First Day of School

Today marks the first day of the last school year we have to pay daycare!!! So exciting that we will get a pay raise after May, but honestly very hard to believe that this is our last year at the ELC (Early Learning Center). Such mixed emotions for me -  I am so glad we have Mrs. Kathy this year since she has been Mason, Braden and Camden's teacher in pre-K. But on the other hand, after this year, I will not step foot in the building that I have, for 6 years, day in and day out dropped my kids off so that the wonderful people there can teach them, love on them and help them to be the boys they are today. It is and has been such a great experience and it truly is hard to believe that this is the beginning of the end of that era of our lives. Much love to those ladies and the job they do every day!!

Camden is headed out the door as a first grader, and we are very excited about his teacher this year. After a little bit of a fiasco being assigned a second grade teacher and not knowing who his teacher really was, we finally have found out that he will have Mrs. Martinez, who was Mason's first grade teacher. We have heard nothing but great things about her, and since Mason had her, Camden is really excited to have the same teacher as him. And a bonus for him is that his best friend, Casen, will also be in his class.

And so, as we headed out this morning, each to our own respective places where we will spend this next school year growing and learning, we took our 'First Day' pictures. Camden drew his own 'First Day' sign and wanted a picture with both his sign and the one I printed out. I am thinking it will be a fun tradition for him to make his sign each year since he loves to draw and does a really great job. And since Camden drew one, Casen too had to draw one and have his picture with it.

Dad was able to walk Camden to
class and took this picture

Camden and his best friend Casen

Lunch time shenanigans

So glad to have friends who are up at the school
helping out today and are able to send me pictures.

Time with Nana and Poppa Ron

Since both Shane and I have returned back to work, we needed a place to send Camden for the week. Casen's school has been open since the beginning of the month, however this was the perfect opportunity for both boys to spend the week with Nana and Poppa Ron.

While hanging out with their grandparents in Lumberton, the boys went to the movies and saw 'Pete's Dragon', went to the Children's museum in Beaumont, played games at Chuck E Cheese, and finally got to swim one day after the rain gave them a few hour break. Apparently while at the museum, Casen took his job working in the doctor's office very serious and Camden very much enjoyed the building. So perhaps we will have a doctor and an engineer in our family. They had a great time hanging out with Nana and Poppa Ron. Hopefully they didn't wear them out too much!

Poppa reading them a bible story before bed.

Checking out at the grocery store

Casen checking Camden into the doctor's office

Going over Camden's test results with him

Answering the phone

Camden performing a test on Poppa

Casen checking out Nana's reflexes

Camden and Casen being archaeologists

Camden enjoyed building.

Fun at Chuck E Cheese

They traded in their tickets for candy (of course).

Fun in the pool

Summer Chores

I had grand plans for this summer as far as things I was going to do around the house - so grand, I have forgotten now what half of those plans were. I did, however, get some things accomplished that just needed to be done as part of up keep of the house. Honestly, I can not believe I am going to share one of these, but you know I don't mind just keeping it real.

Ever since we moved in our home, I have wanted to have our grout professionally cleaned. But then I decided that I would wait until after I redid the kitchen (which I was supposed to do 3 years ago). So of course, nothing has happened with the grout. I saw on Pinterest that you could use Clorox toilet bowl cleaner and put it on your grout lines and it would have results as if you used the professionals.

Well, since I am all about doing it myself and saving money, I figured I would give it a try. I placed it on the grout just as it said, let it set and then took a brush after it. After I wiped it off, it did appear cleaner, but so did the edges of the tile where the cleaner got on them. So I ended up putting it on all of the grout and tide and scrubbed away. As you can tell from the picture, it was quite the difference. I was appalled at how dirty my floor truly was!!! But I can tell you, after several days of being down on my hands and knees scrubbing every ounce of the floor, it seems a lot brighter and cleaner in my kitchen!

