AJ Starts Kindergarten

Today was AJ's first day of Kindergarten!

He was so excited!

He has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. L, who I have heard great things about.
I was more emotional about sending AJ off to Kindergarten today than I thought I would be.
I am so proud of him and know he will have a great year.

Lesson Learned

Never, ever, ever put a Pull Up in the washing machine!

I've spent the last hour shaking tiny bits of this sticky gel out of all the boys' clothes. Argh!

Hopefully my washer won't suffer permanent damage.

Eights

I haven't done one of these posts yet, so here is my list of 8 things about me.

Here is how this works. I was tagged by both Shelly & Ellen. I then have to tag 8 other friends. If that happens to be you, make your list of eights, tag 8 friends and tell them on their blog that they have been tagged. Here we go:

8 Things I look Forward to:
*The boys yelling "Daddy's home!" when he walks in the door after work
*My next meal - what can I say, I like to eat!
*Vacations
*AJ going to Kindergarten
*Sonic Happy Hour
*The day that I don't have to wipe anyone's bottom, except my own. Well, I may miss it just a little bit :)
*Celebrating holidays with family

*Seeing what kind of men my boys will grow up to be

8 Things I did yesterday:
*Went to the zoo
*Had a picnic lunch
*Cooked a yummy pot roast
*Hosted Company
*Practiced my Spanish
*Went to Wal-Mart (again)
*Kissed all my boys
*Sat on the patio and enjoyed a beautifully cool July evening

8 Things I wish I could do:
*Get my children to quit fighting
*Get by on less sleep
*Travel more
*Tan easily
*Get my children to eat
*Enjoy exercise
*Sing like I used to
*Catch up on my scrapbooking

8 Shows I watch:
*CSI: Miami
*The Amazing Race (season 15 premiers on Sep. 27th)
*The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
*I used to watch those house "flipping" shows - no longer on the air
*I used to watch Jon & Kate + 8 until the split - now it just makes me sad :(
*Any kind of nature show
*Playhouse Disney
*Just about anything on PBS kids

8 Friends I'm tagging:

Trisha

Dion

Robin

Jennifer

Bridget

Katie R.

Katie L.

Ashley

Sociology 101

After a recent playdate with friends, AJ shared a social observation with me:
"Mom, I know what ladies do to have fun."
What's that? I say.
"They like to do nothing. They just sit and rest and talk to each other."
Pretty spot-on I think ;)

Potty Progress

JJ took a HUGE step towards potty training today by staying dry ALL DAY!

He started the day off sporting a bare bottom.

We tried a Pull-Up when naptime came around.

By evening he was wearing these

Thomas the Train big boy underwear

and thinking he was BIG STUFF

(he'll appreciate my terminology some day :)

We even ventured out of the house for a couple hours

with him wearing his underwear for the 1st time.

Keep up the good work little man!

Landscaping, Before and After

A big project that we recently tackled was our front landscaping. We pulled some things out, rearranged shrubs and planted begonias, liriope, blue something or other, and hostas. It took a lot of work (mainly done by my hubby) and four trips to the nursery (you never know how much to get).

Thanks hon! It looks great. See the difference for yourselves. Here are a couple of "before" pictures from last fall. Not much but boxwood and nandina planted a little haphazardly.

Here is the "after" picture - much more color and empty spaces filled up. I'm afraid last week's heat wave hasn't been good to our new plants. We will see how July temperatures treat them.

I also had to show you my front door. I love this door bucket from Southern Living at Home. I made the floral arrangement myself. I guess I've gleaned some of my Mother-in-Law's talents over the years.

Happy 3rd Birthday JJ!

This is the first of several "catch up" posts.

JJ's birthday was Friday, May 23rd, a day that began with a funeral and ended with a visit to Grandma & Grandpa's for the holiday weekend. Since we had already had a birthday celebration for his special day, we didn't plan much for the "official" day. Grandma did, however, make him a cake. The one request that JJ had was that it have a rocket candle. Well, Grandma and I found out that they don't make rocket candles. But boy did Grandma come through! I wish I had taken a picture of the "rocket candle" that she created out of a party horn. Only someone with her creativity could have done it. JJ was not disappointed! Thanks Grandma!

We had a "family party" back in April to celebrate both our boys' birthdays together. Of course we picked a Mickey Mouse theme for the event since we were headed to Disney just a few days later. Here are some pictures from the party.

They were both excited to get bean bags from Mom & Dad.

The cake - That's what it's all about!

Blowing out the candle. He was so proud!

My little JJ is now 3 years old! He's such a spunky little guy. You never know what he's going to do next. JJ is very much an independent thinker. My easy going baby has turned into a strong-willed little boy. And he is so onery (as you can tell from these pictures). Boy is he onery!

Here he is at 12 months getting into a box of Kleenex.

Great fun!

He found another box here at 20 months.

I knew something was up when I heard that giggle from the other room!

He has a great sense of humor:

His favorite thing to say is "That's so funny!"

Happy Birthday, Little Man! We Love You!