The Second of the First Day

Lucy at her meet and greet the day before school starts

Lucy is in second grade now! She is in Mrs. Davison's class with her good friend Lauren...finally! Lauren and Lucy have been friends for ages, but never had a class together until now. Lucy is so proud of herself for the amazing things she can do now that she's a second grader: she wakes up to her own alarm clock, gets herself showered and dressed, reads 30 minutes in the morning, reads to Elliott, and helps do her own hair...her specialty is her side ponytail. She was also very eager to help Elliott get ready for going to kindergarten. We went for a run to Discovery Elementary the other day, and she showed him the playground, the third grade playground, and the bathrooms. She has told him the playground rules, and the hallway rules. She sits by him on the bus, and gives him, and I'm quoting Elliott, "a big hug, a big kiss, and picks me up" when she sees him on the playground. It must help him so much to know he has her to help and look out for him there. She is amazing...have I said that before?

When I got ready to photograph Lucy's first day of school, I didn't have to give her any direction, she just went for it! I love to see the progression of her poses:

she starts serious,

gets a little silly, cracks herself up

and ends strong. Love her.

The bus stop. They made it to the front of the line, and Elliott couldn't be more excited.

Lucy and her friend, Lauren

Lucy and the neighborhood gals, Alayna, Lauren, Sydney and Emma

the bus stop

Proud Mamma and her little students!

Here are some bus adventures...

Elliott's grin is so genuine here.

What a good sister she even lets her brother sit by the window

Off the bus and onto the campus

Outside her classroom

Showing her brother the ropes

IN STYLE

The day is over, she is officially a second grader!! She is ready to go and learn as much as she can!

Looks like it went well, she looks happy to me!!

We got Lucy a book too:

I think these are fun books, and we have all 200 of them, so we are set for the next several years of book gifts!

The First of the First Day

Elliott at Kindergarten Meet and Greet the day before school starts

My baby Elliott is a kindergartener!!! I am freaking out quite a bit. This morning he got up before his alarm clock, and the first thing he said to me was, " I am just so excited to ride the bus, Mom..." He had me do his hair too. He didn't want the usual, Superman hair, instead he wanted it cool; he wanted to look like his dad. He picked out his school clothes last night, put on his fancy new light-up shoes and spent the next hour and a half asking if we were going to be late and if it was time to go to the bus stop yet. I love him so much. He is our innocent, sweet boy, flying the safe little bubble we've managed to keep him in for almost 6 years. He'll do great for sure. He had plenty of time to pose for my Mommy-camera this morning, so to begin my documentation of Elliott's First Day of Kindergarten, here are some beauty shots:

I told him I wanted to get a picture of him off to school, so there is one where he is walking, muscle man smiling, superman smiling, cool smiling, silly smiling, and just smiling. He is quite a personality; see for yourself.

When Lucy went to kindergarten, I didn't know you could follow the bus and take pictures at the school, so I didn't. I didn't make that mistake with Elliott...the whole thing was well-documented!

Here he is with our neighbor, and his good friend, Jordan as they walk to line their backpacks up against the wall outside their classrooms.

Elliott with his classmates, and more neighbors, Jake and Carson.

The thing he was second most excited about was the playground. He enjoyed it first thing.

Looking a little more nervous now that the bell has rung, he is lined up to go inside, and the girl next to him is having a meltdown. You can see his nerves in his hands. Notice how he is playing with his backpack or twiddling his hands constantly, so sweet.

Elliott with his teacher Mrs. Mckay

Still looking nervous. He said she asked him to go to the window and see what the weather looked like today during circle time. He was very proud of having the responsibility of announcing it was a sunny day.

Such a sad little nervous smile!

The long march into class.....he is now officially a preschooler no more! (He was very excited when I pointed that out to him after school.)

And DONE!!! His first day was a success!

