Kindergarten!!!

My big kid started Kindergarten this week!

Side Note: When I first got the letter telling me who his teacher is and that he got extended day I told him, "Guess what?!? You got all day kindergarten! And your teacher is going to be Miss Butler!" He giggled. I just stared at him straight faced and said "what's funny?" He kind of looked at me weird, didn't answer, and stopped giggling. :) Hee hee. I couldn't let him think his teachers name was funny, but I did get a kick out of the fact that he's a 5 year old boy and he knew better than to tell me that it's funny because her name sounds like "butt." Smart kid.
He goes to school Monday-Thursday 9am until 3:45pm. On Friday he goes 9am to 1:30pm. He loves eating lunch at school, but is still getting used to having to eat quickly. The first day he ran out of time and only ate his apples and half of his sandwich. I was very impressed that he didn't eat his Zinger first! I let him eat it after school. Yesterday he bought a lunch because he wanted chicken and noodles. Turns out he didn't like it very much and didn't end up eating hardly anything. He decided lunch from home is pretty good.

Monday morning was a little emotional. I was surprised that I teared up. I have been sending Weston to preschool at this same elementary school for the last two years, but leaving him all day. Not spending lunch time with him. It was a little hard to let go. He had no problem running into the classroom though. He had a couple friends from preschool in his class, so maybe that helped him adjust.
Yesterday he told me that his best friends that he plays with in class are all girls. I told him that it's fine to be friends with girls. I asked him if there were any boys he likes to play with, but he said he mostly sticks with the girls because the boys all play rough and mess around in class. But not him. He's such a funny boy. I love him. I hope he does find a boy or two to be friends with though.

I quite like his teacher. She seems very organized. Weston has a little 10 minute homework assignment each night plus 20 minutes of reading. So far he's been a little cocky about his homework, saying that it's too easy for him. It kind of is true, but I'm attempting to teach the kid some humility, so I point out the things he can do better on with writing his name, learning to read, etc. Needless to say Weston is more than ready for this leap into school and I am so proud of my cute, smart, sensitive kindergartner!

As for us non-kindergartners . . . we are bearing the absence of the 5 year old tolerably well. The first day Davin asked where Weston was three different times. Today we went on our first outing without him. It was fun. I met up with a friend and her little girls at Wheeler Farm. I am enjoying having some more one on one time with Davin and Talia. The house is MUCH quieter with Weston gone. Also I feel like I can finally get and keep my house clean. It's amazing how much more chaos and mess there is with 3 kids home all day compared to just 2.

I think we are all still adjusting to our new schedule. It will change again next week when Davin starts preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays. I asked Davin if he likes being home with me and Talia. He said "Yeah, but I wike to go to school too." Mixed reviews for Mom. :) Anyway, here's some photos from our farm fun today!

10 Years

Has it really been ten years since I graduated from high school? In some ways it feels like that ten years has flown by, but in other ways it has been an eternity. We finished off our California trip with a night in downtown Fullerton for my 10 year Sonora High School reunion. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it really was a ton of fun and I'm very glad I went. I got to see lots of old friends that I had lost contact with or just hadn't physically seen in a long time.

I spent most of the night talking (more like yelling actually since the music was ridiculously loud). Ian was a good sport and came with me. He shook hands and looked handsome. :) I loved seeing how everyone's lives have played out since high school. I was definitely not the norm having been married for almost 8 years and with 3 kids, but this is exactly where I wanted to be in life. No regrets. I could have stayed and visited for another hour or longer since I was having such a blast catching up with people, but around 10:30 we headed home since we had a looong drive on Sunday.

Me and Steve Herring

Sarah Stein (friends since 3rd grade), me, Ian, Stephanie (drill team bff), Stephanie's husband, Ashley Glass

Some of my old teachers from HS . . . Mr. & Mrs. Clark, my swim coach Mr. Hawkins, and Mr. & Mrs. Boothroyd (they got engaged my junior year).

Victor, Kiren, and me. These are seriously two of the funniest people I know.

Me and Ashley Mains. I have been friends with Ashley forever. I think 1st grade? It was really great to catch up with her!

Stephanie, me, and Kristina . . . drill team buddies! So fun to see these girls!

Stephanie and me. I wish we lived closer!

Kristen, Kiren, Monique, and me. We always ate lunch together. Good times.

Me and Mackenzie. We were swimming bff's and worked on lots of projects for classes together over the years.

Sunday we drove all the way home. It was uneventful, just long. I sure do love California. The more I think about where I want to ultimately raise my family the more I find myself searching for a place as awesome as southern California. I don't know if anywhere else compares. In the meantime we will keep enjoying our trips.

