Happy Halloween from Nathan the soccer player, Mary Ingles from Little House on the Prairie and Andrew the Alligator!

Happy 9th Birthday to this big kid!


Nathan, we love you and are so proud of the young man you are becoming.  Here's nine things about you:

1. You're a hard worker.
2. You're honest.
3. You love to read!
4. You're always up for a challenge or competition.  You love to play around the world (basketball) or board games
5. Your love languages are words of affirmation and quality time (not so much physical affection!).
6. You like for others and yourself to be precise and correct.
7. You love to memorize facts.  For example, you're re-learning the Boston T stops just for fun!
8. You do a fantastic job keeping your room clean.
9. You love God and enjoy reading and memorizing His word. 

In some ways, Andrew is my hardest child, but thankfully in other ways he is my easiest!! Specifically today I'm thankful that his first days of preschool have been the easiest out of all three kids! 

Although he's a bit bummed that he won't be able to see his preschool teachers from last year, being in a new preschool, with new friends and a new teacher doesn't seem to concern him one bit.  The only thing he wanted to make sure of was that it wasn't going to be a "long preschool".  I think he's a still bit wary of how long I'm going to leave him since the YMCA camp days were too long for his preference, but I assured him that I'd be there to pick him up after he eats lunch and plays for a few more minutes. 


He actually is very preoccupied with how long things are lasting these days.  For instance, every day he asks for a "short quiet time" or even more befuddling a " short dinner time" or a "short night time".  Yes, quite time lengths can vary from day to day depending on our schedule, but dinner takes however long it takes, and night time is pretty consistent from night to night.  Plus he's asleep so I'm not sure how he gauges if its been a "long" or "short" night.  Yet, we have the same conversation most nights when I put him to bed.


And since all three kids were cheerful this morning before school, I got the sibling picture that I had to abandon a few weeks ago.  Hooray for happy kids who are cheerful about going to school!  And hooray for this mama who will have a much needed break after another summer that involved a move.  Whew, those moves really make for lots of chaos in my life, and I'm praying that I don't have another one of those for a long, LONG time!!

Whew, it was an eventful first day of school yesterday!  Nathan has been ready for the first day of 3rd grade since before school got out in the spring.  He's probably one of the only kids ever that was DISAPPOINTED about starting summer break!  At one point during the summer he asked me, "Mom, is there school that has classes during the summer that I can go to?"  I told him that some schools had something called "summer school" but it wasn't quite what he was hoping for - it was for kids who didn't do well the past year but didn't want to have to repeat a grade.  I guess its a great problem to have - a kid that loves school so much!  So he of course was thrilled for the first day of school!  His favorite part is that he's doing 4th grade math this year.  He was crushing the curriculum last year so his teacher finally started giving him the work from the next grade up and he was excelling with that work too.  So this year he'll head to the 4th grade classroom every day to do math with them.  He is ecstatic!  (Note the math problems he included as "decorations" on his board.  He wants to be a math teacher when he grows up like his Nana.)



Sarah, unfortunately, woke up with a bad case of the nerves and all her pictures (by herself and with the boys) are just too sad, and probably too embarrassing, to post.  I was trying to help her by having her do affirmations - saying "I AM going to have a GREAT first day of school."  She very reluctantly repeated it a few times after much coaxing from me, but she did NOT believe me.  Then we got to school drop off and she had a tearful breakdown in the gym.  I figured I just needed to cut my losses and get out of there!  A sweet friend asked her daughter to come comfort Sarah, and she texted me after a bit saying that Sarah was doing fine by the time they kids lined up and headed to class.  And guess what?!  Sarah DID have a GREAT first day of school!  Look at that sassy and cheerful smile she had once we got home. 


Hooray for a new year.  First and third grades, here we come!

Andrew asked me this morning, "Did God have a body before He was up in Heaven?  Did he have hands?"

I answered "God is a spirit and does not have a body like people do." (That's from the big kids' catechism they learn in school.  But then I felt the need to elaborate because I was pretty impressed with his question.)  "God the Father does not have a body,  God the Son who is Jesus did not have a body, but then came down to earth and now he does have a body.  God the Holy Spirit does not have a body because he spirit. So, actually yes, God the Son who is Jesus does have a body."

Andrew: "So does Jesus have a body in heaven?"

Me: "Yes, I guess he does."

Andrew: "But does he poop every day?"

Haha!

July came and the kids and I FINALLY made it to Knoxville for a visit.  It was the beginning of a fabulous, long trip visiting extended family (cousins!!) and all the grandparents.  We kicked it off right with some time with Grandmother on Sunday afternoon when we got to Knoxville.  Here are the pictures...