School Days!!!

Wow I am way behind on my blog posts! Sorry about that! Here are a few pictures from the first days of school. 

Jacob is in his last year at preschool! We are lucky because he gets to go to the school I work at and he is considered a "reverse mainstream" kiddo so other students in his class have various extra needs! We sent him in crocs (even though I knew better) because his new shoes had already broke the elastic that held the top together. Well, he had quite the tumble on the playground and everyone game me a hard time of course! I am part of the crew that tell parents what shoes are best! Whoops!

Here he is (in new shoes #2) at the end of the day in my office. He loves the end of the day because him and his friend Allie get to rule the school while Nicole and I try to work a bit longer (which hasn't been as successful as we thought because those two together are quite a pair!)

Needless to say this has also happened nearly everyday on the way home. He's having a tough transition!

Here is my second grader! She has grown up so much! As you can see her favorite colors are blue and green and she loves her new shoes! She is very excited this year to have her friends Kambry and Alex in her class!

Emily posing in front of her first masterpiece, she drew a picture of herself, Jacob, and Grandma Dierking!

Megan and one of her closest friends Kambry at the JCPS BBQ and Football game. The girls loved hanging out together and Megan was very sad when it was time to go!

Here's Emily and Kambry watching the game. Emily looks so old these days!

And our boy Jacob who is now wanting to practice football!

Here is another first day of school pic from Sue! He is always the milk helper (except for one day they make him choose something else!). The loves to roam the halls to get milk with his teacher in case he can see me and so he can wave at everyone else!

Before school!

And here is our newest family picture! We always have a picture taken at the BBQ each year!  

Here is the picture from last year!

End of Summer Fun!!!

Jacob was being very helpful showing Emily how to work the hose!

Emily is definitely full of life! She's almost always wearing a smile!

Megan learned how to swim this summer and as a reward, my dad had said he'd get her something really special. Well, she has wanted a turtle for years and Michael and I have said no because they live forever and become very large meaning bigger tanks or ponds. So Megan decided she was going to have Pop-Pop get her a turtle! Here is the set up and she is in heaven! In the e-mail he sent her it said one or two turtles so of course we now have 2 turtles! She's still deciding the perfect names too! So now she has 2 aquatic turtles, 1 fish, 1 leopard gecko Tinkers, and our family dog Shoney.

Here she is holding one (don't worry she is washing her hands after holding the turtles. She loves moving things around in the tank and just watching the turtles swim around!

A little grainy but here's another picture. All of the kids have been enamored with the new additions!

Here they are basking on their turtle deck!

Megan volunteered with her American Heritage Girl group to collect donations for the food bank buddy pack program. This program sends a bag of food home for the weekend. Most of the kids at my school receive these buddy packs so it was a nice connection for Megan to make. Also Megan shocked me by going up to strangers (who were desperately trying to not make eye contact) and hand out the little shopping slips of paper. She was very outgoing with it and is asking to do more!

Cousins Luke and Adam came over and the boys had a blast with the train track. Part of it fell down after they left but Jacob made it again and was super proud! He is definitely a train master!

Megan is losing teeth left and right these days! This last tooth she decided she wanted to keep so she wrote to the tooth fairy to ask if she could still have the money but keep the tooth...the tooth fairy wrote back no so she decided to keep the tooth...that's my science kid!

I'm not sure who was more excited to find a lego boat that actually floats in the water!

Megan recently participated in the gymnastics showcase at the gym. She did a wonderful job! She was a little nervous at first which made me realize that these practice showcases are as important as the practicing because she has to learn how to do it all with lots of people watching her!

Happy 7th Birthday Megan

Megan is now a proud 7 year old! She has really taken off like a fish this summer and wanted to have a pool party. It was a lot of fun even if it was a little chilly but kids and kids and didn't mind!

The Jungle Pool cake turned out pretty good!

Here's the birthday girl!

I wonder what she wished for?...Probably more animals!

Present time!

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Jacob and Emily with Kambry, Davin, and Sophie in the pool! I promise I will get pictures of Megan swimming on here soon!

Artsy Project

I really wanted a certain quote on my wall at work and couldn't find it anywhere to buy so I decided to do a little DIY craft project which turned out to be a great family project!

Jacob really enjoyed painting his canvas! His is still in progress but we plan to put some superheros on his and paint the top black!

Emily also liked painting and for now because the canvas is a little pricey she's painting the back!

After the first layer dries overnight we add the stickers.

This was my practice one to see if it really worked.

Then you paint over it with the top color.

Take the stickers off and touch up the paint a little and this is the final project!

Here is Megan's before.

She was really excited about her picture and said that she wouldn't trade it for anything, "not $1000 or even a six flags ticket!"

We had a lot of fun taking the picture!

She was told not to smile and this is what happened!

Emily has now started to want to paint all of the time and it's her most asked for activity!

After all of that, this is my final project. The blue is a little brighter in person and I finished it last night at 2am! The colors match my new curtains that a friend is making for my office and I am actually putting pictures on the wall and really moving into my office (after 3-4 years it's finally time!). Pictures of the office will come later!

Our last week of Mommy's summer

My last week off went by way too quick. I scheduled 3 doctor's appointment, 3 dentist's appointments, 3 haircuts, plan Megan's party, and then after making all of those decided to send Megan to Camp Invention (science camp). It took a village this week and I couldn't have done it without my mom, Michael's mom, and my friend Mindy!

Jacob's new favorite past time is to dress Emily up like a super hero and they run around fighting each other or bad guys!

Jacob getting his first ever checkup. The dentist was a little surprised by the severity of his overbite and unfortunately he has his first cavity and needs to go to a pediatric specialist because he wasn't a big fan of the dentist.

Tall towers!

We've rediscovered domino's at our house too so our living room is covered in domino's!

Emily and I happened to be at the Runge when they were feeding the turtles!

I stopped by my office for 10 minutes tops and Emily was happily coloring one minute and the next she snuggled up and fell asleep. This is the first time any of our kids have ever just laid down on the ground and fell asleep! Of course she didn't nap after her 5 minute power nap on the floor!

Megan and a partner made the amazing duck chucking device that was luckily chosen to go home with her partner's family! She had a blast at camp this week and although she was nervous at first being the only girl in her group she quickly got over it and dived in! I'll post a picture of her spinning machine later, it's a little scary with toothpicks spinning quickly with the use of a battery! She really stepped out of her comfort zone and learned new fun dances, made new friends, and learned so much science stuff that she's even more dedicated to her love of science than before!

As you can see their machine was the largest in the group and the only one that didn't use the green flexible stuff to chuck their ducks!

Yea for the PB & J!!!

Our summer is starting to wind down and we are enjoying it as much as we can!

We went to the Turtle Time at the Runge and the kids had a great time.

Life changing moment...Emily is finally eating peanut butter and jelly! We've offered it probably 4 times a week since she was eating solids and she is finally (not regularly) eating the sandwich!

And liking it!

The kids love to invent all kinds of things and this day was no exception. They invented a train and loved it! In the background is their "movie theater" which they also enjoyed!