Yellow Belt

 

Eli was nervous about testing for his yellow belt.  He told me he didn't want to go, but of course, when it was time for him to show what he has been learning over the past few months, he was right on!  In the past, there has always been more than one student testing, but today, Eli was the only one testing.  I think it made him feel more comfortable that his instructor put him front and center and allowed the other kids to stay out there, too. 

 

Bring it!  Just look at that face.

At the end of class, his instructor pulled him aside and told him that he was going to progress to the next belt before the other yellow belts because he is doing such a good job.  He really is such a good little karate kid.  I was so proud of him!  

  

Mommy, I'm Ready for School

Eli is always up bright and early.  Why should today be any different?  He marched downstairs and proudly announced, "Mommy, I'm ready for school."  What am I going to do with this boy?  I just love him so much! 

There is no reason to wear a belt if it isn't tight.  He's never said that to me, but I honestly think that is what goes through is head.  Anytime he wears a belt, he thinks it has to be so tight! 

"Bella is the Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World"

A little girl in Eli's class told him, "I'm prettier than your sister." They way Eli described it was hilarious. Eli set her straight, though. He told me he didn't like it that she said that about Bella because no one was prettier than Bella, and then he said, "I think Bella is the prettiest girl in the whole wide world, Mommy, and I think it will hurt her feelings if someone says they are prettier than her, and I don't want anyone to hurt her feelings." How sweet. I hope he is always so protective of her.  Don't get me wrong, he can annoy her until she cries, but if anyone else does that, they had better watch out. 

Wonderful Weather!

When it's the weekend, Eli is up before 6AM, it's just the three of us, and he's dressed like this it can mean only one thing... it's going to be an awesome day!   

 

Seriously, we had amazing weather this weekend, so we definitely had to spend our time outside!  I lathered Eli and Bella with sunscreen and we headed to the park to feed the ducks, ride trikes, play on the playground, and picnic.  When we got there, Eli and Bella rode their trikes over to one end of the duck pond, got off, and we made our way down to the water to find there were no ducks.  Hmmm.  We searched the pond.  Finally, we spotted them all the way on the opposite end.  So, we were off in that direction. 

   

After parking,  Eli and Bella had to play with this tree for a while. 

 

During the time they were focused on the needles of this tree, the ducks made a run for it!  When we got to the water, no ducks!  Where were they?  They were all over on the other side!  We laughed about it then fed the fish.  Well, Bella sweetly fed the "little fishies" while Eli hurled big rocks, not pebbles, into the pond.

They did this for quite a while.  Then we (Bella and I) decided it was time to ride to the playground.  Eli had other plans.  He really did not want to stop throwing rocks!

"Bye Eli.  We're going to the playground."

"Okay, just one more big one.  Wait for me, Mommy!"

He looked so pitiful having to walk away from his rock throwing marathon.

After some fun on the playground and a picnic, we headed home.  The weather was still just gorgeous, so we were not about to go inside.  I decided we would make sock bubbles.  I saw this idea on Pinterest, and as we all know, everything you see on Pinterest, or the internet for that matter, always works and turns out looking just like the pictures posted.  Yeah, right.  Doesn't this look like fun? So simple: a bottle, an old sock, dish soap, and food coloring.  What could go wrong?

This is what happened when we attempted it...

 

A pretty good start for Eli.  While I was encouraging him to, "Blow, blow!" because you really had to blow very hard to make even a miniscule amount of bubbles, Bella decided to inhale instead of exhale, and all the bubbles ended up inside of her bottle AND inside of her mouth.   

 

Yep, that is soap and food coloring in her mouth.  Although it tasted awful, she was laughing (and spitting at the same time).  Eli eventually managed to get some soap in his mouth, too.  The whole thing was too funny.  While trying to help them rinse out in the bathroom, I was laughing, and of course, snapping pictures.  Bella said, "This is yuck," and started to wipe her lips with a piece of toilet paper.  What I did not know what that she was also going to wipe her tongue!  Needless to say, she thought toilet paper tongue was pretty "yuck", too.

 

Please take note of Eli's inhaler on the lovely mustard sink.  
After that, it was back outside.  I mean we were totally going to take advantage of this weather!  Eli and Bella would have loved to play with their sandtable they got just the day before, but it still looked like this...

