Cade's 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Caden started Kindergarten on Thursday. I have been so nervous about it (he is my first). I have been stressing if he would remember which bus to get on, which door to go in, where his class was, if he would be starving, and if he would actually make it home again. Among all these things, I have really felt unprepared just because I didn't know what to expect. I suppose I should just get used to it because he is my first after all and you really do learn a lot with your first.

Caden was really excited to start Kindergarten. I think he was more excited to actually ride the bus. We picked out all his school supplies together and his new school clothes and I wondered if I should have just been doing this myself for how uninterested he was in doing these things, but the first day arrived and he was up at 6:30 a.m. fully dressed in his clothes that we had laid out the night before. That is when I realized how excited he was. I persuaded him to lay in bed with me until the clock turned to 7:00 a.m. only to be asked every five minutes why the clock wasn't changing to seven. So, I dragged myself out of bed and cooked eggs and toast as requested. After taking care of the hair and teeth and a few other things, we had plenty of time to take some fun pictures before he headed off.
This is Caden with our cat, Tipper. You think that she would have learned to run away when she sees the boys coming, but they always seem to catch her. Poor thing.

Caden with his new backpack. I really wasn't planning on buying a new one, but he really liked this one and I well I just couldn't resist getting him one. It is a very important day after all!

Transformer shoes that he just loves.

Clothes shopping didn't take Caden and I very long. There just isn't as much variety for little boys as there are for girls. I guess it just makes my life easier. This is a shirt that he picked out. Such a boy thing!

Not a very good picture of Cade catching the bus, I know, but I was trying to snap this photo while running after him. Once he saw the bus, he just started running towards it and that pulled at my heartstrings a bit and I started chasing after him. I must have looked so crazy. Once he was gone I got Ethan dressed and we took a drive to the elementary school (because I was really going into town anyway). We watched all the kids unload from the buses and go into school, but I never saw Caden, so we sneaked inside and peeked into his classroom and there he was sitting all alone at his desk concentrating on getting his pencil box open. It was the sweetest thing. I left quickly so he wouldn't know I had been spying on him and waited 20 minutes just to get out the the school parking lot. It was a mad house.

Well, he is so grown up and enjoying school for now. After Labor day Ethan starts preschool. Yeah!!! That boy is a handful. It will be nice to have both boys gone for a few hours a few times a week. I have a lot of ideas about what to do with my time to myself, but most likely I will actually get to have a shower and fix my hair :)

Artwork

If your kids are anything like mine then you are probably drowning in all the papers that are accumulating in your house. Between what the kids bring home from school and those special things they like to make at home our house is a mess of artwork strung from top to bottom. My kids also get insanely upset if I should ever try to throw away their artwork, but some of it does have to go, so I have started to scan some of my favorites. The kids think this is really cool because they get to see their pictures on the computer. In fact, when I was scanning some of their pictures, they hurriedly starting making more (not really what I wanted to accomplish). So here our some of my favorites to share with you and brighten up my boys' faces. Note that Caden is more of a drawer than Ethan, he just really likes to cut things up.

Our Anniversary.

Sam and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on the 17th. I can't believe that it has been 9 years already! This year I wanted to celebrate a little differently than the dinner and movie that we usually do. Sam has been doing some computer work for our brother-in-law, James. James suggested a fishing trip as a trade. I can't tell you how happy I was when I heard that. I LOVE to fish and getting Sam to go is not always easy. So for our anniversary we had a fishing trip. Sam's co-workers kept on teasing him about how much trouble he was going to be in for taking me fishing on our anniversary, but they don't know me too well. In fact, for me, it has been the best anniversary to date.We got up about 5:00 that morning to get things together and take the kids to Grandma's. It was cooler than I had expected and I grabbed the first jacket I could find. Boy, was my husband not happy when he saw that I was wearing his BSU jacket. I assured him I wouldn't wear it in the boat. Well, this is proof that I totally lied! He must really love me. This was the first fish I caught that day. I was so excited!This is James, our brother-in-law. He is married to Sam's sister, Michele. James is the manager of Heise Expeditions and has been a river guide for over 13 years. Sam and I have only fly fished once before and James is such a great teacher. It was easy to learn with his instructions not to mention that he is fun to be around. He is a great fisherman. I was impressed how he could place the fly in just the right position and make it look so easy.This was Sam's first catch of the day. We are all just laughing because it was just a little thing.The scenery was beautiful while we floated the river and the river was freezing cold. Sam and James both waded in, but I could barely put my feet in for 30 seconds.
Sam and I had such a great time. We caught a lot of fish and only kept one for me (so sorry James about your no fish cooler). I managed to keep the same lucky fly throughout the float and Sam, well if you know Sam, he managed to lose more than a few. HEE HEE!
It was a great anniversary and one memory that is sure to last. Thank you so much James for taking the time and energy to make this happen for us.

Sam-thanks for making the last 9 years so wonderful for me and I look forward to the many years we have ahead of us. I love you (even if you don't like to eat fish)!