, she decided she wanted to sit in the big chair! She liked the apple glasses, too!

 

 

No cavities or loose teeth for Ruth (whew!). She's doing great!

Her second set of molars are coming in, too! A little late, but that's ok :)

Soon she'll have a full set of 20 baby teeth. I'm a little worried about how close her teeth are together, the dentist said that just means she'll probably need braces one day.... yay.

 

 

 

 

Mommy & Daddy got A+s from the dentist, too. 4 out of 5 without cavities isn't bad, I guess... poor Faith though! Pray for her, we haven't yet made her appointment for the extraction/filling/sealing. But I probably should get on that before baby comes....