A School Bus Mishap

Every afternoon, Gabe, Luke and I take a little walk down to the bus stop to wait for Sam to come home. Two times this week, as we were walking out the front door to go to the stop, Sam was already walking up to the house. The bus has been dropping them off a few minutes earlier and he was very proud of the fact that he walked home without me. Well, yesterday, I thought I'd just wait on the front porch for him (where I can see the bus stop), I figured he'd think it was cool that I knew that he didn't need me to walk him home. Gabe was playing in the front yard, Luke was in his excersaucer in the living room and I was on the porch. I heard the bus, then saw it stop at our stop. I saw B get out...then S...then R...then a few others...then...the bus drove off...no Sam...PANIC. I yelled at Gabe to get in the car, grabbed Luke and drove off (with Luke in my lap, forget car seats...where was my baby???) chasing after that bus. I knew that he had to be on it, if he wasn't, I would have heard from the school. I tracked the bus down to the back of the neighborhood, pulled up behind it and waited for it to make another stop. When it did, I jumped out of the car, with Luke, and ran onto the bus. There was Sam, sitting in the front seat, looking at me like I was crazy! He didn't even know anything was wrong. The bus driver felt terrible and apologized profusely. I was so freaked out, I really had to tone down my reaction with Sam, especially when I realized he didn't even know what the heck was going on. In the mornings, we are one of the first stops, then he goes through the whole neighborhood and back out to school, so as we were driving back to the house, Sam says "Oh, this is the way I go to school on the bus in the mornings, huh." Yeah. Huh.

I realized later that the girls next door weren't on the bus that afternoon, so I think that's what threw him off. He's got a little crush on one of them, so he always watches for her and basically follows her wherever she goes. She wasn't on the bus, so he didn't know what to do with himself. Huh.

This afternoon, when I asked him how he knew to get off the bus, he told me Bus Driver Mike told him "Sam this is your stop". I think Bus Driver Mike will say that to him every day from now on!

I tell you what, I never expected my little Kindergartner to grow up and learn so much in a matter of 3 weeks. He is different...older...a kid. He can write stuff...on paper...words and stuff. He can even spell stuff. He knows stuff. I mean, I knew they would be teaching him, but to witness first hand, him learning, is such a privilege. It's so exciting, to see him excited that he knows stuff. He is so sweet. He has such a sweet little spirit. He is smart, observant. He is turning into a rule follower (not really my rules, but school rules). He is quiet, yet he loves talking. He is brave. He faces new challenges head on with such calmness and confidence.

He still hold my hand when we walk to the bus stop.

If you ask me about my day...

...I'll cry.

The best part of my day...

Interview with your kids...

Gabe:
What makes Mommy happy? going to the store
What makes Mommy sad? when I'm sad, it makes you sad
How does Mommy make you laugh? like this (opens his mouth) (I have no clue)
Hold old is Mommy? 2
How tall is Mommy? this tall (with hands spanning about 2 feet)
What does Mommy like to do? play with toys
What is Mommy's job? going to paint (not sure)
What is Mommy's favorite food? spagetti (that's what we had for dinner)
How do you know Mommy loves you? alot - a one hundred of days

Sam:
What makes Mommy happy? When Luke smiles and laughs.
What makes Mommy sad? When I don't listen to you
How does Mommy make you laugh? tickling
Hold old is Mommy? 31 (he's right)
How tall is Mommy? this tall
What does Mommy like to do? tickle me
What is Mommy's job? cooking
What is Mommy's favorite food? apples (ha!)
How do you know Mommy loves you? she tells me

I'm tagging everyone reading this to do the same on your blog.

Sleepy Baby...and more

Ever since Luke was a newborn, he loved to be swaddled. I kept thinking that he would grow out of it, yet when I would try to put him down with out swaddling him, he would cry and cry, I would go in and wrap him and he would literally fall fast asleep in a minute. So we kept swaddling, and kept swaddling. We used the Miracle Blanket and he would rarely break out of it. This past week, when we go in to get him in the mornings, he has been breaking free. I decided to try putting him down again without swaddling him, just to see what he would do. He did great! He loves blankets right now, he would rather have a blanket to eat and play with than a toy, so I gave him his little nigh-night blankie and plopped the paci in and he was good to go. It's even more fun to go peek at him sleeping now, here are a few pics from the past few days. He is really under there, fast asleep... This last one cracks me up...this is really how I found him...

