Kindergarten Program

              Friday morning was Riley's kindergarten program.  I can hardly believe my little boy is about to be in first grade.  This year has just flown by.  I know all parents say it, but it truly seems like just yesterday that he was that little 5lbs 7oz baby that fit in the palm of my hand.  Now he is this tall, handsome little boy who is learning to read and fascinated with the world around him. 

   Thursday night as I was preparing everyone clothes for the next morning, I asked Riley how he was supposed to dress for the program.  He looked at me seriously and answered, "handome!"  Love it!  Well I decided on one of his new pair of shorts with a brown polo shirt.  I could have dressed him in his church pants, but frankly they are all getting a little short and don't look too good.  Plus I didn't want him to have to change clothes the next day.  Friday morning, Michelle Rayburn was going to cover my class, but I was still worried about finding somewhere to sit.  I remember last year the parents lined up around the outside of the school and the cafeteria being packed.  So I told my parents to get there early.  They got there really early.  I think they got to school about 8:00am for the 9:00 program.  That would have been great, except that I forgot that I had purchased front row seats at the carnival.  So my parents got there super early to already have saved seats.  Oh well!!  Now the cafeteria was packed by showtime, but not at 8:00am. 

Riley's class performed, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head!"  It was so cute!  I did just fine during that song.  Then at the end, all the classes, sang, "Its a Wonderful World."  That made me cry.  It was the line about how they were just babies and now growing and learning just reminded me of how much he has changed and grown.

After the program, each class went back to their homeroom and received their certificates marking the end of Kindergarten. 

Riley with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Adams.  He absolutely loves her!

Mrs. Adams' Kindergarten Class 2010-2011

I had planned to have Riley stay in school after the program, but then I quickly realized that almost all the kids were going home.  Luckily Randy didn't have any big plans for the day since he had taken off for the program, so Riley spent the day with daddy.  I'm glad he went home because it ended up there were only 19 kindergarteners left after 6 classes worth of kids went home.  Mrs. Adams originally only had 1 but 2 girls felt sorry for her, so they stayed behind to keep her company. 

Plus Riley had a great day with daddy.  They had lunch at Wendy's, complete with a frosty, went to the parts store, picked up Alex, went to get sno-cones, Kroger for dinner preparations, and then home to play on the swingset.  A great day for everyone!

A Ranger Birthday Party

On Sunday, in spite of the unseasonally cold & rainy weather, we went to a birthday party at the Ballpark in Arlington. 

The birthday party started off with cake and ice cream and then we headed to start the tour of the stadium.  While I have been to several games, I have never taken a tour or seen the behind the scenes parts.  I have to admit that I think I was way more excited than Riley was.  The kids & very interested parents got to see the City of Arlington suite (very plain & boring) and the working underneath the ballpark.

 After checking out a suite we headed downstairs to the behind the scenes parts.  Here was the indoor batting cages with the american league pennants of the past & some extra motivation.

 Then we headed over to the media room where the postgame interviews are held.  The kids really enjoyed sitting at the big table.

After the media room, we headed to the dugout.  The kids were pretty excited about it, even though they were not allowed on the field.

 Finally came the kids favorite part.  We headed to Center Field for a little wiffle ball action.  The kids had so much fun hitting the ball and chasing them down.  A big yea to the birthday boy for getting the only out of the "park" homerun.  So cute!

Final soccer game of season

Saturday was Riley's final soccer game of the season.  I can't believe how fast the season has flown by.  I think part of it was this was the first season with no rainouts.  But I just can't believe it is already over.  Riley has gotten back to the point, that I truly enjoy watching every minute of his game.  His intensity is back and he is aggressive again.  He just made so many improvements this season.  He has so much better understanding of the positions and when to come up for defense or when to stay back. 

At first I complained alot about this coach because he wasn't much for extra reminder emails or just much for talking to the parents at all.  On top of all that he scheduled practices on Friday nights at 6:30.  Who does that?  Well I complained alot at first, but then I quickly realized that it wasn't that bad because I didn't have to rush home on a school night to get him ready for the next day.  Plus whatever they practiced the night before, I often saw them trying it out in the game the very next day.  Coach Luna did a great job of really pushing their soccer skills to the next level.  This adds to the reason that I am sad to see the season end.  I would really like to play another season with the exact players.  They all have something to offer and something to teach each other. 

 The YMCA also changed up their trophies this season.  It was kind of funny listening to the kids talk about how they wanted a trophy.  LOL!  Luckily my child was just happy with whatever he got!

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend started with a soccer game.  Riley is really progressing.  He is staying focused throughout the whole game and his skills are improving so much.  This game he played one quarter of offense, one of defense, and one at goalie.  Riley is not exceptionally great at catching, so I was super proud of his saves and no goals scored on him. 

