Time Marches On

Time is flying by.  1st grade is more than half over.  I've started thinking about summer plans and 2nd grade teachers.  These past couple of weeks there have been some clear markers that time is slipping away.  Like sands through hourglass, people!



Luke lost another tooth.  I love the two front teeth missing look.  He won't have this look for long.  Those huge permanent teeth are well on their way.  They look so big in his 7 year old mouth.  I remember how big his baby teeth looked when they first came in.  And now as those baby teeth look so tiny when the tooth fairy retrieves them (when she remembers.  Lousy tooth fairy sometimes has to do some quick thinking and hiding cash in the early morning hours.)

Luke graduated from children's worship at church.  Can't say I'm too sad about this one.  Luke never went to children's worship without a parent and I didn't push it.  I'm kind of glad it's no longer an option.  But it hard to believe his handprint is now on the wall and he's a graduate.

This week I cleaned out some old toys to make room for new birthday gifts.  And I passed on some therapy toys (peg board, sorting bears, nesting cups-any therapy mom is oh so familiar with these) to another family I hope can use them.  And as these donation bags leave my house, I think some emotional baggage is exiting too.  The memories are still with us, but the physical reminders are leaving.  And that's a little sad, but pretty refreshing.

I've been a little concerned about some messy work and sloppy handwriting Luke's been bringing home from school lately.  I email chatted with his teacher about it this week, and she gave me some very sound advice about why she is not freaking out about it.  We are so blessed with great teachers.  So the next day Luke brought home "My -ope book" filled with beautiful handwriting (for him).  Here's my favorite page:

Time maybe marching on.  But it'll be okay.  Because he is awesome at "copeing."

100th day of 1st grade

Sometime between around 1982 and 2012, the 100th day of school became a big deal.  I don't even remember counting the days of schools.  We may have in kindergarten.  I loved my kindergarten teacher.  She may have been my very favorite teacher.  But I learned last year that 100th day of school is definitely a big deal.  Last year we had to put 100 things on a t-shirt, which was a little challenging for our uncrafty family.  But, at least for me, last year's 100th day of school highlight was watching the 1st graders parade down the hall dressed as 100 year olds.  I especially loved the teachers' costumes.  Luke was super excited.  But then he gets super excited about pretty much anything "special."  Here's his getup:

I kind of love it.  I think the slippers maybe my favorite part. 

100-year-old Luke heading to school.  We did a super job on the hairspray.  Just a bit on the forehead and ears.

100-year-old Luke waiting to safely cross and enter school.

Luke asked Mrs. H if I could stay and watch the parade.  He is much more independent these days, but I'm glad he still likes having me around.

100-year-old Luke on parade.  This is the "oh my aching back" walk.  He practiced for weeks.

We're still washing all the gray out of his hair.  Another shampoo or two and maybe he'll be back to normal.  Fun day!  Just don't want to think about how fast 1st grade is flying by.

Happy 7th Birthday!

Luke is 7.  Some birthdays seem a little more momumental than others.  And turning 7 seems kind of huge to me.  Seven just sounds like a big kid.

Luke right before bed the last night he was 6.  He got a little soap in his eye in the tub.  He was certainly not crying about turning 7.  He was just a little excited.

And here's the fresh 7 year old first thing in the morning.  The flash was a bit bright.

Lamar and I went to lunch at school with Luke on Friday and took brownies.  Last year we took cupcakes loaded with red and blue icing.  Those kindergartners got icing everywhere and half of them didn't get the color they wanted.  We're older and wiser now, and I made indentical, individually wrapped brownies, and took a few extras in case one got dropped on the floor, which it did.  I think they were a big hit.

After school the festivities really began.  We invited Luke's entire class and a few lifelong friends to our house for the Luke's Birthday Olympic Games.

As kids arrived, they decorated paper flags to wave during our opening ceremonies.

Luke marched down last, carrying our torch.

Luke's been planning this party for months. His two big requests were to have teams, and each team have t-shirts. I divided the kids into four teams and they rotated among four stations.

Here's the orange team, enjoying Hex Bug races.

Some of the yellow team, playing pin the nose on the clown.  (These two games were in the "kitchen station.")

The green team playing ring toss.  In the "upstairs station" we also threw bean bags at stacked up cups.

Some of the purple team in the "backyard station" catching marshmallow in their mouths (or sometimes hands).  They also did a basketball toss in the backyard.

Our fouth station was playing a little Wii bowling, of course.  Thankfully I had lots of family and friends here to help me out.  I couldn't have done it without them.

And after we completed all our games, everyone gathered in the living room for one final competition.

FREEZE DANCE!  Freeze dancing to Disney Channel favorites was some super cheesy, 1st grade fun.

After freeze dance, we had our award ceremony.  Each athlete received a medal for their performance and sportmanship.

Luke on the winner's platform.

