Internet Woes!

I have a real excuse for not writing for awhile.  We were without the internet.  Amazing just how much I use the internet.  Anyway, I will try to catch up with the whirlwind of activity of the past couple of weeks.

The biggest news for this time of the year is, of course, the start of a new school year.  Justin is in first grade this year.  He has school from 8:15 until 3:00 and homework when he gets home.  What a change from kindergarten!  We live close enough that he can walk to school.  Right now I am still walking with him, and will probably have to walk with him at least on library days to carry his heavy backpack.

Justin on his way to school.  He wanted to wear his "best clothes" for the first day of school, thus the Pokémon shirt.

 

 On our way to school, we walk by some water that is a haven for frogs.  I have never seen so many frogs in my life!  Some are really small and some are as big as my fist.  What I have found interesting is that they are in all stages of development.  I had always assumed that you would only see tadpoles in the spring.  We can see legless tadpoles, some with hind legs, some with front and back legs and their tails, and some with shrinking tails.  Of course there are the mature frogs as well.  The water is truly disgusting, and a great place for the frogs to hide while getting plenty to eat.  When Ryan and I go to pick Justin up from school, I have to be careful that we don't spend too much time frog watching!

Can you find him?  The one I see is pretty much centered in the pic.  There may be more though.

Ryan has also had a fun time finding shells.  They are white and about the size of a thumbnail.  The first few that he found were brought home and put in his room.  He started to collect more and we realized that they weren't all empty.  This week I saw some of his collection moving, so I put those shells back outside.  They are the cutest little snails.

I don't have much to say about Justin's school because he tells me very little about his day.  I am always amazed that a child who can never be quiet can't seem to tell me one meaningful thing about his day.  There are 12 kids in his class and he seems to get along with them.  I would love to be a fly on the wall and see what he is like in school.

I asked Justin what was on his forehead.  Evidently it is showing his brain hard at work.



 Pic of Justin's class from school newsletter.






Justin's school started on August 29th.  On the 30th, we had Ryan's open house at Rainbow Preschool.  He is going three mornings a week.  Right now Justin is begging for less time at school and Ryan wants more.  Ryan had so much fun at the open house that he did not want to leave.

Ryan loves to spin until he is so dizzy he just has to lie on the ground.

Swinging boy

Super pout!

After the open house, we had Cyrus, his mother, and baby brother over for a few hours.  They had gotten locked out of their house and Miles was back in the US for a funeral.  The garage remote was dead and the key was not working in the front door lock because someone had turned the secondary lock on the inside of the door.  Justin was hoping that we would have to have an emergency slumber party, but maintenance was able to get them in by a little after 9:00 pm. 


The weekend was pretty uneventful, but then on Labor Day, Ryan started school.  Unlike Justin, he has a lot to say about it.

We've gotten into a pretty good routine with the boys going to school and me dropping them off and picking them up at the right times.  When Ryan is home alone with me I get nothing done.  I hadn't realized how much he and Justin entertained each other.   

Ryan has a new friend at preschool named Marko.  I asked him if Marko was three or four and Ryan guessed four.  He told me that they have a measuring place on the wall at school and that Marko isn't technically as tall as a four year old so he must be three.  I suggested that he ask Marko how old he is.  Turns out that Marko is four.  Ryan hopes that he can have his birthday before Marko because he says it is kind of like a competition to be five first.  Sometimes he cracks me up.

I hope that something exciting happens between now and Sunday so I have something to write about in the next entry.