Kindergarten

Today is Oliver's first day of Kindergarten.  Like all parents, it comes with emotion.  For this Mommy, it's been a mix of emotion.  Since Oliver was 3 months old, we have dropped him and and picked him up from school, five days a week.  This should be a piece of cake.  For the entire summer, this Mommy has felt the emotion that the first day of Kindergarten in a public school, outside the safety net of his previous school is a bit different.  Our baby is growing up, he's off into the real world and it can be a scary and hurtful world.  We've heard it all before.  What I didn't expect was the emotion that actually came with today.  Pride.

Oliver is completely fired up for Kindergarten.  For the past month he has said that he "Excited and a little nervous" about Kindergarten.  This past Friday morning he got to meet his teacher and see his school and classroom.  On the way there when I asked him how he was feeling he said "I'm excited but a little nervous because I don't know what the teacher or my classmates look like"  In response I said "well buddy, we are on our way to take care of that."  He was on cloud nine to see his school, see his classroom and meet his teachers and new classmates.  Over the weekend, his response had changed to being nothing but excited for Kindergarten.  This morning, the first thing he said to me when he came into our room was "Mommy, I'm going to be really good at Kindergarten."  Yes, buddy, yes you are!

The tradition has begun, the first day of school photos.  Someday, he will tower over that window.  For now, we will squeeze his cheeks and cherish the time before that happens and after as well.

For the record, I had nothing to do with this hand-on-hips pose.  I can't say that I didn't beam with pride over my photo-cooperating-son.  Remember the days when he refused to smile for a photo, let alone pose?  Ahh... that's my boy!!

He LOVED this back pack.  He had three Spider-Man bags to choose from and he narrowed it down to two, quickly. Then, he had very careful analysis of the two bags, their capacity, their functions, their secret pockets, etc.  I believe that it came down the the attachable lunch box.  What Kindergartner wouldn't find that to be fantastic?

You can dress the five year old up and send him to Kindergarten, but you can't take the bug lovin' boy out of him.  Here he is, examining a spider web that was woven in the grass and covered in morning dew.  He was amazed.

Then, again, he posed for a photo.

"Mommy, take this photo"

Yes!  Yes, I will!

After we dropped Kellan off at his first day of Preschool, we took Oliver to a breakfast of champions for his first day of Kindergarten.  He was so excited for Kindergarten that he could hardly hold still at breakfast.  He was quite wiggly, giggly and beaming with happiness.

He also didn't want to remove his lips from his juice.  

Ahh.. breakfast time.  Waffles made special for him.

He ate like a champ and wiped it out.

At the school, we took super sunny photos in front of the school sign. 

We took photos of the super cool back pack.

We took photos with the super cool neighbor girl.

Samantha lives right next door and she is in the classroom right next door too.  It was so fun to see her on the first day of school.  Stay tuned for a gazillion more years and you may see this photo with high school caps and gowns.

Meanwhile, while we waited and waited and waited for the teachers to take the kids inside, we over heard another Mom saying her son was catching frogs in the new outdoor classroom that was just across the grass from us.  Oliver heard this, Keith heard this and their feet traveled them quickly to the frogs.  It appears that the brand new outdoor classroom is already proving to be educational.  The frogs are proving to be speedy.  Do you see it jumping out of Keith's hand?

They weren't too speedy though because moments later Daddy had one in Oliver's hands.

The sun blew it out, but if you look close, you'll see a tiny frog in Oliver's hand.  

(This is where I remind myself that I'm a Mama of boys and frog germs come with it.  EWWW!!)

Then, just like that, it was time to line up and go in.

He didn't hesitate.  He didn't cut in line.  He hardly said Good Bye.

Just like that, he filed to the end of the line and followed his new classmates inside.

We didn't follow him.  We let him go.

We watched him file into the school until we could no longer see his Super Cool Spider-Man backpack and attached lunch box.

He's Excited!

He's Confident!

He's a Kindergartner!

Us... well, we're excited and confident too.  How can you not be when your oldest son marches into the school like he owns the place.  

I can't help but thing, "We've done good!"

