First day of school 2015

Summer was over way too quickly!

 

Eleri is starting 1st grade. She will be in the same class for all of lower elementary.

 

 

Her locker is on the bottom. Perfect for her.

 

 

Bye, Mom. I have things to learn.

 

 

Niall is starting 5th grade. This is his second year in upper elementary.

 

 He plans to have an excellent year.

 

Rowan is starting 8th grade. This is his last year at Sterling Montessori. 

 

He is a good sport about having a stalker mom.

 

First and last day pictures

Time flies so fast

First day of school

 

7th grade. Holy cow.

4th grade. Much too fast!

 

Kindergarten. Oh, my heart.

She was beyond ready. Me? Not so much.

Niall is 9

His golden birthday. 9 on the 9th! We pretty much celebrated him all weekend. He played lots of Wii, got his presents, and got to go to the movies with John. Pictures to come.

School pictures!

This year, I decided to take school pictures myself. I've bought the package from Lifetouch every year, and they're not bad, but I feel like I've gotten good enough to take my own pictures from now on. Either I'm good enough, or I'm cheap enough! lol

I posted a set on facebook, and everyone had different opinions about which one was best, so I just picked my favorites.

Here is Rowan's 6th grade picture

 

 

And here's Niall's 3rd grade picture.

 

First Day of School! 2013

I always think of Nemo yelling on the first day of school. Time, once again, for the quiet to descend on the house as the boys head off to another day of school. I have this last year home with Eleri, and then they'll all be school kids. I may need some holding and lots of chocolate for that. eeep!
They are both going back to their old classrooms, so the nerves and such that I always had for the first day of school don't come into play. Next year will be different, because everyone will be starting a new classroom, but this year is pretty smooth with more of the same as last year.

 

6th grader

 

3rd Grader

I told them to look cute, and this is what they gave me.

 

I told them to show me some blue steel, and they did this

 

Just look at Niall in the first one and Rowan in the second, and you have a pretty good picture.

We made sure they had what they needed, reminded them of the house rule (always be kinder than necessary!) and then they were off! They are both in the oldest grade in their classrooms this year, and they are looking forward to the bonus responsibilities and privileges that come with that. 

 

Have a good year, boys!

oops!

I was talking to Mom yesterday and she reminded me that I haven't been putting things on the blog. Oopsies!
It's been a very busy summer. I swear, Rowan has spent more time away from home than he's spent here! And we only have one more week until school starts back up again.
It's been SO RAINY that we haven't been out in the pool as much, or outside as much.

I promised pictures, though, so here are pictures of John's birthday.
John's birthday pictures
Flickr has changed their format, and I'm not a big fan of what they did. But it is what it is.

We had some entertainment this morning. Niall lost two teeth last night, but one is somewhere in the bottom of the pool. He put the one he had in the pocket with a note about the other one and hoped for the best. Our tooth fairy hasn't exactly been reliable lately. Imagine his surprise when he woke up to find this!

 

A teeny tiny letter!

It looks like we're going to be getting a new and more reliable fairy. Niall is excited about that. Will she bring golden dollars? Toys? Hotwheels cars?

 

Niall thinks it's pretty awesome.

Last day of school 2013

I'm so far behind in blogging it's not funny. But oh well. It's the last day of school!

For Rowan, the last day of 5th grade. He's grown so much! Today's picture of Rowan is weird. His shirt is hanging funny. I didn't notice the book bag weirdness when I was taking it.

  

He's a little taller. His hair is a lot longer.

Niall has also grown a bunch. He couldn't smile as well because last night he woke up to go to the bathroom and tripped over some stuff on his floor. His lip met a chair and is all puffy now. The caterwauling at 2am shot me straight out of bed. But anyway...

 

He's grown a lot, but his hair shrank.

One more year done!

 

Fall 2012

 

And now Spring 2013

 

Niall's First Communion

 

Pretty Proud

You can see the full photo set here. 

Niall's science fair project

Niall did his science fair project on tsunamis. Good choice for that one. Even Niall can't match the awesome, destructive force of a tsunami.

Oh to be a fly on the wall

Niall had his first confession today. His says his penance was one Hail Mary. He won't say what he told Father, though. It's much too embarrassing.

 

Proud boy

Niall's birthday

I think Niall had a pretty good birthday. We still haven't done his cake yet (he hasn't figured out what kind he wants!) so we're stretching it out a bit. His party was yesterday, but instead of a party, he decided he wanted to take some friends to the movies instead. So that's what he did. Unfortunately, Eleri was still napping when it was time to go, and movies don't really lend themselves well to pictures, so I don't have any of that.
I'll go to his class tomorrow and take his treat in. I'm thinking it will be brownies. or maybe cookies. He'll make that call in the morning.
He conned me into giving him one present a day early. It was a book about the body - one of his favorite subjects. He loves reading and looking at pictures of how we work.

 

Other than that, he only got one present, because it was a big one. If you give just one thing to an 8 year old boy...

 

It should come in a box that's too big to wrap

 

And should get the response, "WOW! Cool! ... What is it?"

John had a green machine when he was a kid, and he assured us that it was the ultimate in cool fun riding yah awesomeness. So after lunch, he had some help putting it together.

 

And after that...

 

 

 Oh yeah.

 

 

Awesome.

Niall is 8

Tonight, at 12:01, Niall will officially be 8 years old. What a ride it's been.

 

The 9lb bundle 

 

The Michelin Man (age 6months, wearing a 24months shirt)

agent of chaos

He's always had his own style

loves music

 

 can be sweet as pie

or not. :)

I'll have to get a good birthday picture of him in the morning.