Doesn't he look smarter? He reported that he liked walking down the hall quietly to the cafeteria for a snack of chocolate milk. He liked seeing Lucy on the playground twice during recess, He used the sign language "T" to tell his teacher he had to use the restroom, and he gets two recesses instead of one. After school, he got to pick where he wanted to eat, and order whatever he wanted, so we went to McDonald's, and he got chicken nuggets and a smoothie. That boy would sell his own family for a smoothie, so it made his day. This year we are starting the tradition of giving new books to them on the first day of school, we gave him a cute book called Jeremy Draws a Monster.

He is officially a student.

A Dose to do you good

I know you all need your weekly Archie fix, so here are some pictures to keep you going!

He is learning and growing so much every day. This week, he is a big boy in his WALKER!! True he doesn't really walk in it yet, and true his little feet barely touch the ground and true he more leans then sits upright in it, but he is in it! And that's all that matters.

Another first for Archie is his ability to hold onto and interact with things! True he can't really control what he does with the rattle, true he can't get it reliably into his mouth, true he often hits himself in the head quite hard with it, but he is holding it! What a big boy!

Lucy with Stripes

My Lucy is so amazing. She is so brave and confident and amazing! She is learning so much from Taekwondo, not just kicks and blocks, but confidence and stamina and courage. She has worked so hard this semester to get her high blue belt! She is half way to black belt now, and still one of the youngest in her class. Master Lee really upped the intensity for blue belt, no just sliding by, you really have to know your stuff and she did. Here are some pictures of her amazingness!

This is her back-stance in her form. I love it because it looks like tae-chi to me!

This is her one-step sparring...look how high she is kicking!!

This is Lucy moments before she broke the board with her spin kick. This kick is crazy. you start facing the board, then spin around, swinging your leg, and kick the board behind you, finishing where you started. Sound confusing? It is. I told you she was amazing.

Here she is receiving her new belt in front of the class.

That's my girl!!!

Here she is with Archie. She is amazing with him too. She helps me, holds him, helps him be happy and helps him play and learn. She is starting 2nd grade next week, and I am so proud of her! It's going to be a great year!

My Little Buddah Baby

For an update, Archie just had his 4 month appointment. his weight is 13 pounds: 10th percentile; his height is 23.3/4: 5th percentile; and is head is 43 cm: 90th percentile!!! That's the way we make them at the Hynes house. Thus the following story:

I turned a corner at Pier 1 the other day and this statue took my breath away! (that rhymes!)

It is my little buddah baby Archie! I think it looks like him; it has his head for sure. It was so cute and I instantly loved it so much that my stomach actually hurt. Mike said I could buy it for an early anniversary present...I love it! Thanks Mike! Here is the actual sleeping Archie, so you can compare.
It's true, the real one IS much cuter.

Archie loves playing with his little cheese-cloth blankies. He rubs them in his face, sucks on them, grabs them with his hands, anything he can do with them, he does; and he is happy. Whenever he fusses, the first two things out of my mouth to Lucy or Elliott are, " can you get him his blankie? Can you get him his binky?" Those two things can solve most any problem.

Another Archie moment that I love is right before sleep time. He will be grumpy and fussy, so we swaddle him up and lay him down. Before I can even get the binky in his mouth, he is smiling and cooing and looking straight at me. I don't know if he is trying to tell me that's what he wanted all along, or if he is trying to show me how happy he is so he doesn't have to go to sleep! Crazy boy.

In August every year, our neighborhood celebrates National Night Out Day on August 2. There is jump houses and paramedics, police officers, and lots of fun. So much fun, that I forgot to take any pictures! sorry! But, I did get a picture of the pre-party fun as Lucy painted Maric's fingernails like a rainbow:

And now for some random summer-fun moments:

Play-dogh never gets old!
We used some animal cracker cookie cutters, and Lucy had a whole zoo-themed story going.
Elliott enjoying himself.

A family in our neighborhood projected a movie onto a sheet in their front yard and invited the neighborhood kids to watch. I have a special love of this plan because my dad used to do this for the neighborhood kids when I was very young. I love that my kids will have that memory from their childhoods now too. The only problem is that it doesn't get dark until 9:30 here, so the movie isn't done until 11:00! They didn't get to finish the movie because it was MY bedtime, but they still had fun.