First day of the next 17 years...

Ella started Kindergarten at Bethany Learning Center today. She has been just a wee bit excited for this day, continually asking how many more days until she started school...

So we loaded her down like a little pack mule, with a ginormous backpack and her own little sack lunch...

And marched out to the car...

Dad's car, actually. Her school is right down the street from my office, so she gets to ride in with me every morning. Which means I actually have to get to work on time now, instead of rolling in there whenever I manage to drag myself out of bed...

And then the moment we had all been anticipating... the dropoff at her classroom. I thought there might be tears, sobs, emotional goodbyes, runny noses. But nope, it all went smoothly.

And Ella did just fine too... ;)

Ella even smiled for a picture with her teacher Mrs. M...

Paige and the boys tagged along the first day as well (in pipes the peanut gallery, reading over my shoulder as I type... "What do you mean I tagged along? I'm her mother! I wouldn't miss it for anything!) Ella kept explaining to Levi and Noah that someday they would go to this big kid school too. Even Luke got into the action, trying out a seat at one of the tables...

Ella had a big grin when I got home today, and even told me about what she did in school today. She asked me when she could go to zookeeper school (her latest "what I am going to be when I grow up.") I told her maybe when she was 18. "Eighteen!" she wailed. "Don't they have a zookeeper school for kids?"

One day down, only 17 more years to go...

Recapturing Sunday afternoon...

I was told that the story of Thermopylae, the Hot Gates, of Leonidas, of the Spartans holding back the massive Persian army, of the slaughter of Xerxes' Immortals, and of the heroic death of the mighty 300 was inappropriate reading material for 4 year old boys.

Hmph. That would be why they call it a "dangerous" book...

So we read about dinosaurs instead.

I did, however, get a mighty and gruff "Come and take them!" out of Levi.

Atta boy...

Rook... it's Quadrilla!

I guess that title is only funny if you say it with a Japanese accent. Like a Godzilla movie. Orrrrrrr... maybe it is only funny to me.

Anyways...

Levi and Noah spotted a Quadrilla set in the toy store one day. Why on earth would you actually take two 4 year old boys to a toy store to fill their head with ideas? Good question. You should ask their mother...

So they saw the Quadrilla. Ummmm, tracks, switches, blocks, and falling marbles? Pretty much guaranteed to be utterly fascinating to any little boy. Thanks to the Tucson aunts, Levi and Noah had a little birthday shine saved up in their bank accounts. If you saw how much these puppies cost, you would make your kids buy their own toys too!

Paige jumped the gun way too early and told them we were going to order some. They spent the next week checking the front door, asking if the package man had come yet. Today they finally arrived. We set them up, and had some marble fun...

Thanks Tucson aunts!!!

This is totally out of character

We usually break out the waterslide on Sunday. But today is Friday, you say? Awwww, what the heck... waterslide Friday works for me...

Ella making the leap...




Noah, trying to grab on to the sun shade...






But when it comes to the waterslide, Levi really is the king. I'm not sure that kid has an ounce of fear in him. He just leaps, and worries about the landing on his way down...










And Luke? He just sits at the bottom and guzzles the nasty water...


They kept at it for about an hour, until the lightning chased us out of the backyard...

First day of preschool, and a minor surgery

Thursday was the boys first day of fours preschool.

Last year they went to threes two days a week, so this year they are pros!

Still impossible to get them both to look at me and smile at the same time. This was the best
we could do.

Happy Noah entering his classroom.


Goofy Levi posing for me as I was leaving.


Hooray! No tears this year, which makes it much easier on mommy's heart to leave them.


Interjection by Jason, because Paige says this story is "embarrassing" and refuses to write it on the blog: Levi and Noah are apparently the highlight of their preschool. Not that I am bragging about their stellar behavior, because the highlights are usually for, uhhhhh... "mischievous" behavior. Not to disappoint, Levi had to come up with at least one antic on his first day back at preschool.

Sometimes Levi has a hard time remembering to put his underwear back on after using the bathroom. On the first day, he did manage to remember to put them back on, as well as his shorts and other clothing. Only problem... he couldn't get the undies pulled up "without any wrinkles." So instead, he came out of the bathroom with his underwear... on his head.

He gets this from his mother...

(Obviously pictures from around the house, not from the preschool incident.)

(Note: Those are his sister's pink undies, not his.)

Says the office coordinator at the school, who collects "Levi and Noah stories" to tell to her twin boys... "We LOVE your family!! And not just for the constant source of entertainment. Mrs. Richardson will soooo appreciate your boys. I was totally rolling on the floor watching her completely redress Levi."


Back to Paige...

