1st Days

4's preschool

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade
All I have is "wow" where has the time gone?

One of my favorite kid quotes is : " The days are long, but the years are short". So very true for me.

Be Prepared

Could you name the 12 principles of Boy Scouts? I couldn't either, but I do have to admit, Scout Camp is FUN.

Archery, BB-guns, bottle rockets, obstacle courses (that are timed) and tons of other things that are in the wilderness. This camp was a ten! and I had very low expectations, after all, it is the key to happiness. I volunteered on the first day never looked at my watch once.

If you had one of these at home, it would be hours of entertainment!!! The ladies I was with were seriously trying to figure out how to build one.

Jake won the obstacle course for his group with a 1min 7sec time. The kid is so competitive.

I'd say this was a hit. At 70$ for five days, I'd say it was darn near the best money I ever spent!

Undefeatable

This was the word that Jake used to describe his basketball team: Undefeatable. Their team won all of their games! This was Jake's first year playing organized basketball, and hands down it was my favorite sport to watch him play. I can honestly just say it was fun. For starters, it was indoors (ie. warm) during the rainy months in the NW. And they had just a great group of talented, hustling boys on the team. I only wish I had better pictures.... the lighting was horrible in the gym and my photo skills left much to be desired! Jake and my Dad: Jake was #14, you see him guarding in the below picture.

Nine

Where has the time gone?

He is funny, sensitive, good at math, would rather do 50 other things besides read, loves to shoot baskets, jump, and shoot nerf guns at everything.

One of my all time favorite pictures of this little man.

Made from Scratch birthday cake from Aunt Hill:

We even celebrated a little early so we could do it with baby Owen. Funny, I think he looks sooo much like Jake as a baby. Such a beautiful child, even if he didn't like me very much. Don't worry, he will some day.

Uncle Will, Aunt Maggie, and Owen.

We also celebrated with his besties from school. He really wanted to shoot his BB-gun with his friends in the woods. Bri set up a cool shooting course for them and they all loved it. Have to admit it has been my favorite b-day party thus far......as I sat on the couch and had a cup of tea with Patsy, while Brian entertained the boys!

These boys are so funny together.

Jake really does have a good shot.

And as my friend Emily pointed out, I'm half way there now!!! These parenting responsibilities are done at 18 right???

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

My sister used this as the title for her blog post of the same nature.....I thought it only appropriate to use it for mine, since I've been singing it for days...

The first day of school. I have to admit I was a little sad for school to start today (although I'm sure you couldn't tell by the grin on my face). We had a great summer and I was just getting into a routine with the kids. I would have liked to have gone to the beach a few more times, and play with friends we don't get to see very often a little more. I would have liked to see my Mom and Dad and Hill's fam a little more too....

But since it rained today I guess it's as good of time as ever to start the new school year, So hear goes:

Avery in the outfit my mom got her for her birthday:

The backpack shot:

The Crater Cougar was out, this is as close as Avery wanted to get:

Flanked by many of her friends waiting for the teacher to come get her:

Bri and I dropped the kids off and headed to the YMCA to work out with Grace.....Then to Costco. Brian said he felt like he was retired and could really get used to this.

So in honor of School starting I wanted to add some things that Bill Gates said in a speech about things that children need to learn, but don't in school (found it on Facebook) and thought it brilliant :

rule 1. Life is not fair - get used to it.

rule 2. The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

rule 3. You will NOT make 60,000$ a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

rule 5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

rule 6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

rule 7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in you won room.

rule 8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

rule 9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on you own time.

rule 10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

rule 11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Here's to a great year of preschoolers, second graders and third graders in my life.

Things we are learning this Summer:

How to mow the lawn.

Thank heavens, because any of you who know me, know that I do NOT mow lawns, don't even know how to start a mower! Guess I won't have to learn now.

Snakes

Things to do in the Summer: Catch Snakes in the Creek.

I cussed this creek for a long time, being as it was on our property, but we really couldn't utilize it.....well that was until Jake got old enough to climb the fence and explore. It's heavenly for little boys.

Friend Zach and Sammy the Snake:

Sorry for the dark pics, Grace had my camera and changed the settings. Why do I keep letting her play with it??? She broke my last one you know....

Last Game of the Season

For Jake's last baseball game of the season both sets of his grandparents came to cheer him on. Seriously, how fortunate! They were all so proud.

In the dugout:

Grace's entertainment during the game.

Running to 1st.

Brian the 3rd base coach and Jake getting ready to take it home. Next season he should be able to steal bases.....that will be interesting!

Behind the Back Catch

This baseball season has been an interesting one, lots of rained out games, a weird coach that kind of quit due to an injury letting all the dad's take over.....

But amidst all of this Jake had a great year! He hit great, got to play first base a lot, and got a lot better at fielding.


Jake playing 1st base:
The ball was hit in the air over by first base. Jake turned and caught it. It was really an impressive play.

Catcher:

The FANS:

Jake ready to get someone out on 3rd:

Grace with her can of pop:

Dad sporting his Hebrew sweatshirt.

I think Grace took this one. But thought to include it. Anyone who knows my Dad knows that he has the coolest watches.

More to follow from Jake's last Game.