Friday Five

Well, we are all sad to see the last weekend of the summer has arrived. The boys start school on Wednesday. We went and picked up books for everyone this week. We have Jack's class assignment. He approves of his teacher, which is nice. The other two can get their schedules on Monday afternoon.

We still have a couple of questions regarding when they actually have "class" times, but I expect that to get ironed out over the next few days.

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We've found another critter in our garden this week. A katydid was crawling around on the pepper plants. First time we've seen one of them out there.

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Jason's desk area in the boys' bedroom is almost complete. He now has a desk, a shelving unit, and a pretty cool chair. All that's left is some classes to take!

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Jack lost a tooth this week! It was too funny. He's been complaining about this tooth hurting when it was wiggling, so he was reluctant to let us actually pull it out. He did let his dad feel it, but he quickly pulled away. He didn't realize that he pulled away without his tooth! When Jack realized it was gone, he let out a little shocked scream. Made us laugh!

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Shawn has been doing SO well on his math and reading! I am so, so proud of his hard work. He was proud of himself, too, which makes my heart so happy! ❤️

Friday Five

For all I know, picture taking this week was a success! lol. Everyone assured me they had smiled. We shall see what we get when they come in. I'm curious to know if Jack continued the less than stellar pictures tradition. ;)

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Jack lost his sixth tooth this week. (The day after pictures.) He actually lost the tooth at school, which I think is even more impressive! The Tooth Fairy was very kind and brought another gold coin for Jack to enjoy.

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The big boys are loving their teacher this year, and I have to say that I am impressed with how she is building the community in her classroom. She also uses a program called Cl.ass. D.oj.o (without the periods) to give the kids points as positive feedback for their behavior. They later get to trade in their points for prizes from the class store. Both boys think it is awesome! Plus, it is nice because I can keep track of their behavior from home. :)

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In his (their) never ending quest to kill me, Jack managed to knee me in the chin this week. It was innocent enough; I was tickling him when I turned just as he jerked to get away. I swear that kid is S.O.L.I.D. I may have even saw a few stars. lol Anyway, I now have a pretty bruise to show for it. Just another battle wound of a boy mom, I guess.

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 We're hoping for awesome weather next weekend, as the big boys get the chance to go...wait for it...surfing! They'll get wet suits and have their own personal coach and everything. I am so excited for them! It should be really fun!

Friday Five

Mid trimester grades came out today, and both big boys are doing well. Yay! Go boys!

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On Wednesday, Jason informed me that he no longer wanted to use his pencil grip at school because he wants to be like everyone else. So, I asked him how he'd feel if we got pencil grips for everyone in his class. He was all for it! Now he gets to give out pencil grips to his classmates, and they'll all have better writing to boot. :)

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I measure Jack yesterday. He is now 46.75" tall. This puts him solidly in the 99th percentile. Whoa. He is in a growth spurt right now. He just feels bigger all of a sudden.

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Jason isn't feeling well today. He's congested and has a fever. Fingers crossed that is isn't another sinus infection. Sigh.

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Word on the street is that Shawn has himself a girl friend. She's a pretty devoted girl friend at that. lol. Plus, our boy seems to know how to play the game. He's been known to feign hearing loss so she'll lean in and whisper directly into his ear. Can you believe that?! LOL

Now, mind you, I need to make it clear that while she may be devoted to him, our boy is definitely keeping his options open. He's got two other girl friends in the wings!

Friday Five

For some reason, it is comfortable for me to lie on the couch (or bed or wherever) and put my arm straight up in the air. I have always done it, although I probably do it a lot less now than I ever did. Of course, now I have little people to carry on the awesomeness so I don't have to!

Arm up in the air for no reason -- just like his mama.

They all do it, but I'd say Jack does it the most. It cracks me up when I see him doing it.

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Shawn played a little guitar this evening...

He still loves, loves, LOVES music. :)

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Poor Jack is not having a good day. He has slammed his head into the wall (not looking where he was going), smashed his finger (pesky thing got in the way of him banging weights together), and fell off our bed and scraped his back and side.

I think he's going through another growth spurt. He gets extra clumsy during big spurts.

