The swing of fall

We're about to wrap up the third week of school (fourth week for Scott already) and I think I can finally say we have a routine.  As always, fall is jam-packed with after school activities and work related events, but we make do and we try to enjoy my favorite season as much as we can.  The recent weather makes me think we're back in August, instead of rolling into fall today.  But, Evan's not complaining.

Our weeks are a bit hectic.  Sean has catechism on Monday evenings and this week was his first class.  I was a bit nervous to see would he would think of it, but he came home all smiles!  It's a blessing that his cousin, Adelaide, is in class with him.  Tuesdays are physical therapy for me after a very rushed dinner.  Wednesdays are soccer practice for Evan led by Scott.  Thursdays are physical therapy for me and practice for Sean.  And luckily, we have Fridays free!  Saturdays are soccer games for both boys.  We considered adding cub scouts into the mix for Sean, but decided it was more of a commitment than we wanted right now.  Maybe next year!

Homework has started as well.  We're trying to get really get a solid after-school routine going allowing them to watch a Lego Ninjago episode on Netflix while they eat their snack, followed by dinner, followed by homework/play time/sports, and then the bedtime routine which includes reading for Sean.  We're going to start doing some very early readers with Evan soon too.  I think he's ready!  Sean has to do 3-5 nights of spelling/sight word practice as homework.  The teacher gave many suggestions on how to do this that amounts to points.  He has to earn 30 points a week at home practicing.  Evan gets one worksheet weekly as homework.  So, it's not too bad.

The tooth fairy has been visiting our house a bunch lately!  Sean lost his top tooth in August at my parent's house while the floors were being done and he lost the other top tooth last week after school one day.  I actually think he looks adorable with both missing!  Too bad his school and soccer pictures were before he lost the second top tooth.  With only one gone, he looked a little....hillbilly.

Saturday night Scott and I went to a gorgeous wedding in Novi!  My parents took the kids after their soccer games and we enjoyed a night out.  My friend, Ana, from my study abroad trip to Spain back in 2005 was getting married and so I was so excited to see a bunch of girlfriends from our trip.  We try and get together one a year, if not more, to see each other.  She married an Indian man so the wedding was so eclectic!  Indian food, traditional Indian dances, music in Spanish, and a beautiful ballroom, they spared no expense!  She was stunning and overall, we had a fun night!

In other news, Bailey had her ACL surgery yesterday at the vet.  She started limping over a year ago.  She would limp on her back left paw occasionally, especially if she sat for a long period of time.  Over the summer, randomly, she stopped walking on the paw.  She hopped around for a week before we finally took her in to the vet.  He suggested we try giving her anti-inflammatories for two weeks to see if that would help.  Unfortunately, they did nothing to help her walk on the leg so we had no choice, but get her surgery.  I baked her some homemade dog treats made out of pumpkin and peanut butter to help cheer her up and I'm anxious to see her today after Scott picks her up.  It's going to be a 6-8 week healing period, so she has a long way to go.  But, hopefully as the weather turns to cold, she'll be back to her usual self.

This weekend the weather will be in the 90's...yuck!  Our air conditioning is on, which we were trying to avoid until yesterday.  It just feels so wrong to have the air on in late September!  We have pumpkins that are ready for picking for goodness sake!  Evan has a game on Saturday and we're doing a small birthday party for Sean on Sunday with his two best friends from school, Corey and Kidanny.  We're taking all of them to see Lego Ninjago at the theater and then back to our house for pizza and cupcakes.  Should be fun!  Happy fall...or something like that!

The first week of school!

The 2017-2018 school year is off to a great start for all four of us!  Scott had already started with students before labor day, so he was adjusted.  But, Tuesday morning came early for me and the boys.  My parents came over to help get the boys off to school and since they had a half day, my parents stuck around to pick them up from school, take them out to lunch, and play until I got home from work.  

Sean has Mrs. Bence this year for 1st grade and while he's bummed that his best friend Corey is in a different class, he's happy he knows several other students from last year.  Doesn't he seem so grown up in these pictures?!

Evan has Mrs. Korstjen's for Young 5's (the same teacher Sean had for that class) and he seemed very indifferent about going.  I was shocked at how easy going he was the whole week with getting adjusted to a new school, new class, new teacher, and new friends.  It probably helped that he knows some friends in Kindergarten during recess.

And because I'm a sucker for comparison, here's some of the boys when they were both going into Young 5's and the difference two years made for Sean.

In addition to school starting, so did some of our fall activities.  Both boys had their first soccer practice on different evenings, I had PT two nights, and by Friday we were all excited to head to the Fall Festival in downtown Plymouth!  We grabbed dinner out to celebrate our first week and went over to the festival.

We had a great evening and I really enjoyed getting to continue our tradition of going the Friday evening after our first week of school.  It always makes it seem like it's the "Back to School" festival.
Saturday started our soccer Saturdays this fall!  Two games, back-to-back, made for an exciting Saturday.  Evan actually played!!  Considering how he was a year ago, he made huge strides in a year.  He was going after the ball, had a few breakaway moments, and was happy the whole time!

Sean had half of his old team and half of an older team combined for his team this year and it seemed a bit intimidating at first.  A lot of the kids on both our team and the team they played against seemed so much bigger than Sean - especially since they were 2nd graders.  But, Sean surprised us and held his own!  He looked great out there!  It was a close game and we ended up losing 3-2, but I was really proud of how hard Sean worked.

We celebrated Mindy and Evan's birthdays after the soccer games by playing putt-putt golf at Sportway and then going back to Jackie's house for pizza, cake, and presents.  Later in the evening all the girls went out for Mindy's 30th to dinner in Novi at the Michigan Beer Company and to an Escape Room that ended up being a lot of fun!

