Sickie

As I walked into my office this morning, I put down my purse, started my laptop and my phone started to ring.  A quick look at the caller ID and I knew it wasn't good news when I saw that it was Liam's teacher.  She said he had been complaining that his tummy hurt, then he got sick.

I quickly grabbed all of my stuff and left again to go pick him up.  That's the longest drive when you just want to get to your little one and make them feel better.  I knew his teacher would take awesome care of him, but I also knew if he didn't feel well, sometimes only Mom can help.

When I got there, his teacher said that initially, he had said that he still didn't feel good, but as they sat there longer, he said he was starting to feel better - she said he was quite chatty, and I think he enjoyed having her all to himself! When we got home, I started my diffuser with the Thieves blend to help kill germs in the air, and applied Thieves to both Liam and I to boost our immune systems.  Then, I added an oil blend called Digize to support his upset tummy.

I tried to have him rest, but he would only go for it in short bursts, before long he was tired of sitting and was ready to play - his tummy didn't hurt any more and he was done being sick!

Luckily, it was either a fast moving bug plus the oils helped, or maybe he ate something that didn't sit well with him.  Either way, I'm glad it's gone and he's feeling better!

Learning to code

Scott and the boys like to play an app called Codable.  The goal is to 'program' the game so the fuzzy ball takes the correct route through the maze to collect all the coins.  They drag arrows into a row and can hit 'play' to see if their program works.  If not, they can adjust the arrows then try to play again.  

Occasionally, they'll have a colored square that they need to drag onto a square with an arrow.  This tells the program when you get to the colored square, go the direction of the arrow.  Liam had to explain the colored squares to me, I did not understand their purpose!

Once they finish their program and play it, they will get advanced to  new level that's a bit tougher.  It's very impressive to watch both boys play it - I love all of the skills it is teaching them!  

First spelling test

Time for a little bragging - Karsten had his first spelling pre-test today and he got 100%!

Making change

Before bed last night, Karsten was upset that he would never have enough money for this big Lego set that he's been wishing for since last fall.  He said 'my teeth won't fall out fast enough for me to get that much money!'

It was super hard not to laugh, but I quickly thought of chores and turning this into an opportunity for introducing chores.  I said that we would discuss it and talk about some chores that he could do to earn some money.

The first thing he asked when he woke up this morning was 'Did you and Daddy decide about my chores and how much money I can get.'  Luckily, Scott had been meaning to pick up walnuts in our backyard but hadn't had a chance, so we said we would pay $2 for a bucket full of walnuts.  Most of the walnuts on the ground had already been cracked open by the squirrels, so they were really just picking up the large shells of the walnuts that litter our backyard and make it treacherous for walking. I loved this chore idea since it was outside to take advantage of our beautiful 80 degree weather today!

At bedtime, Karsten reminded us to pay him, and Scott realized that neither of us had two one dollar bills.  So, he decided to show Karsten how he could make change from Karsten's money.  It took several attempts to convince Karsten that although he ended up with less bills, he still had more money, and the correct amount of money.  Karsten didn't fully understand, but he was finally willing to trust us that he ended up with more money.

#Brothers

I love watching and listening to these two play.  Their imaginations are always at work and they can play for hours with Legos or their Imaginex guys.

Lately, Liam has been calling Karsten 'Kar' while they are playing. We'll hear him say 'Kar, bring your guy over here' or 'Kar, where does this piece go.' Every time I hear it, it makes me smile, it's pretty adorable.

I tried to call Karsten 'Kar' to see what he would say, he looked at me and said 'mommy, I don't like you calling me that.' Got it bud, that's just a special name that your brother can call you - that's a-ok with me, I love it!

Marry Boy and Marry Girl

Our neighbors had a small wedding in their backyard tonight. Throughout the day on Saturday, we periodically peeked into the backyard to see the preparations, we were trying not to be nosy neighbors, but a wedding is pretty interesting!

The festivities finally got started shortly after we finished dinner, and we agreed to let the boys play outside as long as they promised to be quiet.  They wanted to see the 'marry boy' and 'marry girl'.  They climbed on their play set and sat at the top of the slide watching everyone gather for the wedding to start.  The wedding photographer spotted them and snapped several photos.  I may have been peeking through the blinds to witness this.  :)

Once Scott and I finished dishes, we took our wine out to the patio and caught the tail end of the wedding.  We weren't so sure how they were going to fit a wedding in a small backyard; however, they did a great job, it really was beautiful!

First week of school - CHECK!

The boys had a great first week of school.  I use the word 'week' loosely since they had a half day on Thursday and a full day today.  After many many probing questions, we think we learned about most of their day.  It's amazing how quickly they 'forget' what they did all day! :) 

We decided ice cream was the perfect way to celebrate 1.5 successful days of school!  Karsten has started practicing his spelling words (yes, spelling words already!), and he'll be ready to roll for his spelling pre-test on Monday.  

Check out that new, white shirt and that brightly colored ice cream. He did pretty well keeping it off his shirt, we only had one blue spot that will need bleach.  

We had a towel with us, so I gave it to Liam to protect his shirt from drips. After he ate some of his ice cream, it looked like he had lipstick on from the red ice cream!  It was pretty cute!

First Day of School

I know it's cliche, but summer really did go incredibly fast.  I feel like I was just taking last day of school photos and making summer vacation plans.  Ready or not, the first day of school has arrived!

Karsten with Father Pat

He lucked out and got one of the lockers right next to his classroom!  

How cute is this frame that his teacher made?!  I loved it!  

Do you think she'd mind if we come visit her every year to take this photo? 

He sat right down at his desk and was ready to get started on his worksheet.  I guess we'll go now!  I can't wait to see all that he will learn this year!

Karsten's first day was only a half day, so we had a date and went to lunch together.  I learned little tidbits about his morning as we chatted during lunch.  He's a tough one to get information out of - we'll have to work on that this year!  It was a fun lunch and made me think that Scott and I need to have one on one dates with the boys more often!  After lunch, it was time to pick up Liam and hear about his first day of school!

The boys immediately started playing when we got home, I think they really missed each other!  They had so much fun time together this summer and being apart for school will be very different!  

Wordless Wednesday - 1/2 inch in 2 weeks!

Meeting Liam's Teachers

After a fun summer, it's hard to believe that it's already time for the boys to go back to school.  Tonight, we went to Liam's school and got to meet his pre-k teachers.  He was pretty quite while we were there, but I think he's going to have a great year.  He has had one of his teachers before and knows of the others - that should help him feel comfortable!

Where did my baby go - when did he get so big!