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Shawn is a comedian.

The other day, as Isaac and the boys were getting out of the car, Shawn was "meowing" at me.  Isaac called him Shawnie Cat.

"I'm not a cat.  I'm a skunk." Shawn replied, and before Isaac could question his response, Shawn skunked him!  He let out a huge laugh as he gassed his dad.  

All the way to the door.  

Cracking up while he was doing it.

Have to hand it to the kid for his comedic timing.  lol!

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Jason is really doing well with his reading. He's reading books up to a 5.8 reading level and passing his AR tests with ease. He's already earned 92.6 AR points this year.

Way to go, Jay!

Friday Five

The boys are both happy with their homecoming celebrations, and we've heard that they've told quite a few people at school. Once people understood the boys weren't describing a high school football game, everyone was really sweet with their homecoming well wishes. Even the yard supervisors wished the boys a happy day as they left school.

Makes my heart happy.

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Shawn loves it when the music teacher comes to school. This week they were playing the drums!



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This week, Jack continued with the whole English to Spanish speak that he's been doing. When Isaac cautioned him that climbing on the furniture wasn't such a good idea, Jack replied with a "I'll be careful, daddy." And in case he didn't understand what was said, Jack told him, "Cuidado!" for added emphasis. (Cuidado means "be careful".) Lol.

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We did have to take Jason to the doctor before we left for our trip to Disney. He was diagnosed with yet another sinus infection and was put back on some heavy duty antibiotics which he finally finished this evening. The visit also earned us an appointment with an ear/nose/throat doctor, so we can hopefully get to the bottom of why he is getting infections so frequently. (Aside from the gene pool the boy was blessed with from his parents.) That appointment comes up in a few weeks. Fingers crossed that we can bring the boy some relief.

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Jack helped me make the cake for Jason's Homecoming Day. He is officially hooked on cake making, but I think his favorite part is cracking eggs. He has asked to make another one (and asked to break eggs) every day this week. lol.

Friday Five

When Jason came home with all of his AR prizes last week, he had no idea how many points he had to earn them. I found a bookmark that had his name and a goal of 5 points on it. I was already impressed with him, as I have a number of eighth graders as students who have yet to reach 5 points.

I was blown away when Jason brought home a certificate this week that said he had already earned 35 AR points! That's incredibly all in itself, but it's doubly impressive when you consider that this reflects only books that Jason has read at school! (For some reason he doesn't think he can test on books he's read at home. I'm trying to get him to understand that he can test on those, too, but the boy is stubborn. lol)

We're so proud of him!

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Shawn has been doing so well at school, too. He's really been focused on working hard on his reading. We know it's a challenge for him, and his perseverance makes us super proud of him!

Not only that, he was a rock star again this week on his spelling and once again out performed his brother!

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Something we've had to say far too often this week: "Jack, quit eating the play-doh!"

Sigh. There is something about that orange play-doh that is super appealing.

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Shawn came home today complaining that his tummy hurts and he needed to throw up. Facebook tells me that on this exact day last year he was telling us the same thing. He hasn't vomited yet, but he did go to bed very early and has slept hard since. Poor guy.

We've been very fortunate this year in that the boys have only missed one day of school combined. That is a vast improvement over last year at this time. I think they had missed somewhere around 13 days combined by this point.

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This week we have the boys' school conferences. We look forward to hearing about all of the great things our two little smart cookies are up to. :)

Friday Five

Today, Jason came home with a few Accelerated Reading awards. He earned himself a necklace with three charms, a clip-on book light, and a t-shirt! I asked him what he did to earn all of his prizes, but I don't think he really knows more than he read and then they gave him stuff. lol. I'm sure his teacher will clear that up when we go for their conferences on the 19th.

No matter, though. We are SOOO proud of him!

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This week we had to register the big boys in a fraud protection program because their data was breached from a hospital they went to when they were infants. It seems so wrong that we even have to consider protecting the identities/credit of 8 year olds, but that is, unfortunately, the world in which we live now. Fun times.

