Meet the Teacher & First Day of School 2012

Last night the boys had the opportunity to go to school and "meet" their teacher.  Of course, they know most of the teachers at school already but it is still fun for them to see where they will sit and know exactly where to go on the first day.  The teachers always have a sweet little treat waiting for them there too.

burrito the third grader with his bag of special treats

burrito checking out his REAL textbooks with his buddy

noodle with his sweet 1st grade teacher mrs. s

i can't believe my baby is a 1st grader!

my husband really loves that i INSIST on taking his first day of school pic too!

and here are my cute men before we headed off to school this morning.  this is their chapel uniform because they have chapel on wednesdays.  aren't they handsome?!?!

here we are walking into school.  that's burrito and john ahead of us.  i made john come for my emotional support! :)

burrito outside his 3rd grade classroom

noodle outside his 1st grade classroom

when i picked them up this afternoon, they both said they had a really great day and loved their new teachers.  burrito had his textbooks because we had to put covers on them tonight.  i had to conjure up my book-covering abilities from years past.  i can't believe he has real textbooks.  does this growing up thing ever slow down???  noodle talked about how they can earn tickets for good behavior and then cash in their tickets for little prizes.  they both talked about seeing their old buddies at recess and not having any homework for this first week.  hooray!

i was not as emotional about leaving them this year.  i think i am finally accepting that they are growing up and learning new responsibilities and that's a good thing...even if it's hard for this mama.  i just love them so much.  such a treasure and gift from Jesus.

praying sweet blessings on them this new school year...

Summer 2012...where did it go???

well, you won't believe me when i tell you this, but we start school in 3 days.  yep, you read that right.  sickening i tell you.  i told john the other day that our school is an evil institution because it steals away my 3 most favorite people all at the same time. ;)

so since we head back to school on wednesday, i thought i better jump on the blog here and document a little bit of our summer, before i start posting "1st day of school" pics!

we started our summer with an immediate trip to st. louis back at the end of may.  and when i say immediate, i mean immediate.  we attended graduation on friday night and left 5 hours later in the wee hours of the morning to make the 11 hour trip.

here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to visit john's family.

Noodle and Pappaw playing croquet

burrito sticking his hand in a rabbit hole!

we had a great time at the science center

they built the gateway arch!

don't be fooled!  this was at the st. louis zoo but they so badly wanted to visit a cave.  this was as close as they got! :)

at the zoo on a beautiful day

our other big trip of the summer was to our favorite texas beach location, rockport!  this was our third summer to visit and as always, it was totally relaxing and fun.  this year we rented a house for a week just minutes from the beach with my family and had a great time, minus the jellyfish.  these are a few of my favorite pics from that trip.

of course we planned our trip around being in austin at breakfast time so we could eat here

first day at the beach

does he look like a surfer dude or what???

cousin porkchop

love this picture of my burrito

the grandsons with mimi

in the ocean eating a snow cone...life just doesn't get much better!

john and burrito and the vast ocean

our beach home on the fourth of july

waiting for the fireworks

celebrating our freedom

this is outside the texas state aquarium in corpus christi.  that bridge in the background makes me squeamish!

the boys at the aquarium

under the sea

other summer memories include lots of bike rides to the park with john, swimming with our cousin, ice cream cones from braum's, john's intro to baseball class for the boys (they're playing baseball this fall), going to the movies and eating popcorn, swimming in our blow up pool, and reading the harry potter books.  it's been a good summer and i'm thankful for my family.

spring soccer 2012

both boys played on the "monsters" soccer team again this year and had a great season.  the team consisted of several new players this season so it gave noodle and burrito the opportunity to step up and lead their team.  both boys had several goals this season and had a great time playing soccer.  they are ready to try something new so next season we will be a baseball family and see how that goes.  here are a few of my favorite soccer shots from this year.

burrito #10 scoring a gooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllll !

noodle geared up to play goalie

noodle in the goal ready to defend

our team, the monsters! we love coach jason!

our cutest soccer fan!

noodle about to score a goal

noodle

burrito as goalie

burrito

noodle

 we had a great soccer season and it was SO fun to watch our guys play their hearts out!

school memories from this year

here are a bunch of fun shots from various school activities this year.  i can't believe i will have a 1st grader and 3rd grader next year!

reformation day.  noodle's class could dress like an animal from God's creation.  he was a parrot!

burrito dressed as a roman soldier.  his class could choose a bible character.

burrito on egyptian feast day

me and burrito at his thanksgiving party

noodle as an indian chief

noodle singing with his class at his christmas party

noodle decorating a christmas cookie

burrito being silly at his christmas party

western day plus the school jackets because it was cold outside :)

noodle's valentine's day party

burrito's 2nd grade program "through the old testament."  he was nathan.

noodle's trip to sea life aquarium...the view through the tank!

noodle and some of his kindergarten buddies

i would say we had a most successful and fun year!