Monday, August 31, 2009

First Day of First Grade

The school year has begun! Well... it began a couple of weeks ago, August 19th to be exact, but I'm always late posting things!

Allie didn't start on the same day because she is going to a different school that started later. I had the week off to prepare for the first day, and boy was it a busy week. I'll maybe get to that later. Conor was excited to go to school, he enjoys seeing his friends and meeting all of his potential girlfriends.


This is at the bus stop with the other little girl in our neighborhood who is in the first grade too. She is having a rough time with it - she doesn't like school. Every morning when she cries that she doesn't want to go, I feel so bad for her parents - that is really hard. I also realize how lucky I am that Conor likes it. :)

I didn't get any pictures of him getting on the bus, I was too preoccupied with saying bye to him!
Once he was on the bus, I went home for a few minutes to give it time to pick up the other kids. I called Barb (Nana) who was going to meet me near the school so she could take some pictures and see his classroom, too.
While waiting for his bus to get to the school, Gage (my nephew) got off the bus and I got a picture of him.
Conor's bus arrived, and I wanted to get a picture of him getting off the bus, but my camera did that "delay" snap, and I managed to get part of him behind a sign. *sigh* He kinda looks like he's tipping over, but I assure you that he did not fall!

I made him stop for a moment so I could take a picture, then I managed to get one with him looking in the other direction! This picture taking thing just wasn't with me that day.

We had visited the school the day before and found out where his classroom was, so we just followed him down the hall.

He went right in and found his seat and sat there. Waiting on things to get started.

He was checking out his desk-mates and waiting for us to leave so he could get to know them. He wasn't the least bit scared for us to leave, he was probably happy to see us go so we would stop taking pictures!

After we left, Barb invited me to breakfast. She treated me to Bob Evans -we got to talk and catch up on things going on with each other. It was nice to sit down and relax for a little bit and not have to run here or there. Or have anyone waiting on me to get home.

I took Teddy with me down to the bus stop to get Conor after school. He is such a gentleman that he let the little girl get off the bus first. Even though I noticed that he sits in the very first seat, he lets her get off before him every day. So sweet. Or maybe he's hoping that she will break his fall if he trips. HA! :)


He had a good first day, and has had several good days since then as well!
And of course Barb had her pictures uploaded, put into scrap booking pages, and emailed to me on the same day! So much more creative than mine, if you wanna take a look at hers, go here: http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t119/ThreadArtist/?action=view&current=CoverPage.jpg
She got some better pictures than I did - at least she doesn't have a sign blocking half of him in her "getting off the bus" shot!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Cubby

When Barb came over to our house to celebrate her birthday, Jeff had called to ask her to bring a button for his pants because it had fallen off. So, when she got there and pulled out her needle and thread (nothing like making her work on her birthday!) it reminded me that I have a much loved stuffed bear that has seen better days. My teddy bear, named Cubby, that I have had for as long as I can remember. He has been with me through my child hood, and through some rough times as an adult as well. Yes, I still hug my teddy bear and talk to him when I need to. I'm not ashamed to admit it! He knows me better than anyone!

So, I asked Barb if she could fix him up for me. She sent me this to my mail to announce he was done:

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d5441324e5451314e7a46384f446b794d7a55774f413d3d0d0a&sb=1

Absolutely made my day!

I went right after work to pick him up that day and he is back home with me now.

On top of that, her smiley box that she made was showcased in their newsletter!

Thanks, Barb!!! Cubby is all fixed up now, and happy to be home!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

County Fair

I'm so behind on updating! Like... did anyone besides Jeff and my mom know that Allie, Conor and I went to Virginia this past weekend? I forgot to take my camera! I did take some pictures with my phone, but who knows when I will actually get them on my computer and edit them to put up here?

And tomorrow is Conor's first day of school?!?! Wow it snuck up on me.

Conor is also having surgery to remove his tonsils in September - I found out about that a few weeks ago.

Like I said, way behind!

Way back before all that stuff, I took the kids to the county fair! I figured Conor needed exposure to the county fair and all its redneck goodness. :) We went on a Friday night after I got off work - Allie, Ceara, Adam (Ceara's boyfriend), Caitlyn (Ceara's sister), Conor and I took in all the animals, games, food, and carnie people. heehee

First up were the mini horses in a ring right before we entered the actual fair area. The little black one was desperately trying to escape being caught, and succeeded the whole time we were there.

Next was the petting zoo. They had a good racket going there - they supply the food, but we buy it to feed their animals! One dollar for a small container of carrots.

All of the animals were sticking their heads out to try to get a carrot slice.

Conor was a bit hesitant at first, afraid they would bite his hand, but he got the hang of it.




Then we walked up to the mirror maze and they all went in and managed to get out rather quickly. Adam was leading the way for them all.

No trip to the fair is complete without shoestring french fries with ketchup poured right into the bucket with the fries.

They weren't coordinated enough to walk and eat at the same time, evidence of their sheltered lives of not attending enough fairs.

