Evening at Chuck E Cheese

Day two of school brought a call from Chloe's Kindergarten teacher before noon that she was screaming.  Non-stop.  Day two brought a note home advising there was also kicking.  Requesting a call to the teacher's cell phone that evening.  And a parent-teacher-Chloe conference at 7am on Wednesday.  Chloe had to be removed from the classroom so her teacher could teach.  She was removed kicking and screaming.  Sigh.

She did a good job testing the teacher's patience, finding out what the boundaries are and what consequences would follow.  The teacher and Chloe now have a secret code to use when the teacher wants her to hush and it is working well.  As did an all vegetable diet for the day, which encouraged her to behave better to go back to living the good life with all the foods she likes.  It was an effective tactic that earned her a smiley face for the day at school and an email from the teacher saying she had an excellent day and totally deserved to go to Chuck E. Cheese after school with Owen.

So off to Chuck E's we went.  Chloe thanked us multiple times for taking her to Chuck E. Cheese.  The kids had so much fun.

The boy is always caught yawning.  Ever since coming home from Minnesota, he yawns non-stop.  After three weeks home, one would think he would be caught up on sleep. 

Owen played a couple of rounds of soccer, kicking the balls past the moving goalie.

Chloe was joined at the water gun game by another little girl.  It was a cut throat game.  Too serious for sitting.

This is the first visit after many that Owen spent time enjoying his tokens and playing games, as opposed to popping them into the machines that spit out tickets.  He had fun playing Mario Kart.

Chloe took Owen's old role, hot on the pursuit to get as many tickets as quickly as she could.  She looked like a zombie at this machine, pumping in tokens as fast as possible and not even watching how many tickets were coming out. 

Meanwhile, Owen was playing basketball.  This boy is good at any sport he plays!

Owen used his last few tokens at a ball drop machine to get tickets.  His concentration was intense!

After we ate dinner, the kids played for awhile in the hamster maze hanging from the ceiling.  They looked so silly pushing their foreheads through the rope netting.

After the First Day of School

When I got to school, Owen ran to me yelling "I had THE BEST day of school EVER!"  He was so happy to stand and smile for me.  Chloe...not so much.

Owen couldn't stop telling me how nice his second grade teacher was at school.  He was so excited.

I asked Chloe to take her sour puss scowl out of the frame of the camera and she was suddenly interested in playing along and decided to smile.  Not sure how she lost a sock during her first day of Kindergarten, but it may speak to the type of day she had.

Then we had to have silly faces.

Why do they like to do this?  It looks like it hurts!

Owen changed up his night for cooking dinner for the family and made waffles from scratch for us tonight.  He did an awesome job and they were delicious!

Chloe was licking her plate clean!

After dinner, I asked Owen if he wanted to go out for dessert and he chose Rita's.  Chloe was not invited because she had been naughty the day before and mean to Owen.  :(

Owen took his time deciding what he wanted and was thrilled when the girl behind the counter asked him if he wanted a sample.  She also asked him about his first day of school and shared she was starting her senior year of high school.  Owen seemed so pleased that such a grown up girl was asking about his day.

He ended up choosing a blue raspberry slushy and thought we should sit outside while he drank it.  Owen was so thoughtful and generous and kept offering to share.  I love this boy.

I love who he is becoming.   He makes me so proud!

First Day of School

Chloe had finished her breakfast and was making faces next to Todd this morning.  She reminded me of one of the little characters on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood with her lips pulled out like this. :)

This is what Kindergarten and Second Grade smiles look like at 6:50am on the first day of school.

And these are their silly faces.

This was the long walk down to the bus stop.  Past a whole nine houses.

As is typical for us, we ended up running to catch the bus (it happens even when I get up early enough, like this morning and then dawdle too long to walk down) so our kids were the last ones in line.  There were tears from moms of other Kindergarteners and shared hugs.

How small does our Bean look getting ready to climb the school bus steps for the first time?

Goodbye my kids.  Have a great first day at school!

Weekend with Lorelei

Kelley's friend Lorelei flew into town on Friday and stayed through Sunday.  We took the kids to Waffle House for breakfast on Saturday morning before a trip to IKEA and a driveby past the Big Chicken.

On Sunday we all took a walk on the nature trail together.  It was a hot, humid, sweaty walk with gads of bugs to serenade us.

How cool is this orange guy?!

You're looking at a soon-to-be Kindergartner right here!

Love that these two are good friends!

Lorelei spotted this awesome overhead cover.  The light shining through the leaves was awesome!

Swimming and Sliding

After Chloe's meet and greet with her Kindergarten teacher, we had forty five minutes for play time at the pool.  The kids changed into their suits in the car and were jumping into the water in no time.

Bean was so happy playing at the pool by herself.  Owen ran off to play with his friends, but Chloe was completely content without any interaction other than from my camera. :)

Then it was off to the slide...

Owen decided he had had enough playing in the water with his friends and spent some time jumping in.

And he wrestled with his guys....

Chloe floated around, barely keeping her nose out of the water.  I think she was intentionally keeping her feet pointed down and staying vertical to see if she could keep her face floating.  Or maybe she was just bouncing on her tip toes to keep her face dry.  Never really know with this silly bean.

When the sun started going down behind the trees, we knew it was almost time to go home.  The nights are coming earlier and earlier now.  It won't be long before it is dark when the kids go to bed at 8pm.

I just love this group of kids!

Before we left, Chloe was filling up that noodle she snagged and then blowing into one end to make water fly out the other.  She's surprised a few adults with this trick and is pretty pleased with herself!

Chloe's Meet and Greet

Can you tell Chloe dressed herself today?  She loves to be bright with not-so-matching tights! :)

She has been loving her sun glasses ever since we let both kids pick out a new pair when they came home from Minnesota.  Chloe thought she was pretty cute with the sun glasses and the pig nose and couldn't wait to meet her teacher.  Mrs. McMichael was Owen's Kindergarten teacher and she emailed Todd yesterday that Chloe would be in her class this year.  Yay!  We loved Mrs. McMichael!!!

Chloe carried in her nap mat.

We didn't recognize any of the kids in Chloe's classroom.

She was excited to sit in her desk.  But Chloe didn't stay long.  

She had to check out the room.  Chloe wanted to sharpen her new pencil that came in the goody bag from Mrs. McMichael.  I think she was a little disappointed there was not a home living section in Kindergarten...just a bunch of computers.  We're interested to see if she becomes more interested in computers this year, since she will be using them and playing learning games on a weekly basis.