Fun One on One

After a long work day, dinner and baths, Evan went to bed and Brennan and I had some time to hang out by ourselves. Bryan was working the school dance and the house was to ourselves. Brennan had seen those Wilton Haunted House Gingerbread Kits at the store and had been asking to do it. So, I had picked one of those up this evening and thought it would be a great project for us to do together. And it would be a perfect decoration for our Halloween/Birthday Party, too.

Brennan had sooo much fun and, well, so did I. He is such a neat kid to hang out with. He says the funniest things and has some really great ideas and creativity. Now, of course, he did want to do the haunted house exactly like the picture on the box. But he was so fun to watch as he discovered he could make patterns with the candy, explaining exactly where he wanted the icing and what color and how it should look, etc. He loved watching the powdered colored icing turn from what looked like white to orange when we added the water to the mix and the blue powder into black. He kept shouting "Mommy, this is AWESOME!" First of all, I don't know where he learned that word - awesome - but he was really using it tonight. It reminded me that he is growing up so fast (he will be 5 in only a few days)!

I think our finished project turned out perfect and our time together was to be cherished. It won't be long before he won't want to do those fun projects with me.

Finished project and the artist/designer

We tried to take the picture of ourselves.

And I thought this one was the best.

Where Oh Where Does my Little Time Go!

Alright, alright...so this going back to work thing, full time is kicking my butt and my blog has taken a major back seat. I am going to promise to be better about this...but honestly...there hasn't been much to celebrate lately.

We have been chugging along trying to get into our back to school groove. I think we are finally accomplishing that this week. I'm finally figuring out my new schedule at work and comfortable with all my new classes I see. Bryan is definitely in the swing of things with his work and the boys are both settled at school.

We had some issues with Brennan's little Kindergarten class...we were a bit nervous and excited to put him in there. And I'm sure he felt exactly the same way. We met the teacher and I was a bit more nervous. She seemed like a nice person - but certainly did not have the typical Kindergarten personality. I had hoped that maybe she was just nervous or having a bad day and didn't want to be overly friendly on the day we met her. Except this trend continued and snowballed down a big hill. Brennan would come home sad from his day, tell me stories of things going on and it just needed to change. Luckily, the director of the school already saw these trends happening and put some things in place to help her out. In the end, the teacher determined that it wasn't the place for her and was reassigned to a new room at the school. Ms. LeMay started last week - and I think she's doing great. She seems calm, cool and collected when I arrive in the afternoon and she always has a smile on her face. She greets Brennan in the morning and says goodbye when he leaves. Something Brennan needs for his "personality" to grow. He can tend to be a bit on the shy side and hopefully this year will allow him to grow up in that department. Whew!

We did manage to go to Six Flags last Saturday - the weather was great and the boys got to ride quite a few things. I think I managed to only get one picture of the boys on that stupid little airplane ride that I think is the original from when the park opened 40 something years ago.

I'm in the midst of planning the boys' birthday party. Halloween is our theme this year and it's going to be lots of fun. Brennan wants a haunted castle cake - so wish me luck on that one!

Soccer has started for the fall, so you will see us Saturday mornings on the soccer fields until November. Brennan seems excited about it and he is 1 of the oldest kids on the team and has played before so he has some experience. Bryan is wanting to kill me that I didn't want him to coach but I just wanted us to do something that we weren't totally responsible for and we could just enjoy going to.

Being the end of the month, before getting paychecks and all that entails we are using up ALL leftover food in the house. I've been making the most disgusting meals (except for Tuesday -spaghetti dinner) to try and clean out the freezer and pantry. I think I've been depressed over it and anxious to get rid of it all. I want to try and get in a OAMC (Once A Month Cooking - just google it if you want more info) routine where I can make a bunch of meals ahead of time and freeze them and not be so stressed in the evenings to come up with something creative. There would be less grocery shopping done on our precious weekends too. BUT, I have to make room for the new by cleaning out the old. Boxes of Tuna Helper (barf), Hamburger Helper (double barf), unidentified frozen things, and random packages of rice a roni or canned vegetables. Pickings are getting slim and those packages of frozen bagels are finally being eaten. Now, I just need to get organized with my coupon shopping and make my meal plan and get crackin' on it.

I'm looking forward to October with all of it's fun activities....Mainstay Farm, After Dark in the Park, Fright Fest, Birthday Party, Pumpkin Patch and Trunk or Treat. Thank God Friday is almost here!

First Day of School

Okay, okay,...so I'm a little behind on the blog update. Or maybe I just didn't want to admit that it could be true. Brennan started Kindergarten last week! I just can't believe where all the time has gone. He is still going to private school this year... and hopefully things will go well. He comes home very tired so I know he stays busy all day.

And Evan started the school year in the Early Preschool Room. I think he's the littlest in his class - but he sure does pack in the energy. The teacher's always say "he's so busy!" And we all know what that is code for!

So here it is...the 1st day of school pic!