Start of 2nd Grade

It goes without saying that the start of the school year is slightly busy. Lots of things start along with wanting to enjoy any and all of the nice weather days possible...updating the blog had to wait.

1st Day of 1st grade 2013

 

 The first day of school is always a big deal!  Megan LOVES school and is always super excited for school to start each year. Of course she has to have her picture taken about 5 million times :) just so we can she how much she grows throughout the year (the answer is "too fast!!!" She always grows too fast!)

She here is Miss. Megan on the first day of 2nd grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Stewart at Alexander Elem. School.

 She HAS to pose by our Maple Pride sign! Adrian Public Schools are doing great things at ALL grade levels, we have a lot to be proud of with our schools!

I wasn't sure how Joey was going to handle Megan going to school this year. Last year he was still too young, but this year, he knows when she is gone. He LOVES walking Megan to the bus and going to get her from the bus after school. During the first week of school, it was interesting, it was almost like he gave himself permission to rest...he slept a lot...not so much anymore though :(

 The bus.

 A month into school so not a lot of weather stuff happening (yet) but they did have 2 back to back fog delays. This pictures was during an "interesting" 3 hour school delay! O & G, Megan's friends needed to come play with us during this delay...they just needed to be outside to get the wiggles out! Waiting until lunch time to start school makes for a lot of extra wiggles.

Here is Megan's "official" school picture, missing tooth and all! So far, we are off to another great year at Alexander!

The playhouse project continues

If you missed it, you can read about the history of our playhouse here.

 

Sorry, but there are lots of pictures in this post. We have a lot of family members that want to see the process of restoring the playhouse.

 First step, tearing off what we knew needed to be replaced...so we could see everything that needed to be replaced.

 Megan couldn't wait to help.

 Joey did his best to help.

 Well, for being 40+ years old, only the front needed to be replaced, not bad.

 Joey was very good at following directions when Mark needed help.

 It took some time, but we finally found someone that had a connection to a friend selling barn siding (not cheap stuff!) With new wood purchased, they could finally start closing in the front again.

 Joey liked this view better...

 Anyone else think reminded of Charlie Brown looking at this pic!?!

 Eventually, both kids ended up in the playhouse. I think they are really going to like it when it is done.

 New shingles! For some reason, Megan and Joey really liked this part.

 Just waiting to hand Dad another shingle when he asked for one...soon this turned into a game seeing how far they could throw a cut shingle (my kids are weird)

 A view from inside. Joey LOVES peeking through the windows and a little spy hole in the back. Pretty sure we do this every time we are in our backyard :)

 Let's paint prime! Normally, when I paint, I quickly slap on some primer then get to painting. But with this, I took my time and put a ton of primer on the dry wood. FYI old barn siding takes a LONG time to get all of the texture covered properly...a LONG time!

 Joey used a lot of primer too. The preferred painting technique of a 3 year old: scoop paint like a spoon, smear 1/2 of it on the wall while the other 1/2 drips over everything. For the priming part, I didn't care...let him get messy!

 Megan on the other hand, she had a good system going. But like most kids, she was done after about 20 minutes, so I was left to finish the priming myself.

Side note: the paint brushes the kids used came from MY Grandpa Joe's painting room :) I know it isn't much, but I know he had a part in restoring this playhouse too...because if he were still here, he would be doing everything he could to help with this project (Yes, I am crying while I type this.)

 So here she is...rebuilt, primed and ready for the finishing touches! The kids are already having fun playing inside, so I know when she is done, lots of hours will be spent in this little playhouse.

A sneak peak...we still have more to do, but 'she will be done soon.

Not a bad way to end our Summer

Labor Day weekend is always our last weekend of Summer break. This year, 4 of Megan and Joey's cousins were in town to enjoy 1 more family filled weekend before school started.

 I can't express how it melts my heart when I see the older cousins play with my kiddos. Teenagers might be stinkers sometimes, but deep down, they are good kids that love their family. Conary and Joey were both having a hard time adjusting to long days filled with playing early mornings!

 

 Of course, the last weekend of summer was filled with good times at the lake!


The kids even convinced Papa to take the pontoon boat out to take a tour of the lake and to stop off to swim in the deep part.

 Lots of people means lots of food! While picking up corn at a road side stand, it was "cheaper" to buy a bushel of corn than a few dozen ears. So we had lots of yummy meals using corn but first...we had to shuck the whole bushel. Lots of helpers...we got it done quick!

