meeting mason's teacher

it might have been maddux' first day of school, but i was off to a parent infromation meeting with mason's teacher tonight. i don't think they could have paired him with a teacher who would be more perfect for him; she loves math, football and is soft spoken. 

tonight was an explanation of the curriculum and how to communicate with her. we were also given the opportunity to see some of their work. there were a lot of superheroes at mason's table group.

here's to a great school year! love.

positive reinforcement

mason's teacher is ah-mazing at positive reinforcement! she doesn't miss any opportunity to love on her kids and even sends home hand written notes. such a gift for him - and us. love.

first day of school - part one

back to school! two kids off to two schools this morning for their first day. we were a little off of our game because the start times aren't that close together and i wanted a picture of everyone dressed. everyone was a little giddy and silly, but we got a few decent ones.

and the excited 4th grader!

we all drove her over and walked her to the front door. and took a few more pictures. :)

madelyn loves, loves all of the fuss over her first day. she has been looking forward to the first day from the second she got off of the bus on the last day of school.

and then we loaded up and drove mason over to his first day of school. we were pretty early so it was a little more liesurely. although mason does not enjoy the photos and fuss even half as much as madelyn does.

wishing it was his first day and showing off his newest tooth loss - this morning! he was slightly overshadowed.

super excited to see his little friend, paige, who also wished that it was her first day. next week, friends.

they have made it so that we can at least walk the kids back on the first day now. dropping mason off was the first moment i ever met his teacher. we were the first ones there so i asked for a quick picture. then we had to get out of there because mason's desk was right in the doorway and we were blocking everyone else. he was pretty ready for school too.

it is nice to know that the kids are at great schools with good friends, but it will still be weird to be without them all day. love.

kicking off fall activities

now that we know our teachers and the end of summer is becoming very real, we get back into our activity schedule too with the first soccer practice of the season. thankfully the rain never came.

this is mason's first year on the larger field and he is pretty excited about it.

even better was that mason knew four of the kids on his team. looking forward to a great season! love.

two schools, two stops

on our way home from the lake, we stopped at both schools to see which teachers the bigs have as teachers and who would be in their classes. (our district is still old school and posts the lists only on the schools' front doors the friday afternoon before school starts.)

madelyn's school first - she loves her teacher because he is "so funny" but didn't really have any close friends in her class.

then we raced over to mason's (and maddux') school - he has a teacher i don't know but have heard wonderful things about and his very best buddy (and school bus seat mate) is in his class! we really couldn't be happier about this one either.

unfortunately, we didn't have time for our traditional playing on the playground at each school because we are back to a fall schedule.

bring on the school year! love.

like moths to a flame

we might be at the library, but all these boys have eyes for is the jumbo tablet. i usually say no, but today we had time and they enjoyed themselves completely. i should have taken a video because they were quite noisy and competitive. love.

backseat riding

maybe we should have washed that off before church

so this was the glitter tattoo mason picked. (i was not the supervising parent.) when i asked him why he had picked that one he told me that it looked the most like a superhero symbol. that sweet boy.

but then we forgot about it. until i arrived at church this morning. oops.

these tattoos don't wash off in the bath; you need rubbing alcohol. and, you know, planning.

thankfully, no one said anything to mason (or matt or i) about it. i love him. love.

take mason out to the ball game

mason chose to join his baseball team at a pittsburgh pirates baseball game where they were going to get to walk out on the field! it just so happened that the trip was planned for his birthday. we were actually planning a trip to pittsburgh for last weekend but pushed it back when this opportunity came up.

espn bought the rights to the game which caused it to be pushed back from noon to 8pm! yeah, mason and daddy were going to be the only ones going to the game (and the tickets weren't exactly a bargain). they had to show up by like 5:15pm so a quick change after arriving at the hotel and they were on their way (they were able to walk to the field from the hotel).

just before crossing the river to the field.

and the rest of the kids and i were stuck at the hotel fairly early in the evening. the plan was to let them watch some cable (since we don't have it at home), but they didn't offer disney junior and everything else (the few options) were already into age inappropriate programming. but at least we had our swimsuits and could go to the pool. oh, oops. i didn't (and she didn't) pack madelyn's. sigh. there was a lot of crying about this - even the boy who didn't want to go to the pool was suddenly devastated to learn that it wasn't an option. 

our view.

 so we went in search of our own fun.

i tried to get the kids to go with me to explore some sort of street fair (with a large concert stage) outside the hotel but two of the three were terrified of the crowd. they wouldn't even let us walk to look for a restaurant. (i think the problem was i only had two hands and three kids and the crowd was very thick.) so we went back to order dinner instead.

i found an amazing deal on pizza so we got bread sticks that we wouldn't normally order. i was planning on tipping the delivery guy by adding onto my credit card total, but he didn't speak english and there was nothing for me to sign. i seriously felt awful watching him leave without a tip! i had no cash. the pizza was delicious.

train spotting. they asked for the picture to show mason.

we took another spin through the hotel (turns out we weren't able to even find the pool) to try and burn off some of the pizza energy before taking long baths and getting ready for bed. we ended up getting really into the food network shows (madelyn especially!) until they all fell asleep.

meanwhile at the pirates game, mason and daddy were having fun on the field. matt said that the heat and waiting (their team was over an hour earlier than they actually needed to report to the field) really got to mason. they were brought out on the warning track and were able to snap a few pictures.

found the padre's score

i started to get a little nervous towards midnight when they still weren't back and had a decent walk through an unfamiliar city. i was so happy to see them arrive back safely! the birthday boy had a wonderful time and was very excited about all of the 'gifts' he received at the game - a pirates jersey and a hat. not to mention some dippin' dots. happy birthday, sweet boy. love.

mason is 7

and out last birthday kid of the week - mason! his actual birthday is going to be a bit of whirlwind and the first one where i don't get to spend the whole day with him.

we had to wake him up and rush everyone out the door so that we could have his birthday breakfast of choice (dunkin' donuts, specifically their hash browns. if you haven't tried them, you are totally missing out.) and still get to church in time to do all of our setting up tasks.

snapped this cutie while waiting for his hash browns.

breakfast of the birthday boy enjoyed at church.

since the dessert destination of choice is right next to church, we had a pre-lunch frozen treat to celebrate mason. the birthday boy even asked to share a table for two with me.

he let dad pull up a chair to be our third wheel.

and now for most of our kids' dream lunch - mcdonalds! we picked the only one in the area with a playplace so that he could have a little fun before we spent a few hours in the car for his main event... love.

celebrating mason early

we have a very full day tomorrow and mason won't be home tonight so we squeezed in a little skype gift opening with the grandparents in this afternoon. mason wasn't too upset to have to open his gifts early.

showing off his baseball trophy via skype

 maddux was in full sugar mode and a dancing machine.

but mason was not to be distracted...

mason received a special gift from big pop too - his very own padres jersey!

maddux opened some pity gifts.

a yummy dinner ("lobster" rolls, corn on the cob and red potatoes) and we were all off different places for a "boys night" and a "girls night." love.