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Jack has recently discovered the fun of lying on the ground and finding "pictures" in the clouds. :)

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It came up that grandma and I are going to a baby shower tomorrow. This concept has proven difficult for the boys to wrap their heads around. I must have been asked a million times tonight why I needed to go wash a baby, why grandma couldn't shower herself, and why I couldn't shower in my own bathroom. All of my efforts to explain what a baby shower is have fallen onto deaf ears.

Apparently I need to get these boys out more often. :)

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Shawn has been so sweet with Jack this week. He's been very patient with him and has gone out of his way to play with him several times. Makes me smile to watch them together.

Of course, then Jack gets frustrated and tries to bowl Shawn over, but it's a start!

Friday Five

The boys had an ophthalmology appointment this week. While Shawn's eyes are doing fine (he can see some pretty small writing - sheesh!), Jason's eyes need a bit more support to help strengthen the muscles in one of his eyes. The doctor recommended he now wear his glasses all the time instead of "when needed" like he was doing before.

This did cause some distress for the boy. It has been a while since he wore his glasses full time before, so he was quite worried about what other kids would think of him in specks. I was relieved to hear that the kids thought his glasses were "cool", although there was one kid who said he looked "weird." Thankfully, Jay was able to brush that off and has adjusted back to wearing his glasses.

Now if I could only get used to it again! 

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We found a tomato worm, which means we had to bring him in to see what he does. "Squirt", as he's been named, is enjoying eating yet another of my tomatoes. The boys are amazed that he's so big and eats so much. Lol. 

They'll be so sad when "Squirt" has to meet his demise. Yuck.

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Shawn took his picture retakes this week. I had him wear the exact same shirt as he did the first time, Fingers crossed that it comes out just as cute but with his eyes open!

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Jack tried on his Halloween costume today. I think it is going to be a hit because he looks super cute! Bonus is that he LOVES it!

The other two are going to be just as cute in their costumes. Can't wait!

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The boys' teacher is musically inclined (she plays the piccolo in an orchestra), and this week she had a bunch of musical instruments for the kids to play. Shawn was in heaven!

Shawn likes to rock! Yeah! Playing his guitar!

The boy definitely loves his music, too. :)

We are just so pleased about all of the happy things that are going on in the boys' class this year!

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday to the beginning of school. The boys in kinder...

Jason doing his first homework assignment.

Shawn sitting in his desk on the meet the teacher day.

Cutie patooties!

And we can't forget Jack...

Hanging out at home while brothers were at school! (September 2013)

Friday Five

The boys both had a decent week back at school. The highlight according to Jay was that one of the little girls broke her ankle and they got to sign her cast. Lol. Shawn's highlight was that he got to play Bingo and call out the numbers. He thought it was pretty awesome that he won the game while he was at it!

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Just got word that starting next week, the boys will have to do weekly book reports. Someone kill me now. This does not sound at all fun for me...I mean them. ;)

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Potty training = so! much! fun! 

Or, you know, not. 

He completely understands what he needs to do. He can do it. But, his desire to walk away from whatever he is doing to go pee in the potty is pretty much non existent. And he's stubborn, which of course comes directly from his father. Ahem.

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A cute thing that Jack started doing is to bring his stuffed Mike, from Monsters, Inc., to lunch every day. Mike sits at the table and "eats" with us. Jack insists I feed Mike whatever he's eating, too. The funniest part is that Mike has this way of eating all of his food the second my back is turned. Cracks me up! 

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Jack continues to hone his photography skills. He managed to get a hold of my camera this week and took these...

Not too shabby!

Spring Pictures Are Here!

I am THRILLED! :)

Can't you just die from the cute? Love them!

*Unfortunately my scanner is not playing nice with my computer, so you'll have to settle with pictures of pictures. The real deal is even better! ;)

Friday Five

One of Jack's bedtime stall tactics is to call out that he's hurt himself. The latest is, "Mooooom, I hurt my knee!" only instead of "knee", he says "kneed" because he's a little congested. It is pretty dang cute. :)

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We got a notice from school saying that our Mr. Shawn is getting an award next week! We're so proud of him. Now we just have to wait to see what the award is for. Go Shawn!

