Teacher Work Day

I wanted to do something fun with Lucas on his first teacher work day. We chose a round of putt-putt with our buddies, Blane and Rob (Blane's dad). It was so much fun! I felt like I was at the beach : ) This was L's first time playing. He took is seriously at first, but then got silly with Blane. After the game we let the boys run around and pretend that they were playing all of the games.

Lucas, Blane and Lucas E.

Inventing some entertainment...

Grandma is here!

My mom came to my rescue this week by visiting us for almost a week. She came for a week last year and helped me with some home organizing and it was time for another visit. But in between all of the work, she enjoyed time with the kids. She even walked Lucas to school most days! He was so proud to show her the way...

And Ellen was proud to be a goofball.

Date Night

Sleeping Cow

The Chick-f*l-a cow. She is scared of it and will hardly look at it, but then talks about it all the time! She has even said she wants to go there for her birthday dinner and have him give her a balloon! Anyway, I thought it would be cute for her to dress up like him for Halloween, so I bought this costume at C*stco. She looks like the cutest thing ever in it, but says she doesn't want to be a cow because she is scared of him.

Relative Day at Lucas's School

To kick-off having parents volunteering in the classroom, Lucas's teacher read them a story called, The Relatives Came. After the story she pretended like she heard something in the hallway and opened the door to find many of the parents in the hall!

The first two pictures are of the classroom full of parents and children...

This is a picture of Lucas holding a pencil that he got to choose as a reward for getting five stickers on his sticker chart. We learned in the open house meeting last week that she prefers to have a reward system instead of a stop light discipline system. The children get stickers for good actions, like helping a classmate. When they get 5 they get to choose a small reward from the grab bag. Usually it is a privilege, like getting to bring a stuffed animal to school the next day.

Special Day with Ellen

Ellen was out of school today so she and I had a special morning at Marbles, the children's museum. She went straight for the babies, her favorite section by far. After she changed all of their diapers and got them dressed, it was okay to move on. And, by the way, if you are wondering what she wants for her birthday it is a baby doll with a penis (just like the ones they have at Marbles!)

Here she is talking to the baby and telling it not to go poo-poo in his pants again!

Then we lounged around on the big steps for a few minutes.

After the stairs and a quick snack, we worked on making some pizza. First she put on the toppings...

The she put it in the oven...

And then she delivered it!

Finally, she sat in the oven : )

Happy 8th Birthday to Tyson!!!

One of the loves of my life turned 8 today : ) To celebrate we took him on a trip to a doggy boutique and picked him out some special treats. Here we are on our way. We always joke that when we take Tyson in the car he doesn't know if we are going just down the street or driving all the way to Florida.

Celebrating his big day with him. Ellen even wore her dress with doggies on it.

Lucas decided that the perfect "cake" was a hamburger shaped cookie...

A view of the fans...

Jeff has loyal fans that get up before dawn to then go stand on the side of the road and see him pass by every 30 minutes for just long enough for a wave. They were troopers though and seemed really enjoy it!

Go Daddy!

Our triathlete is a little shy about pictures, so I tried to post ones that were taken from far away. Jeff has improved his ranking by 40% over the past 5 years. We are proud of him, or at least I am, for the good example he is setting for Lucas and Ellen! I always remind him, however, that I did the first triathlon : )