First Day Of First Grade

Keaton started first grade on September 8th. He is in his second year of the Spanish immersion program. Just a week into the school year he is already speaking quite a bit more Spanish at home. He will say a sentence to me that is half-English, half-Spanish. Keats is mostly excited for recess and lunch, as you can imagine. First Graders get recess every day, regardless of the weather, AND they get to have REAL BASKETBALLS AND RED RUBBER BALLS during recess. Lunch is in the REAL CAFETERIA and this is very, very exciting. His school has a program where I can go online and put money into a lunch account for him so we put $25 in there last week. This means he can eat school lunch if he wants. He is excited to try this but has thus far been too nervous to try it out.

Why must they stick out their butts when they want a shot of their backpacks?? ;o)

The shoes. This is as important as backpack and lunch box choice. Keats loves the brand Geox. They are, naturally, very expensive. However, I buy them on clearance at Nordstroms a size or two ahead. He loves them and I love that they don't fall apart after two weeks!

First Day Of (Actual) Preschool

Sully started his first official day of preschool on September 8th. He will go to the same class as last year but this will be his last year of pre-k. Cannot believe my baby will be in kindergarten in a year!

Showing off his Toy Story backpack and lunch box.

Sullivan was noncompliant in regards to smiling for the camera this day. I did manage to talk him into the fake-but-cute smile above; below, pictured with his teacher, he put on a serious, serious face for the camera.

Little North Fork Of The Santiam River

I took the boys, separately, to Little North Fork to play in the water. What a perfect place for kids to play! Shallow, clean water and rocks for throwing or climbing upon; my boys were thrilled out of their minds.

Notice how gigantic the rock is that he's trying to grab in the above pic? He was absolutely pissed that he couldn't pick it up and kept insisting I help him. Um. No.

I only had my iPhone, again, when I took Keats since this was my first trip in ages and I didn't know if I could hold my camera in the water. But I got some cute shots anyway.

Fun At Bush Park

The boys and I had a fun afternoon at Bush Park recently. I was trying to get some of their energy burned off. We were there for a long, long time and walked most of the park (which is huge for those that don't know). We splashed in the creek, bought a Mexican popsicle from an ice cream guy on a bike. The boys were thrilled both that their tongues (and Sullivan's hands) turned blue AND there was a piece of bubblegum at the bottom of their popsicle! Happy boys.

Pacific City

Lisa, Steve, and Lucy visited Oregon and we met them at the beach for two nights. We were five minutes into our drive when I realized I forgot my camera!! Argh. So, I couldn't take any good pics but here are a few iPhone photos...

This sand crab was sooooo amazingly high up a sand hill. I have no idea how he got there...possibly someone took him up and dropped him off or he stowed away in someone's backpack? He had barnacles on him so I know he had been in the ocean before but have no idea what he was doing on the hill. Anyway, here he is. Very cute in an icky-creepy-crawly-too-many-legs kind of way. I hope he made it all the way to the water!

Mike up on the hill.

Sully, about halfway up the hill.

What a pretty day it was at the beach!

I want this puppy. No, really. I want him.

Keats, in front of Steve & Lisa's condo.

B-52s Concert At The Zoo

On August 13th, we took the boys to their first "real" concert. The zoo in Portland has concerts every summer. They are general admission and you just bring a blanket and/or low chairs and find a good spot. Lots of fun!

When I heard the B-52s were going to play, I knew I had to buy tickets for Mike. Then I thought, hey, why not take the boys. Seemed like a perfect concert location for little dudes since they didn't have to sit in one spot and had freedom to move around.

Everyone had a blast. We met up with our friend Veronica and her son Cole, along with another little boy named Sam.I can't seem to overpower my computer and rearrange these pics without deleting them and then uploading them, once again, to my blog. Phooey on that-- just know they are out of order!

The above shot is a from the start of the show. I didn't bring my big camera as I thought they were forbidden; turns out they weren't. So, we'll have to suffer with iPhone-quality photos.

Keats and Sully, sweating it out before the show. It was over 95 this day and we had to wait forever for the show to start! It felt soooo nice when the sun finally went down.

Daddy and Sully, waiting for the sun to go down and the show to start!!