Down time

Dave traveled up to Memphis for the Gin Show this week and has been gone all weekend as well. We stayed busy with soccer and church but needed some down time (me!!!). I pulled out two things I've been hoarding for quite some time and let Jack draw comic book characters and Theo learn to play the piano ;) Jack has actually really taken to Theo's piano since it breaks down the musical notes.

Graysen's party

Jack's old buddy from Cedarwood had his 6th birthday party this afternoon at the place Jack had his party at last year. He saw a bunch of former classmates since Graysen still goes to Cedarwood. Theo really wanted to play laser tag with the big kids but I put the kill on that idea. Luckily another mom had some spare tokens and it just so happened that Theo hit the jackpot on one of the games, winning him a ring pop. That kept him entertained for the remainder of the party. :)

Throw me something!

My friend Lindsay lives off the parade route here in Mandeville and invited us over for tonight's parade (Eve). Her backyard backs up to the route so they build a makeshift bridge to cross the ditch to the street. It was awesome and we had tons of space since the road was closed all around us. Jack and Theo got tons of stuff and we spent the evening with our friends. Can't beat that!

Batmobile

Theo is our resident costumer. He is constantly pulling out the superhero costumes or masks and is rarely without one or the other. Today he insisted on being Batman and wore the mask the entire ride to school. I barely got him to leave it in the car! He's a mess but we'll keep him :)

Fractions!

Jack's class started fractions last week and here is his worksheet from today. I'm afraid I may need a tutor to help me help Jack with his homework in 1st grade next year ;)

Jack made President Puppets in class today and put on a puppet show for his brother. It was pretty hilarious to listen to. Especially when Theo took the reigns!

Here is Jack on his way out the door this morning. Backpack on, lunch bag in hand. Smile, always!

Theo got in a quick round of I Spy while I was still wiping the sleep from my eyes. The things we do before I even sip coffee in this house ;)

Typical Saturday morning

We're married to soccer right now but Jack's game isn't until lunch time. Theo asked to "rot his brain" (what I call watching too much tv) but I suggested playing this game instead. Now both boys are playing :) Yay!

Why Jack will be an engineer

And I won't! I used the box as a reference to build a marble run for Theo to enjoy this week. Imagine my surprise when I saw this morning that Jack had taken it apart and left it in pieces (I was not happy about that!). I told him he had to put it all back together by himself and left him with the box to look at. Well, he did it and his is better than mine was (of course). We did talk about how it would feel if I took apart his work and just left it in pieces like he did for my marble run. Thank you Grandvonnie for this toy. The boys both love it!

Sweet reward

Jack aced another spelling pre-test meaning that we don't have spelling words to study on Thursdays (if you get 100 on the pre-test then you don't have to take the test on Friday). I told him we'd start a new tradition of getting donut holes on the way to school on Fridays if he got a 100 on his pre-test. He thought that was a GREAT idea :) So did Theo.

Star student

Jack got a certificate today for his All E's report card :) He just LOVES his new school and got a 100 on his spelling test today! The boys celebrated with a Jr. Frosty. If you haven't gotten one for your kids, they are tiny and the perfect size for little ones.

Tea parties with Juliet

Jack gets out of school a full 2 hours earlier than he previously did so we're always getting to do fun stuff before dinner. We've made a couple of visits to my friend Betsy's house to jump on her trampoline. Today the boys got thirsty so Juliet offered up a water "tea" party. There were several servings of "tea" and lots of water being wiped up ;) Theo took a break to write his name. He signed his own name to all of Valentine's cards for his classmates so he's got it down!!

Fun Fun!

Today Theo and I met up with his little friend, Mira and her mom at an indoor bounce house. They just had the best time and pretty much had the place to themselves (score!!!). I love our T/Th together and will sure miss that next year :(

Art class project

Jack started art classes today and came home with this amazing project. Each week is something different and he will be exposed to different mediums like water color and paint as well. He just loved his class and was happy to report that there was another Jack (Have I ever mentioned that we stumbled across about 6 other Jacks after our Jack was born? Popular name back in 2005). Tomorrow is soccer practice! Life is fun when you are almost 6.

Valentine's is taking over my house!

We are SO blessed to be loved by so many people. Our boys in particular! They received tons of cards in the mail and got lots of $5 bills (always to their delight!!) We left them out little boxes of chocolates, a card and Groucho Marx type glasses. They LOVED those and paraded in our room early this morning in their disguises :)

We opened cards from family members before school and they enjoyed several of their chocolate treats ;) The aftermath of cards and candy was impressive.

The weather outside was amazing today so we met up with some friends after school. The kids had more treats and played all together. It was wonderful! We headed home and enjoyed a nice, family dinner together. We all took turns saying what we loved about each other. It was a sweet moment :)

We'll probably be feasting off the candy the boys got from their classmates all week long. I may have to hide it so certain little boys don't get in to it before we wake up!!! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Rock, paper, scissors..... shoot!

We use this method to solve disagreements in our house, particularly relating to first choice or "dibs". Tomorrow Jack gets to wear Valentine socks with his uniform so Dave picked up 2 pair (both really feminine he said.... but there were no other options!). Neither boy wanted the pink socks so we had to do rock, paper, scissors. Theo ended up winning first choice and naturally selected the monkey socks. Jack will be rocking the pink socks tomorrow :)

And here is Theo today. He's always getting in to our toy boxes and pulling out things from the bottom. And leaving trails of toys behind him.

Report card day

Friday was report card day and we're super proud to announce that Jack got all E's (excellent)! His teacher also gave him some sort of assessment and he got a "wow" on it. I've included pictures for grandparents. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the caliber of work he's doing at his new school just blows my mind. Jack was ready for it though and has hit the ground running in the 3 weeks he's been there. We're so proud of you, Jack!