________________

Oliver

Today, you start Kindergarten.  Today, you take on the world in your own way and away from the security of all that you have known.  Today, you will take everything that you have learned and forge your own path.

We have many hopes and dreams for you, but at the end of the day, we hope for you to define success in your own way, for you to be a good person and for you to be happy.  That's it.  It seems quite simple, but really, it's a big mountain to climb.  You have proven that you're a hard worker, you're focused, you're determined, you have a heart of gold and to top it off, you're one funny guy.  You, You will Succeed!

Until today, I worried that Kindergarten would gobble you up.  You're so intuitive and you're an observer.  Today, I was the observer.  You marched right into Kindergarten and took the bull by the horns.  You will own Kindergarten, just like you will own your destiny.  You are a true champion.  

Be the friend that you would want to be.  Be the student that you would want to teach.  You will dazzle them with your brilliance.  You will charm them with your wit.  You are amazing.

We love you to pieces

Mommy and Daddy

______________________

Then, just like that... BAM... he came busting out of his first day of school.

He had a GREAT day.

The teachers said he was "so sweet" and "our little artist" and "we usually don't see kids at this age with the fine motor skills needed to draw and color like he does".  Yes, Yes that's our boy.

What did he say he learned, besides that he loves the school, he learned that they "have a flip chart that has a #1 on it and tomorrow it will have a #2 and when they get to #100 they will have a party".  It's all about perspective.  

Kellan's a Pre-Schooler

Today, was a big day!

Oliver started Kindergarten, but before that, Kellan started Pre-School!

At 7 AM, we went to the same place that we go every Monday through Friday.  The big difference is that on this day, Kellan officially starts Pre-School. He's a big boy now, marching into the school without even looking back to see how close or far behind Mommy or Daddy are.

Before school, I wanted a first day of school photo.  I asked him if he would like to stand by the bench or the flowers. Bench?  Flowers?

"The Bus!" he exclaimed!

So, the bus it was.

He's getting so big and so tall.  His third birthday is just days away and Pre-School is just moments away.

In the classroom, he proudly stood with his backpack on his hook.

Yes, this is the same hook that he had all summer but now, it has whole new meaning.  It means that he is in Pre-School.

1, 2, 3, look at ME!

He is SO proud and SO excited!

Happy First Day of Pre-School, Kellan.

We love you bunches and are so proud of how you're growing into such a big boy.

Shade in Ten years

We love our new home and new yard but you may recall, when we moved in the grass was dead-dead-dead and many of the trees and bushes hadn't fared well either.  Keith replanted the grass last summer and this summer it is thick and lush enough to frolic in with bare foot.  This was going to be the summer of a new patio and new trees to provide shade on our blazing hot back yard.  We put the patio in, but the trees hadn't happened yet.

Then along game Keith's buddy Geoff.  Geoff used to be in the tree industry and he started a tree farm on his property in Longmont.  He has since changed industries and he is liquidating his tree farm.  We were exactly what he needed as we have ample space to provide several of his trees with a great new home.

One fine Sunday we borrowed the neighbors truck and we hauled on up to Longmont to fill it with trees.

After some tree farm hunting and a great lunch at Oskar Blues Home Made Liquid and Solid's with Geoff and his Family, we brought the trees to their new forever home.

Keith was going to physically haul these trees to the backyard but his wife stood to the side and made a great suggestion of using the kids wagon.  See... I'm not just an observer.

This back right corner has been begging for something since we moved in but we didn't know what.  Many evenings we have sat outside starting at it in wonder of what we should do.  When we saw these trees at Geoff's house, Geoff's wife showed us how they looked planted in the ground.  They had three lined up against their shop and I knew instantly where they should go.  Right here!

We still need to do something with the ground around them, but for now, it's MUCH better.

We also go this amazing oak three (seriously, it is amazing and we love it) that is perched nicely on this little hill in the left corner.  It is doing very well and it loves it here.  Someday, it will be a mighty oak that can keep an eye on everything and everyone around it, which is quite a chore as it has a nice view of the park behind our yard and the mountains all around us.

