Hardly able to contain his excitement..

My child is about to burst from the excitement of going to school. I got him a new backpack and lunch bag last week, and he has been anxious to use them ever since. He immediately came in from purchasing them and put a Kool-Aid in his lunch box. Tonight he decided to finish packing his lunch. I discovered that he had put several more items in his lunch sack, and he was so very proud of himself. I went ahead and helped him pack some school supplies. I had purchased a pencil sharpener. After I sharpened the first pencil, he decided he wanted to try. I never dreamed he would be able to do it, but he did, with no problem. He was so very proud of himself! He cannot wait to go to school. He will be going to the co-op on Tuesdays starting in 10 days. He will be in the Kindergarten class with Kaden, and we are very excited about that!

Here are the lunch items he packed for himself - Kool-Aid, 3 packages of breadsticks and cheese, one package of peanut butter crackers, and 2 packages of fruit snacks.

He said he looked like a turtle with his backpack on.

He was concentrating on sharpening that pencil. He looks way too young to be doing this! Look at that baby face.

In case you haven't seen it, this is his very proud of himself expression.

My baby boy ready for school. He is just so excited!

Fab Four

We had a fun play day with Abbie, Kaden, and Elaina Thursday. These kids are the best buds and get along so well. Typically the boys pair off and the girls pair off, but they will happily play with any in the group. It is so great! This day was cooler than we have had lately, but so incredibly muggy!

My sweet, sweatty boy!

Anyone with a preschooler knows that you must get a silly pic for every couple of pretty pics you get. :) These are just as much fun to have as the pretty ones, though. I just don't let them know that.

Firehouse Field Trip

I never got around to posting these pictures, but in June we had a fun field trip to the firestation. Abbie's dad is a driver for a firetruck, so we received a great tour from him and another fireman. The bonus is that twice while we were there, the alarm sounded and men started dropping from the ceiling, sirens came on, and the place was emptied. It was pretty cool. While the men were gone, we tried on some of their gear.

Eric thought it was cool that this tire was bigger than he was.

What a trooper! Phillip's fellow firefighter got decked out in full gear for the kiddos (and let me tell you, it was HOT that day).

After watching Phillip give the tour, Eric decided to give a little tour of his own, "Hey, everybody, look at this!"

Firehouse cuties!

These pipes are attached to the trucks when they return to remove all the exhaust. Eric thought they were cool and kept trying to talk into them (guess it reminded him of the two way pipes you can talk in at the park).

Ms. Tracie lovin' on my boy. Thanks, girl, for arranging such a fun outing!

Eat Mor Chikin

What is it about moms and Chick-fil-a? Maybe it is the delicious chicken. Maybe it is the great books that come as prizes (Click Clack Moo is now one of our favorite books at bedtime). Maybe it is the fact that they follow any request with "my pleasure". Maybe it is the great indoor playground. Maybe it is the fact that they offer Purel wipes and placemats to help keep little kids germ free. Whatever it is, we all have a passion for this place. So, when we found out they were having Cow Appreciation Day, I knew we would be there. Eric got to dress up as a cow (so did Abbie and Aubrie), and because he did, he got a free kids meal. He was so excited about his cow costume and was very proud of his colored letters. I love the above picture of him and the cow.

Independence Day

Eric is at such a fun age for holidays. He had a great time on the 4th. Last year he was still a little nervous about all the booming sounds associated with the fireworks (let's face it, those things could split your eardrums), but this year he loved them. I mentioned going to the fireworks this year, and he surprised me by remembering that he held a "mask" in front of his face to make them look like rainbows. (they hand out fan/viewers that make the fireworks prism) It is amazing what they can remember.

My sweet baby boy. I forget sometimes how little he is.

We arrived early, and Eric was able to play for a while with a boy from our church.

He was very happy to see the sun going down. Fireworks coming soon!

First glimpse of fireworks. (He is holding the "mask" in front of his face here)

Constantly inventing

Eric rarely plays with toys as they are intended to be played with right now. His current thing is to build inventions/machines. He will take any toy and anything else he can find (spoon, hanger, shoe, etc) to make his invention. Then I have to come check it out. Sometimes he has something that moves along the invention, othertimes not. But, he is usually pretty creative about it. Here is a video of one of the many inventions he made yesterday. In the background you can see some of the discarded parts that he had used in other inventions that day or chose not to use once he was building.



In this particular invention (they always have very strange names), he unscrewed the handle from a golf club to be his lever. Then he used some pipe insulation (we used this to help cover the strap when Robert broke his arm) to join the two vehicles together. He used a yo-yo to also join the two vehicles together. He has a slice of bread and a slice of watermelon in the bus. I have no clue what their purpose is, but I am sure he had a reason for their presence. He usually does. He removed the safety cover for the blinds in his room and put half of the cap on the back of the car. That is the cover that he removes to see if the toys were finished. He usually wears his Buzz Lightyear goggles when he goes "to work" on one of his inventions.
As I type this, he is actually downstairs explaining one of his latest inventions to his Daddy.

Bikerman saves the day!

As you know from a previous post, Eric loves his Bikerman costume (as he calls it). We took a bike ride to the park with Kyli and her mom and brother today. Eric became extremely confident and was going so fast, that I couldn't keep up with him at a jog. However, he took a big spill, and then Kyli was right next to him and ran over his arm. It was a little traumatic for a few minutes. Eric was sobbing, but poor Kyli was sobbing just as hard because "I ran over him". It was so pitiful. Eric's hand is a little sore where he was run over, but he only has a couple of scratches on his arm and side. His right knee pad is totally scuffed as is his right elbow pad. I can only imagine what he would have looked like without them. Yeah for Bikerman gear!

We spent the afternoon with Kyli also in her pool. She has an above ground 3.5 foot pool. That is the perfect size for the kiddos. They can just barely touch, but at least they can, and it helps them move around. They had a blast!