starting school and ending school...

End of May began a new journey for my middle son... Marky-mark was going to start pre-school in a formal setting... full of structure, snacks, naps and field trips... I was excited.  He was excited.  This was going to be great for him.  New friends.  New rules.  New ways of doing things.  Greater expectations on behavior.  Higher requirements of energy.  So far it's been a smooth, easy transition... he is definitely more tired in the evenings...but not sure that isn't due in part to growing also... I swear the kid is growing longer by the day, but still looks as though he is never fed seeing as how we can see his spine and ribs... I have basically given up on watching what he eats...if he is hungry then he is hungry...I just let him eat... Some days I don't know how he is still vertical as he maybe ate a total of half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - the.whole.day! ...other days I do believe if I let him, he would eat an entire loaf of bread and scoop the jelly out with his hands...He is sometimes I am sure running on pure adrenaline!

We talked quite a bit about going to his "new school"...how he would need to have a backpack and a change of clothes with a blanket & sheet to sleep on his cot... he was too excited to get the backpack... the day it came (of which he didn't know) - the doorbell rang during the day and he squealed "my backpack is here!".  He didn't know it was...didn't know the ups-man dropped off his amazon.com order... but he was nonetheless excited to see his shiny new orange backpack.  oh orange?  yes of course - its his signature color....I think he has 6 orange shirts in his closet and refuses to wear any non-orange colored shirt... well that's sort of a lie...if the shirt has orange on it then he'll wear it, but I will tell you - he KNOWS the ones that don't and refuses to wear them... ahh well - there's always Seth.

So far school has been great - no worries from the teacher... and I do believe they both like knowing (Noah and Mark) are there at the same place...

Also at the end of May we ended a good run with my oldest cousin (who was also one of my ring bearers in my wedding - where has the time gone!?) who decided to go ahead and graduate from high school....  Not sure who gave him permission to do this...I wasn't really ready to see him do this...I know his mom was stressed to the max...him being her 1st born and all... I mean how do you see a little kid and know them and see them as a "little kid" suddenly turn into a grown human... ok it wasn't that sudden - I mean it was 18 years, but looking back it seemed to fly by.

It was a nice ceremony.  The weather was just right...warm, but breezy.  I am glad I got to be there.  I think he was thankful we were as well.  He had quite the support staff...entourage...posse!

gotta love those 'selfies'!

our little graduate! and pics of the zoo...of course

How random of a blog post right?  two opposite directions don't you think?  kind of how our life is moving now a days!

First, Noah graduated from the pre-school program at his school...officially sending him off to Kindergarten this fall...(holy cow it just keeps getting more real!)

This is our little guy, er rather big guy now :)

This is one of his good buddies (also named Noah)...

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of him and his teachers...they were pretty strict about getting those caps and gowns back asap before anyone could head for the cookie table...and let's be honest, after sitting in a church for about an hour - singing, reciting letters, numbers, spanish colors...I'd want a darn cookie too!  I'll try to get one before he officially leaves this summer...  Overall it was a pretty good ceremony...a little emotional... the teachers made a photo stream of all the kids from when they started to this last week before the graduation...its just amazing to see how much he's changed...

That next day after the graduation we headed out on a family vacation to the Omaha Zoo...my parents came with us - it was a pretty good time...except that it was cold (alright freezing), we all were in shorts (thankfully Curt brought us all jackets, just in case) and Curt made me ride the sky safari... yeah...that honestly was the worst part of the trip for me...hated every minute...had kung-fu death grip on the handles...was only relieved momentarily when we went over the water all the while thinking at least I wouldn't die if I landed in the water...

don't i look super happy...that was the best he could get me to smile...

and here you have my parents with my 'no-fear' son who had a blast riding up so high!

an animal if the sky safari broke - we could have fallen into it's pen...

horsing around on a giraffe...hehe

more 'horsing around'

in front of my favorite animal...i love this section of the zoo!

looks like part of the family right?  i call him George...George the giraffe

have to ride the train...

the goofballs bringing up the caboose!

memorial weekend & new preschool!

Memorial Weekend was so nice...nice in that I was super smart and took off two days prior to the long 3-day weekend so I got 5 days off - it was heaven...I got so much done - organized the cabinets and pantry.  Now you may think - jeez what an awful way to spend a vacation day, but it really made me happy - happy like I just found an extra $20 happy...unfortunately I did not find $20, but the feeling was the same!

We decided to drive to Manhattan to help my sister in-law and brother in-law put in some laminate flooring... again you may say to yourself "this is not a good idea for a vacation day?", but it was pretty fun, we got to hang out with baby Sam! (which is always a fun time, he's at that squishy baby cuddle phase, pays attention to things around him, giggles, drools, it's super fun!).  The first day we didn't get very far, in that we got the under-lament down and "some" of the floor.  I say "some" because this my friends was re-use flooring from my brother in-law's mother's house (yeah say that 5x fast!).  She wanted new so they took the old...they were assured that there would be plenty...assured...multiple times...aaahhhh.  Sunday we wake up and get 3/4 of the living room done and realize we are down to 1 box left....yep 1 box... 1 box = 8 planks...8 planks was no where near enough to finish the 1/4 left in the living room AND the hallway...sooooo off to Home Depot the boys trotted...ok not really trotted...more like stomped...both were tired...frustrated...hoping hoping hoping that Home Depot would have say 7 more boxes to finish up the job....ask yourself do you think they had it?   If you laughed and said "yeee haw riiiigggghhhtttt" well then you'd be right on about it...and if you said "they probably don't even make it anymore", you'd be even MORE right....what a mess right?  Well all was not lost...Sunday night we ran over to Menards - found a color that they liked even better than the free, it was on sale - + had a discount for the Memorial weekend holiday and had PLENTY of it... so we came back and started in on it....

Here are some pictures to show the progress - - since we've left its been completed through the hallway - just waiting on a few thresholds to finish up the job!

1. Carpet removal, 2. Under Lament, 3. Final Floor 3/4 done

Can you tell they all are looking at someone different - 3 different pictures being taken at this time, no one knew where to look when....funny!

We came on Monday, everyone was tired...although I didn't feel like I really did anything...other than give my opinion, which I'm pretty good at...ha!

Tuesday we had a big day - new preschool for Noah - Open Arms....it's wonderful, he was so excited and not nervous at all (which just told me that this was a good time for us to move him over to a formal 'school-like' setting (sitting at a desk, activities, field trips and only kids his age to interact with). 

Well first here are some pictures of us modeling our new backpack and YES we bought him a power cat backpack, picking were slim over Memorial weekend for a backpack since school is out and frankly if it makes him happy - it really does make me happy :) although I would like it documented that Curt did try to buy him off with a toy so he wouldn't get it and get a Jayhawk one instead! :)

Funny thing: my mom always took a picture of us kids on our 1st day of school...I don't know how many times we have said "oh what year was that?  Is the Escort in the picture?" so I got smarter and took one with his name and the date - ha!

His teacher is awesome!  On the first day she sent an email 1) so i could have her address, 2) to tell me how he was doing the first day and answer any questions I thought of after meeting her that morning and 3) to send me some pictures of his first day planting a garden!

I think he really is going to love it there - his teacher said that he made the comment on the first day "I think I really like it here!".  LOVE IT!  I know it's ridiculous, but I felt such validation about us making the decision to send him now...it's the little things right?

Big field trip this week too - the ZOO!  I think he goes somewhere cool every single week, T-Bones game, Nelson Art Gallery, KU Natural History Museum.....amazing places!  More to come on this topic I am sure!