Our Big Boy and Our Little Dancer

I feel I've been leaving Tristan out lately since his big sister has had so many "firsts" lately, so we'll start with him...

Yesterday was his first day of "school". I took him in with Grace and had some alone time... which was very nice (even if it was only 3 hours). He was super excited!

Although I didn't get it on film, he was finally able to ride in a buggy that he has been begging (I ride? Mommy please, I ride?) to get in since Grace started school. It is like a gigantic stroller that seats 8 kids, and they use it to get all the little ones where they need to go. As soon as we checked him in, we strapped him into a seat as his class was headed to outside time. He was thrilled!

Grace had her first day of ballet on Tuesday. WOW was she excited! She had a BLAST, and has wanted to go back everyday since then. We have finally gotten her ballet shoes and a leotard (after driving all over Sierra Vista and Tucson) so she will be all set for next week. I had to put her shoes on the shelf in her closet because she won't keep them off her feet.

Finally, here are some fun pictures of the kids and some of the visitors that frequent our backyard...

The guy on the right we call "ring-neck" (he has a white ring around his neck). He's the one who chases all of the others off, and has been known to stand sentry on top of the hook or the fence... David says we should pellet him to let him know who's really boss...

Grace's First Day of School

Grace started pre-school today, and even though she has gone to day care before, I had to take a deep breath before the tears flowed after I dropped her off.

I am proud to say that Grace is a wonderfully well adjusted child who lives to learn. She was so excited about starting "school" that we couldn't get out of the house fast enough.

Despite the fact that there was lots of screaming and crying in the room and quite a few parents hanging around, Grace had ZERO trouble seeing me on my way. When I dropped her off, she gave me a hug and a kiss, found out where she could put her backpack, and was off to be with the other kids.

Needless to say, I got a great report from her teacher, and Grace said that she had a great time. After all, she got to paint a purple picture (a large purple paper COVERED with purple paint), and got to stamp a dolphin with purple ink. As you might have guessed, purple is her favorite color (along with pink).

The chaos has settled...

We are now back into our routine after getting home from Chicago. The kids and I had a wonderful time! We remained busy every day, and somehow, the kids kept up and were on their best behavior. I was amazed.

We began our trip with a stop at the Morton Arboretum where we had lunch and let the kids run around for a while. A well deserved outing after getting up WAY to early and spending 3.5 hours on a plane...

On Tuesday, Bonnie (my dad's cousin) took us to a little community zoo near her home. It amazes me the amount of things that there are for kids to do throughout Chicagoland! Again the kids had a blast. They saw ducks, sheep, llamas, horses, cows, many different reptiles, a beautiful peacock, racoons, foxes, rabbits, and a bunch of birds of prey.

Then we headed off to meet up with Grandpa after a stop to visit my Great Aunt Mary.

(Doesn't she look GREAT for 94??)

We finally were able to see Grandma Millie on Wednesday - her 99th birthday. She too looks pretty good for her age. She did spend a few days in the hospital over the weekend, but was back to normal by the time we got there. The kids enjoyed playing with her walker (aka a jungle gym for a 2 & 3 year old) and cane. Grandma said that she was worried that she didn't have anything to entertain the children... Little did she know that there was plenty to keep the kids occupied right there in her apartment.

We took her out to Glenwood Oaks (her favorite restaurant) for supper, and she just loved it! She thought it was wonderful to get out, and it sure didn't hurt that we let everyone know that it was her birthday! We had a delicious meal, and topped it off with cake - but not before the entire restaurant sang Happy Birthday. They had live entertainment in the bar area, and our waitress told him about Gram's birthday, so he made the announcement, sang her a song, then broke into Happy Birthday, at which time everyone chimed in. It was really neat, and I know it sure made Gram feel special.
Thursday was spent with Grandpa and Bonnie at the Brookfield Zoo. We saw elephants, hippos, dolphins, monkeys, lemurs, and a hundred other things... The kids even got to pet a stingray, a shark, a snake, and a geko! Again, we had another great day.

(our tour guide)

Finally on Friday it was time to head home. We stopped in and visited with Grandma Millie again, and even took her to Wal-Mart... She loved being able to shop for her own things - it's the little things in life...

We had a wonderful visit with everyone, and look forward to returning for Grandma's 100th.

How time flies...

Well, another two weeks has flashed right before my eyes. It doesn't seem that we do much, but we must or I'd feel like I'd have more time on my hands!


We took a drive up into the mountains a few weekends past and were in awe of all of God's creation around us. We never even left post, yet it felt like we were in another world! When we lived in El Paso, we had to drive hours to get these vistas! We saw pine trees (one even had a cactus growing on one of it's branches), waterfalls, pictographs, and deer like you would not believe (upwards of 40). Here are some pictures:

Grace received a box of new clothes that my mom had made for her, enclosed with all of them was my old chima-jeogori, which she calls her "Cinderella dress".

I also had my first experience "cutting" my son's hair. What a riot! I followed the directions to a tee, and boy did I screw up! He went from a cute, innocent boy, to looking like the troublemaker he really is! At least we don't have any formal pictures scheduled until October so his hair will have time to grow out again.

David is building a headboard for Grace in the shape of a doll house. He had a great time working in his "shop" (or my garage) over the weekend. He got it all put together and now just has to get it painted (her favorite colors of course - pink and purple). He's already talking about building something for Tristan, and he is still in a toddler bed!

And finally, yesterday morning Tristan woke up really early and I couldn't get him to go back to sleep. So, knowing he couldn't get into much trouble, I fell back to sleep - and apparently he did too at some point...

The kids and I will be heading up to Chicago next week for my Grandma's 99th birthday. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures after that trip... How I love Chicago!