Beau's Family Pow Wow

Tonight Beau gathered us all together for a family meeting.  He had little strips of paper that he had stapled together and written on.  He had all us sit crossed legged on the floor in a circle and set a teepee that he made in class in front of him.  He had us come to him one by one as he presented us each with our Indian names.  We are now to be called (when we have our hats on):

Brav Worer (Brave Warrier)

Dansing Hate (Dancing Heart)

Linting Stem (Lightning Steam)

Super Rockit (Super Rocket)

Shining River (He got it right!)

He was worried about putting anything on Jace's head so he just gave him the name "Straight Arrow"

Thanks Beau!

Dads n Donuts

Today Beau and I (Joe) had our first Dad's and Donuts! Walking into the school I was greeted with a Donut and instructions to meet my child in his classroom. When I made it to the classroom there was a line of Dads (...who else has a Dad! I thought I was the only one...). All the kids were seated in the front of the room on the floor (the door and Dad line was in the back of the room). It was cute to see all the little faces searching for their Dad. The teacher, who was at the back of the room as well, calling the children to meet their Dad commented, "I should just look for the child with the big grin", as she asked us who our child was (if she didn't know already). When it was my turn, I looked at Beau and sure enough the big grin showed up. It stayed with him as he walked back to retrieve his Donut and his Dad :-) We went over to a small, Beau sized table and began eating and reading. The whole time we were reading Beau kept looking behind us at his classmate and his Dad. I wondered why. I wondered if he wanted to go read with that Dad ;-) We finished our book an he say's, "We beat 'em done!". He is so competetive! We got a book from the classroom book shelf and barely finished in time as the teacher sounded the 2 minute warning. All went well! It was neat to be able to make it and see his excitement at his first Dad's and Donuts.

Mr. Independent

Beau has become so independent this year. He is recently really into doing his own hair. I try to "fluff" it up a little after he combs it, but today he insisted that he likes the way it looks with the comb lines in it. Today I said, "Can I just straighten out your part line?", "No Mom, I like it like this". He did say that some guy on the new Hulk movie has hair kind of like that, so I guess that's where it's coming from. All I'm saying is, it wasn't me. :)

Our Little Ninja in the Making

Beau has learned to climb the walls just like his dad used to do. It's so cute to see him taking after Joe so much.

Traditions

When I was little, we would always make sugar cookies on Christmas Eve and I looked forward to it every year. We have tried to keep that tradition going, and so far we've done a pretty good job. The kids love the thought of making something for Santa. Here are a few snapshots from tonight.. please ignore the children on my countertop.. that doesn't happen anywhere else right?

Awww the mess. It's worth it though.

Another tradition is that we let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve, and now they always know what it is... pajamas.Merry Christmas Eve!

Happy 6th Birthday Beau!

Today we had a friend party for beau.. all boys. Very loud, very crazy, very fun! He invited all his close friends from class.

He had a Hulk party, so we started out with balloons tied to everyones ankles, and they all ran around trying to "Hulk Smash" everyone elses balloons. Jarek won.. he's the biggest so that's not suprising.
They then got to try to hit a bullseye with a sticky party favor.
After that they made some little snowmen out of marshmallows and graham crackers.

To add to the sugar rush, they then ate some frosting stacked cupcakes followed by presents.
While waiting for parents Joe got out the gymnastics mat and they kids went wild.

It was a great party. The family party was later, where he got a few Wii games, including the one he asked for a million times, Star Wars The Force.

Thanks everyone for coming and making it such a great day for him!

What to do, what to do?

What can you do with 308 legos? Build a huge pyramid! Jarek had a friend over after school and the boys all had a good time being little architects. It was very cute, because after they got done building it they wrote out a fact sheet about it, how many legos, how long it took them, etc., it was labeled "The biggest pyramid in America". Fun times.

Halloween

Here they are in the morning, before school.

I got them all ready for the school Halloween Parade. This is out front of the school, waiting in line to go into class.
Beau during the parade.

His hair is hairsprayed up like ears since he couldn't wear a mask to school.
Classic Jada moment. (I'm mellllting, I'm meelllllting!)

Jarek during the parade, heading back to class.

Very cute pictures of Jada.
Beau "being" Batman.

Jarek in class...

I loved how the carpet in his classroom was so very Joker-like.
Jada with her green witch hair before going trick or treating.

She seems so grown up!The kids all had a great time trick or treating, Jada even got out there and went to quite a few more houses that I thought she would. She didn't even want me to carry her between houses, even though the boys were running two houses ahead most of the time. Tristan came trick or treating with the kids, they had tons of fun together.This was one of my favorite decorated houses.I think we all felt like this on the way home.

Happy Halloween!

School Carnival

Tonight the kids and I went to the school carnival with Grandma Cathy. The kids have been so excited to go, counting down for a few weeks. Jarek was almost not going to be able to go due to his Chicken Pox, I'm so glad he didn't miss out.

Everyone was excited for the cotton candy, they loved it.

These are a few pictures of Jada as we were waiting in line to ride the horses.

She makes the cutest faces

She was so excited for her turn to ride the horses as we got closer, that she would start to cry when someone got on before her. I thought she might be kind of apprehensive about getting on one of these big creatures, but she was so excited.

Here they are saddling up.

Jada is looking nervous, but I think she just wanted her own horse.

Here they are riding around the field.

We stopped to watch the dunk tank on the way out.
Thanks for coming with us Mom!