So we found a bench and they all sat down to eat. Then we headed down game row.
I gotta hand it to them, the guys running the games are very convincing that we try their game. The first one was throwing a baseball at 3 blocks stacked on top of each other. The guy running it told us the "secret" of how to hit them to get them all to fall off the stand.

Adam tried, Conor tried, and Caitlyn tried. No one could do it, even with knowing the secret. Then he gave us a special price of two for one if we played again. Still didn't get them all off. :(

Allie just had to try the ring toss game. She's addicted to it. We went through several bucket fulls of rings, but no winners.

I don't think Ceara tried it, but the others all did.


We also did the throw a dart at a balloon game, where everyone won who played, and the water gun race game, too. I just didn't get pictures of those.
As we were walking out, we went back to the petting zoo and saw that they had the "tiger" out for pictures. Of course since it is one of Conor's favorite animals, we paid to have their picture taken with it.
It was a little tiny baby tiger - kept in a covered cage until someone paid to get their picture taken with it.

I don't think Conor knew what to think or do - he wanted to hold it by himself, but they didn't allow that. It had to be on the cart and everyone got to pet it.

I got a few shots with my camera as well as the one they took professionally.

Isn't he cute? I think he wants to nurse the way he reacted to the guy's finger to get his head up for the picture.
Here's the one they took. Conor doesn't look happy, but trust me, he was. I don't think he wanted to pose, he just wanted to hold and pet the tiger.

On our way out to the truck, we walked through the horse barn and had to pet every horse in there because it wasn't fair to the others if we didn't.
Conor was a little hesitant at first, but he eventually got the hang of it too.

Yes, there were rides, but to my pleasant surprise, no one really wanted to ride any of them! I was glad because not only was it expensive to ride them, I have always been afraid of carnival rides that are set up in parking lots. Well, not always - I loved them when I was a kid, but I don't like watching my kids ride them! :)

As I was getting in the truck to leave, I thought I would take a picture of Ceara and Adam, but Ceara moved her head and I have no idea what Adam was saying but I thought it was funny that he looked like he was blowing her a kiss. He wasn't, it was just a coincidence that I snapped the picture at that moment.
I believe everyone had a good time - it was fun!
I'll be back at some point to do the other updates, and I promise to post the first day of school pictures before Christmas! :)

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Barb's Birthday

We had a party at our house for Barb's Birthday (Jeff's Mom for those of you who don't already know that!). We had dinner - pasta and garlic bread - but I forget what it is called! Since we were all eating garlic, it was OK to be around each other. :)

We ate dinner first so that there would be left over cake after they all left as we are "supposed to do" much to Conor's disappointment.

Some had to eat in the living room as my table would not fit everyone! We had the Birthday Girl, Grand Dad, Naomi and Jerry, Beth and Alex (Barb's Sister and great niece), as well as my the normal crew - Jeff, Alli, Conor, and me. Or is it I? I'm pretty sure it's me, but... I'm not an English major.

I asked Barb if she had a preference for cake and she wrote me back and said she would like white cake with with white icing OR Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake. Like she really thought I would choose one or the other.

I made both - hey, it's her birthday, she can have two kinds of cake! However, I only took pictures of the decorated one.

Barb and Beth together are really a hoot! They have such a great relationship, I'm so glad she could come to the party.

Please ignore the dirty glass in the back ground. It has since then been taken care of, but I didn't get to it before the party!

I don't know what Beth was doing to Barb in this picture, but she was up to something! I think she may have goose'd her or something...

Don't cross these two! It could get very ugly!

The kids all piled on the couch for a picture before Alex left. She was just visiting her grandparents, she lives in another state (sorry I forget where!). It has been years since I've seen her - I still thought of her as Conor's age. When I heard she was coming I told Conor he better clean his room because his cousin was coming and she'd probably want to play with him in his room. HA! She went and grew up.
From left to right in the picture above is Alex, Ceara, Kaitlyn, Conor, and Allie laying (or is it lying? Those two always confuse me. And who and whom. Gah.) across Ceara's lap.

And here are just the girls. For those of you who might not know Kaitlyn - she is Ceara's sister from her mom's second marriage. She does stuff with us in the summer time when Ceara comes over.
I swear I took more pictures, but when I was loading them onto my computer I got an error so I think some of them are corrupt or something. It was a fun night though, lots of laughs always ensue when Barb comes over, though.
And now just a word about Barb... OK, more than one. I have known Barb for 9 years now, and she is a wonderful person. She has a lot of patience that I have always admired - I suppose someday I might have it, but I do not now. When Conor is being the little boy that he is, she calmly talks to him and has him sit down next to her and she explains why he shouldn't do what he is doing. Seems much more effective than my approach.
She is also very crafty! Whether it is digital scrap booking or embroidery or anything, she is the best! I love all the gifts she has made for me over the years!
Hope you had a wonderful Birthday, Barb! We love you!