Back to School

Cannon went to Kindergarten, Ryan went to 3rd grade and Parker went to the "Crawlers Class" today!  Boo Hoo!  Don't get me wrong, we were really glad for them to go back to school so some of the bickering between Thing One and Thing Two would stop, but the First Day of School always makes my husband and I a little teary eyed.  I think it is for a couple of reasons.  One, we get to spend a lot of time together over the summer and get close to the boys and school starting changes that closeness a little.  The other reason is because every year a new First Day of School means that our babies are growing up and getting closer to leaving the nest.  :(  I can't even imagine a house w/o their laughter, screams, mess, tears, smiles, etc.  We love being parents to these wild and crazy guys.  I don't know what we did to deserve being entrusted with three amazing boys.  Thank you, God!

Here are a few pictures of the big day, enjoy!

Cannon could not sleep last night, so he was most unhappy to wake up this morning.  He has his angry eyes on here.  BTW, yes we did feed them donuts on the first day of school.  Yikes...sugar them up for their teachers. 

Dad and the school boys.

Mom and the school boys.

Cannon loving his new Buzz Lightyear backpack.

Big boy Ryan w/his "grown-up" Nike backpack.  He said he was, "growing up" and "was ready for a sports backpack instead of a character one."  :(  He has his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book clutched in his hands.  It is his favorite book.

The whole family.

Off to school!

 

Ryan helping Cannon put his things in his cubby.  Ryan knows the way, since he had the same teacher as Cannon has this year.  The two both are in a Dual Language program, so they will have the same teachers throughout the program...poor teachers!  Just kidding.  Ryan has been a model student, hopefully Cannon will follow his example. 

Big brother helping pin on Cannon's name tag.

Awww...what a cute Kindergartner!

Cannon's teacher had books laid out at their desk for them to read while waiting for the day to get started.  Cannon was most excited to see that his book was "Timothy goes to School."  They have an uncle Timothy that they love.  Cannon to still calls him Tiffamy since he can't say Timothy properly. 

Cannon and Dad.  Dad had to go take a second peek at Cannon before we left the building.  :)

Mom and Cannon.

Cannon's class has a turtle and a snake!  He thinks that is way cool! 

Cannon's table.  Jane sits across from him.  She is really cute.  I wonder how long until Cannon pretends to be Tarzan?

Ryan cutting his eyes to see if anybody sees his Mom taking embarrassing pictures.  :)

School supplies galore!

Ryan and mom.  There are only a few pictures of Ryan, because he was pretty ready for Mom, Dad and baby brother to leave his classroom!  He did give me a kiss in front of his friends, so I am still semi-unembarassing.  :)

Dad and Ryan.

Parker and his teacher, Miss Sherry.  His little pal Ava is crawling over to say hello!

Parker is 9 months old.  He just moved up from the baby room at daycare to the Crawler's Room.  He is crawling everywhere, but not for long because he is pulling up on everything and really wants to boogie.

Sweet baby...looks a little crazy in this picture...I will blame it on the photographer (Jaron took Parker so I could get to my campus to meet all the new middle schoolers. So he had to take all of the pictures).

How lucky we are that Parker and both boys are in great schools where the teachers care about them.  We never have to worry about them when they are at school because we know they are always loved. 

Until the next first day of school,

Karla, Jaron, Ryan, Cannon and Parker

***I forgot to tell a funny Cannon in this post, so I had to come back and add it.  We went to dinner the first night after the first day & Cannon was dying to go to the restroom.  I took him to the restroom and was talking to him while he was in the stall.  I asked him if he was able to fine the restroom okay at school and he said, "I didn't go to the restroom at school today because I didn't know they had one."  So, he went all day holding it because he didn't think they had restrooms in Kindergarten.  I smell a big brother horror story...I wonder if Ryan told him that?  Anyway, it was really cute.  We've made progress, he is now going to the restroom everyday at school!  :)***

Cannon's Going to Kindergarten Party

Our five year old Cannon started Kindergarten today!  He has been sooo excited.  We wanted to make the night before special, so we decided to throw a Going to Kindergarten Party.  Cannon picked the menu, all his favorite foods...BBQ sausage, macaroni shells and cheese, broccoli, & corn bread muffins.  We finished the meal off with fruit tortillas, apple of course to fit the theme.  All the people invited had either all been to kindergarten or were going.  :)  Cannon's party included mommy, daddy, big brother, baby brother, uncle Timothy, and soon to be aunt Lillian.  We had a nice dinner that made our newest kindergartner smile!  Success! 

(Notice Cannon has more mac and cheese than anything else on his plate!  He loves it.  He ended up being so excited, that he didn't eat one bite of his dinner!)

Jaron was working at the field house to get ready for this week's football game, so the boys and I went to Kroger for the food and flowers.  We lucked out and found flowers for 49 cents a bundle. 

