my minions

Remember a week or so ago I posted the video clips of the Despicable Me minions singing and loving bananas?  Well, here are the kids on their way to school this morning ....

Even very tired (I had to wake them up at 7:00 this morning - and they went to bed at 8:00 last night) they look happy!!  I managed to find those shirts yesterday so I got to surprise them after school.  It is PE day today... hence the sneakers.  Perfect timing to have new tee shirts - otherwise, Gretchen would have wanted to wear a dress for sure.

the lunch tradition

We changed the venue, but continued our tradition of a childless lunch on the first day of school.  Today, we met at our favorite Thai restaurant for Bento Boxes for lunch.  You can see, Lew doesn't like green onions.  Otherwise, we left maybe 5 grains of rice.  Probably, had we not been seated by the front of the restaurant, we'd have literally licked the plates clean.  But, somehow, we showed amazing restraint.

After lunch, I did some child-free shopping and then headed over to pick them up.  Their teacher from last year was working the parent pick-up line, so they got to briefly tell her how awesome their day was.  She was so amazing, this new teacher has some pretty big shoes to fill, but I think she is up to the challenge.  After picking them up, Gretchen had a PT appointment so we didn't get home until later in the afternoon.  There was a message on the machine from their teacher telling me how awesome the first day was and how much fun she knows they are all going to have this year!

The kids gave me 2 very detailed accounts of the day and the new class rules, procedures and fun things.  They are both super excited to go back tomorrow!!!

And....  for the first week of school... no homework!!!

2nd grade, here we come!!!

Last night before they went to bed, i asked them a couple questions about the year to come.


What are you most excited about in second grade?

Carl:  I am looking forward to having Wesley in my class.

Gretchen:  READING!!  (and then, as almost an afterthought, she added) ... and writing.


What is one thing you think you will learn in second grade?

Gretchen:  I think I am going to learn how to multiply more.

Carl:  I am going to learn about the Bathroom Pass.


photos from this morning....

Carl's new shirt... that I made him!  It has Dusty from Planes movie on it and he is super happy!!  (and decided he didn't want the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles one he first requested)

 Gretchen's new dress.  She bought a dress early in the summer and was saving it for the first day of school.  then, just a couple days ago, we found this one and she changed her plan.  (both Lands End, the other one is exactly like this, just blue with butterflies.)  To give you an idea of how big second graders are, I made him the size 14 on the pattern and her new dress is a 10/12.  His new shoes are size 5!!!  She is still wearing a 1 in shoes, though.  1-2, depending on the size.

 They rode with Lew and I followed behind.

 At school!!

 Heading into school together.

 Welcome to the new classroom!!!!

 She is sitting next to a kindergarten buddy!

 He is sitting next to a first grade buddy!

 There are 2 choices of hot lunch every day. This year, they write their own name down for which lunch they are going to buy.  Second graders are very independent.

 Gretchen is checking out the helper board.  Carl is Door Holder.  Wesley is Line Leader.  Gretchen didn't get a job today... maybe tomorrow!

 I was going to snap a picture with their new teacher on the first day of school and Wesley said, "Let me join you!"

Now, I am signing off because I have a bunch of solo shopping to do before meeting my husband for a child free lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant.  I'll add those photos later.

last day of Summer Vacation

It is almost over and I want to go to bed so I am ready for the First Day of Second Grade.  So, less talk... more photos.

In the morning, we were to meet some friends at the beach but we must have gotten our wires crossed because they never showed up.  But, we had 2 fun hours of building roads and sand castles together.  The sand was perfect!

 Looks like the lifeguard had a little Captain in him.

 Some of our creations.

Then, we headed home to clean up and get dressed.  Next up.. lunch at our favorite drive-in-restaurant.  The kids decided they wanted to sit up front.  And drink vanilla milkshakes with lunch.  I said "yes" to both requests.

 Carl paid our server and gave us our food since he was in the front seat.

Back home where we packed up the backpacks for tomorrow.  No photos of the supplies.  You will see pictures with their new character backpacks tomorrow.  very out of character for me to let them buy new backpacks in the first place, much less ones with characters on them, but I said "yes" when they asked for those earlier this summer, too.  They are so happy!  Each has a matching lunchbox, too.

The last event of the day was to head over to the water park for the last official day of summer vacation.  they will be open for 2 more weekends, but today was the final weekday for them.  When I asked the kids this even what their favorite part of summer was, both said "going to the water park!"  Carl also said, "Going to NY.  I have 2 favorites."  Lew and I agree that our favorite part of summer was the water park, too.  Looks like we will buy season passes again for next summer.

