End of School and Orange Themed Teacher Gift

I can't believe another school year has gone by! 9 months ago Nathan was excitedly getting ready for 1st grade - remember this picture?

And now here he is on his last day....he's grown so much!



His thoughts on his last day of school:

Of course he wouldn't have so many great things to say about first grade if he wouldn't have had a wonderful teacher. And a wonderful teacher deserves a special gift for getting us to this point! Last year I used some subway art to make a teacher appreciation gift for his Kindergarten teacher {you can check that out HERE if you are interested}. I have spent the year pinning all kinds of fun gift ideas for this year's teacher gift and finally settled on one when I saw this adorable Orange You Glad It's Almost Summer Gift Basket from Shaken Together. I just thought it was super cute and loved how bright and cheery it was.  I decided to check out the Dollar Store for my supplies and found plenty of fun orange themed stuff. Altogether, less than $10 spent (including the white tub to which I hot glued some orange ribbon). The tag is part of a free printable pdf, from Shaken Together, where you can also find some more fruit inspired tags for future appreciation gifts. I love how it turned out! What do you think?

kitchen towel, flowers, reese's, orange flavored water, an orange shaped popscicle, fan, tumbler, and citrus juicer

Can't wait to see what Second Grade will bring!

First day of First Grade

Nathan started First Grade today. I swear we were just taking him to Kindergarten! And I know everyone says this but time sure flies.

{Like the sign? You can print your own at U Create}

He was as handsome as could be this morning, as you can see. He was only a tad nervous before bed last night so I prayed for him last night and daddy prayed for him this morning. I think he was feeling pretty confident as we were heading out the door. He even wanted to be a little silly.

Wonder what a first grader looks forward to? Let's hear it out of his own mouth:

Mommy made sure to pack a super healthy lunch to help his brain work overtime today as it tried to get used to a busy school schedule again. Peanut butter balls (with soaked steel cut oats, pepitas, sunflower seeds, and honey), carrots, celery, a banana {who sees the message?} and some rice leftover from last night (it was half white half black, hence the color):

Of course we couldn't do TOTALLY healthy today...we did a special Krispy Kreme run after school was done, mostly hoping the sugar high would help him be more willing to spill about his day (anybody else's school aged boys already barely talking? I need more details then "fine" when I ask about his day!).

Another first day of school in the books. I am willing to bet that this year will go even faster than the last and I will soon be writing another Kindergarten post as Jordan joins his brother at school next year. But until then, we are going to try to hold on for the ride and watch Nathan as he continues to learn and grow. Here we go!

Nathan is 6 - Balloons, Beach and Bonfire

My oldest turned 6 today and we decided to celebrate by making this a family fun day focused on all the things Nathan loves.

We started by cutting open trash bags and taping them to his door frame so that they would hold balloons behind them as long as the door was shut. As soon as he opened his door in the morning he was greeted by a waterfall of balloons...only wish I would have been able to see his face!

 

He had his own decorated Birthday Boy chair for meal times:

Speaking of meal times, he started the day with pancakes stacked six high with an actual 6 shaped pancake to top it off (which he polished off by the way!) and for lunch something he had seen me looking at on Pinterest and had been begging me to make for some time - Grilled Mac N Cheese Sandwiches. Yum!

After lunch we packed everyone up and made what will probably be our last lake visit of the year. It was a little chilly but lots of fun nonetheless.

After that we got some ice cream at our favorite outdoor place near the lake (no pictures, too busy scarfing it down!!) and then took a long drive so little brothers could get a cat nap in the car. At home we relaxed for awhile and then the camp out activities commenced, starting with a fire so the boys could roast hot dogs and smores.

Once Isaiah goes down for the night (he'll get to start camping next year:), Nathan and Jordan will get to camp out with daddy in the backyard where they will do all sorts of fun boy things and then probably pass out after a long, eventful day. They were nice enough to let Isaiah play in the tent some while he was still up:

And as if today weren't enough, Nathan got spoiled rotten this last weekend at his Spiderman Birthday party (including a pinata big enough to fit all 3 of my boys inside it courtesy of grandma and grandpa who picked it out in Mexico:)

Lots of great memories have been made as we celebrated this special day. Nathan, I look forward to seeing what great things this year brings and am so proud of the boy that you continue to grow into. You are smart, sensitive as well as being an amazingly kind and patient big brother (well, most of the time anyway!) and we are lucky to call you our son. Happy 6th Birthday!!



Stars and Fairies

What a week it has been for our Kindergartner!

