Kindergarten!

Today was Collin's first day of Kindergarten! It feels like we have been building up to this day since before he was born. We moved to Watauga when I was about 6 months pregnant with Collin and part of the reason we chose this location was to be inside of Birdville ISD which has always had a pretty good reputation. We have driven by the elementary school so many times and talked about when he would finally get to walk through those doors. Today was a big day.

When Collin woke up he wasn't quite as excited about school as he was last night when he went to sleep. He wouldn't admit to being nervous and never said he was scared or that he didn't want to go, but honestly, how can you not be nervous? Timothy and I both had the day off work so that we would be able to drop off and pick him up. We had planned to go out to breakfast before school, but Collin said that he would rather just have cereal at home if that was alright. Owen was really sad about this because that child is in love with Whataburger breakfast for some reason. Collin said he didn't mind if we took Owen there to eat after we dropped him off, but he would still rather eat at home today.

Since we had planned to go out we were actually really early getting ready so we had plenty of time for pictures.  At first he didn't want to show his face, but it's a nice shot of his backpack. (Which I got on SALE from the Disney store and even had his name embroidered on it.)

Then he agreed to turn around.

And of course Owen had to be included too. This is a big day for him too. He is used to his Bubba being right down the hall at daycare all day so this will be a bit of a change for him as well.

Waiting in from of the school. All out of smiles at the moment.

Sitting at his desk with his name tag on.

He did a great job and wasn't upset at all. He was a little shy sitting at a table with other kids he didn't know, but he does have a friend in his class from daycare. They are so sweet together and run up and hug every day, just so happy to see each other. And they call each other 'Bud', it doesn't get much more manly than that even if you do hug all the time. :-)


As for me, I was a bit worried that I would lose it and cry all the way home with Timothy dragging me to the car, but it was really okay. We walked him into class at 8:00 and put his things away and did pictures and hugs and we were still outside before the tardy bell rang at 8:10. I think that's pretty good for the first day. I'm still terrified that he will get lost in that big school, or something will go wrong with the daycare bus dropping him off or picking him up, but now we are past the first day and it should be all down hill from here. Right?

After Timothy and Owen and I finally got our Whataburger, I took Owen to play with sweet Sadie for a little bit. It was a rather impromptu play date (Is it still a play date if my main motivation is to spend time with my friend?) but I was so happy to be able to go today. Sally and I met on the first day of school twenty years ago. (You know, when we were like one, because I'm not that old!) I don't get to see her as often as I would like, but I'm very grateful to have her in my life.

Owen fell asleep on the way home, still trying to talk the whole way bless his heart. After taking him home and resting a little bit I ran to Wal-Mart because suddenly I had decided that any decent mother would have freshly baked cookies for her little boy on his first day of school. Also, I had an idea for a gift for him. I bought this material called organdy (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) which is thin and sheer like organza but made from cotton instead of silk. (Totally just ripped that off Wikipedia because I am NOT that crafty.) Anyway, I got a gray color with glitter sparkles in the material so Collin could have an Invisibility Cloak like Harry Potter. He told me the other day that he wanted one. It's amazing how 2 yards of unaltered material can make a boy so happy! He loved it!

**Side note - The little old lady at the cloth counter asked what I was making with the material and I told her fully expecting to get a glassy eyed stare and that look that you get when you admit to being a nerd. She completely surprised me by being a fellow Harry Potter fan and thought the cloak was an awesome idea. She had to be 80 years old. She excitedly told me that she owned all the movies released so far and can't wait to go back and see the new one in the theater again because she wants to see it in 3D this time! I told her I'm not that fond of 3D movies and I'm too old for them. She told me that it's important to act like a kid for as long as you possibly can and she still tries to do that every day. I sincerely hope I can be that cool when I grow up.**

Collin gave me little tidbits from his day which is as much as you can expect from someone his age. He had fun in Gym, didn't have enough time to eat all his lunch, and he was good in class and his clothespin got to stay in the green section. He was a little mad at us for picking him up because he wanted to ride on the daycare bus with his friend, but there will be plenty of time for that. In the car on the way home he asked me if he could eat the rest of his apple sauce when we got home. Um, you mean the applesauce in the little plastic cup with the foil lid you peel off? The one that is not resealable? Yup, all over the brand new lunch bag! Ew!

So we learned today that if you open the apple sauce and don't finish it, it's still okay to throw it away. I can't wait to see what other new things he will learn this week.

Happy Birthday Owen!

Owen's 3rd birthday was yesterday (the 12th) and we had his party today. He had a great time with both. He knew his birthday was on Friday and every day this week when he woke up the first words out of his mouth were "Is it Friday today?" Collin and I woke him up singing Happy Birthday and he popped right up and bounced all over his bed saying "Yay! Yipee! Yay!"