There are also two Blazing Red Maples that have great new homes along the back fence.  I'm SO excited to see them blaze in the fall.  I've always wanted bright red fall foliage in our yard.

THANK YOU Geoff for your tree farm generosity.  We can't express our gratitude and thank you enough.  You have made a special contribution to our yard and a space that we look at and use every single day.

South Youngfield Block Party

For eight years, we lived in Littleton on South Youngfield Street in our 3-5 year house.  When we bought that house, it was not our forever home.  We knew that Keith had a vision of having a pig farm (shoot me now!) and more man space.  I had a vision of more space outdoors for our kids to grow up with, like Keith and I had as kids and more indoor space for each of us.  Plus... all of those years ago, it was just the two of us and we weren't even engaged yet.  (GASP!)  I wanted to be engaged and come to find out, Keith had been working on it for four months (so he says).  He lived in Loveland and I lived in Denver.  Our homes were an hour apart and even further when there was traffic, which was often.  I lived in the heart of the city and Keith lived in the suburbs of a small town.  We compromised and decided to look for a home in the suburbs of the city.  We looked for months (maybe four??) and finally found one that we thought was perfect on South Youngfield Street.

Surely, if I didn't have a ring, the ring would follow the purchase of a house.  Right?  It did.  Two weeks after we had put an offer on the Littleton home and two weeks before we closed, we were officially engaged. YAY!

What we didn't expect, was the fall in love with our neighbors.  We should have suspected it since when we first looked at the house they were all out putting up Christmas lights on Thanksgiving weekend and yelled across to us to encourage us to buy the house.  The social neighborhood was one of the reasons we loved the house.  Quite honestly, it was the same floor plan as several other houses that we looked at but this one came with perks, great neighbors.

The great neighbors is one of the biggest reasons that our 3-5 year house turned into the eight year house.  We dreaded the day that the for sale sign went up and we had to tell them that we were moving.  We must have approached it well though because for the past two summers they have invited us back to the annual block party.

We LOVE the South Youngield Street Block Party and so do our boys.

Well... Oliver does.

Kellan was a bit shy and skeptical and we realized instantly, he has no memory of living there.

This didn't hinder his instant love for the hood though once he realized that there was an endless buffet table of goodies and the rule at the block party is that you can eat whatever you want as long as you're having fun.

Cookies for Dinner?  You Bet!

Oliver rode right in and made his grand entrance.  We were going to "forget" his bike, but he remembered that they block off the street and ride bikes all night long.  He made sure that we didn't leave our Golden home without it.  Once we got there, he saddled up and rode right in like he lived there.  Maybe, because unlike Kellan, he does have a memory of living there and playing with all of the awesome kids (mostly boys) that lived just a hop skip and jump away.

In true form, Oliver also breezed past the buffet table often.

His dinner choice, Theresa's raspberry filled cupcakes.  SO YUMMY!

Kellan was a bit shy, but not with Harley.  If we still lived here, he may find himself earning cookies and juice boxes by walking Harley through the hood.  They were a good team.

He also made his way to Theresa's cupcakes.  He never quite finished one, so his poor Mother was forced to eat the rest.  Darn!

Once night came, the fire bit came out for smores.  If Kellan has ever roasted marshmallows, he was too young to remember so it was like having another "first" moment.

This is Oliver smacking his head in disbelief of Daddy and Kellan's roasting techniques.  Seriously, that's what happened.

Oliver was awesome at helping Kellan.  I love when I see these two as peas in a pod.  They fight like any other sibling and drive their parents nuts, but most of the time it's nothing but brotherly love.

It was getting late and the Ham Fam was getting tired.

Kellan had tried to lay back next to Keith to rest and bonked his head quite hard on the sidewalk.  When he was done with his ice pack Daddy wore it as a hat.  Silly Daddy.

Once again, we visited Theresa's Halloween shop.

When we were neighbors, Theresa bailed us out with a costume more than once.  

