Friday, September 30, 2011

Y - Soccer Fall 2011 Schedule

Mr. M & I signed J up for soccer at the Y this fall.  And I'm not sure who is more excited, J or me.

Here's his schedule of games:

10/1  - 11:30
10/8  - 12:30
10/15 - 11:30
10/22 - no game
10/29 - 8:30
11/5  - 12:30
11/12 - 9:30

We had the parent's meeting Wednesday night & very much looking forward to this season. 

That said, J is already looking towards basketball, which is next...

Thursday, September 29, 2011

FRA - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

The theme for the first week of school was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which I had never heard of before his first week.  Since then, I've actually run across the book at Target. 

They made coconut trees for snack time, using Cocoa Puffs as the coconuts.  Obivously, he was a happy boy to eat this snack!
 To use up the remaining Cocoa Puffs, the kids were asked to decorate a piece of paper with their tree, then glue on the Puffs.

J ate his instead.  In his defense, he said "They were good Mommy!"
 Since all kids like noise, they rounded out their first week making Shaka Shaka bottles. 
I do have to admit a mommy moment of guilt here... J's teacher requested we send in an empty water bottle for this activity.  Okay.  No problem.  I drink a liter of water every day at work, so I just sent in one of my empties.  Um, yeah, they gave him one.  His was too big to use & be like the rest of the class.  Sigh... I really did try.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

FRA - Young Scholars - Story Time week 1

I'm not sure if I'll share all of these, but this first week left me laughing so hard, that I have to share...

Mrs. Bach, J's lead teacher, starts out a story about a particular topic & each child adds their own sentence to progress the story.

Story time: 9/9/11



Once upon a time it was a very rainy day and all of the Young Scholar Kids wanted to go out and play, however…….


Ella: The kids stayed inside and read stories.


Sofi: A ladybug crawled all over them.


Michael: The ladybug tickled us.


Jackson: Then it stopped raining.


Connor: It started raining again, so we had a snack.


Jasmine: We started to tell a story about it raining outside.


Carter: We played a cookie game next.


Angelo: The Young Scholars bumped their heads on the floor.


JoJo: We had to get icepacks for our heads.


Madison: it stopped raining and we went outside and it started raining all over again.


Jovi: We jumped in the puddles and got all wet.


Madi: The ladybug bumped her head.


Kaziem: She bumped her head on the wall.


Jacob: The ladybug splashed in the puddle and couldn’t swim.


Just then a big bird flew down and picked her up and put her in a tree where she lived happily ever after! THE END

Yes. Yes... That would be our child trying to kill off the ladybug.  The funny part was when I read this I could see J's face in this saduhohshrugohwell face I know so well when he says things that should be sad, but he doesn't quite grasp that they are sad just yet.

Love him!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

FRA - Young Scholars - 1st day...

The Young Scholar Class of 2011 - 2012

Mrs B (left) & Mrs Sandoval (right)

Not pictured:  Mrs Bach & Mrs Pender

Monday, September 26, 2011

Grandparent's Day

I remember all the great times spent with my mom's parents for so many years (I lost my grandfather in 2002 & my grandmother in 2008) & my father's parents after my move to Chicago.  Sadly I lost my grandpa P in 2002, and my grandmother time getting to know the real person (not the grandma version) was cut short when she had a stroke right after her 95th birthday in 2004.  I was still able to spend time with her & my cousin Kristi, but not the quality telling me about my dad stories I had previously had.

As a result, it is truly important to me that J gets to spend loads of time with his grandparents.  While we never know where our health will go or where it will take us, I believe the moments he is creating now will last him a lifetime.

So one of the things I love to celebrate since he was born & I learned existed is Grandparents Day.

J's school will honor grandparents in November, but his super grandparents get honored in real time.

This year the Grandparent's Day was on Sept 11th.  We celebrated with the P side over Labor Day & M side on the weekend of...  
J had to "help" grandpa open the card.  :)

Grandma & Grandpa were delighted to receive another Outback gift card to assist on taking us out when we visit them.  My parents don't let us pay for a meal when we visit, so I love to give them these gifts, so I don't feel like such a slouch letting them pay all the time. 

And grandma loved that the card covered she was still in her jammies.
And of course, J was all about helping Grandma & Grandpa M open their gift as well.  Especially since he knew we had packed two mini peanut butter cups in the bag for them.
 Grandma M has a Peanuts clock that plays the Linus and Lucy song.  J loves that song now, and as a result, has grown to love Snoopy & Charlie Brown & crew through the books.  We are very much looking forward to sharing the Holiday stories this year with Grandma & Grandpa as we gave them the Holiday collection of stories book & a walking Mummy Snoopy to kick off the Holiday Season!

J was so cute this year, as he is getting big enough to help pick out the gifts & cards.  I wish I could capture how proud he was to have picked out the gifts this year & knew exactly that Grandma M would LOVE Snoopy.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Fair Oaks Farm

In honor of J spending the preceeding week learning about farms at school, last Sunday we visited Fair Oaks Farm with Aunt Lizzie.  Yes, Aunt Liz has finally grown into her name as Lucy is becoming less & less when J refers to his Aunt Liz.

We started with the cow greeting us at the entry.

 J thought she was rather large, and was not to fond of meeting her.  :)

 But as we went through the exhibt, learning about how the grain is mixed, and how farmers milked cows in the olden days, J settled in & I was inspired at how well he paid attention at his age.  Below he was so focused on the talking chicken.

By the time we got the end, J was running towards the cows to take a ride.

 Of course, he was happy to slide as well.

