Nina is Pinkalicious

Nina is all pinked out for soccer! We went yesterday to Dick's to buy pink cleats, shin guards, ball and of course, pink Umbros. The guy that helped us didn't have shin guards (or shinneth guardings as Nina calls them) that fit her and asked if she would wear blue instead. I kid you not, she looked at him, put her hand on her hip and said, "no, I want pink." So her shin guards are a little big, but it saved quite a bit of drama, and of course made for a matching outfit. Now, game day is going to be a different story, especially if the uniforms end up being Tennessee orange, or something like that, but oh well, for now she's completely happy being all pinked out to play! So what if she doesn't score a goal, she's so dang cute, what does it matter??? Ethan isn't playing this season, but he went to her first practice last night and they played monster in the middle, and guess who was the monster? Yep, Ethan. He loved that!

If you will notice here, even the Umbros are a little big...ok, a lot big...but they didn't have her size and to save from a LOT of drama, I just bought big ones and pulled them as tight as they would go and roll the waistband. Didn't we used to roll our waste bands on our Umbros anyways? Oh wait, that was 1989, so never mind!

First Day...

Today was the BIG day - Ethan started Kindergarten and Nina started preschool. There is nothing to prepare you for leaving your 5 year old across town all day long. That was the worst feeling. Thank you Melanie and Sonic for being there for me ;-).

I wasn't sure we had left the house in plenty of time, but we did. The conversation on the way was quite amusing. Ethan was full of questions. His main concern was tomorrow's agenda...today was only a phase in day and his next day isn't until Thursday, so Wednesday he's able to sleep in! He's already talking about that, not good! I was able to walk Ethan into his classroom today. Miss Debbie, the Kindergarten principal was there to greet us with a smile. She's such a lovely lady and obviously loves what she does! Miss Claire was at the door waiting for Ethan to arrive. As soon as he got to her, he informed her of his trip to the beach in a few weeks. Great, so we're already talking about sleeping in and when he's going to be beach. We snapped a picture and in he went. He did hug and kiss me, but by that point, I was fighting back the tears, so I got out of there.

I was able to get home in time to take Nina to her first day. She was more than ready and I don't know if she knew I even left. She's going to love going to preschool and I suppose I'll get used to the peace and quiet everyone keeps talking about. However, today, I did not get to enjoy that peace and quiet because Mark thought it was funny to "check on me" throughout the morning. Oh, and he did go on a bike ride and while he was gone, someone had to go get Nina. After getting back in the car to come home, I checked my phone and he had called several times. I had this panic feeling thinking that Harding had called and there was a problem. I quickly called Mark back only to have him answer in this really ticky tone and ask me where I was. "Um, honey, someone had to pick our daughter up from preschool." His tone changed drastically at that point.

Tonight I had to make the trek back to Harding (only 11 miles, but at least 20 minutes) for parent orientation. It was nice and very comforting to know that these people will be with my baby everyday all day. Once I ran an errand and got home, I went to check on Ethan. He was passed OUT and had only been in bed a few minutes. I leaned over to kiss him and he finally jumped a little and opened his eyes. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I just can't hold my eyes open anymore, I'll talk to you in the morning." Bless his sweet little heart! I'm surprised he actually ate breakfast - 2 pieces of bacon and cereal

Let's go!

Ethan and Miss Claire - by the way, I found out tonight that she started at Harding when she was in 1st grade. She graduated from there, went to Harding University. Went back to Harding Academy for her student teaching, graduated from Harding University and went back to Harding Academy to teach and has been there ever since - 21 years teaching there. She's going to be perfect for Ethan and us this year! And Muddy's strawberry cupcakes are her favorite - mine too, so we're already on the same page - and I know how to get on her good side!!

Nina ready to go!

Oh me - drama!

Out of order, but this little one got a gift from RoRo today - a pink backpack! When Ethan's new backpack came, I didn't order Nina one and RoRo felt sorry for her....Nina was thrilled to get this today!

When I went to pick Nina up this morning, the director asked her if she was going to go home and play with Ethan's toys while he was in school. She said no and I said, let's go home and jump on his bed while he's gone. Well, it wasn't 3 minutes after walking through the door, she went upstairs and put his Easter CD in and cranked it up as high as it would go....I knew what she was doing. Sure enough I went up to his room to find her jumping on his bed. Of course, I had to capture it on video!

Ethan and Miss Claire at pickup - looks like they both survived!!!

Hope these smiles continue!!!

Meet the Teacher

Ethan exploring his classroom

There are 16 kids - 8 girls and 8 boys - 2 Ethans....