Later in the day, poor Levi had to make a visit to the dermatologist to have this...


a pyogenic granuloma removed from his chest.


Not a pleasant procedure for a little boy, but smiling again by bath time.


Daddy took this gross picture of Levi's war wound. We are hoping they got the base so that sucker doesn't grow back. If it does, Daddy is taking him to that appointment!

You might be married to a country bumpkin, part II

Grandma sent some CDs with all of her pictures from Michigan. There were a few good ones, so round II is here...

Luke, lookin' mischievous...


I can only imagine how many times Grandpa heard "DAD! HOLD ON TO THEM SO THEY DON'T BREAK THEIR NECKS!!" yelled up at him. They seem to have survived just fine though...


I wonder if he climbed up here all by himself. And if anyone had a clue where he was when he was doing it...


This picture cracked me up. Ella looking grumpy, Levi and Noah looking goofy, and Isaac and Max looking on, probably thinking "Who are these crazy kids???"


Luke, driving the ol' John Deere...

Squeaky McGee

Levi discovered tonight that if he plugs his nose, holds his mouth shut, and blows really hard...

...his eyes squeak.

He wasn't convinced, being sure that "my eyes can't talk!" I told him it wasn't his nose, because it was plugged. Either way, it gave him great pleasure, and he walked around the house attempting to make himself pass out from excessive eye squeaking.

His mother and I were a little worried he might hurt something, so we told him to stop or he might pop his eyeballs.

Weird. Fairly cool... but weird.

And yes, I am pretty sure it is actually his eyes. I grabbed his nose and pinched it tight enough that I am sure no air was squeaking out his nose.

And no, no matter how hard I squeaze my own nose and blow... my eyes don't squeak. Bummer!

Shhhh, don't tell Paige...

...that I just found this by the garage light switch.

Saw it just as I reached to turn off the light.

Mere seconds after I had just groped around in the dark to turn on the light.

Yikes!

That snotty, wanna-be, so... you-know-woman as your best friend...

Have I posted this before? I don't think so, although I may have emailed it to a few of you. I ran across it today and figured I would upload this to youtube.

This was a message left on Paige's cell phone.

No, we have no idea who either of these girls are.

Yes, it was actually on her phone. I recorded it off the phone using the computer microphone.

No, she didn't have caller ID so we could call her back and give her a hard time...

Yes, we were laughing until our sides hurt the first time we heard it...

Put some pants on that kid!

Angie sent me this picture of Luke that she took on our Mexico trip a few months back. Too adorable...



A semi-related, pantsless anecdote...

Paige, yelling across the kitchen to Levi: Hey Levi! What happened your undies! Put them back on!

Paige, muttering to Jason, sitting at the table: I say those sentences far to often in this house for us to be a normal family...

I married a country bumpkin...

Judging by the 447 pictures on the camera when Paige and the kids returned from Michigan, approximately 93% of their waking hours were spent outdoors. Generally participating in some redneckish type activity. You might be a Michigan redneck if you...

Feed barnyard animals at the fair...


Compete in little kid tractor pulls...


Let the youngest slurp down copious quantities of sugary beverages...


Climb on piles of logs that weigh 5 times as much as they do. Seriously, isn't this the kind of thing you hear about on the news, and think "What kind of negligent parent would allow their child to be crushed by a 600 pound log!"


Gotta be a redneck tooth joke around here somewhere...


Feed barnyard animals in Grandpa's front yard...


Eat s'mores on the front yard for no reason at all...


Play on Grandpa's tractor...


Bath in municipal water fountains, in lieu of an actual bath...


Scarf down spaghetti with your country cousins (and likely destroy Grandma's carpet in the process)...


Attempt to guard your cheerios from your cousin. I believe Luke underestimated the sneakiness...


Ride Grandpa's pony...


Head to the waterpark, in lieu of a bath...


This could end very, very badly...


Camp out in the "back 40"...


Share s'mores with your little brother...


Rinse off in Lake Michigan, in lieu of a bath...




Then I fly out to Michigan, after a month of outdoor activities, and stay for one day before driving them all back across the country. And where do we go for the one adventure while I am there?

Indoors...

To the geeky kid's science museum...

If Paige ever posted on here, I am sure she could tell you all kinds of tales of the fun they had in Michigan. All "4H chick" jokes aside, their summer trip to Michigan is really one of the highlights of the year. They have so much fun running wild around the country, something they never get to do in Phoenix. Paige gets to spend some long quality time with her family, which she greatly appreciates since I dragged her out here to the barren wasteland. And I get a few weeks all to myself, which is something the anti-social introvert in me truly craves.

But it is always good to have them back home again...