Beautiful Sunrise!!

Goodness, I love the sunrise!

The little silo is a cute silhouette

Papa's Tree by the growing light of morn

Playing with Dolls

Clara was pushing some of her princess dolls around in her toy stroller today.... and Bryce decided he wanted in on the action, too. He managed to talk Clara into letting him play with Sleeping Beauty and Princess Sofia while she pushed Baby Belle around in the stroller. As Bryce was playing with the "Mommy" and "Baby" (as he called them), I asked him what mommies do. He scrunched his face up and thought for a minute before replying, "Ummm.... make pancakes?" Hahahaha, ok. I haven't made pancakes in a while, but I guess I should. I asked him what else mommies do and he promptly responded, "Make pancakes." Little stinker. :)

 Clara sure loves her Baby Belle

 Bryce and the Sofia "Baby" and Sleeping Beauty "Mommy" dolls :)

 Playing with dolls is fun!

 BIIIIIG HUG!

 They danced in the kitchen... while the Mommy made pancakes, I guess

 Me and my Brycie Bryce

Cheese!!

Bryce Loves Blocks

 Bryce loves to see things blow up or crash. Naturally, he was thrilled when I told him he could let his T. Rex destroy the block towers we were building. I tried to get him to build his own towers to demolish, but he can't quite build them tall enough for a satisfactory CRASH just yet, so I helped him out. He loved it!

 Posing with the tower

Here we go!

CRASH!!

Silly String Party

What do you do when Dollar Tree has a sale on silly string? Have a Silly String Party! Derek, Bryce and Preston were the only ones interested in the silly string, but Clara and Sierra were happy to watch the silliness unfold. Aunt Sereen and I even got in on the action! The boys took a few tries to figure out how to aim the silly string (see the first picture) but they were just thrilled to see it shooting out of the can. Clara and Sierra were bored pretty quickly so they started sliding down the plastic slide. It was fun spending time outside as the air began to lose its oppressive heat!

Derek and Preston are still trying to figure out how to aim the silly string

Close-range shot

Preston turned the tables!

Preston had an Old Western style of shooting (think quick cocking action with the pistols)

The Pretty Princesses!

Bryce was thrilled when he figured out how to shoot the string - he was ready to get in on the action!

Getting every last drop!

Sweet Clara!

Sweet Sierra loved to carry around that squirter stick

  Even spent silly string can be fun to use to decorate your sister. :)

Aunt Sereen got Derek!

Derek FINALLY Gets to Ride the Bus

The long-awaited day has finally come! Derek has been begging to ride the school bus ever since he saw the first bus drive by our door about four years ago. He was disappointed to not ride the bus yesterday, but I wanted to drop him off for his first day of school. :) I didn't get any pictures of that because it went so quickly, but this morning was adorable. Derek, Bryce and Clara were all up at 6:15 and we had a normal breakfast, but I packed a special cookie treat in Derek's lunchbox. :) The bus comes right at 7 am, so we all trooped outside at 6:55 to sit on the step and watch for the bus. Bryce and Clara wanted to sit right next to Derek and he was a great sport to scoot over and let them sit with him. I couldn't resist such an adorable photo op! Derek was quick to give everyone hugs and kisses as the bus pulled up. He was so excited that he was waving to us from his seat on the bus even as it pulled away.

The three musketeers!

He wouldn't take his eyes off the bus during this momentous occasion. :)

First Day of School!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Derek and I are both super excited for him to start school today. He and Bryce woke up at 5:45 this morning and I gave him his schultute after breakfast. He was thrilled to finally open it and Bryce was thrilled to help, too. Derek picked out his own clothes (he was absolutely set on that Jurassic Park shirt!), and he picked out his own Bigfoot backpack and T. Rex lunchbox. We left Clara sleeping while Grandma worked on her calling of transcribing patriarchal blessings and Derek, Bryce and I loaded up in the car to brave the drop off line. When it was our turn, everything happened so fast that I barely had time to say goodbye before Derek was off and yelling "bye, mom!" I didn't cry until the principle shut the car door and I was supposed to drive off. :S I sure missed him today, but he had a blast!

Finally! He was so excited about the candy, fruit snacks, batmobile hotwheels car and giant glowsticks.

"Let me help you with that, bro..."

Brothers and best friends!

Look at my giant five-year-old KINDERGARTENER!

I told him to strike a pose. Classic Derek!

He had to show off his Bigfoot backpack. :)

Meet the Teacher

We finally get to meet Derek's teacher tonight! She sent Derek a postcard with a little message on it saying she's excited to meet him and knows that they'll have a great year. We discovered a great German school tradition called a "schultute" (shool-TOO-teh). Parents make and decorate cones that they stuff with school supplies and treats for the kids' first day of school. I let Derek decorate his own schultute and we decided it would be nice to decorate one for his teacher. He was more absorbed in putting stickers on his, so I painted a Prosper "P" and her name, Mrs. Avila, on her schultute. Derek picked out the treats and a giant silk peony flower to give to his teacher. He was excited to carry it in to give to her. Mitchell and I took Derek, Bryce and Clara to see Derek's classroom and meet his teacher tonight and the kids had a blast! I really like Mrs. Avila and her no-nonsense yet laid back attitude.She and another mother thought Clara was so cute with her tiny person walking around like she owned the place. She was very confident and comfortable walking independently around the room, inspecting things and walking in some of the storage buckets. Derek and Bryce helped themselves to her small class library and "read" books to themselves. Derek seemed very comfortable with his class and his teacher and I know he's going to have a great year!

Derek was very proud of the effort he put into Mrs. Avila's schultute!

Mrs. Avila and Derek!

Derek and Bryce reading books

Derek is so excited to start kindergarten at Cockrell Elementary!

Bryce can't wait to start school like his big brother!

Broom Pictures

My mom took a picture of the four of us when we were younger than has become iconic in our family. We recreate it from time to time, and decided it was time to do so again. We even added the next generation!! I love my sisters and I'm so glad my kids get to know their Aunt Bella, Aunt Amy and Aunt Val. :) I wish we saw Aunt Alex more. Check these photos out!

The Broom Picture!

We added Clara into our traditional broom picture. We definitely have room on the broom for her!

Continuing the tradition with the next generation. Awwwww!!!

Historic. Absolutely historic. :D

Moon Sand

Oh man... we got messy today! I found a recipe for homemade moon sand on Pinterest today (4 cups of flour to 1/2 cup of baby oil) that was a big hit with the kids. The cousins came over for a playdate today and we all played in the moon sand outside. I'm pretty sure this stuff is going to kill the grass, but it sure was fun! After they played in the sand, Andrew asked for a bucket of water to wash off the toys that had gotten "sandy"... and that turned into a water game! Score!

They've dumped some of the sand out of the plastic bin and onto the ground

Yep. That grass is going to be dead. Lots of fun though!

Aunt Sereen showed them how to get some really good splashes to clean the toys ;)

Splish splash!

Starting 'Em Young

 I like to turn on TV while I clean my room. Of course, the older kids heard it an stampeded into my room, clambered onto my bed and proceeded to become enamored with Mythbusters. We were watching one of the countdown episodes that has a lot of booms and crashes - perfect for three little boys. :)

 They loved watching a car driving fast and shooting up and over a berm

So many spectacular crashes!