Ethan finds his desk ON THE FRONT ROW.....Mr. Wendel's class was the only class I ever sat on the front row - all the other classes I'd sit towards the back so I could get away with chewing gum. I could never get away with chewing gum in Mr. Wendel's class. E won't be chewing gum, but I still chuckle thinking of him on the front row!

Ethan finds his locker

See you Tuesday!

Nina and Daddy at dinner

Ethan was done eating, so he played.
Nina showing off her new haircut!

Summer is over, well, for us, it's the last weekend of summer. We've had a good last week. Unfortunately we couldn't do much outside because it's been ridiculously hot - temps in the high 90s-100 and heat index has been up to 125 lately. Yes, it's been that hot. But we've had a great week of fun before reality sets in!

Tonight was meet the teacher night at school. Miss Claire is his teacher and seemed like the perfect teacher. Ethan will be in kindergarten, first day is Tuesday. Nina starts preschool, also on Tuesday. I now have a new appreciation for those that have birthdays in August and I now realize why I received items like my white Guess jeans and new shoes for my August birthday. Back to school is worse than Christmas on a wallet. I've been bleeding money right and left!

I have so many pictures from the summer to post, including our really cool (and by cool, I mean temperature) week at the beach with my Mom. Oh to have those temperatures and to be at Grayton Beach right now....sigh....enjoy these pics and hopefully this weekend I can post a catch-up post.

VBS

Mark is the deacon at church in charge of the kids 5th grade and under, and VBS is one of the things he's responsible for. Last summer it seemed like it was no big deal. Even late last Fall and early this year as we finalized the theme and started planning, it seemed like it wasn't too bad...WELL, WE WERE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! We started many weeks ago having work nights up at church to start getting things drawn, cut, colored, painted, laminated, etc....then this past week we pretty much lived up at church getting everything decorated. Our theme this year is "Galactic Blast" and Mark put our dear friend Cathy (although she might not be our dear friend anymore after these past 2 weeks) in charge of decorations. She had an incredible vision and with lots of help we were able to pull off incredible decorations! Tonight was the first night. We had 92 kids and they all had such a great time! Everyone has done such an amazing job and we are blessed to have talented members that are willing to help and get their hands dirty! Beginning to hang all the black sheeting down the halls and getting the sun in place

Just a cute picture of my cutie patootie!

One of our members owns a steel company and Cathy went to him to ask him to make a world... he made this steel frame and 2 of our other talented members covered it in a tarp and cut out the land masses. This is the entrance to Great Oaks Galactic Blast! Pretty cool, huh?

Yet another talented member made this control panel. Everything turns off and on and the kids love playing on it!! Cathy just asked him to make something and this is what he came up with.

Ethan trying on Mark Baker's gorilla mask....he's part of the assembly team for VBS and last year he was Perry the Polar Bear. This year he's a green gorilla. Saturday when we were all up at the church working, Mark got his costume and put it on and we literally had several crying kids. Sooooooo, he cut the face out of the mask and put several coats of green spray paint on his costume. See pictures below - I don't think we had any crying kids tonight, except his daughter Gracie kept going around telling everyone that she didn't like her Daddy! Baker is always a huge hit at VBS!!

Karen hanging the last few planets in the usher hall.

Ethan playing with the control panel

The breezeway was completely blacked out as well and one wall had the sun and Cathy hung 3 bright lights with yellow bulbs.

Mrs. Pattye getting the glow in the dark tshirts ready for the kiddos

Inside the gym at the craft area looking out at the dining area. The lady that heads up the preschool at church was in charge of food for VBS. She and her crew cook dinner and serve it every night for everyone and it's just so nice not to have to worry about dinner! They do an amazing job and this year they went all out decorating the gym.

This is where the kids eat - and they put black lights inside the tent. It's so cool!

The hall from the sun to the gym was completely blacked out from floor to ceiling and we hung glow in the dark astronauts, planets, stars, etc....all the way down the hall and ceiling and replaced the bulbs with black lights. The kids love this!

Our moon and moon rover!

The rocket that Jeff made - while the kids were coming in and out of the auditorium, he put dry ice under it so it looked like it was about to blast off.

Ethan and his friends Charlie and Nathan at crafts

Nina's class ended up with 17 kids - it was a disaster getting them from the auditorium to the gym, so we got a rope for them to hold onto and it was much easier. They were so cute!

Les (our Involvement Minister) and Jason hanging out in the lobby

Mark the green gorilla Baker

Mark and Les reviewing their lines for the assembly time

Nina enjoying her first night of VBS!

The rocket that was constructed this afternoon in just a couple of hours for the front of the stage - many people pulled together at the last minute to make this! Whew....are we in charge next year too????

Oh, and I'll post more pictures later in the week, including the last night when Mark Noble will get hit with a pie, or multiple pies, from the kid that brings/invites the most visitors!!!!! (That was my idea)!