I was kinda bummed that I wasn't able to take the day off work to spend with him, but we will have a parents/Owen day on Collin's first day of school in a week. We started the day with donuts at his request. He had a hard time deciding between the donut shop and Whataburger for breakfast, but let's face it, we all knew what would win in that contest. We took cupcakes to daycare to share with his class and after school we all went to Cici's Pizza, which my boys consider to be just as cool as Chuck E Cheeses. (I'm so grateful for that since it's way easier.)

We came home with pockets full of candy from the game room and Owen got to open some presents. He got a Perry the platypus and a Daisy Duck stuffed animals. (The Daisy was to complete his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse collection.) He also got a Mickey Mouse DVD and a lightsaber that Collin picked out for him.

We had his party this morning with lots of Nowells and Wiethoffs to bring in the fun. Collin and Owen had a blast playing with Cooper and Sadie and Annie. One of my favorite parts was when Collin and Cooper had what looked like a lightsaber fight, but was actually a wizard duel using the lightsabers for wands and casting Harry Potter spells. It was awesome! I love our geek kids!

Everyone seemed to enjoy Owen's pink cupcakes even though by the end of the party he said he favorite color was no longer pink but purple now. It was super nice to visit with everyone today.

My blondy bear is growing up and is so full of energy. Hobbies include bouncing off the walls, throwing things, falling down, wrestling with his brother, and running around in circles. He has almost no attention span, but makes up for it with a lot of attitude! He is the best and I am so grateful for him and the chance to watch him grow.

Date Night

For a few weeks now, Collin has brought up several times that he wanted to take me out on a date. There were several rules that he explained to me about how this was supposed to happen. First, I would be required to wear a dress. Second, we had to go out at night when it's dark. (That one didn't happen because it doesn't get dark until after 9:00 or something.) Third we had to go to a nice restaurant, specifically, Red Lobster. He was terribly sweet and cute about the whole thing. I asked what he was going to wear since I had to dress up. He said he thought he should have a white shirt with a tie. Since he doesn't own either of these two things I told him he didn't have to if he didn't want to. His response, "Well okay, but if you want me to then I would." I told him he needed Daddy's permission to go on a date with me, so he asked. Daddy was cool with it and just asked Collin to have me home by 9.

So tonight was the big night. Timothy took Collin out on the front porch to ring the doorbell so he could 'pick me up' for our date. We went to see a movie before dinner, because that's what you do. I gave Collin some money and told him what to say and he walked up to the counter and bought our tickets. We saw Smurfs, which by the way I would not recommend. Collin got a little box of candy but reminded me that we should not eat too much because then we wouldn't be hungry for dinner later. The movie kinda sucked and he even asked if we could leave at one point, but we stuck it out. It ended alright I guess, but poor Neil Patrick Harris (whose character was distractingly named Patrick) couldn't even save this movie for me and I really like him so that tells you something. Of course, I may not be the best audience as my brother and I are the only people in this country to grow up in the 80's without watching the Smurfs. (See future post about my unique childhood.)

After the movie we had to go spend a dollar in the arcade so we played air hockey!

Collin kept saying that if he could hit the puck hard enough and get it up to 88 miles per hour then we could open a portal and travel through time. I love that my kids are nerds.

After declining Collin's suggestion that we should buy more $4 movie theater candy so that we could have a snack on the way to dinner, we were off. There was a bit of a line already when we got to Red Lobster and we got one of those buzzer things that Collin was so proud to be in charge of and we hung out with the lobsters for awhile.

I told him it would light up and start buzzing when it was our turn and that made him a bit nervous. He thought it may be loud and scare him, but we watched a few other groups when their buzzers went off so he would know what it looked and sounded like. My little Gryffindor handled it well and calmly turned it into the hostess when it was our turn.

We took several self-portraits and this was the best we could get. I think he was making that face on purpose because they all looked like that.

So we sat down and ordered drinks. He had been looking forward to that Dr. Pepper all day. Then I showed him how to put a napkin on his lap. About a minute later that napkin came in handy when he forgot you're not supposed to tilt a cup that has a straw in it. I thought it was nice that he got to see it in practice, and also it was lucky that it all landed on the napkin and nothing on his clothes.

We had fun looking through the dessert menu while we waited for our food. Funny enough after he finished eating I asked him if he wanted some of that chocolate cake he had been looking at and he said if it was okay with me he would rather just have a piece of gum from my purse. I love it!

Of course we had to spend some time looking at the fish tank too. It's always so pretty. Then we stopped at the Office Depot across the street to buy the last thing on his school supply list and we headed home.

I'm not sure if his first date was everything he thought it would be, but I think he had fun and I know I did. :-)