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Chores update: The big boys are doing super well with their chores! They, especially Jason, also are doing super well with remembering when they are supposed to get their allowance. lol

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Shawn played with newspapers the other afternoon. Of course, once he was done, his hands were black with ink. As I was helping him wash his hands I told him we needed to get all the ink off of his hands.

"Ink? Like Monsters, Inc.?" he asked. It cracked me up. A bonus was that I got to give Shawn an English lesson on homophones while we were at it. I can't wait for him to pull that word out of his repertoire at school one day. :)

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Sunday is Shawn's 7th Homecoming Day. The boys have been counting down to it for a while now. I've got a cake planned and his gift is ready to wrap. All we need is for Shawn to decide what he wants to do that day! Yea!

Jason's Holiday Performance!

The week before Christmas the big boys had two holiday performances. Sadly, both boys were sick for the first performance. Shawn was still sick for the second performance (totally bummed about that, too!), but Jason was well enough to go to school and participate. I warn you. He's too cute, if I do say so myself! :)

http://youtu.be/xD-hfoYS3QY

Friday Five

I got a text from a friend today which asked us if we had a "'virus free' holiday weekend." I had to laugh, because of course we did not. I'm guessing we have about ten more years or so before we can be so lucky! lol.

Speaking of viruses, Shawn is feeling a bit better although he is still a bit (well...a lot) grumpy. Jason still has a yucky cough. Jack is still Jack, so who knows what's going on with him. ;)

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Jason declared his like for one of the side dishes he had for Thanksgiving yesterday. Today I gave him some for dinner. He grimaced his way through and immediately followed each bite with several gulps of water. The verdict is still out as to whether he truly "likes" said dish or if he is merely tolerating it.

I'm fairly certain it may be the latter.

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Jack has been a crack up lately. Tonight he found a round block. He pushed that thing all over the living room while saying, "Oh no! The letter 'O' is getting away from us! Let's chase it! Oh no!" While the comedy of the scene may not translate well into words, believe me when I say it was hilarious. :)

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We got the nicest text from one of the boys' teachers yesterday:

"I am blessed having you as students! Happy Thanksgiving Shawn and Jason!
Love,
Mrs. C"

She always tells us when she sees us about how much she loves our guys. It is really very sweet. And clearly she is a brilliant woman. Ahem.

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Snuggles with the littlest. He loves my "tickly hair." lol

Pictures Are Here! Pictures Are Here!

I will admit to anxiously awaiting the boys' school pictures this year. Today, we finally got the pictures! Like last year, I was so excited to see them; I could barely contain myself.

Before we get to this year's pictures, I think we should revisit last year's beauties. Here's Shawn...




And Jason (it always makes me chuckle to see this picture!)...

Here are the pictures from this year! First Shawn...

Look at how big he looks now?! Where is my baby? He looks so cute, and I have to say that it cracks me up that after all that stress over trying to get him to pull his front teeth, you can't even see he has teeth anyway. lol. The only thing I would change is the black bar behind his head; it was the chair in which he was sitting. (I'm seriously questioning the photographic abilities of this company because common sense would dictate for someone to get a different chair, but whatever.)

Here is Jason...

Jason looks so grown up, too. I love, love, LOVE how cute he looks in his shirt and tie. Plus, he is very proud of himself for smiling for the camera. lol! We may need to work a little more on his smile, but it is too cute nonetheless. ;)

These two always make me smile. I'm a lucky mama!

Spelling Test #2

Today the boys had their second spelling test. They were given 5 words: have, find, to, one, who. They practiced and practiced, and I'm proud to say that Jay missed zero on his test, while Shawn only missed one. (He missed "fine", which he KNOWS, but he added his OWN NAME to the word when he wrote it...which...you're killing me here, kid!)

Anyway, both the boys did really well, and we're very proud. :)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

I think these pictures do a great job speaking for themselves...

The boys rocked their first spelling test of their academic career! Way to go, boys!!!

Friday Five

Jason declared today that he needed a tie and a shirt to wear for picture day on Monday. He wants to look "fancy." Of course we don't have anything that would pass for a dress shirt, and we certainly don't have tie for him, so it looks like I get to go shopping this weekend.