 After the game, we headed to my parents to spend some quality time with the family, including my cousin Jamie, and the kids cousin Caleb.  This is the kids latest game, rolling down the yard in a laundry basket. 

 Then gampa was a human swing.  I was surprised he could even move this morning after swinging the kids around.  Who needs a swingset?

 Then we headed inside for some egg dying action.  We dyed 36 eggs and stuffed 3 dozen plastic eggs.  Lots & lots of eggs!

After dying the eggs, the younger two kids plus a few adults took a nap.  Then as soon as Daddy got home from turkey hunting, we did a little hunting of our own.  Egg hunting!

 Alex kept dropping the eggs out of her too small basket, so she just set her basket down and would go pick them up with her hands and just carry them back to the basket.

 Cousin Caleb may not like to share his toys, but he shared all the pink eggs with Alex.  So sweet!

After the egg hunt, we went inside to open our Easter baskets.  There was of course candy, but also some fun Cars & Princess stuff.

 Alex got an ice cream play doh set that has already been spread out & left a residue on my floor.  LOL!

Caleb got one too.  I hope he didn't make quite as much a mess!

After all the candy, it was time to make dinner.  We had our traditional meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, and homemade ice cream.  YUM!!! 

 Grandma Betty & Grandpa Bill

 As it got late, we knew we had to head home and get the kids to bed. I hated to leave. I really enjoy spending time with my family and watching the kids play together. But we knew we had church this morning and I had to teach Sunday School so it would be an early morning.

This morning our church did something new & really cool.  We gathered all the children & about 150 adults in the courtyard for a butterfly release.  Each child was given a yellow triangle with a butterfly inside.

 Then at the designated moment, they all opened their envelopes and released about 250 butterflies.  There were squeals of delight & a few screams of fear.

Despite counting heads a dozen times,because I was so afraid of losing one of our 19 PreK kids, I would say it was a really neat experience and something that would be lots of fun to do again next year. 

  The rest of our Easter involved lunch at Don Pablos and then just heading home to get some chores done.  It was completely backwards of our usual Easter weekends, but I kind of like not being exhausted tonight after doing sooo much today.  The exhaustion part was last night instead.

A Week Of Firsts

This past week has been a huge week of firsts for Riley.  Typically when you say these words, you are talking about a baby, but this time I am talking about my five year old.  Sadly I don't have a lot of pictures to show, just little stories.     It all started Friday night when Riley starts whining at the dinner table that his tooth was loose.  Riley did not get his first tooth until he was 10 months old, so I did not expect a loose tooth until at least first grade.  Here I am trying to eat dinner, and listening to him whine.   I told him to come over and let me feel it.  It couldn't have moved more than a 1/16 of an inch.  Being the ever sympathetic mom, I told him to get over it and eat his dinner.  It would probably be a month before his tooth came out.  At this point I forgot about the tooth and moved on with life.

     Flash forward to Saturday afternoon and next event.  Riley's soccer game was at noon.  I was so proud of how he looked last week.  He had been focused and aggressive.  But Randy was out of town last weekend, so I was hoping for a repeat performance.  Not only did I get a repeat, but Riley also scored his first goal in 2 seasons.  One proud soccer mom!  Of course I did not have the camera!

   Sunday morning I taught PreK Sunday school.  After sunday school all the children in the church headed into the sanctuary with the palm branches and the younger children sang.  Riley was so excited to be in front of the whole church waving his palm branches.  After church we changed clothes in the car and headed out to Lone Star Park for the kids' first horse races.  It was opening weekend and Randy and I had not been out there since before we had kids.  Our Star Telegram Press Pass got us in free for the weekend, so we decided to go out there for a few races.  We got there a little early so we headed over to the kids park where the kids got to ride a pony. 

We had hoped to see Sponge Bob but the line was crazy long!  After the pony ride we showed the kids the jockeys and race horses up close.  Then it was time for the first race.  Riley was pretty interested, but Alex was beginning to show signs of needing a nap. We placed more bets and watched another race.  Then I decided the kids needed a treat, it was getting pretty hot.  So we headed inside for some ice cream.  While this was messy, it didn't do much for how tired Alex was getting.  After the 3rd race, we decided it was time to let Riley place his first gamble.  He picked horse #3 to show.  Horse #3 came in 3rd place.  Riley won $2.75.  He thought that was pretty cool.  Never mind that the original $2 was our money.  My child is now a gambler at the age of 5!  Another first!
   Monday morning was another first.  I was standing in the hall during my co-curr about 8:30 in the morning and out pops Riley, baby tooth in hand!  Did I mention he was beaming???  I had no idea it was even close to being that loose.  I think the kids in Mrs. Adams class were all having tooth pulling lessons because 3 children lost a tooth on Monday in Mrs. Adams class alone!  Anyway I ran upstairs to get my camera phone and went to meet Riley in the nurse's office.

