First Days

We had some exciting days over here over the past month! Oliver and Buttercup started school the second week of August. Oliver wasn't super excited about going back to school, but as all of you can imagine, Buttercup was OVER THE MOON and COULD NOT WAIT TO GO. :-)  

Look how cute they are! So big! Also, Oliver must have had a major growth spurt (and holy big head, Batman), because I don't remember him being this much taller than Buttercup a year ago. 

I took this picture below right when we got to school and were about to walk them in. I thought Theodore was going to be upset to see his big sister go off to school, too, but he was pretty nonchalant about it. :-) I love his sweet little smile!   

Since it was Buttercup's first day of kinder, I gave her the choice of whether we walked her to her classroom first, or walked Oliver to his classroom first. She wanted to see where Oliver's classroom was, so we walked him in first, much to his chagrin. He actually wanted us to drop him off at the front of the school so he wouldn't even have to walk in with us! This is a very forced smile, ha ha.  :-)

Then it was Buttercup's turn! We walked down the hall to her classroom, and found her desk. I was taking this picture (below) and asked Theodore if he wanted to give her one last hug, and she said, "Um, I'm okay, Mom. Can you please go now?" Ha ha!!!! Needless to say, there were no tears and she had a great first day. :-)  

  

Then, earlier this week, it was Theodore's turn!!! He started preschool on Tuesday, and he was so excited! He helped me pack his lunchbag, and couldn't wait to get to his classroom. 

Once we got to his preschool, however, he started to get a little upset that I was leaving him, and he cried and cried when I left. :-(  It's no fun leaving one of your kids when they're crying, even when you know they'll be okay! I didn't get a call, though, so I knew he was doing okay. He did end up having a fun time, although he held onto his lovey all day. :-)  

For preschool on Thursday, he asked me to take a picture of him and me, and he helped me tape it to the back of his stuffed animal so he could look at it at school. :-)  He proudly showed it to all of the teachers on the way to his classroom, and he didn't cry once all day! I'm hoping this is a new trend and that he continues to have a great time without any tears.  :-)  So proud of these kiddos for growing up and doing new things! 

Update!

I have a little bit of time right now, so I thought I'd write a quick update while I have the chance! Our summer is winding down (Oliver and Buttercup start school on Monday, eek!), and we have had a lot of fun adventures that we will remember for years to come. Here's what the kids are up to these days!

Oliver:
At the beginning of the summer, he decided that his goal was to learn how to write in cursive, ha ha! It took him two days to learn how to write all of the letters, and he's been writing everything in cursive ever since. :-) 

Oliver still loves building with Legos and has built several dioramas this summer. My favorite was a mad scientist's laboratory, that was very amazing with all of the details that Oliver added to it. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it before Oliver destroyed it to build something else! He also built a city with a few different scenes (a park, a beach, a gatehouse with a tower behind it), and is currently working on a diorama of Blue Hole in Wemberley (a swimming hole). :-) I love seeing what he comes up with; he is so creative! 

One last thing about Oliver is that he is continuing to do great with swimming! He loves it, and his swim coach has moved him up to the next level of swim team, which he'll start in a couple of weeks. So proud of him! 



Buttercup:   
She decided that she wanted to learn how to read better this summer, but she refused to let me help her. (Not surprising for anyone who knows her!) It took her a bit longer, but she never gave up, and she is reading pretty well now! She has memorized about 75 sight words, and is pretty good at blending sounds together and sounding new words out. I love this new stage of her life, where I can see her strong will working toward a positive goal. :-) 

Buttercup has also become more of a girly girl this summer. She still likes to roughhouse and wrestle with the boys, but she's more inclined to go in her room to read or play quietly with her babies or Calico Critters dollhouse. She also likes to build her own Lego creations like Oliver, but now she is getting better at putting the pre-made sets together! She used to not have the patience for sitting and following the instructions, but over the summer she put two sets together all by herself! 

And Buttercup is also still swimming, and she's doing really well! She has been on the entry level swim team for 3 or 4 months, and she is doing great. She's one of the only 5 year olds, and she keeps up with (and is usually faster than) the 7 and 8 year olds. She had her first swim meet in May, and she won three of her four heats and even beat a 10 year old!  :-)  

Theodore:
He is still a cute little stinker! He tries to do everything the other kids are doing, sometimes with disastrous results. But he is super fun and he says so many funny things every day! He also likes building with Legos like his big brother and sister, although now we have to watch him very closely when he's building with the little Legos because he ate a small green brick one day when he and Oliver were alone in their room. (Out of our three kids, I definitely pegged him as the one who would eat a Lego.) Theodore is also working on riding his bike, and learning how to swim. He has been stuck on the same level for several weeks at his swim lesson because he refuses to float on his back, but we go swimming 3 or 4 times a week, and he has taught himself how to do an underwater somersault, dive down to the bottom to retrieve a toy, and do his version of freestyle. 

