being elf-ed

we’ve had a fun time hanging out with all of my family over the past week, and we’ve definitely kept busy.  last thursday everyone came over for dinner and some time together.  ginny came prepped with a craft for the kids.  the kids, especially the older ones, loved getting to turn themselves into an elf.

nate, who as always enjoyed doing crafts, was the first to jump into making his.  he had a plan and knew exactly what he wanted it to be like.

he loved getting to have aunt ginny help him out along the way.

each mom jumped in and helped out.  even matt did his fair share of cutting out shoes and hats before whining his way out of it.

jilly has definitely been growing up a lot lately, and was very serious about her elf.  she is for sure going to be ready to do preschool this fall!

our smiley, happy girl.

dad hung out with the movie watchers while we worked with a couple cousins at a time.

camyrn grace was busy right away accordion folding her elf legs.

no child seemed to be able to get enough of gluing on the the fuzzy poms.

they all turned out super cute and are hung up to be seen when you walk in the front door.

unphased

for being the sister who would freak out and throw a fit at leaving nate at preschool twice a week last year, this girl has apparently done a lot of growing up over the summer.  i was worried she would throw a tantrum when it was time to leave nate yesterday, but she did just fine.  she also waved goodbye to nate and daddy this morning like a champ.

although she’s stuck by my side pretty much the entire time nate is gone, she has done really well.  i have to say that i am enjoying some good one on one time with my middle kid.  lucky for her laurel take a good size morning nap from about 9-11:30 each morning which means she gets some good time of having me all to herself.  she is totally soaking in all the undivided attention.  this morning we went and played on the swingset, colored, and played babies.  she is such a laid back kid when there’s no sibling to compete with.  my hope is to be able to pour into her, in  the next several months while laurel continues her morning nap, like i’ve never felt i had the time to.

nbk

since i’m a few weeks behind on posting picture, i decided i would do a post for each kid with picture of what each as been up to in recent weeks.  i’ll start today with naters, who has had a very busy couple of weeks.

king of kings played host to a special pinewood derby race that was open to boy scouts and non boy scouts.  nate and his grandpa had worked while we were in nyc a while back on getting his car ready.  he was super excited the morning of the races as he ran around the house as fast as he could.  when i asked what he was doing, he replied, “i’m getting ready for the races mom!”  although he didn’t win and it was a much longer day than expected, he had fun.

we took advantage of a couple days of highs in the upper 90s to pull the pool and sprinkler out for some fun playtime.  although the pool is now deflated again as we wait for summer to officially arrive, it was fun to get a taste of the fun that lies ahead.

nate also had preschool graduation last week.  it was fun to see all that he has learned over the past 2 years of preschool.

time with naters

yesterday was mother’s tea at preschool with nate.  in the 3′s class they have a “day with dads”.  although i was happy for brad and nate to have a special event last year, i was glad it was now my turn.  they sang a few songs and gave us back rubs and hand massages.  we also got to enjoy cake and m&m’s which is always a plus!  i know i just said it a few posts ago, but i can’t believe our preschool days are so close to being over!!!

it’s hard to believe nate’s preschool days are coming to a quick close!  last thursday he sang in chapel, and it was adorable as always.  i have loved being blessed with the opportunity to send him to preschool. 

since laurel hates nursing under the cover, i snuck out to go feed her in the mother’s room because i figured nate was done singing, and i wouldn’t miss too much.  apparently right after i headed out he got called up to the front to answer some questions.  go figure.  luckily brad was manning the camera that day, and i got to hear about it and see pictures. 

“do we have to wear our green again tomorrow mom?”

stripes with green

curious with green

green with more green

nate was full of all kinds of questions about the point of st. patrick’s day this morning when i told him we had to wear green today.  i didn’t have many answers to satisfy his multitude of questions though.  in my mind i thought, good thing he has preschool today – they can explain it to him.

our lunch conversation:

me:  did you learn about st. patrick’s day at school today bud?

nate:  no, we just learn about Jesus at my school.

me:  i like that answer naters. 

howdy, partner

isn’t my cowboy adorable?

it’s river city roundup time which means they have rcr day at preschool and march around the building dressed up like cowboys and girls.  nate was super excited this year.  he got to decorate his horse at home, and loved deciding how to make him look.  he chose to paint his horse white and give it white hair.  although it’s not fully in the picture, he also had big blue eyes and blue horse riding accessories (don’t know what they’re actually called).  the “parade” goes by in the blink of an eye so as much as i’d love to have a ton of pictures, this is the best of the 3 i was able to take.  (the vest and hat were both brad’s when he was little!)

first day jitters?

if nate had first day jitters, they were hiding from me.  he was super excited about heading off to his 4 year old preschool class.  so, after a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and a shower, we headed out the door.  we of course were running a minute or two late.  we’ll have to be better about that this year since his current teacher starts right away.  it won’t be a bad habit for us to get into though with kindergarten starting for him next fall.

although he was totally un-phased by the the transition back to school, jilly was a different story.  she cried when we dropped him off and ran into the room when we went to pick him up even though we still had 10 more minutes to wait.  she was a bit off all morning without him.  although it was sad to see, i was also glad to see that she missed him since they fight so often.  next year when he heads to kindergarten all day, 5 days a week could be a shocker for her.  hopefully having baby sister around will help her with that transition.

it’s all in the numbers

numbers

2:  days until jilly’s birthday

5: days until preschool starts

48:  days until baby sister is here

nate’s been a bit number obsessed lately.  it started with knowing jilly’s birthday was getting close.  we’ve been counting squares on the calendar every morning for the past few weeks.  luckily now he remembers without having to count.

although he’s excited for school, i think i’m a bit more into that countdown.  those 2 mornings a week will be a nice change of pace around here, and he loves learning.  it’s a win-win.

and the countdown we are all most excited about is the countdown to baby sister.  i still get routinely asked by nate if she is “getting closer to zero”.  he loves the countdown chain we made yesterday.  it gives him a visual of how much further we have to go.  today’s number is 48.  for several reasons we will most likely induce october 13 (i’ll post about it at some point soon) and therefore we are slightly ahead of the what the ticker on the sidebar of the blog would say.  less than 50 days!!!  woohoo!!!

e-i-e-i-o

nater’s class had their one field trip of the year today.  we met up with his class at the boystown farm to see some good ol’ farm animals.  nate was his usual self and kinda kept his distance.  he was more concerned with keeping his ears covered because of the noise and watching out so he didn’t step in animal poop.  he did pet a bunny and a baby goat, and fed the larger goats.  i had to laugh when he got super excited and said, “those are some nice looking fields, mom!”  he then proceeded to ask our farmer tour guide if they’d been planted yet because he thought they had.  i think when it comes to farming he’s definitely more interested in the crops/tractors side of things than the animal side.  good thing too, since gma and gpa only have crops on their farm!

checking out some baby ducks

about as close as he cared to get to the cows

shockingly he grabbed some grass and fed this friendly guy