Jacob's in Kindergarten!!

I don’t even know where to begin with all that has gone on since my last update (a little over a week ago!).  Let’s just say that the biggest news is that we have a Kindergartner in the house, the cutest Kindergartner in the world that is!!  This is a picture of him before we took him to school on Monday morning.  I told him to turn around so I could get picture of his backpack, and he really wanted to make sure he got his Darth Vader lunch box in the picture:

Jacob with his little cheerleaders:

So, we all got in the car and went up to the school to walk Jacob into his classroom...



I got this one picture of him in his classroom before we left...Annie wanted to stay and Gwyn wanted to know when she was going to be 5 so that she could go:

He did so well, I gave him a hug and told him I was proud of him, he got busy drawing a picture and then we walked out the door.  I got a little teary on the way out, it just hit me that he's in school now...for the next 16 years of his life.  Gwyn, Annie and I then went to a "Boo Hoo breakfast" that a friend of mine had for all the other moms who had a child going to Kindergarten this year.  It was great fun, especially for Gwyn since it was at her friend Laura's house.  I was a little anxious all day, until we waited outside for him to ride home on the bus.  Jason and I walked with Gwyn and Annie around the corner to the bus stop...here they are waiting on Jacob:

The bus was the highlight of his day, and when he got home he asked if he could ride the bus to school tomorrow and ride the bus home from school again.  Here is his reaction right after he got off the bus:

I didn't get a picture of him getting off the bus because I had to talk to the bus driver, but here is a picture of him getting on the bus this morning...super excited about the bus picking up and dropping off at our house!  Here is what came home in his backpack...a pictorial view of his first day of Kindergarten.  He said his favorite part of the day was recess, and he liked eating in the cafeteria, but did not ever want to eat the cafeteria food.  He got two tickets and is really excited about earning more tickets for good behaviour and spending them at the ticket store for computer or itouch time...yes, I said itouch time...they use itouches for writing letters, number games, etc!

Here are a few pictures from this morning of the kids waiting on the bus:

 Jacob about to get on his first bus ride to school...Brian was saying, "hurry up and take the picture, you're holding the bus up."  Hey, a mom has to do what a mom has to do!!  I had to document how excited he was about riding the bus.  As soon as he got on, he sat in the second seat and was lifting up his head to see me and waving with a HUGE smile on his face.

 Gwyn, who loves skirts now also likes to pose:

Little Annie finally fits into Gwyn's old gold sandals...I love those!

Well, to recap the week, Brian and I had taken Jacob to meet the teacher last Friday.  I had been telling Jacob this was a special day for him, and he had been counting down on the calendar.  I got a sitter for Gwyn and Annie and we went up to meet his teacher, who is really nice and who I had heard a lot of good things about.  Here he is, super excited on the way to the school:

 In his classroom, which is huge, has a smart board, reading/writing/math/calendar/weather/science/art centers, and the most important thing of all...2 water frogs...HELLO, he was in heaven!

 I then took him shopping so that he could pick out some school clothes...the first time I had ever let him pick out any clothes, ha!  He picked out two pairs of athletic shorts, two pairs of athletic pants, 4 t-shirts (baseball, football, soccer, and a rock and roll one), a pair of jeans (picked by me), a belt (he was most proud of this purchase since it was just like Daddy's and he wore it the rest of the day with athletic shorts that had no belt loops), and he really wanted to pick out a necklace for Gwyn, so sweet!  We then went to Target and he got some underwear (Phineas and Ferb and Lego Star Wars) and some socks.  We then met Brian for lunch at Jacob's choice for lunch...Pei Wei where he got his favorite (honey chicken), and I let him get a Dr. Pepper (which he sucked dry!).  I had told him a couple of weeks ago, that on a special day he could get a coke, since whenever we go out to eat he can only choose Sprite, lemonade, water or milk - believe me, he does not need any caffeine)...it is the one thing he remembered when he woke up that he got to get a coke that day, and when he got there he picked Dr. Pepper!

 He came home and told Gwyn all about it, and I told Gwyn that before she goes to Kindergarten, she will get to have a special day with Mommy just like Jacob did.  She then wanted me to show her on the calendar when that day was...poor girl, my calendar doesn't go to 2013!

 Walking into the movies with Jason, they thought it was so cool that Annie didn't  get to go because she's a baby...Gwyn must have said this 5 times:

 Excited about a 3D movie and their popcorn snack packs:

What is a summer without staying up past your bedtime to go meet some friends for snow cones!  We met my friend Kate and her boys Jackson and Ben for some yummy flavored ice, and we decided the other day that Annie must be immune to brain freeze because she put away her snow cone in about half the time as the other kids...she did spill it and caused a fiasco since it was what seemed to her as the end of the world, but was quickly rectified by super mom...that's me, ha!