Here's a funny story about Theodore!  He loves to say potty words (which we're working on), and after church last Sunday, he climbed out of the car, hopped on his scooter, and rode up and down the sidewalk, saying as many potty words as he could. It was like he had held it in all morning at church, and just had to let it out!  I had to go in the garage so he wouldn't see me laughing! It was so funny.  :-)    

A tale of two birthdays

If it's October, then that means it's the birthday month at our house! :-)  Miss Buttercup turned 5 (FIVE!) two weeks ago, and Oliver turned 7 (SEVEN!!) on Saturday. They are getting so big!!

We were crazy this year and had two separate birthday parties . . . at home . . . on consecutive weekends. Oy. Buttercup's party didn't have a real theme, since she couldn't decide on one, but we did have a big princess bouncy castle. :-) 

Miss B also wanted her friends to make glittery pumpkins, so we did that, too!

I think one of the biggest hits of the party was when Granddaddy decided to make himself some popcorn . . . which turned into a big bowl of popcorn for the kids, complete with sprinkles and chocolate chips. :-) 

It didn't last long!

 Buttercup also wanted to play a game where the kids stuffed marshmallows in their cheeks and tried to talk to each other, but everyone was happy jumping in the bouncy house, so we decided not to do it. Oliver still wanted to try, though. :-) 

Then we had cake! And that was it. Happy birthday, Buttercup!

The following weekend, we had Oliver's party. He wanted a MacGyver party, so he and I came up with an idea for an obstacle course that would (in our heads) mimic a MacGyver-type mission. (Trust me, it was much more awesome in our heads!!)

I made these super cute fang cookies for his party: 

While I was taking pictures of the cookies, Theodore came into the kitchen and said, "Cheese!", so I snapped his picture. However, neither of us were expecting the flash to come on! So the first picture looks like this:

And the next picture looks like this, because he wanted me to take his picture again, but also didn't want to be blinded by the flash. Ha ha ha!!! I love that silly little boy!!!

Anyway, back to the party. The morning of, Oliver helped Dennis and me set up the obstacle course. Needless to say, he loved using the mallet. :-)

Thankfully, there are no pictures of the kids (and me) doing the obstacle course, ha ha! I think they had fun though. I know Oliver did! He really enjoyed it. The objective was to get the map from the bad guy headquarters, and involved 1) attaching a grenade to a trip wire with putty, 2) making a "smoke bomb" (baking soda + vinegar), 3) dodging Nerf bullets shot at them by the bad guy (Dennis), and 4) maneuvering through a laser maze. 

The obstacle course took a couple of days to figure out, 1 hour to set up, and the kids were all done in 14 minutes! Ha ha! Thankfully,my friend and I had some science experiments ready to entertain the kiddos until it was time for food. 

Theodore liked playing with the baking soda on the driveway!  

Finally, it was time for cake! Oliver wanted a bomb cake, so that's what he got. :-)

Happy birthday, Oliver! We are so blessed to have both of these kids in our lives!!

First day of preschool, 2013

Yesterday morning Buttercup started preschool for the last time! She's still pretty bummed that she' has to wait another year for kindergarten, so she was super excited about going back to preschool. :-)

I can't believe how big she looks in these pictures! My sweet girl. :-)  I hope she has a great year!  

Update!

Well, summer is over, and now we're back into the school routine. This school year has started off much more easily for me since I knew what to expect, and Buttercup has also been doing better this year with her Oliver gone all day. :-) Theodore, on the other hand, doesn't understand yet why Oliver is gone all day. He's doing okay though, and hopefully he'll continue to do okay after his big sister starts preschool next month!

Here are some updates! 

Oliver: 

Well, the biggest news is that Oliver has accepted Jesus as his Savior! We talked about it for months, and at the beginning of the summer, I finally started to think that it was "real" and not just Oliver repeating what we've been teaching him and what he's learned at church.  I made an appointment for him to talk to our pastor, and the pastor agreed with me -- that Oliver really has accepted Christ into his heart! He was baptized at our church a couple of weeks ago and it was such a happy, joyful moment!!!  We are so proud of him!  

Oliver also started first grade about 2 weeks ago, and he's enjoying it so far. The first day wasn't nearly as emotional for me as kindergarten was! All of last year's kindergarten classes were rearranged into new classes for first grade, so he doesn't have all of his old classmates with him in his new class, but he still gets to see his kindergarten buddies on the playground at recess. :-)  There is another Oliver in his grade, and this year they're both in the same class! 

Oliver has been moved up to the next level of swim team and he'll have his first swim meet at the end of next month! He's not nearly as excited about it as his sister is, ha ha.  She really wants him to win "all" of the medals. :-)  Since the new swim team practices 3 times per week, Oliver decided to quit gymnastics team so he'll have time to do fun stuff after school, too. 

Buttercup:

She is really turning into a big girl right before our eyes! She's able to ride her bike without training wheels, run next to me on the trail, and she's also a big helper in the kitchen! She loves to cook and help me stir, and chop ingredients whenever she can. She also loves to watch The Pioneer Woman (a cooking show). :-)

Buttercup is continuing to do really well at swimming. She is really close to graduating from swim school -- she's in the second level, at station 8 (there are 10 stations).  Right now she's working on butterfly, and she was so excited to start learning it last week! It was the first time in almost 2 years that she was able to learn something other than freestyle or backstroke. :-)  She is really excited about getting to be on the swim team like Oliver! 

