A new (school) year

It seems like just yesterday I was listening to "Happy Trails To You" ring through the hallways of school to usher the kids to the bus, followed by "Schools Out for Summer" to send the teachers on their way for a much needed summer vacation. This is a tradition started when our building opened. It sounds simple, but is something that we all look forward to during those long weeks in the winter.

This summer has been full of downs, and then ups. It started with a week to myself, a week that I needed. The 2010-2011 school year was hard on me. Not so much professionally, but personally. I needed some time for me. I am grateful and lucky to have had that time. My bosses are great people who helped to make sure that I got that off.

Then started my time as a stay at home mom with David for the rest of my summer vacation. I loved every day of it - the tantrums, the crying, the messes, and the hugs. We played with trains and in the water, watched movies and read books. I saw his speech come so far and know that I will never be able to say thank you enough to his therapist. We spent time with family and friends, and came up with fun games and activities to occupy our time.

And now our time comes to an end. I will miss being with my little man all day, but I love my job and I know that it makes me a better mom to be away from him. He loves school too, and I know that he misses his friends.

This school year will be one full of changes. Our principal moved on the the high school, and our assistant principal moved up to be our principal. Hopefully we will know who our new assistant principal will be soon. Leadership sets the tone for the building, and we have had some great leadership since we opened. I hope that doesn't change.

So, here ends my summer vacation and starts the 2011-2012 school year. Here is to hoping that this is a great year, professional, and personally.

Playdough

As promised, pictures of our playdough! I got the recipe from here. In fact, we got many of our summer activities from The Idea Room.

I wasn't sure that David would enjoy the playdough. He only half helped me make it. I have to tell you though, this playdough smells so good! Who knew that flavored fruit drink could make things smell so good! We made ours with grape mix, and have fruit punch to make another batch. David loves it! He and Nate will sit for ever at the kitchen counter building and making things. Nate helps David make train like things, and then he builds. Here are some pictures of the fun. Ignore the drawing on David. He saw Nate accidently mark on himself, so he wanted some "ink" too.



My resourceful side

In case you were wondering, it is hot in Indiana. Like really hot. I don't like the heat. It makes my hair frizzy and me cranky. Alas, I still have a 2 year old to entertain. What to do, what to do...
I should be able to do something with shaving cream and cars, right? Why, yes I can, and it was a HUGE hit! (And David smelled like rasberries for a while after too.)

First, you must cover your arms in the shaving cream...

 

 

Then cover all of your cars...



 

Cheesey smile for mom

 

 

So, there was an activity for one day. Now, since we are on day a million of 90+ degrees, we needed another activity. Surely mommy can do something with some shampoo, cornstarch, and food coloring. Again, why yes she can. Another hit! We have done this a few times since. So easy and entertaining.

 

Our colors. David helped pick what colors we made. (I finally found a use for my ice cube tray!)

 

 

 

The masterpiece, although the brown just looks like poop.

 

 

Tha paints float in the water.

 

 

So happy!

 

 

This is what you get when you dump all of your paints in the water. Brown poo looking water - gross. But look at that cute butt!

 

 

So easy and clean up was a snap! Next post will be playdough! It smells like grape koolaid - yummy!

A summer evening

Last week we had some really nice days and cool(er) evenings. Nate, David, and I love to spend nice evenings outside. Last week, I was reading my book in my outside oasis, when I looked up to see this...

Nate was working in the yard, and David decided that he needed to help. The best part was David's diaper hanging out and Nate's...umm..undies hanging out. Two peas in a pod. (Nate said I couldn't post his rear on my blog.)

This is hard work mom.

David is a helper. He will help with anything, well, anything outside. Inside is another story. :) He has his own set of tooks and had been helping Nate with his yard work whenever he can. Now if I could just get the same help with the dishes...

Water Fun

David loves the water. He would spend all day in the pool, no matter what the temperature, if we would let him. He takes after his cousin Justin like that. Both of them have had blue lips and still screamed when we made them get out.
Due to this love of water (and because I need to entertain him all summer) I bought a pool at the end of last summer (who can pass up a pool for $6?). We pulled it out for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was a huge hit! It's big enough to jump around and play it, but still small enough to fit on the deck, as to not kill Daddy's grass. :) He loved jumping around, and of course we had to add the slide. I mean, what pool is complete with out a water slide?



Butt bombs are thew new cool thing to do. In case you don't know what these are, (I didn't unil my brothe-in-law taught my nephew) it is when you jump and come down on your butt. Makes a big splash in the water!

No pool is complete with out as many balls as you can find to put in. Not pictured are the 2 bouncy balls, the big blue ball, and the deflated basketball.

I think that we will have hours of fun playing in our pool. It gets "two fingers" up!