I asked him if he was going to smile for the picture this year or if he was going to take one last year. He simply gave me his "Mother, please stop. You're embarrassing yourself." look and rolled his eyes. I'm taking the exchange as a sign that he'll smile this time. It can happen.

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Shawn's two front teeth are very loose. I am doing all I can to help those teeth fall out before Monday, because a toothless school picture is a must have if you can work it. (Jason had already lost his teeth and gotten his adult teeth before he entered kinder!)

Fingers crossed for me (ok, us). A tie for one boy AND a toothless grin for another in a picture would totally make the school year!

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Jack woke us up this morning with a "Hey! Hey! Are you awake?" It's totally cute until you realize that he's hollering at the top of his lungs and the sun hasn't even come up yet.

He is becoming a morning person.

Help me. That makes two of them! He is joining Shawn in the world of the early risers.

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Yesterday (Thursday), during the math lesson, Shawn told his aide that he was going to rest, and then proceeded to put his head down on his desk and SLEPT for TWENTY minutes. (Mortifying much? Jeez.) We've since added discussions on how "we do not sleep at school" to our daily run down of do's and don'ts.

OMG. I totally blame* this on him being a morning person, you know. It is not right to get up at 6 am each morning.

*It was most likely a combination of being awakened by Jack at 4:30 am and some cough syrup he took before he went to school.

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I also wanted to mention that the boys were rock stars at the appointment they had on Wednesday. The entire trip took approximately 7.5 hours, and yet they did very little complaining the entire time. The best news is that both boys let the nurses take their blood pressure! Shawn has never allowed any doctor to take his blood pressure, and Jason has only allowed it one other time. The fact that they both did it this time was pretty dang amazing for Isaac and I. Plus, they both laid on the exam table, another part of doctor trips that always scared them, without a peep! They were so brave!

We are so proud of them, too!

Their First Book Orders

With the boys' homework packet this week, there was a book order form. I glanced at it briefly before giving it to Jason to peruse. He oohed and aahed his way through it before finally asking if he could pick out something to order. I didn't think it would be any big deal; the prices that I saw were all in the $1 - $3 range. Besides, I fondly remember my own days looking through book flyers for the perfect book to pester my mom to buy me.

"Sure," I told him. "Pick out whatever you want."

I'm cringing as I type that, because of course Jason went right to work and found the most expensive item in the book. Behold his selection:

You're looking at a $14.00 set of 5 Hot Wheels books. Sigh.

In all honesty, I doubt there was any way my boy could have resisted the lure of the wheels that are hot. Actually putting race cars on the covers just sealed the deal. They had my boy the moment they put that picture in the flyer.

Thankfully, Shawn was a bit more modest about his selection when it was his turn. He went straight for the set of two menacing shark books.

 

They are now dying to get their books and they don't think there is any way possible they'd survive the two weeks they'll have to wait before they come. Well, it was Jason who doesn't think he'll be able to make it through the wait. Shawn was all what-evs about it. lol

I LOVE that I've got me some readers!

The Day Through a Series of Texts

Today was my first day with students of the school year. As if that wasn't stressful enough, this is what happened today while I was teaching.

It started with a call from the school at approximately 8:45, which was just after Isaac had text to tell me he had dropped the boys off at school...

I'm so glad I answered my phone when the nurse called, because I usually can't while I'm at school. (Thankfully, she called at the end of my prep period.) Isaac didn't respond to my text, so I quickly called him before my next class started. This is his account of what happened when he went to go get Shawn.

Whew, right? Poor Shawn. Poor Isaac! What a mess.

A sick kid + fire alarm + school drama + a little exterminator action (why not at that point?) = a pretty busy day for dad.

Thank goodness for Super Dad to the rescue! No doubt about it, Isaac earned yet another Father of the Year award today.

The good news is that Shawn is feeling better. He managed to eat a few bites at dinner (and hold them down!) and spent the evening tired but acting fairly normal with the exception of his runny nose/congestion. He'll probably be good to go in the morning.

Jason is no longer nauseous, although he is still pretty congested and coughing.

The bad news is that I just heard Jack cough. Looks like round three of the crud will begin soon enough. Boo.