Adam's First Day of Preschool!!

This was it!  Adam walked into his very first classroom this morning.  I was thinking about it and the first day of school will only happen a few times his whole life.  He was a little nervous but as soon as he crossed the threshold of the classroom there was much to do.  I gave him a quick hug and let him go.  Caleb and I turned and headed out alone.  Since that moment I've been struck by how odd it is to be without him this morning as I drive and do laundry and play with Caleb.  I've pretty much spent 24 hours a day of 4.5 years with this kid since he was born. I know it will become the norm because he will go to school everyday, but I'm trying to soak up how this transition feels and remember it.  He's so smart and humorous and such a gentle soul.  My hope is that this school year gives him the confidence to go into Kindergarten and the playmates he's been starving for.  Good luck Adam!!  We love you!!

The night before school, he picked out his clothes and got his bag ready.

Walking in to school...looking around nervously.

Walking down the long hall to his classroom

Found his Monkey Room.  I did not get one good picture of his happy face.  He kept looking around at everything.

His teacher, Mrs. Sheila, showing the kids to their cubbies.  Adam's seat is in the middle of the horseshoe at the green table right now.  She has lots of centers around the room for the kids. 

After a great first day, Adam was all smiles and full of details.  I treated him to Cane's Chicken for lunch as he told me about it.  Notice his sticker on his shirt.  He was very proud that he did not have to move his Monkey on the behavior chart!!  He will earn a piece of candy if he stays on green all week.  He hurt his leg on the slide and got an ice pack!  He was the first to find the class mascot, a hidden Curious George monkey.   He always washed his hands after using the bathroom.  He got to paint a monkey with 3 colors, but it has to stay at school.  And he came home singing,  "Where Is Pumpkin, Where is Pumpkin,"  I thought that was funny. 

Caleb telling me about his day without Adam.  He kept calling for him and asking about him all morning.  I think Caleb and I will have some great one-on-one time this year. 

The Next Michael Phelps

Just thought this was a cool shot.  Adam's new favorite thing, at 4 years old I remind you, is to dive down into the deep end and retrieve rings or other things off the bottom!!   Amazing!! 

Caleb and Mommy having some fun too!!

New Baby in the Family

Welcome baby Aviah!  Chris cousin just had this beautiful baby girl and we got to see her the day she was born!! 

Shout Out

Finally got an update from my brother Brian. He's been firefighting out west in the wilderness all summer and I don't get to hear from him often. He sent this shot to show us some of the fun stuff he's been doing! At least he's not bored!  Thought I would pass it along to all you family out there that checks my blog. 

 

Caleb's New Question

Caleb, who is now 21 months, has a new question he is asking me everywhere we go.  He is trying to categorize people into good guys and bad buys.  This makes total sense because his favorite thing to play with Daddy and Adam is "Bad Guys" with Batman and other heroes.  It began in Wal-Mart as I saw somebody I knew and Caleb asks in greeting,  "Bad Guy??"  I had to explain to the lady what he was talking about with a little embarrassment.  Would you want to be identified as a bad guy or a good guy?  It happened again as I had a visitor come to the house.  The first thing out of his mouth was, "Bad Guy?"   I stumbled over another explanation.   I'm hoping he switches and starts asking,  "Good Guy?"  The explanations will be so much easier. 

Iron Chef Dinner Party

Get ready for one of the best ideas in recent history.  Some friends of our decided to put a twist on the stand-bye get together, "The Dinner Party".  They turned it into a cut-throat competition.  We, along with most of the seven couples invited, have a fondness for food...that is, eating it, cooking it, talking about it, etc.  So, they declared this to be the Iron Chef Dinner Party.  All seven couples submitted a "secret ingredient" to the hostess by email.  Twenty-four hours before the party, the hostess chose the winning ingredient (without telling her husband who was doing the cooking) and emailed everyone the winning choice.  We, the participants, had 24 hours to scheme, decide on our dishes, grocery shop, trash talk, and cook/BBQ/bake/mix  TWO dishes to bring with us to the party.   The secret ingredient chosen was COFFEE!  Altogether we had 14 dishes to sample and vote on.  I'm telling you this food was amazing and it was like ordering 14 different things from a fancy menu.  Chris and I submitted rotisserie lamb shanks with a coffee rub and coffee stout glaze.  He also did a homemade Irish Coffee Ice Cream to accompany my 3 layer Dark Chocolate Coffee Mousse Cake.  Yeah!!  Along with our dishes, we brought a $5 gift card to a food related place to put in the pot.  The winner got to take home all the gift cards.
 As we showed up at 7:00 sharp, we all set out our dishes by a number.  Then, we were given scoring sheets with numbers 1-14 and columns to tally points.  Each dish was given 1-10 points for each of 3 categories:  taste, use of ingredient, and creativity...30 points possible.  We took a few minutes to describe our dishes and how we used the secret ingredient, coffee.  As we ate it just got better and better.  We had everything from pulled pork, coffee bean pancakes with chocolate sauce, smoked chicken marinated in coffee, coffee fudge in a demitasse cup (my favorite) , pork loin on grits cakes, coffee braised short ribs, coffee tiramisu, and of course our shanks and cake and ice cream.  Guess who's dish was rated the best of the whole night!!!????  Our cake and ice cream!  But, because you were judged on the combo of your two dishes, we did not win overall.  I have to say we had some tough competition.  Most of all, we had so much fun for a full 24 hours with planning, cooking, tasting, and ragging.  Here's a few shots of the dishes. 

Sarah putting finishing touches on the cake

Chris' lamb shanks prepped to go on the grill

Some of the entries

The dishes were spread over every surface!!  Yum!!

Mystery Has Been Solved

We have one of these guest bathrooms where when you open the door it will hit the door of the linen closet behind it if someone hasn't shut the linen closet properly.  Now, guess who is the only one in our family that ever opens the linen closet to put towels and sheets away.  Yep, me.  So, I've got a pretty good idea of when that linen closet door should be open had I forgotten to close it, which I don't!!  I hate going into that bathroom and slamming the door into that open linen closet door....Hate It!!  Therefore I am very careful about making sure it's closed when I leave. 
Now, for the past few months, yes months, this linen closet door has mysteriously been open from time to time  and I've been ramming into it. Cannot express the frustration!!!  Was it a loose door connection?  Was it the wind?  What could it be?
Today, Adam yells at me that we're out of toilet paper.  I go in and slam into that door again!!  As I'm pulling the new roll from under the sink, I'm expressing my questions aloud.  " Why is that door always open???"   Adam's response, as he's sitting on the potty, "I always check for monsters in there when I go to the potty."      Months!!!