While the boys were at my parents for a week, we got all the baseboards down stairs painted. When we had our new floors installed in October, they placed new primed quarter round down and we have been saying we were going to paint them, but it just never got done. Shane and I made a great team getting the job done in a reasonable amount of time. 

Another things that has been bugging me was our driveway - it has needed a good power washing. Luckily, my brother-in-law has a power washer and he let me borrow it and boy howdy, that brightened up the outside of the house! I ended up power washing all the siding on the back of the house, the back porch and the side walk in front of our house. I loved doing it. Heck I would have enjoyed power washing the whole neighborhood!! (Crazy, I know). I never took an 'after' picture, however I took a 'before' picture after I wrote the boys names on the driveway.

I have had an old table (actually dating from the 1930's) of my grandmother's that I wanted to do something with. Since I have read all sorts of things about chalk paint, I decided to give it a go myself. I made my own chalk paint using some $2 samples from Lowe's as well as my own dark wax and gave the old table a face lift.

Before

After

Camden also decided to do something to clean up his room. He has always slept with about 30 stuffed animals. After I would wash his sheets and make his bed, I would always be in trouble with him because I did not put his stuffed animals in the right place. Who can keep up with where 30 different stuffed animals sleep in his bed??? Well, he has finally decided that he would like to make his bed everyday but realizes that it is not an easy chore with all the stuffed animals. So, we went through his stuffed animals, he picked 3 to sleep with (his idea) and put all the others on his book shelf. Since doing that, he has made his bed almost every morning right after he wakes up. Don't you know that makes this OCD momma very happy!

The other thing that has taken a lot of my time this summer, however at this point I have nothing to show for, is furniture shopping. The furniture we have in the living room is Shane's that he had prior to us even meeting and, well, it is in dire need of being replaced!!! So I have been steadily looking for the 'perfect' furniture that we can both agree on. But, if you know me, I absolutely suck at interior design and despite knowing what I like, I just can't ever seem to put it together. I do think I am getting closer to finding things that we can both agree on with the help of some friends, and hopefully in the near future will be able to share some pictures of an updated family room!

T-Ball Comes to an End

Today was the final game of Casen's first T-ball season. He definitely has loved playing and is already looking forward to playing in the spring.

Last week, the team received their sportsmanship metals, and Casen was very proud to show it off!

I love how he puffs his cheeks when he hits the ball.

Ready in the outfield

Since it was the last game of the season today, each player received a trophy after the game. And, since daddy was one of the coaches, he was able to hand out the trophies.

Proud daddy, happy son.

One Last Hurrah

Since we all love water, especially water parks, I decided we needed to have one last hurrah before I have to start back to school next week. So yesterday morning we packed ourselves up and headed to Galveston. We spent the day at the Schlitterbahn riding rides, playing in the water and basically just getting water logged. The boys had an awesome time. This year they opened up the largest water roller coaster there and we coerced Camden into riding it with me. I tell you, it took a lot of talking to get him to agree to ride it and even then, he tried to chicken out on me while we were standing in line. Casen on the other hand was ready to go, however he was not tall enough. It was fun and while Camden liked it, he did not want to ride it a second time.

Ready to go!

Camden earned a free ticket from reading
over 600 minutes in 6 weeks in the Spring.

 

Camden going head first

Casen enjoying one of the many slides

Family fun day!

After spending all day there, we headed to our hotel (which, by the way, Camden has been asking all summer to stay in a hotel) where we got changed and then headed out to dinner at The Spot - which is a great hamburger joint. We got our bellies full, headed back to the hotel, took showers and crashed. It took a lot out of us making all those fun memories. :) 

This morning, we got up, had breakfast in the hotel and then headed to the beach to let the boys play in the sand and waves. Galveston beaches are nothing like Florida beaches, however the boys never once made a comment about the difference in the two. They were just glad to be there and had we let them, they would have played in the water all day!

The boys and I made 'drip castles' one of the
things I used to do when I was a kid.