We happened to be talking about football and Oliver and I told her that Oliver surprised me by not wanting to be Spider-Man for the third year (I truly expected this) and he wanted to be a football player.  She jumped up and pulled out a football get up that was too small for her boys or any other boys that she knew.  Oliver scored big time and was nothing but smiles.

We had another great time at the block party.

Thanks to the South Youngfield hood for including us once again.  We truly enjoyed seeing you and catching up.  We miss hanging with you in our drive ways while we watch the kids ride their bikes and play sports in the street.  We hope to see you again soon, before block party 2014.

BTW... Keith didn't get his pig farm when we moved, but he did get ample man space and a big yard to mow, which he loves.  He still has a vision of buying property across the highway and putting in a pig farm.  

I just had a scary thought, Oliver is allergic to cats/dogs, but pigs don't have hair.  I hope Keith doesn't get any crazy ideas and bring home one of those pet pigs.  If he does, you may be sending him and the pig mail on the other side of the freeway.  HA HA!!

Sprucin' Up

From the first time we looked at our new home and knew that it was where we were destined to live, there have been some things that I've wanted to spruce up about the place to make it our own.  High on the list was replacing the three ceiling lights that were here.  The rest of the ceiling lights had been removed, so we replaced those the first day we moved in.  

Also on that list was painting the dining room and main floor bathroom.  There are other things on the list too, but this is what we have tackled recently.

Tackling these projects are not something that I take lightly or just to check off the box.  I ponder long and hard about the look that I want to go for and then I get it done.  In my head, the dining room has been through several versions of it's final product.  We did know that we wanted to use some of my photos on the wall, but which ones and what the color scheme would be were a mystery.  The biggest mystery was what kind of lighting we would use.

After months of searching, I found exactly what I wanted.  After months of waiting, it finally went on sale. You may recall the previous post where Keith and his brother gave us new light in the kitchen and dining room.

Finally, it was time to complete the room.  

The first step was to paint the dining room.  We went with a light shade of gray.  I was happy to say goodbye to the bright yellow.  I did consider trying to work with the yellow but at the end of the day, it just isn't my style.  So... be gone with bright yellow.

When Keith took this picture he said "You always take pictures of me working, so I thought I would take some of you".  What I thought in my  head was "Right now, I'm not really in the mood for a photo and I need to keep this in mind for when I'm taking photos of Keith working."

What was going on?  We learned from our inspector that to get a clean paint line, they use caulk on the edges.  This works like a dream, but it's a pain to apply.  It doesn't help that I forgot to use water, which helps the smoothing process and my glove kept ripping.  Ugh!  Then at the end, Keith remembered and it was much better.  However, at this time, I was 2/3 of the way through this process and I was wondering if I could live with yellow.  I was also wondering how people paint without taping everything off.  Clearly, I'm not that talented.

In the meantime, let me show you a picture of the new kitchen light.  

WE LOVE IT!!!

Back to the dining room.

The finished product is complete.

Oliver calls this the snow room.  Yes, the snowball appearing light fixture was 100% intentional.  The photos were taken with my Canon point-and-shoot camera last March while skiing at 49 Degrees North in Washington, the mountain that I learned to ski at.  Some were taken while riding on the chair lift and others were taken while skiing on the mountain.  The snow clings to the trees differently there than it does in Colorado.  They had just received 6" of new snow the day before and on this day, we had clear blue skies.  It was my perfect kind of ski day and we have images in our dining room to remind of us the great day that we had together.  

We painted the bathroom several months ago, but we just added the finishing touches.  We LOVED our beach vacation bathroom in our other house.  It was like a 3 minute vacation, several time a day.  However, the walls were bright turquoise and I thought that it was a bit much after a while, so we went a little less bright this time around.  We tested our skills on a dual color wall with the tape and caulk technique.  It worked quite well with Chocolate Brown on the bottom and powder blue on the top.  We love it!

Oliver will say, "we have a snow room and a beach room."

Next time you visit, we invite you to travel the world from snow capped mountains while we dine, a taste of Italy while we relax in our living room and a stop at the beach while you freshen up.  

It sounds like we need to take a vacation so that we can work on our Master Bedroom!