 Rainbow was the favorite, but Gwyn got Superman and said it was the best!

I also went on a little getaway with a group of friends to Austin last weekend.  I was only gone for one night, but we had a great time getting pedicures, having lunch on Lake Travis, hanging out and talking, going to dinner, sleeping in and then having breakfast in the morning.  Brian did great with the kids, I think they ate out every meal, he did no laundry or dishes, and Jason met them for pizza one night where Brian really impressed Jason (so much so that he earned the title of genius), by bringing in his own set of scissors to quickly cut up pizza into little pieces for Gwyn and Annie rather than using a fork and knife, which takes too long!  Jason also watched the kids for us, so that Brian and I could attend a new parent orientation at Jacob's school...thank you Jason for helping us out!

The one part of the week that wasn't so fun was spending over 2 hours in the Dr's office last Monday with all 3 kids...Jacob had a fever over the weekend before, and I took him in and sure enough he had strep!  We then had to check Gwyn and Annie, which was NOT fun.  I never really knew what gnashing of teeth meant, but I do now...picture having to hold Gwyn down to get a sample from the back of her throat for the strep test...it is gnashing of teeth, oh, and screaming!  Brian rescued us by swooping in and bring chick-fil-a, he sat in the car and fed the kids while I finished up with the paperwork and billing.  Not a fun day!  We were thankful that it happened a week before Kindergarten rather than the next week.  Two days later he was just fine, and thankfully the girls didn't get it!  A picture of the kids in the Dr's office...we had some time to kill!

 I also discovered during the Dr's visit that I could just barely get two little pigtails in Annie's hair...they didn't last long, she pulled them out, but here they are!

 She is going to look super cute in little pigtails, I loved Gwyn's hair at this stage too!

 We made a giant donut cake, it was much more fun to make it than it was to eat it.  It didn't quite turn out like we intended, but the kids had a great time helping!

 Little Annie loves to carry babies around, push them in strollers, and sit them in time-out.  She also has to have a purse with her, and she loves to drape her purse over her stroller handle.  This baby apparently needed one of Jacob's toy light sabers, ha!

 Here is Gwyn showing off the blue heart necklace that Jacob picked out for her...this has been the highlight of her week, and she is making sure Annie doesn't "mess it up."

 Jacob likes to rock and roll, and usually has the girls in a band.  Gwyn usually drums, and Annie usually gets to shake something...it is pretty entertaining, although the song that this guitar plays is constantly playing through my head!

 LOVED this picture and this sweet little face.  She wants to wear sunglasses on top of her head all the time...I honestly put a pair of sunglasses on her like this at least 10 times a day, until I can distract her long enough to hide the sunglasses:)

We are very excited to have our neighbors across the street back from their month long vacation.  Gwyn has especially missed them.  Gwyn and Annie and I have some extra time to hangout and have fun.  Gwyn is going through a phase where the highlight of her day is picking out her clothes for the day, and then immediately wants to change, and change again, and again, and would 10 times a day if I let her.  Annie is still into shoes and has just discovered Gwyn's slippers from last year, they are extra fun for her to slip around on the tile!

Funny things the kids said this week:
Annie (pointing to this picture): Papa

Annie (after Brian did his chewbacca imitation):  chew bac a
Gwyn (all excited):  Mommy, Ben and me rhyme.
Me:  What?
Gwyn:  Ben and Gwyn rhyme (she was so proud of her discovery!)
Me:  Jacob, what are you doing.
Jacob:  I'm writing names of everyone who has to get shots today.
Me:  Who is on the list?
Jacob:  Only Gwyn (shows me the list and GWYN is written)
Gwyn (crying):  NO!!!
Me:  Gwyn, he's just kidding.
Annie's favorite things to say:  Gen, gen, gen! (again) Mere, mere, mere! (come here!)
Jacob after I told him a few things about Kindergarten:  What is recess?? What is a cafeteria, what do they do there??
Gwyn after a lady in the store said hi to her and Annie:  She's a really old grandma.
Jacob to a guy in a security booth:  Goodbye old man!
Me:  Jacob, don't say that
Jacob:  What?
Me:  People don't like to be called old.
Jacob:  But he WAS old?? (I couldn't argue with that)
Gwyn (telling on Jacob):  Mommy, Jacob did something back to me.
Me:  Well, what did you do to him?
Gwyn:  Hit him (oh Gwynnie, when you will learn not to tell, especially when your telling gets yourself in trouble!)
Jacob:  YES!  I got the sticker prize!!!
Me (wondering what this excitement is all about):  What??
Jacob:  My slice of apple had the sticker on it!  (oh, to find the joy in such simple things!!)