These athletes had worked up quite an apetite, so we fed them pizza (while they sat on blankets on the kitchen floor).

Then it was time for some TastiD-Lite ice cream cake. Luke asked if we would wave our arms while singing Happy Birthday, and say "cha cha cha" at the end of each verse, and at the end say, "Eat more chicken!" and pretend to eat. Seemed odd to me, but the kids seemed to know exactly what he was talking about it.

I think he was just a little thrilled with the attention.  Look at that face.

Then Luke opened his presents.  This is a giant water gun.  That's going to be fun this summer.

As parents were arriving to pick up our guests, we watched the wackiest game around, Wipeout.  That's right, we finally have a DVR and can show Wipeout anytime.

The party felt chaotic and was certainly loud, but looking at the photos and watching the video my good friend shot, I think the kids had a blast.

Once upon a time there was a little 3 year old boy who cried through any birthday party he had to attend.  He had to be bribed not to bolt from the room.  He sobbed when anyone sang Happy Birthday because he knew loud cheering was coming.  And look at him now.  Totally worth it all!

We love you, 7-year-old Luke!  We love so much you brave, smart, amazing boy!

Obligatory Christmas Recap

Christmas was great, and it was at least a month ago right?  No, it was just two weeks ago.  How is that possible?

We left the Thursday before Christmas and headed to Lynchburg.  Lamar's sister and family stayed at our house the night before, and beloved cousin Maddie rode with us to Virginia.  This made the trip much more pleasurable with Luke having a buddy.

We stopped in Bristol for lunch at Cracker Barrel.  Luke told our waitress a couple of times that he was done and she could take his plate, but she didn't hear him.  After she left the second or third time without hearing him, Luke slapped his hand on the table and emphatically said, "JAMIE!"  Maddie cracked up laughing and I said, "Who's Jamie?"  Maddie informed me it was the waitress.  Luke had read her name on her apron.

Grandma (who Luke has now decided to call Memaw) led us in some crafts.  She has 15 little glue guns. 

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, and we had a house full of people to get ready for church on Sunday morning, we opened our gifts to each other on Saturday night.

 

Luke was a little bit excited about his gifts.  I think he's perfected his present opening face.  He'll get more practice on his birthday in a couple of weeks.

Pleased with his gifts I think.

Heading to bed Christmas Eve night.  Luke was so excited he could not stay put in bed.  Maddie laid down beside him, with her iTouch handy so she could check the Norad Santa Tracker for Luke.  I think he finally fell asleep around the time Santa reached Florida.

Christmas morning happy dance about the loot.  And adults slurping down coffee.

Showing off a new Kinect game.

Luke and his gifts.  He still hasn't played with all this stuff, and I didn't feel like Santa was too over the top this year.  I guess he just has a lot of entertainment options at his finger tips.  He did have a great time playing the Kinect games with his cousins.

Chocolate bar from the stocking for breakfast.  Why not?  It's Christmas.

Cousins pose in front of the tree on Christmas morning.

On Monday more family arrived.  We had 16 folks under one roof Monday night.  Good times.

 

All 8 cousins on one couch.  Bunch of crazy kids.  They had a fabulous time with each other.  I barely saw Luke on Monday.  He was so busy having a large time with cousin mania.  A nice break for me, since I'm normally his number 1 playmate.

After getting our van repaired in Lynchburg (It was a rather stressful trip to Lynchburg on a cold, rainy night when the engine light came on the van started shaking about an hour and half from our destination), we headed home on Tuesday.  More family awaited us at home.

Once upon a time all three of us could easily fit in a chair.  These crazy kids just keep getting bigger.

We had Christmas one more time with my family.   Luke never sits with us in group photos.  Not when someone cooler, like Maggie, is there.

Luke and Maggie got along absolutely beautifully!  It was peaceful and tons of fun watching these two play happily together.  They're pretty much equally silly.

I am so glad that my only child boy has cousins that love him.  Just wish they lived closer so we could see them more.

Maggie and Luke are both game players.  They both wanted to play hide and seek, but I didn't feel like walking all over the house looking for them, so I came up with this completely brilliant game where we hid blocks in the bonus room.  You may have played a variation of this game at Easter time.  The kids seemed to really love it.

And this is how they hid their eyes while we hid the blocks.  Luke's getting to be a really good hider.  And Maggie is at that adorable stage where she has to tell you where she hid hers.

Erik and family got some "bonus time" in Tennessee since not once, but twice, their flights were canceled.  We enjoyed having Maggie and her parents around for an extra day or two.

And the day before Luke went back to school, this happened:

Luke was so excited to show his teacher on Thursday.  He was all smiles walking in and she oohed and aahed over his missing tooth.  His response, "There was a lot of blood!"

Happy New Year!  Praying God's richest blessing for all our family and friends in 2012.

One Starry Night

The Hallelujah kids at church (kindergartners and 1st graders) performed their Christmas play on Sunday.  They did a great job practicing the last few weeks and were so excited about the performance.  