 Papa had built a ladder game set to have at the lake, so naturally, we turned it into a competition! We had a bracket system set and about 3 hours later, we had a winner...I forgot who won (not really) It was fun and it did the trick to keep everyone happy.

 Mud MONSTERS!!!

 I guess in Canada, they eat chucks of watermelon like cavemen...my kids were just doing what their cousins were doing. I don't have the picture, but try to visualize 10 of us, standing in the grass, slurping watermelon...it was a funny sight!

 All of the kids are very creative and it was only a matter of time before they made up something new to do. Here is Joey being Joey :)

 

And here is Joey learning about physics :)

Megan taking her turn. I believe after this, they started the rule that the last one to slide has to pour water on the mat for the next person. They all did this for a long time...it was fun to watch all of the kids playing and having fun together.

 

So, I would say that the last weekend of Summer was great, I will hold these memories close, because big changes come next year...Conary will be off to University. Our Summers will always be different, not bad, just different, so this weekend was extra special.

A day in the life of Joey!

Joey is a silly kid that likes to move and play. He is also very helpful and loves to have a job to do! Megan is starting school tomorrow, so I know that this means a BIG change for Joey, but he does well on days when it is just him and me. Fingers crossed that he does this well once school starts for Megan.

 Typically, Joey gets up, eats almost instantly and then moves to the toy room to play. I have noticed that over the last month, his imagination has bloomed and he can create new toys out of anything. On this particular day, he was using his zoo as a garbage truck!

 I needed to make some zucchini bread and Joey has a weird obsession with stirring things, so I let him do all of the hard work!

 While the bread was baking, I needed to empty the dishwasher...Joey took it upon himself to help put the kid dish away set the countertop...with matching plates and bowls :)

 He even found an area for the surplus dishes (because you know, you can't have a pink plate with a green bowl!)

 This was his stance after he got all of the kid dishes out of the dishwasher. Now add his cute little, "Ah, me did a good job." Yep, I would say he is a confident little dude!

His finished blueberry zucchini bread <--- 1="" :="" a="" baking="" bread="" cooking="" cups="" fall="" for="" good="" have="" he="" helper="" his="" i="" in="" is="" it="" like="" link="" little="" looks="" lots="" of="" only="" p="" perfect="" pinterest="" plenty="" projects.="" proud="" recipe="" recipes="" so="" sooo="" sugar="" thanks="" the="" to="" try.="" used="" was="" we="" will="">
So as you can see, Joey loves to help and loves to play...now if I could only get him potty trained, he would be perfect ;)  

Birthday girl :)

Before I start this post, I just want to take a moment to remind you all how precious life is. Sadly, the day before Megan's birthday a relative of ours passed away in a car accident. She was a beautiful young lady, 22 yrs old, and she had nothing but happy thoughts of a bright promising future. She is loved by many and will be missed. So yes, Megan's birthday was somber but I will always look back Brittany's passing as a reminder to cherish each day and focus on what is good. Hug your kiddos tight each night, you cannot say "I love you" too much and spend time making memories :)

 

So you will recall that our trip to Cedar Point was Megan and Joey's birthday gift (because they don't need anymore toys!!!) So the actual day of Megan's birthday, we stayed home and everything was low key. A perfect birthday in my opinion.

 We made "snow" for the kids to play with. (some magic crystal things that expand in water that resembles snow.)

 Nothing like a birthday bike ride! (simple pleasures...I love it!)

 And of course, a birthday cake made by me. The only thing Megan asked for was a rainbow cake. A few years back, I made a cake that was rainbow on the inside, so I didn't want to do that again. But if you search "rainbow cake" in Pinterest, that is all you will find. So again, I figured out a plan that would work and Megan loved it!

 We invited Grandma and Papa Schutte over for dinner (we had a b-day celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Berthold the night before.) Grandma found a crown and Megan and she was more than excited to wear it.

 Keeping with our simple birthday (we always do) Megan got a 1 of a kind gift from Grandma and Papa...a flower box to go on the play house built by Papa! Now, I know right now she sees it as just a cool flower box, buy as the years go on, Megan will understand how special this gift is :) She also got money to by paint for the play house (Do you see a theme here!?!)

And last, but not least, Happy 3rd Birthday to Piggie! Megan LOVES that she shares a birthday with her favorite stuff animal, so of course she asked me to make her a cake. Marshmallows and leftover frosting...quick and easy and it meant the world to Megan. Keeping things simple made this day extra special for all of us.