She is also still taking dance classes and she loves it. It's so funny how she is so much a tomboy, but also kind of a girly-girl, too. :-)   

Theodore:

Mr. T is still adorable and funny and such a little ham. His latest phrase is, "Why not?" And the really funny part is that he uses it appropriately, too!!  It kills me when he says it. This morning we were on the way home from a playdate at the park, and he asked if he could have a hot dog for lunch. I said, "No," and he said, "Why not? Why not, Mama?"  LOL!  It's just super cute coming from the cute little baby boy. :-)  

Theodore can also count to 10, and pedal his bicycle forward a little bit! Another really cute thing he does is that he'll tell you that he's 6 if you ask him how old he is. Oliver and Buttercup think it's hilarious, and one afternoon they spent about 15 minutes trying (in vain) to get him to say that he's 2. He's pretty convinced that he's 6.  :-)   

One not-so-cute thing that happened recently was that Theodore went through a sleep regression. It happened for about a week and a half, but thankfully now he's sleeping just as well as he was before it started -- only difference now is that he has to sleep with his favorite song on repeat and with his favorite cars in his hands. But at least he's sleeping!!!!  :-) 

Reading on the floor during Buttercup's dance class:

Two-wheelin'

Buttercup has been wanting to ride her bike without training wheels ever since Oliver learned how to do it a year and a half ago. The problem was, she wouldn't let me help her, because she insisted that she could do it by herself.  :-)  Then she would try, but would get frustrated with herself because she couldn't do it without my help, so that was the end of that for a while.  

Then a couple of weeks ago, she decided that she wanted to try again. This time, it worked out a lot better! She listened when I told her what she needed to do, let me help her a little bit, and then she figured out how to do it on her own!

Great job, Tootie! 



  

Swim test

At the YMCAs in our area, kids have to stay within an arm's length of their parents until they pass the swim test (25 yards in the lap pool, without touching the bottom or sides of the pool). Buttercup has been ready to take the swim test since she turned 4, but the rule is that kids have to be 5 years old to take it. 

It wasn't such a big deal at first, but over the past 7 months she has grown more confident and capable in the water, and she has really, really, really been wanting to swim with Oliver in the lap pool. I've been taking Theodore and holding him in the lap pool while she swims, but he only wants to be in the shallow water where he can stand up and splash, or wade out until he's shoulder-deep and do his own "swimming."  So when we go swimming, either Buttercup is mad at me because she has to stay in the "baby water" with Theodore and me, or Theodore is mad because I have to take him in the lap pool to be close to Buttercup.

Well, that all changed this morning! We were at the Y and Oliver and Buttercup wanted to swim in the lap pool. I was near them in the shallow water with Theodore, but was definitely further than an arm's length away from Buttercup. She was swimming halfway down the lane and back, over and over again, and doing fine. The lifeguard asked me if she had on a swim bracelet (indicating that she had passed the swim test), and I said that she wasn't able to take it, because she was still 4. Then I asked if she could go ahead and take the test, since she was obviously doing just fine and not having any trouble keeping herself afloat. The guard watched her a little bit longer and said that if she was close enough to being 5, she could go ahead and take the test. I said she would be 5 in October, and the guard said that was good enough. :-)

So Miss B got to take the swim test this morning, and she rocked it! We are so proud of this big, big girl!!!

Wearing her new swim bracelet!!

Oliver was so excited that he now he has a constant companion for the lap pool and slides!!!

Not related to swimming, but these are pics from this morning -- the kids biked 4 miles while I ran next to them pushing Theodore in the stroller. :-)  They loved biking in their swimsuits!


Showing off their guns! 

Buttercup's garden picture

Buttercup drew this garden scene the other day. Didn't she do a great job?? She drew herself next to a rainbow plant, standing in tall grass. I love it!!

When you have a big sister . . .

Buttercup loves to dance and dress up . . .

. . . so it's really no surprise that Theodore wants to dance and dress up, too. :-)

 

Buttercup's dance recital

Last week, Buttercup had her first dance recital! The girls performed a very cute tap routine and they all did SO well! It was so cute. I'm bummed that we weren't able to video the performance, but here are some cute pictures from before they went on stage!

Buttercup and her friend Lucy

Rehearsing

Theodore was so good during the performance. I thought he was going to be interested enough in it to keep still and quiet, but I wasn't sure! Thankfully though, he did great! The only problem was the 10 minutes or so that we had to wait for the performances to begin . . . and he also did not like it when the lights were turned off. :-)  But other than that, he did very well!

Patiently waiting for the show to start

Needless to say, Buttercup has the dancing bug now and has decided that she wants to continue to take dance classes. Yay for her! I'm glad she has found something that she loves to do! :-)