Adam's First Day as a Ready Rocket

This morning Adam began Ready Rockets.  He has been telling us for about a week that he was scared.  He was nervous not having any friends.  He was also sacred, so he said, because he thought it would be hard.  We reassured him that there would be many children that didn't know anyone and that he was plenty ready to be a Ready Rocket.

 

We took a few pictures before we took David to school and Daddy went to work.  It is still pretty dark for the time David goes to school.

 Then after the sun came up Adam took pictures on his own...

 We have 6 years of first day pictures in front of this tree.

 Angie started to get nervous about drop off and Adam being anxious so she texted Adam's last years teacher and asked her if she could meet us for a familiar face... he ran to her when he saw her coming walking down the sidewalk.

 There were no nerves when we got to his classroom.  He went right in, walked past the crying children, and got to work. This little one is such a bright spot in the world.

 How thankful we are for this little boy!

Building a Pond

At the beginning of July the boys had friends over and they began building a pond in the back yard. 

 

Here is David's  He came up the with entire idea.  He dug a whole.  Lined it with Saran Wrap, placed shells on top of the Saran Wrap.  Surrounded it with bricks, added a decorative log, and a water fall through the pink bucket... the hose was in the whole and the water would fill the pond.

This is Adam's...

 He dug a whole lined it with Saran wrap and surrounded it with bricks...

The boys were so very disappointed when the next morning neither pond had water... even with the liner.  So, Greg decided he would help the boys really build a pond.

 

First the dug a whole and found a liner to just put in the ground rather than line the whole.

 

 They filled it up to make sure it didn't leak and it stayed like this for a week.

Then they added plants, fish, and went to the creek to catch minnows.  Several trips have been made to the Hill Country Water Gardens... David is all into this project.

 David wakes up every morning and immediately goes out to check on his fish and feed them, even before he heads off to school

He loves this pond.  He has asked Grandad lots of questions about fish and taking care of ponds.  Grandad even helped us with our algae problem... the minnows brought some massive amounts of algae with them.

 

First Day of Second Grade

Last night about 5:00 David excited for second grade.  This was good news as of Tuesday he just wanted to go back to first grade - he loves Mrs. Johnson!
But this morning he was all smiles and walked right in to his classroom.  David was the fist one in class today and was able to talk to his teacher a little and really liked that.
Second grade - how did time move so quickly?

 

 

 Making his hands turn into petals for the bulletin board above...

 One of his besties is in his class.  They were in Ready Rockets and Kindergarten together.

 Saying goodbye for Adam is so hard.  He loves his brother so very much.

Waiting for David at the bus stop...

 He is here...

 How do you feel about second grade David - his response, "Happy!"

 Reunited and it was Adam's favorite part of the day.

 

Welcome Walk

Monday evening was welcome walk for David.  Angie snuck out of a very large district wide meeting Monday to make sure she had David home in time to meet his teacher.  She came towards the beginning of the time window so we are glad we were home.  David was so anxious he was literally climbing the walls while he waited for his teacher.

 He painted her a welcome sign and wanted to stand their until he came.

 Finally we saw Mrs. Tidwell at the door - exactly who he wanted.

Such a fun tradition!

Family Favorites

Angie went back to work five weeks ago, and this is her busiest part of every school year, which means she works very long weeks.  We are so very thankful for family that takes our boys.
Mimi and Ed had the boys for 2.5 weeks, Aunt Christie Luke and Lila came and stayed at our house for a week, and Gram and Grandad met us to pick up the boys and host them for a week.  We don't know what we would do without our family because they very much support us in raising our boys.
And the boys had a fun end to summer thanks to all of the activities that these two were able to do with their grandparents, cousins, and aunt.
Grandpa Ed took David fishing on Lake Travis and David did not want to come home!  This little guy loves to fish.

Adam chose Chuck E Cheese one day while David stayed with Ed to build things in the garage...

Mimi took both boys to see new baby pigs that were less than 24 hours old at Ms. Tammy's farm...

 They also got to swim!

 Mimi took Adam to The Play for All Abilities park one day while...

David was at gymnastics camp with a friend.

 

Aunt Christie came to visit and took the boys to The Austin Aquarium...

 Inner Space Caverns - which they loved!

 

The Play for Abilities park and even took all four kids bikes!

 

Then it was time to visit Gram and Grandad... the first thing was playing Grandad's guitars.

 And of course morning 1 needed donuts.

 so many choices... Adam tried new things, but didn't like it and had to go back to chocolate!

 At home with fun experiemnts...

 And playing in the backyard is always a fun time!

 These little explores could not get enough of Grandad's pond.

 They called us every night, but really had no interest in talking to us.

 They went to Old McDonald's Farm...

 

 

 IT started raining as they were leaving and David covered himself with a bag!

 creating!

 And riding in Grandad's car were fun...

 They met Aunt Christie and Luke and Lila one day at an American Ninja Warrior gym.  They loved this!

 

 Another day they all met at the Houston Zoo...

 

After the zoo they went swimming in the neighborhood pool...

 The last day of the week the morning was spent playing at home until it was time to head back to Round Rock...

 

Back at home once again... 

 

For our last class of Stroller Strides all together for the summer.

It went so fast, but these boys had fun experiences thanks to our families!