 He & Aunt Liz worked very hard on getting the ball to roll beyond the first couple of holes.

 All activity was in preparation for our next adventure...
The milking palor!  Fair Oaks is the largest working cow farm in the United States.  We learned they ship approximately 250,000 gallons of raw milk each day.  The whole process is amazing & I'm looking forward to taking J back in the future because I think we will learn something new each time.
Plus they make their own fresh cheese.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Contest Win - New Wall Addition

Over Labor Day weekend, a blogging friend of mine ran a contest sponsored by Easy Canvas Prints.  And I was lucky enough to win it.

Mr. M & I happily started going through our handful of favorite pictures to find the one we wanted to have converted into a canvas print for our wall.  After narrowing it down to Atlantis Trip or Blizzard 2011, we decided on the Blizzard.

After all, there is only 1 first snow angel picture.  And to have J's happen during the most unprecedented of snow falls in our time living here, made it all the more special.

Mr. M just loved his unposed look of absolute joy & happiness, and I loved the camera caught the snow flakes still falling.

While the picture of a picture below is not earth shattering, I do have to say - I LOVE how it turned out.  We upgraded from 8x10 to 11x14, which is perfect size for this picture.  

And those special snow flakes?  They show up as well.  

Mr. M & I will definitely be using Easy Canvas Prints again in the future!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Home Opener

We spent tonight enjoying the Forest Ridge Family Bonfire & had an absolute blast!  J LOVES his new school & loves these family engaging activities that go with it.  I'll post more on it later - when I get the pictures downloaded from my camera, but tonight I wanted to wrap up our Labor Day weekend.

Labor Day weekend was also the home opener for MSU.  Of course, Grandma & Grandpa attended, while Mommy & J stayed home blissfully unaware of the fun. 

The next morning though, J had to put on his MSU gear in honor of Grandpa wearing his the night before...
He is so proud of it - he poses regularly in it... :)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

A boy's best friend

For our last weekend visit to Grandma & Grandpa's, we brought along our puppy.  She normally gets left with Daddy, which really isn't much fun, but makes my commuting back and forth a bit easier.  That said, she traveled like a champ this trip.
She & J loved our multiple walks a day. 
Playing outside... by the dock or around the neighborhood...
and of course... Swimming...
We think Payton thought she died & went to Heaven.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Fishing cont.

cont. from yesterday... And this would be J when faced with touching his first fish...
Although, Grandpa & mommy calmly talked J through it & he decided he could touch the tail, but then Grandpa HAD to throw it back...
Because he wanted to catch it again.
The second fish he caught was a little big (est. 14 inches, per Grandpa) for him, and got caught under the stairs.  Then mommy was more interested in taking a picture than helping grandpa, since we'd be throwing this one back as well.  The fish fought his way to breaking the hook free & he was off...  

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

First Fish

Over Labor Day weekend, grandpa & J fished off the end of the dock.  It was so sweet watching those two.
I was impressed with how patient he was waiting on the fish to bite.
And this would be his first fish!  A wide mouth bass.
yes, we released him

Sunday, September 18, 2011

New PJs

You'd think he'd be excited with his new collection of Car's, Spiderman, etc...

I thought the pants would be too big, being a size 6 & all, but they fit him perfect to be outgrown by Spring.  I have a picture of him in his Spiderman PJs on Facebook & my brother's MIL said it best...

"He doesn't look like a toddler anymore... He is all boy."

Sniff... Sniff...

But nope... He's said, because I was making him head off towards bed while the sun was up... How mean of me, right?

His new bedtime routine is:
6:45 Potty, vitamin's, bath & teeth brushing

Followed by book or books, then 10 mins of TV or iPad time before lights out at 7:30. 

When we follow the routine, he nods off peacefully & sleep through the night pretty well.  When mommy gets stuck at work or Daddy comes home during bedtime, then we have a total setback.

It's a process & I know it will only get easier as we keep up with it...

Saturday, September 17, 2011

more pictures from Pirate's Cove

The day we visited was Super Hero day, complete with all the local Super Hero's.  J was not so impressed by them, staying pretty close to both Grandma & me.
But quickly recovered when given the chance to climb like a monkey (or a spider in a web)
Note the Band-Aids on his leg, yes, those would be from falling down the stairs at his new school during summer camp before school started in a rush to get out to play.

He was so happy to lead the trains around the track!
Even got the hang of it pretty quick & was off all on his own.  Much like Thomas, he forgot he was carrying his load.  :)
We ended the day with an easy ride on the ponies.

Okay, so maybe we ended it with Chili's, where he surprised Grandma with his ability to pack away so many single dip chips & salsa & still eat his "hotdog on a stick with pineapple, please"

Friday, September 16, 2011

Pirate's Cove with Grandma M

Between work & spending time with my parents this summer on the lake, we haven't seen much of the M side.  Since it was bothering me, I called & asked if J & I could invite ourselves over for a visit.

Of course, Grandma & Grandpa M were delighted.

But Grandma M had to find something more fun than just hanging out, so we ventured up to Elk Grove Village to visit Pirate's Cove.

J had a blast!




Thursday, September 15, 2011

Grandkids - outtakes

Before Uncle Jeff, Cam's & Mall's left to go home, we tried to get a cute picture of the 3 of them.  3 cameras, 3 people to look at, and 3 kiddos. 
Add to that a teething Mallory, who thought the handle to a phone older than her daddy was rather tasty.  Shhhh!!  Don't tell mom!
Finally we tried for just the girls...
Which left someone very pouty and sad to see his cousin's leave.