Friday when we went to pick him up at school he was beaming as he told us that he had been made Star Student of the week. "They even called my name on the intercom mom!" - He was practically squealing as he was telling us this. What exactly does Star Student of the Week mean? Apparently he gets some really cool jobs like putting the weather up for the day and changing the dates on the calendar and leading the line whenever they leave the classroom. These were all very thrilling prospects to our 5 year old star! He also got to make a poster all about him to share with the class:

At the top left he drew his family - "Mom, you are really big because you are 30!" Thanks for the reminder Bub! Below that he was asked to share 3 wishes to which he replied, "I wish for 2 snakes, I wish for 3 dragons, and I wish for 5 lizards." At the very bottom left he was to share a picture of what he wanted to be when he grow up. We pasted on a lego police station because for the moment he wants to be a policeman when he grows up. On the right hand bottom side is things he doesn't like - bees, tomatoes, and rain. Right in the middle are all the things he does like - robots, candy, meatballs and Leapster games. Add in the typical height, weight, hair color stats and you know all about our star:)

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one week, Nathan also lost his first tooth last night. It has been loose for about two weeks now and two nights ago we noticed a new tooth was growing in behind it so we figured it would be coming out soon. Last night he came up complaining about it moving around a lot and hurting so Jeremy was able to reach right in and pull it right out. Want to know the first thing he said after that? "Can I shoot juice out of my hole now?" Boys!!

That means we had our first visit from the Tooth Fairy last night. She has it easy in this house because we have tooth jars so she didn't have to try to sneak under his pillow. Inflation has really done a number on the going rate of teeth...I remember getting a quarter for my teeth and Nathan got an entire dollar.

I think that we have probably had enough excitement for one week. Although we may have to come up with a little something special for Jordan since he is starting to feel a left out of all the fun. I am a little worried he is going to find a way to lose some teeth so he can get in on the action. It's so hard being the barely younger brother!

5 years ago today...

Nathan,

I still remember waking up super early that morning to meet my OB at the hospital to be induced. I was full of anticipation and nerves as the fears of what labor would hold loomed over my head. But mostly I was excited to see your little face and hold you in my arms for the first time. 14 hours later I laid eyes on you and was hooked. They placed you on my chest and you just stared into my eyes and gripped my thumb with your little fingers. I didn't know much but I knew you were mine and that I was head over heels in love. Over the next few hours fear creeped back in when I realized I was taking you home and you were all mine to care for. How scary! It wasn't all easy and I had a lot to learn as a new mom but with a lot of help from daddy and those who loved us we made it.

I love you for all the things that make you who you are. I don't know if it is the first born child in you or the pieces of your personality that come from me but you are Mr. Routine. You love a schedule and you love to know what's coming next. Surprises kind of drive you nuts. But where you are orderly in the everyday stuff you are fearless in everything else. You love the water and I can already tell you are going to be my roller coaster buddy. You are smart. Like crazy smart. And I would love to take credit for that but you are a naturally inquisitive little boy and so much of what you know you learned out of curiosity and asking lots of questions. You are super stoked for school and I know you will do amazingly well. Already writing and reading and counting past 100 but I know you will have so much more to learn. You are an awesome big brother and Jordan and Isaiah are so lucky to have you.

I hope on this day and every other day that you feel loved and special because you are. Dream big my son because I know that whatever you set your mind to you will do. Happy 5th Birthday Nathan!

Love,
Mommy

Full circle

It never ceases to amaze me how funny life can be. The little things that always interweave and make us realize how connected everything is.

We haven't been watching much of the Olympics this time around. Truth be told our tv is pretty much controlled by the children these days. If they are up and the tv is on it is either something on PBS Kids, Qubo, or a movie. At night Jeremy and I have two or three shows every week that we watch regularly but other than that we prefer movies or old shows on DVD. So for whatever reason yesterday I decided to turn on the Olympics. I thought for sure the kids would just go do their own thing and find no interest in it whatsoever. But a few minutes in I hear Nathan saying, "Mommy I like this show, what is it?" So I told him it was skiing and went about cleaning up. He just kept talking and talking about how much he liked it. Then this morning first thing he asked if I would turn on skiing. It really amazed me that he had that much interest in it.

I got to thinking about it while I was getting ready this morning and it hit me. The irony of all of this. Four years ago when I was pregnant with Nathan the winter Olympics were on. Jeremy was working night shifts then so during the day I would be stuck entertaining myself and with no cable would sometimes turn it to whatever they were doing on the Olympics. At this time we didn't know if we were having a boy or girl but I was trying to narrow down names and would use any inspiration I could find. I literally watched all the credits at the end of movies because they provided lists of names all in one place. On one particular day I had the tv on for background noise as I was knitting and looked up to watch some skiing. It was men so I was watching as each one took their turn and of course they were displaying their names on the screen so I was reading each one to see if anything caught my interest. And then one name did. Nathan. Nathan. I just kept saying it to myself over and over again and thought, "hmmm, this could be good." And so it was added to the list. In fact, it was at the top of the list.

So this is how Nathan came to be named. And I had totally forgotten about it until today as I watched Nathan take such an interest in Olympic skiing. Everything came back to me, took me back to that moment in time. It is amazing how these things happen. How small insignificant events become so meaningful. That in life most things truly come around full circle.