Today I've been super productive!  I transitioned the kids' clothes over to fall and winter clothes, I've sold a bunch of stuff on Mom2Mom sites on Facebook, dropped off two bins at Once Upon a Child, dropped off donation bags, and bought winter coats for the boys.  The fall decorations are up, laundry is going, football is on, and the boys are playing with their cousin, Adelaide.  Life is good!

Happy 5th Birthday, Evan!!

This handsome little man turned 5 over Labor Day weekend!  Can you believe it?!  He's getting so big.

We celebrated all weekend and even the week before with our neighbors for a little Moana themed birthday party.  Since we knew how busy the week would be leading up to his birthday with Scott and I back at work and soccer season starting, we opted to do his birthday party with neighbors on August 24th.  We invited three families on our end of the street and it was so much fun!  We ordered pizza, had cupcakes, broke open a Piñata, bounced in the bounce house, and watched Moana outside with blankets and pillows.

We've really been blessed this summer to make such great friends with our neighbors.  I think it's safe to say that Evan's closest friends right now are Jameson, Nevaeh, and Henry from our street.  But, he made a good friend at Tutor Time when he was in Pre-K, Jacob.  He still counts all his cousins and his brother his best friends too.  I'll be sad when they'll be a time when he most likely won't feel that way anymore.  We're trying to enjoy it while we can.

On his actual birthday, we celebrated with a full day of activities that Evan chose to do.  We started with the Home Depot Kid's Workshop where they built a pencil box.  Afterward, we went to the Plymouth Farmer's Market for muffins and learned that our muffin stand was closing and moving to Texas.  It was their last day for muffins.  It's so sad to think that one of our favorite family traditions on a Saturday morning spring-fall will be gone, but we'll just have to find something new to replace it.

We came home and let him open up his presents and made lunch.  He was pretty excited about the Playmobil beach house because it came with a jet-ski.  He also loved the Power Rangers dress-up items and accessories.  This kid love any and all swords!  His love of motorcycles seems to have morphed into a love of swords.  I'm almost wishing we could go back to motorcycles.  But, since it usually involves dress-up costumes too, it's kind of cute!  He's getting more into Legos, but not really the building aspect of them.  I think he just feels like he wants them to look at it in his room since Sean has so many cool sets in his room.  We bought him a table at Ikea for his room to set them up on and he was excited about that.  Other interests right now including riding his bike without training wheels (yay!), coloring, Sticky Mosaics, and imaginary play.

After presents and lunch, we followed tradition and went to Three Cedars Farm for their opening weekend.  Cider, donuts, and an awesome playground kept the boys entertained the rest of the afternoon.  The icing on the cake was seeing our old neighbors from when we lived in Clawson!  It was great catching up!

The boys came home and wanted to play with Jameson next door.  They ended up being pretty tired so they picked The Grinch on Netflix to watch while Scott picked up dinner at Panera (Evan's choice).  We ate on the patio outside and ate the last of the cupcakes from Evan's party (I froze them since we had so many extra).  A bubble bath, Maui pajamas, and special stories and Evan was tuckered out from a fun day!

Evan's sleep habits have improved vastly over the past year.  He's not difficult to put to bed most nights anymore and he'll sleep until 7am usually, if not later.  Always a snuggle bug, he'll come get in bed with us in the morning, but he's usually too antsy to lay still for long.  He'll grab the iPad and go back in his room for a bit.  We had a nice routine this summer!  He's big into Lego Ninjago and Hungry Shark Evolution on the iPad!  On TV he's usually up for anything that Sean can talk him in to, but if he had his choice he'd choose Masha and the Bear on Netflix or he'd pick out a movie.  He's my movie guy!  Moana was the big hit this year in our family!  But, Over the Hedge (an older movie) was a close second.

He's weighing in around 36 lbs. this summer and measured around 44" the last time he was in the doctor's office.  He's transitioning out of 4T clothes and into 5T (he seems to fill out pants better than Sean...he's got more butt lol).  He just moved into a size 10 shoe also.  We're still on pace with him being able to wear all of Sean's old clothes and shoes that lines up with the season, so we've been lucky with that!

On Sunday, we had my parents over for a birthday dinner for Evan.  My mom brought beef shish-ka-bobs to grill, beefy rice, and a nice loaf of bread.  I made a salad and a broccoli casserole.  Of course, I have two picky eaters.  So, the boys opted to eat some chicken nuggets I threw in the oven with some fruit and veggies.  In fact, Evan has continued to be difficult with eating.  His rotation of food choices include salami (sometimes in a sandwich), PB&J, chicken nuggets or chicken fingers, breakfast foods like pancakes and waffles with peanut butter and bacon, or pizza.  That's pretty much it.  He'll at least eat every fruit we've ever given him, cucumbers, and yogurt.  So, there are some healthy options.

My parents brought a delicious cake from Holiday Market (our favorite bakery in Royal Oak) and we sang, "Happy Birthday" to Evan.  They watched him ride his bike outside and took off shortly after.  It was a really nice evening and a great way to end the summer!

My Evie is such an amazing little guy!  He may be strong-willed 90% of the time, but we wouldn't change it for anything.  He's witty, sharp, creative, passionate, and loving.  I know he's going to thrive in Young 5's this year as he makes new friends and learns how to read, among other things.  He knows all of his letters (both uppercase and lowercase), can count up to 30 and then needs help by 10's, loves doing his Spanish apps on the iPad, and does a decent job writing his name and other letters/words.  He's a hard-worker.  This summer he would sit down to do a workbook page or two and I would turn my back for a minute and he'd be hard at work, doing it without prompting.

We love him so much and we're so blessed to be his parents!!  Happy 5th Birthday, my Ev-monster!!!