A Great Morning!

With Sarah starting school this week, it's been just me and Jackson at home.  We've been having lots of fun!  He'll actually be in school starting next week with the Mother's Day Out program at our church, so I'm really trying to soak him in!

 

Yesterday morning, after dropping Sissy off at school, Jackson and I went on a walk.  He wore his cape and rain boots and looked adorable!

How cute is he?!

 He's such a ham, and I love it!

 

After our walk, we made banana muffins.  J loves being in the kitchen with me, and he's such a great helper!  He picked out the muffin liners--red with polka dots and monkey ones--and put them in the muffin pan.  Then, he helped put the flour and baking powder in the bowl and mash the bananas!

 

Jack also decided he was going to be the official taste taster!

 He takes licking the beater to a whole new level!

 

Swimming Fun!

 

Last week, I took the kids to our neighborhood's swimming pool!  They were excited!

I love watching them play together!

Look at his smile!

Sarah--our little fish--did a great job swimming across the pool!

She did it more times than I could count!

Love her silliness!

Jackson was waiting at the end of the pool to tell Sissy, "great job!"

 Love!

When we got home, I made them ice cream cones!  It was a nice ending to our fun morning at the pool!

First Day of School!

Today, our little princess started 5th grade!  I swear we were just holding her for the very first time in the hospital! 

 

We moved over the summer, so Sarah is starting a new school in a new town.  As excited as she was to begin school today, (she LOVES school!), she was really nervous too.  When I dropped her off this morning, I got a lump in my throat and immediately started praying that she would have a great day, make friends, and let her light shine.

 

When Jackson and I picked Sarah up, she had a huge smile on her face!  This Momma immediately felt better before she even said anything!  She had a great first day!  She immediately began telling me everything!

 

• She made a friend, Mattie, before school even started.  Mattie is new to our little town too!  They are in Reading together, ate lunch together, and played together at recess!
• In addition to Mattie, she made 5 other friends!
• She loves all of her classes, but her favorite thus far, is Music.  Her teacher is an Aggie and plays in a local band.  In January, he's taking all of the 5th graders to the Ft. Worth Symphony!
• She loved the lunch that I packed for her and said she could "taste the love!"

When Papa Bear got home, we took Sarah out for a treat--a tradition we do on the first day of school each year.  This year, she asked to go to Chickfila for a milkshake!

 

Last Thursday, we went to the school to pick up her schedule and get her locker!  A schedule and a locker!!  I still can't believe she's old enough for those two things!

 

Look at how cute her locker is!  And how happy she is to have a locker!

We practiced unlocking it so many times!

Sarah felt so grown up to have a schedule!  In 5th grade, they only offer one honors class--Math--and Sarah is in it!  We had to provide her scores from the 4th grade standardized test, and since she only missed 2 questions on the whole thing, she was in!  We are so proud of her!  She's going to have a great year!

Movie Date!

On Monday, I took the kids to see Planes!  It was Jackson's first trip to the movie theatre!  Bryan and I took Sarah to her first movie when she was about 2, and she did great!  So, I thought now that Jack is 3, maybe he would do great too!  I asked Bryan over the weekend if he wanted to go one day after work, and he thought it was a horrible idea!  He didn't think J would quietly sit through a movie.  He said that I could take them if I wanted, but he was going to have no part in it!  Ha!

 

The kids were both really excited to see the movie!  And I was excited too--this was my first movie in almost a year, and my first kids movie in over four years!  Before we saw the movie, Sarah said that she loved Pixar movies because they have adult humor too, and she gets adult humor now!

 

Look at the cuteness!

When we took Sarah to her first movie at the theatre, the seat folded back up over her!  She didn't think it was funny, but Bryan and I did!  Ha!  Luckily, the seats at this theatre remain down, so J didn't have any issues!

I bought J the little kids' pack that comes with a drink and popcorn, although the only other time he's had popcorn, he didn't like it.  I knew Sarah was going to get popcorn though, and I didn't want Jack to get jealous!  I'm glad I got it, because he loved the popcorn!  And eating it kept him in his seat for the majority of the movie!

He's looking at me as if to ask, "Why are you taking so many pictures in this dark theatre?!"  For the record, I took all of the pictures before the previews even started.

Love these two!

Jackson did great through all of the commercials and previews, but once the actual movie started, he acted like he was already bored!  But it wasn't until about half way through the movie that he got down from his seat and said he wanted to go home.  I thought that was a pretty good run for his first official movie, so I gathered our stuff, and we started walking down the stairs.  Then, he decided he wanted to stay!  Kids....  So, we all sat back down, and he ate more popcorn--plus some extra snacks I'd stashed in my purse!  He only got up one more time, but he stayed right in front of his seat, so I didn't worry about it.  We actually watched the whole movie, and I was impressed!  Daddy was too when I told him that afternoon!

It's hard to tell, but neither of their feet reached the floor, and I thought it was so sweet!  When J actually sat all the way back in his chair, his little feet were just off the edge of the seat--it was too cute!

Dates!

We love taking the kids out on one-on-one dates, and over the past month, we squeezed in some fun with both kids!

 

Daddy and Sarah went to a movie and Sonic on their date.  Daddy really dressed up for their night out!

While Sarah was spending a few days with Grand Nana, I took Jackson on a date to Jamba Juice and Lowe's...

...two of his favorites!

Then, that night, Daddy and I took Jack to Sonic for milkshakes!  For the next few days, J asked us to go on another "milkshake date!"  I think he liked it!  Ha!

Sarah and I went on a really girly date!

We went to Charming Charlie's and tried on crowns and looked at jewelry!  We had never been before, but we loved it and are already looking forward to going back!

 

I love my girly girl!

After buying Sarah a crown--I couldn't resist!--we went out for tea and lunch!

We had a great time!

We finished our wonderful date with chocolate cupcakes!  We also took cupcakes home for the boys!