While I've already got a post going for the little guy, I'll just continue on with some more pictures of the cutie. When Sam was little, I was big time into Black and White photography. I did up this little collage of him...

My friend Christy coined it "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." I've done a few for some of my good friends and, of course, did one for Gabe when he came along...

I'm sure you see where this is going! After I hung Gabe's up next to Sam's on the wall, I thought about how much fun it will be one day to have a wall with three hanging next to each other. I finished Luke's HSKT photo shoot a month ago. I've got the pictures edited and the frame under my bed. I just haven't actually put it all together. I've already got that special wall picked out in the new house where they will all be displayed together. We'll have to wait a few months to see the actual finished product, but for now, here is a little slideshow of some of the pictures I will use for Luke's collage, I still haven't decided which ones will make the final cut. I threw a few others in from the photo shoot that I probably won't use, but will frame separately....

I know this post is getting ridiculous, you don't have to keep reading, unless you are family, then you are required to go to the very end of this post! Not much more, I promise...

Here is a (nother) slideshow of some random pictures. Luke thinking he's all big sitting up, or rather, propping himself up. He could probably do it by now, but I'm not allowing him to sit up yet, he's already got two teeth, he needs to wait awhile before he really starts sitting. This is what happens with your third, you don't want them to do anything because you know once they start doing stuff, they won't stop. I know I'm fighting the inevitable, but I'm just not ready for him to do big baby stuff yet! He has also mastered "the airplane" move, which cracks me up. He loves the Johnny Jump-up and his big brother Gabe, who decided Luke was interesting enough to play with for a little bit last week while Sam was at VBS. He even wanted to feed Luke his bottle...for 2 seconds, but I got a picture of it. Luke got the shaft big time when Sam got home, but he enjoyed his time with Gabe on the couch, however fleeting it was.

Now I feel bad because there is no picture of Sam in this post, even though it's a Luke post, Gabe is represented, so now I feel Sam needs to be...

There, now I feel better.

Mom, Dad, good luck reading this post with all these slideshows flashing.

Now...I'm done.

PreK Graduation

Sam graduated from PreK last week. They had the cutest graduation program where they showed us some of the things they had learned throughout the year, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Pledge to the Christian Flag and The Lord's Prayer. They also sang "B-I-B-L-E" and one other song. After their part of the program, they had a graduation ceremony complete with diplomas and graduation hats. As they called each child's name, they stated what that child wanted to be when he/she grew up. Sam said he wanted to be a Superhero. I liked that he didn't hem himself in, he kept some options open so he can find which Superhero suits him best. :) After the program, they had a little party with cake and lemonade. The kids had a blast posing for pictures and were just all around crazy! There are some pictures in here of Sam with his two best friends, Skyler and Tucker.

May Photo Shoot

Creative

A few weeks ago at Breakfast, Sam put some syrup in his milk. I told him he was very creative, making syrup milk instead of chocolate milk. A few days later, he put pancakes in his milk and showed that creation to me proudly. I told him not to put food in his milk. He got upset and reminded me of how I said he was creative the other day with the syrup. I explained to him other ways he could be creative that didn't include food. Fast forward to last night. I told him he needed to clean up his mess on the kitchen table, he had been drawing on construction paper. I came back to check on him and this is what I found...

That would be the candle holder (minus a candle) that sits on our table. Every marker, pencil and scrap of paper had been put away very nicely. He had creatively displayed his art with a clothes pin and put the rest of it away in the candle holder.

Now that's creative!

Saturday morning at the Watson's

It's 12 and the boys have been in the kitchen ALL morning. We woke up at 8 and did something really crazy...we didn't turn the TV on! This is what they have done with a box full of cars...if you can, notice that the cars are all facing the same direction, with the exception of 3. If you know my kids, you know that Gabe had something to do with those 3. He probably switched them when Sam wasn't looking!