It has been good to be home. We enjoyed every second of the last of our summer. It is still hot, but the pool will be closing after this next weekend and school has started, so the summer is mostly over. Speaking of school . . . Weston is at his first day of all day kindergarten right now. I sure hope he is enjoying it. Talia is napping and Davin is watching a movie. I think I'm going to like the school years.

Beach Day

Friday we packed up the car and headed down to Corona Del Mar for the day. It was absolutely gorgeous weather. Hot in the sun, but there was a cool breeze. The water felt good too. Not that we went in past our knees or anything, but still. The boys loved digging, but did NOT love the sand that they both managed to get in their eyes. Weston had to go to the showers to rinse his face and when he came back he zonked out on the blanket for about 45 minutes. I covered him all up with a towel so he didn't get fried. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him sprawled out asleep in the sun. We love the beach!
Talia LOVED the waves! She would kick and giggle and make all kinds of cute noises while we just stood there holding her hands. Talia got a little 20 minute nap in my arms, but other than that she didn't sleep. I was impressed with how happy she was without a good nap.
After a few hours we got in the car and drove up to Long Beach. We stopped in to visit with Grandma Snowball for a little bit and also got to see Aunt Chris and Uncle Dick for a couple minutes.
We ended our beach day down at Pooh's beach for the Olson Family Beach Party. It was a blast! We roasted hot dogs, brats, and sausages, made smores, got to see all the family (including Brad and Mel!), celebrated birthdays, and the kids got to go on a pirate treasure hunt. Ian and I snuck away for a quick walk along the beach too. It was a long day and we were all pretty beat by the end, but we had so much fun. I sure miss living close to the beach.

Travis, Lance, Ian, and I at the Olson Family Beach Party

Uncle Rich and my dad. Such handsome guys. :)

Mel, Grandpa Olson, and Uncle Devar

Pirate Treasure Hunt!

Me and my sweetheart . . . Long Beach August 2011

More Cousins!

Holy cow I haven't posted in forever! Sorry! We have just been busy getting and keeping the house clean and trying to squeeze every last fun drop out of the last few weeks of summer. I can't believe that Weston starts Kindergarten next Monday. We went and met his teacher yesterday and had his assessment. He is more than ready for school, and I think he is going to have a great experience.

I never finished blogging our California trip . . . shame on me! This is from our second cousin day. On Thursday of our trip we drove out to Palmdale to spend some time with Aunt Teri, Uncle Mike, and Ian's cousins Todd and Jenni and their cute kids. They also hadn't met Talia yet, so Aunt Teri needed some good baby snuggles. We had a blast visiting, swimming, and letting the kiddos run around. It's always so fun to see the Williams'!

Weston and Preston were buddies and got along great!

Talia getting to know Brooke a little better. Such pretty little girls!

Cousins!!!

Wednesday was cousin day! Joy and the girls came over for a fun day and a sleepover. We had a pirate and princess tea party at lunch. It was great. The kids loved picking out their tea cup and eating fun foods. Weston planned a Music Show after the tea party, so when we had eaten our fill of chocolate sandwiches, Cheetos, and cupcakes, we headed into the music room. Lizzie and Mimi played the piano for us. Weston played a song on the instrument he built. Davin danced while Rachel played a song on an instrument she built, and the adults even got in on the action. Mom, Joy, Jules, and I sang "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast and did a kick line. I'm pretty sure the kids thought we were crazy. They just stared at us when we finished. :)
Later that afternoon we slicked everyone up and went down to South Coast Plaza for a grandparents and grandkids photo shoot. It turned out cute, but I might be biased.
By the time we finished up with the pictures we were all ready for dinner. We thought we would drive down and have dinner at the Newport Beach Spaghetti Factory, but when we got there and couldn't find a place to park we found out there was an hour wait, so we turned around and drove back to Fullerton. Needless to say it was a late dinner. I kind of thought it would be a disaster going to a sit down restaurant with six kids when they are all usually in bed, but they were great. It was low key and fun to all be together. Plus the food tasted amazing.
We were all ready for bed by the time we got home, so we set up sleepover central for the kids in the music room and got everyone settled. They were surprisingly good about going to sleep and not waking up at the crack of dawn. Although I think Rachel's middle of the night snit with Mimi will be immortalized. Around 2am Rachel woke up and realized that Mimi had stolen her blanket, so she ran down the hall screaming at the top of her lungs "Mimi's bugging me!!!" Luckily Auntie Jules, Grandma B, and Joy all descended on her quickly and took care of the situation. :)
In the morning the cousins all played together until we finally decided we had better get ready for the day. The Henshaw's headed home and we packed up the car and drove out to Palmdale to visit some more cousins. We sure love cousin time.