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus (aka Jenna, Luke, and Baby Susie) ready for dress rehearsal on Sunday morning.

Singing Joy to the World in dress rehearsal.

Away in a Manager in dress rehearsal.  The kids did great in our two dress rehearsals Sunday morning in children's worship.

Sunday night we had one quick rehearsal in "big church" before our big performance.  I was helping direct and had very few photos.  "Mary's" mom sent me the great pics, which is why the photo quality in this post is so much better than my normal pics.

 Let earth receive her king

Go tell it on the mountain . . .

As the audience sang The First Noel the shepherds came to visit Mary and Joseph.  Mary picked up the baby and rocked him.  And Luke, totally unrehearsed, reached his hand over and gently touched the baby as she rocked him.  It was a melt-my-heart kind of moment.  God is good.  All the time, from the beginning to the end, God is good.  Praise God for his good and perfect plan that is beyond my understanding.

After the play, Luke was congratulated and praised by so many in our church family.  He's surrounded by cheerleaders.  We are blessed.

Joy to the world!  Merry Christmas to all! 

Crazy Christmas Time

A month since I've blogged.  That maybe a new record.  My spirit is willing but my mind is weak.  So what's happened since Thanksgiving.

Luke won the character award for his class this month.  Each month a character attribute is . . . featured? . . and a student from each class is selected as the best . . demonstrator? . . of that trait.  Last year Luke won the caring award.  We were so proud.  This year he won the perseverance award.  And, of course we're proud again.  I'm glad he's quit caring so much about his friends and is focusing on trying hard with his work.  I'm kidding, sort of.  I do think he's tried so hard this year, especially with his writing that's a challenge for him, and I'm really proud.  And he's trying really hard to be a good friend without obsessing over certain friends as he's done in the past.  Great job Luke!

A couple we weeks ago we were thrilled to attend a gingerbread house party at the home of friends who just moved to town.  I've known Kim, the hostess with the mostest, for many, many years.  I've followed her blog for quite a while and always loved to read about her annual party.  Reminds me so much of the great parties and events her mom would host when I was a child.  So now that we live in the same neck of the woods, I was thrilled we got invited to this shindig!

Look how beautifully organized things were.  Each child had a preassembled house and a tray of goodies for decorating.  I love an organized party!  Luke was ready for some house creatin'.

Luke's house was kind of a how-much-candy-can-I-cram-on-one-house theme.  And I had to fight my natural inclination for order and symmetry and let him do his thing.

Finished product.  Wow.

After house decorating Luke made some new friends.  I'm always a little nervous around new friends.  How will it go?  Will it be obvious our boy is a little different?  But he did really well and from my observations was a "good friend".  The kids had a great time playing in the marvelous backyard and with the super cool pirate costumes.

Luke and his new friend, Luke!  (And another precious little girl I cropped out since I don't know her family or how they feel about blogging.)

As we left the party, Kim asked Luke to come back sometime and play.  When we got in the car, Luke asked me if I would stay too the next time we came.  Assuming he'd be nervous, I told sure I would.  He said, "No Mom, could you just drop me off and leave for a little while?"  Wow.  Kim really made him feel comfortable, and he's really gaining confidence.  Or he wants to get into some pretty big mischief with his buddy Luke.

Last Saturday was Breakfast with Santa.  Always fun, always crazy.  This year Lamar stood in line for our photo op while I supervised Luke in the craft area. Lamar texted me when it was time for our picture.  After 7 years, I finally figure out how to make Breakfast with Santa less stressful.  Luke LOVED everything this year, especially the crafts.  This event was WAY too chaotic when he was younger.  And now he loves it.  Amazing.

Here is Mr. Christmas sporting a Santa hat, Christmas necklace he made at a craft station, candy cane and 2 Christmas slap bracelets.  Remember slap bracelets?  I remember them being outlawed at my elementary school.  Well, they're back.  Annoying trends always make a comeback.

Last Sunday we had our annual gingerbread house building afternoon at church.  I was tired and hey, we'd already done that this year and you can't top Kim's party.  But Luke can now read the announcements and knew all about it and really wanted to go.

I let Luke do his own thing on house #1 of the season.  We needed a plan this time.  And once he saw how cool his house looked, he loved our plan too.

House, with thatch (pretzel) roof, Christmas tree (with star on top, thanks to our friend Ms. Jennie) and snowman.  Too bad I didn't get a photo of the window and shutters on the side.  But I do like my, I mean our, m&m door there.

Ta da!  We had a lot of fun.

We have a few more festive activities to take in before the season ends.  The days are just packed with fun.  I'm exhausted.  But occasionally I just stop and try to remember what our lives were like a few short years ago.  Christmas was the hardest.  It seemed there was nothing our family could easily participate in.  And now this boy just loves every celebration.  I don't deserve such blessings!