Then they pulled out the box with the Leggo train set and have proceeded to make the kitchen floor a train station. Since I took this picture, they have added a "thing that drops down coal" (Sam), "a big train tower that I'm building some stuff on it with lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of circles" (Gabe). I love their creativity, especially when they do it together so nicely!

He's already getting picked on!

A REAL Snow Day!

Forget all my other posts about snow...this one takes the cake! We had at least 3 inches of snow last night...it was beautiful! Saturday was a perfect day for a snow day since Neal was home, and he is much more fun playing in the snow than I am! He and the boys had a blast throwing snowballs at each other. Well, Gabe had a blast until Daddy nailed him in the face with one. After he was done crying, he told Neal with his little angry voice "I'm going to get you"! So Neal made him an extra big snowball and let Gabe throw it right at him! Sam never stopped smiling and laughing, he was totally into anything that Neal did. They slid down the hill in a Tupperware box and built a mean snowman. Gabe and I pooped out before the snowman, but we sang Frosty while we were eating lunch. When Neal and Sam came in a while later, they were both freezing. Luke slept through the whole thing of course, but I took a picture of him just to have it documented that he was here!

It was a lovely day!

To the Country

On Saturday, we went to our friend Elijah's birthday party. My friend Renee and I were pregnant with Gabe and Elijah at the same time and they were born two days apart. We have the same doctor and delivered at the same hospital, I actually walked down to her room when she was in labor and hung out for awhile since I was still in the hospital. Renee had the party at her dad's house, he lives out in the country on about 50 acres, so it was a perfect place for a party. It was a beautiful day (rare for Nashville this time of year) to be outside. They had tractors galore, dirt to dig in with buckets and shovels, goats running around, balls, soccer goals, rocks, mud and plenty of wide open space to run around. The boys had a blast...it was really boy heaven. Their favorite part was digging in the dirt and playing on the big tractors. I had so much fun with my camera...plenty of photo ops of my boys! Neal stayed home with Luke, so I was free to follow after Sam and Gabe and snap away. I promise there were other people at the party, most of the pictures are just of my kiddos.

This is how boys decorate cookies...

Christmas Program

I know you are all dying to hear about the boys Christmas Program today at school. I love watching my boys up on stage, standing there, staring out at all the parents occasionally singing a verse or two of the song their class is doing. The are adorable up there and I think they are for sure the cutest in their classes. I have to say, that watching all the other parents runs a close second to watching my cuties. I can't remember what movie, but I remember a scene at a school program with all the parents watching through their cameras and video cameras. That's what it was today. I turned around at some point and just had to laugh at all the cameras running and clicking away. Obviously, I was right there in the midst of them. I EVEN left my seat to go to the front of the aisle to get a better shot of Gabe, so I was laughing at myself as well. I have to say Gabe looked mighty cute in his Rudolph get up and Sam did a great job in his part of the 12 Days of Christmas. He held up the sign for 11 Pipers Piping and did a wonderful job! :) The last picture is of the priceless look on Sam's face when he finally spotted Neal and I in the audience. It sure does make my heart want to burst to see him so happy to see us!

Sam's Birthday Party

We had the big 5th birthday party yesterday at Pump It Up. We split the party with Sam's good friend, Tucker, whose birthday is two days after Sam's. His mom, Julie and I are good friends. It was great to have someone to split the cost with! They all had a blast at the party, jumping, climbing and sliding. They were all dripping with sweat by cake time. I think the adults had just as much fun as all the kids! I was sad that I couldn't go down the slide and do the jumpies this year, Neal didn't complain about that though. He and the boys had a blast going down the slide together. It's so cute watching your kids just have FUN, pure fun. Sam got tons of superhero toys, but I think his favorite toys so far have been the Lego City kits he got. He told me that his favorite thing about his party was his presents! Here are a ton of pictures from our day...

Sam's 5th Birthday Day

Monday was Sam's 5th Birthday. We woke up that morning, opened presents and then went to the boys favorite restaurant...Krispy Kreme...for Snowman donuts (and a Pumpkin Spice Cake donut for me...yummy!) Here are some pics from our day. Sam's good friend Tucker came over that afternoon and they exchanged presents, Tucker's birthday is 2 days after Sam's.