The funny thing was my mom's reaction was "oh darn, he lost it at school."  She didn't realize that it is actually cooler to lose your tooth at school because you get to put your tooth in a tooth container that you can wear proudly all day and put your name on the tooth tree outside the nurse's office.   Monday night he put his tooth in his A&M tooth pillow (that has been stored in the closet since his first birthday).  The tooth fairy flew in that night and left a letter and $5.  I have heard that the tooth fairy pays more for the first tooth than the remaining teeth. 

Tuesday was a calm day and not any firsts.

Today was another day filled with firsts.  Riley had his Kindergarten field trip to the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History.  I took off work so that I could go as a chaperone. 

First bus ride and it the very back seat no less!

The kids had a great time.  We explored the exhibits for about an hour.  Of course they spent the most time outside with the water tables.  Never mind that it was 68 degrees and cloudy!  So cold!

After some play time we all met up to go see his first IMAX movie, BUGS.

 When the movie was over, we had time for a few more exhibits.  This time we checked out the dinosaurs area.  Here are my three sitting in a dinosaur footprint.

 Then we took advantage of the cooler weather, and dug in the dinosaur dig.  The kids had so much fun.  I could have stayed on that bench for hours.

 But the time came to head back to the bus and head home.  I knew the back row had gotten quiet...this is what I found.

Ahh!  What a great day!

Friday & Last Day- Magic Kingdom- Take 2

Sadly our final day at Disney arrived.  This time we headed back to Magic Kingdom to catch up on all that was missed on the super short first day. 

 I really contemplated going the opposite direction in the park to catch up on the side that was missed, but we decided to go straight up the middle instead.  Mom, Dad, and the kids headed to Fantasyland while I dashed off to get fast passes for Space Mountain.  As I am waiting to get fast passes, I notice the line to see Mickey & Minnie and it is super short.  So I start calling & calling & calling.  Finally I gave up and started my brisk walk to join the rest.  I can't believe I was within 5 people of seeing Mickey & Minnie and no one heard their phone ring.  Grr!!!

 Anyway first up was "It's A Small World".  Alex absolutely loved the dancing dolls.  Its funny, Riley's favorite ride the first time was Dumbo, but Alex likes the music & dancing.  In fact she was even orchastrating the music throughout the ride.  SOOO cute!

 I don't think any of us minded this being a favorite ride.  The line was cooler & much shorter than Dumbo. 

After this we headed back to Space Mountain.  Again I was a little nervous because the ride is totally in the dark.  But of course Riley loved it.  Then we rode Buzz Lightyear one more time, because we just had to!
After that we headed to the other side of the park to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, this time with Gampa and then because the line was so short we rode Splash Mountain. 

 Calling Nana in between rides to let her know what our plans were.  Alex really wanted to ride Splash Mountain and she would have loved the characters, but unfortunately it has one big drop off and she is not big enough yet.  Another trip...

 Right after we came down the mountain.  Just a little wet, because you know we had to be in the front car!

 This sign just seemed to fit how our day was going this time around!

After getting off the ride, we found Frontierland Mickey & Minnie posing in a tucked away spot.  So Dad & Riley got in line and I ran to find Mom & Alex, because she couldn't hear the phone.  Notice a trend???

Alex was so excited as soon as she saw Mickey & Minnie.  Oh and fever had finally broken.  Woohoo!  Maybe that was why the day was soooo much better!

As our turn came around, Alex and Riley went straight up there to give them each a big hug.  It was absolutely precious.  It took the whole trip, but I was able to stand back and just admire them enjoying their special time with the characters.

After Mickey and Minnie time we discovered this little toddler playground tucked away.  I really wish we had realized this was here while Riley, Dad, and I were riding the rides.  Alex would have been perfectly content hanging out here for quite a while.  Mom had taken her to ride Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride that is alot like Dumbo, but she did not like it at all.

Then we all headed over to ride The Jungle Cruise & Pirates of the Carribean.

So much excitement from the day and Alex was stealing a quick nap during the Pirates line.

We thought we would head back to the hotel to take a quick nap, but along the way we realized it was time for the afternoon parade.  We had never actually seen this and were curious.  So we went to our usual spot for the night parade and got settled in.  I decided to treat us all to an ice cream float, which sounded heavenly on this extra warm day.  I just didn't realize the line was going to take so long.  We were literally passing it around as the parade began.  It is kind of crazy juggling an ice cream float and a camera.
It was so cute to hear Alex yell, "Woody" before I even spotted him.  She really knows the Toy Story characters.  Almost as much as Beauty and the Beast.

Loving every minute of the Disney characters and the parade from the perfect location of Gampa's arms.

The beautiful Belle

After the parade we went and rode Buzz Lightyear and Its a Small World one more time.  Then it was time to go, but I think this smile on the bus ride home says it all!