We bought three, just enough to fill the old wooden school bus I had bought a few years back at a thrift store for $2. 

(I took a Velveeta cheese lid to place in the bus to hold water.  Then I used baby food jars to place the flowers in .) 

Cannon joined in the flower arranging.  :)

The apple decorations also came from the same thrift store and were $2 as well.  I used a flashcard that said "Kindergarten. Who goes to Kindergarten?" hot glued to a ruler and stuck it out of the flower arrangement. I also got the flashcards at a thrift store! I love those cards. I use them all over the house and got a steal of a deal for $1.

The huge ABC sign came from Goodwill and cost $3.  I had planned on repainting it and putting a different quote on it, but never got around to it.  This time my procrastination paid off, because it fit perfect with the party decor. 

I took older brother's kindergarten picture class group picture and crayons sprinkled about to finish off the table decor. 

Ryan, our eight year old, said, "Mom, you did a really good job fixing this party up!"  :)  He is always so sweet with his compliments to me.  He things everything I make is neat.  Thanks, Ryan!

Oh, please let the next four years go by extra SLOW before we have to send our last baby to Kindergarten!!  They are growing up too fast. 

I'm linking up to:

The Family that crafts together, stays together!

When my husband left town for work for a few days, Ryan, Cannon and I had big plans for a surprise for him.  They wanted to help me redo the master bedroom, beach style.  I, as always, was a little over ambitious with my plans.  Some of the planned projects were painting two pieces of furniture, make some pictures and frames, sew some pillows, cover the closet with fabric...to name a few.  Why, oh why, do I do this to myself? 

Well, we had good intentions.  The baby had other plans.  He was teething and REALLY wanted to be held, thus derailing our agenda.  We did get some shopping done for the items needed to decorate the space.  One morning, we went to Goodwill, another thrift store, a fabric store, Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart!  My eight year old said it was the worst day of his life to have to go to all of those places.  He was being slightly dramatic...it wasn't too bad, in fact, we had a good time. 

In addition to shopping, we got a couple of projects for the room done.  One includes the map frame. 

Also, we covered some canvas prints in burlap and glued shells on them.  I'll post those soon, they turned out really neat. 

What is the status of the room?  Same as before my husband left for his trip.  Now, I am back on contract at my school and football season has started for my husband and the room still isn't done!  Darn!  I'm hoping one weekend, baby willing, I will get motivated (and some energy) to make the room inviting with a beachy touch.  Wish me luck! 

For the frame, we took a $4 frame from Hobby Lobby (found on the 90% off aisle...it was originally $39!) and decoupaged a leftover map from our South Carolina beach trip.  I love the colors in maps, the soft blues, greens, and pinks. 

What a deal, $4!

I didn't love the design of the frame.  It was a little too busy for my liking. 

In fact, this is how it made me feel when I looked at it for too long!

This is how it made Parker feel!

 The word FAMILY was fitting.  It was a family project, minus dad.  The older boys helped me glue the map in place.  Ryan served as a great babysitter, entertaining Parker in the walker! 

We started to chunk the map we used to navigate in South Carolina, but I am such a pack rat, I could not throw it away.  I thought for a couple of days before I came up with this idea.  I hated the picture of the people in the upper right hand corner and with the size of the frame, this part of the map was needed.  So, I decided to cut legend off of an unused part of the map to glue on top of them. 

Covering the people w/the legend worked perfectly! 

One other problem we ran into was you could see the "Family" through the map.  So I took the map off, cleaned the glue off the frame, ran outside and spray painted the frame white as fast as I could before the glue dried on the map!  Phew, that was close!

 

So, basically follow these steps to create a map covered frame:  1.  spray your frame if there is any writing or design underneath, 2.  get your favorite map and center it to fit the frame, 3.  cut a hole in the center to accommodate the glass of the frame, 4.  brush glue on the frame with sponge brushes (I used Elmer's, but you can use any brand or Modge Podge), 5.  smooth map on top of the frame, wrapping it around the edges of the frame to the back, 6.  take care to rub the map into any groves or edges of the frame, 7.  brush glue on top of the map, smoothing out any wrinkles as you go (this part gets messy, but it is a favorite of the kids), 8.  allow the frame to dry overnight, 9.  spray the frame with a clear coat and allow to dry, 10.  insert your favorite family photo.  

What a great way to remember one of our favorite places!

The finished product turned out awesome and our 2010 Pawley's Island, SC family picture looked perfect in the frame!  My husband loved the frame and the boys were so proud to have it as a welcome home present for their dad. 

The cost to make the frame = $4, free map, fifty cents in glue, and fifty cents for sponge brush.  Time spent w/my boys making a gift for their dad = priceless! 

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