 

You turn your back for one minute to go the the dust pan...  

It's hard to make sandcastles, and dig for treasure in a pool of dirty water!  

Bella loving the water hose, said she was going to "water the grass".  I think I've given up on grass ever growing in this area, so I just let her make mud.  I really love the fact that she thought she was helping me out by doing this. 

Later that evening, we had to get snacks ready for Eli's class the following day.  I asked him what he wanted to take for snack, and read him the recommendations on the list.  He immediately wanted to take popcorn, so we popped nine bags of popcorn.  I soon learned that Eli wasn't very helpful in making the snacks.  He just wanted to eat the popcorn! 

Back to the inhaler.  When it came time for Eli to use his inhaler, he told me it hurt when he used it and that it was very powerful.  I looked at the counter, which read 011 just the night before, and it was showing 000.  Immediately, I turned to Bella.  After denying it several times, with a huge smile on her face, she finally fessed up, "I just wanted to spray it, Mommy."  Goodness!  I'm so thankful she didn't want to "spray it" in her mouth.  

Anyhoo, what a fun Sunday we had!  I hope we get some more weather like this very soon!

The First Day of School

Last week was Eli's first week of kindergarten.  A couple of days before school started, we came home to find a welcome note and a goody bag on our front door.  Eli was just a little excited to find candy inside the bag.  Of course, he shared his treats with Bella. 

On the very first day of his very first year of public school, real school, big boy school, all day, Mommy is going to miss me like crazy school, we all piled into the van and drove .5 miles down the road.  Eli was excited and ready to go! The rest of the week, we walked to school, but on the first day, we had so many school supplies to deliver to the classroom!  We thought driving would be best.  

 

 

  

 

After a few pictures and lots of hugs, we were ready to go to kindergarten!  Mrs. Knox greeted Eli at the door, and he was ready to go in and join the rest of the kids.  

 

 

 

I have no doubts whatsoever that my Eli, member of the gradating class of 2025, will have a wonderful first year of school!   

When Bella and I returned home, Stephen left for work, and it was just the two of us, she asked me to read Ten in the Bed.  I used to read this book to Eli every single night when he was a baby.  When Bella brought me the book, images of reading that book to him flooded my mind, and I had to go to the bathroom and shed a few tears.  Time just passes too quickly.  I mean how in the world can Eli already be in school?  When I came back to the living room to read to her, I found her already reading to her baby doggie (That's what she calls her.), Max.  This adorable sight definitely put a smile on my face!  Sweet girl! 

After a Mommy-Bella day of playing, reading, a dance class, and a Zumba class, Bella and I headed to school to pick up our Eli!  All smiles, he was so excited to see us.  This video was taken after school, on the first day of school.  After a summer full of playing, he is definitely not used to sitting down for so long!  He had TONS of energy when he came home from school.  TONS!  We had to go outside so he could run.  

It still doesn't seem like he's old enough to be going to school for so many hours each day.  After five precious years of staying home with him, it is definitely going to be different having him away from home for such a long period of time, but he seems eager and ready to be in school.  I am thankful for that.  I was so happy he had a good day, but after missing his sweet face all day long, my heart swelled when I heard him say this...  

********** 

The very next day, Bella had her first day of school.  

  

I wondered if she would be shy and apprehensive about her new school, but she wasn't.  After looking like she might cry, she went right inside, ready to start her school day.  

 

She had a fun, productive day, and was excited to return to school on Friday.  She is attending the same school Eli attended when he was three!  I know she is going to love it!  Her teacher, Ms. Green, has already had some wonderful things to say about her.  She also sent us some pictures of Bella working hard and having fun.  

It's going to be a great school year for both Eli and Bella!

Third Time's a Charm

Today, we went to the Home Depot Kid's Workshop. The project today was a Penske truck. Bella and I finished in no time and, even though you can't tell by the look on her face, had a fun time constructing her truck. 

Stephen and Eli, on the other hand, took a little more time to finish because Stephen and Eli both kept breaking the wheels while trying to hammer them on. Each time a wheel broke, the nice people at Home Depot would open up another kit to get out a new wheel.

Notice the supplies below. These are all of the left over supplies... left over from the new kits that had to be opened each time they broke another wheel.  Ha!