Lew met us there after work.

 the wave pool.  Carl is in there.  He spends more time under the water than above it.

Dinner.  Bath.  Reading.  Math.  (We found an app called "Bedtime Math" that gives you a new subject daily and has 3-4 categories of word problems based on the story they present first.  It is a way to incorporate math skills into your bedtime routine.  Sneaky to use the ipod to entice them into math, but they love it.) Lights out at 8:09.  Pretty darn good getting close to the scheduled 8:00 bedtime.

Carl plans to wake up at 6:15.  "First I will wake up Gretchen.  Then I will wake up Daddy."  Lew, be warned - you have a 6:15 wake up call!!!

Operation Dress Up

My friend Cathy from Cathy's Creations (y'all read her blog on the side bar there, right?  Do it.  Do it.  She is an amazing person and just reading about her generosity will make you feel better and want to do more for others as well.) asked of anyone would be willing to help her out with a couple costumes to donate to the Boston's Children's Hospital for the patients to have some fun dress-up clothes.

The kids and I happily helped her out.  She had several people volunteer to make capes (and even some masks) for the little boys, so we said we'd help with some tutus.  The kids helped me pick the colors and Gretchen even helped make some of the tutus.  We mailed 8 colorful tutus off to her yesterday.

Operation Dress-up info


Gretchen modeled some before we packed them up, of course!

Cathy's jewelry is beautiful.  You can check out her website here.  She does so much for so many charities.  Even when you aren't buying one of her Cause bracelets or necklaces, you can be assured the profits are finding their way into needy lives.  She recently participated in the Susan G Komen 3 Day 60 mile Breast Cancer Walk in Boston with a team know as Sofia's Angels.  Sofia was Cathy's mother who was taken from this earth too soon by breast cancer.  The team raised $34,000 for the cause to participate in that walk.  She is already planning to participate in out 60 mile Susan G Komen walks around the country in 2013 and 2014.    The girls all wore tutus during the walk with ribbons on them to represent people who we have lost to any cancer - or to represent survivors, too!!!

These are my friend, Colleen's tutu ribbons.  You you see the blue ribbon that reads "Big Ken"??  She proudly wore his name as she walked to help raise money for a cure to cancer.

The kids and I were happy to help Cathy out in her most recent project.  We hope the kids at the Boston Children's Hospital have a lot of fun dressing up and playing together!  Thanks to Cathy for giving us the opportunity to step up, get crafty and help others.

Day 3 of Surf Camp.... rained out

Well, more like lightning-ed out.  We left the house at 3:45 for Open House at school and it was not raining.  Even at school, we took a photo outside with the banner they had hanging up.  At 4:00 we got to meet their new teacher!  We were the first kids in her class to arrive, so we got to spend some good time asking questions and exploring the new room by ourselves.  And - both kids are very happy... Gretchen's best friend from last year (and her twin brother) are in the class and Carl's best friend is also in the class!!!!   I am cautiously optimistic.  Last year, Gretchen and Olivia were able to stay out of trouble - let's just hope Carl and Wesley can keep from being too distracting for each other, too.  We hang out with Wes a lot and every time they boys get together, they yell each other's name in excitement when they first see each other.  It will be funny if they keep that up every morning at school.

By 4:15 it.was.pouring.  Complete with lightning and thunder.  The 30% chance of a storm had hit just in time for the last day of Surf Camp.  Well, we headed out to the beach anyway because if there is one thing we know about Wilmington it is... just because it is raining cats and dogs here, doesn't mean it is even sprinkling 1/4 mile up the road.   It was sprinkling there, but still lots of visible lightning.  After about a half hour of waiting, it looked like this

But the online radar and weather reports showed more storms coming our way, so they decided to call the night and not surf.

So, we thanks Jessie and Kevin, said "goodbye" all our other summer surfing buddies and headed for home.  I am sure we will reconnect with many of them next year.

A few shots from Open House.  This is our awesome principal.  She came in to visit and then yelled at me, "C'mon!  Take a picture!"

Carl found his desk and immediately pulled out his textbook to check it out.

Gretchen let out an audible gasp when she saw all these books!!  (and the big bear to read them to!  He looks a lot like her Big Bear on her bed!!)

Their new teacher!!!  We are super excited for 2013-14 to begin!!!!  Gretchen asked no less than 1007 times tonight if she could start school tomorrow!!