Enjoying the cooler weather...

I woke up yesterday morning freezing! The cooler weather lately has been very nice but my dear husband has got to stop turning our ceiling fan on full blast! I am definitely enjoying the days where the temps stay in the 70's. But once it gets really cold I will break out my complaining.

I

hate

the

cold.

I enjoy pleasantly cool, but not cold. This past weekend it was cool enough for me to swim in my spiffy new wetsuit at the lake. I was nervous at first since I hear it can feel restrictive on your arms and breathing. But it. is. fantastic. I love that thing. Well, I don't love the 'I look like a super beached whale' full-body suit effect, but swimming is another story. This is what you are supposed to look like in the wetsuit...

Yeah, not gonna happen. We did the usual swim out to the buoy, over one buoy and back in --which is around 800 meters or so. We also practiced mass starts. I hate mass starts. ha!

This is the bay at the lake. Some days it is windier (read...choppier) than others but I always enjoy the view from shore. Can you see the buoys out there?

It always looks farther from shore than it really is once you start swimming. My last race of the season is a little less than two weeks. I'm already a little nervous! But I'm also looking forward to changing up the schedule (yet again) for the off-season.

Tristen's first soccer game of the season is this weekend -- he can hardly contain himself. He is really liking school but I cannot keep up with the amount of papers they send home every day. Does anyone have a good organization method for that?? They do have some very fun ideas as well. This is one of the 'traveling books' they have made. The children in the class all help create a book which then 'visits' each child's home for a day. It helps promote reading as well as assist them in getting to know all the children in the class. I thought it was a very fun idea!

The Class Book

Even the teacher drew a picture...

Tristen's self-portrait...apparently he has a big head.

Hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather as well!

First Day of School

[This post is a little late, but with everything going on I just couldn't make time for the blog!]

This was our first year of public school with Tristen entering Kindergarten! We were very excited for this day to come. Tristen asked us every day for two months if we were going to Kindergarten today. Sydney also entered her first year of private pre-school. The curriculum at this age is a little more focused than her previous years and she also has to wear the school uniforms. Luckily she is adorable in a uniform.

Ready to go!

Super excited!

After dropping Sydney off, we walked Tristen into school for his first day. We had already toured the school so he was ready to lead the way.

Tristen and mommy on his first day!

Tristen & his teacher, Mrs. Ellis

How cute are these little lockers? There were many things to make the kids feel right at home. His teacher had taken pictures of all the kids and she was ready to greet us all by name on the first day. Tristen's locker had his name on it and also a little cut-out hand that noted he is left-handed (it's one of a thousand questions on his school paperwork). I thought that was a fun idea!

Tristen with his nametag and the computers.

After greeting the teacher, putting away his bag and checking out the classroom hamster, Tristen sat down to read some books and we said goodbye. Of course he didn't even blink. And I was so happy that he was so excited that of course I didn't cry at all - it was like a fun field trip! My how time flies -- my first child is now in school. Loving it.

And now I get my trophy?

Tristen finished his spring soccer season recently. I told him that his last game would be that day. He asked "And then I get my trophy?". Yep. Hooray!

Sydney having fun in the wind

Trophies!

Pizza party

Tristen's team all ready to practice shooting

They had a great season and learned a lot, but best of all they had a lot of fun!

What do you call a gaggle of 5 year old boys?

First of all, probably not a gaggle. I would start with 'adorable' and move to 'hilarious' pretty quickly.

Tristen started U5 soccer this season. He is on a team of eight 5-year old boys and watching them is nothing short of a riot. It is so funny. They play 4 on 4 with no goalie (for good reason!)

The coach lining everyone up to start the game. The league is focused on learning the basics.

Go Tristen!

Tristen running on his way to scoring!

They have played two games so far. In the first game, the boys didn't even realize you are supposed to stop playing when the whistle blows. Oops. Maybe we should have worked on that. His team is called the Transformers which is a great name for my transformer-obsessed child. Tristen is quickly picking up on things and scored 3 of their 4 goals last week. Maybe it's all the awesome soccer genes he got from his mama. Word.

It has been super.freakin.cold. each week. We have been bundled up in coats, hats and blankets! I am really hoping for a basically decent week where I don't worry about Sydney freezing to death. Look how red her nose is!

Shout out to Auntie Liz for coming to a game!

Tristen enjoying a snack after his game.

One of the funny things I have learned during this experience is how OCD my child is. I've always noticed he has little quirks like when I find his 20 toy cars perfectly lined up by his bed. I could never imagine Syd taking on such a task. Now that he has something new he cares for he lines all his soccer stuff up in little rows. Shin guards lay parallel to each other, a soccer sock folded neatly in line with each, soccer shorts folded and placed carefully on top, followed by his ball. He calls this 'packing up' his soccer stuff. I came upon this little pile one day. Which means he probably learned this behavior from, uh, his mommy. Am I creating a little neat freak? I guess there are worse things!

Christmas 2008

Christmas is such a fun time of year. We were able to have a lot of our families come and visit with us for Christmas. We even had a sleepover party on Christmas Eve with our family and cousins. It was so nice to see everyone and we are thankful they could all travel to see us!

We enjoyed more food than we could finish.

We read "The Night Before Christmas". We played some fun new games and enjoyed hanging out together.

And on Christmas morning, we all ran downstairs to see what Santa had brought us!

The kids were espeically excited to play on the new trampoline Santa brought. Sydney was very sad that Santa had left before she could see him.

Enjoying more of our presents in Christmas jammies.



Sydney took most of her gifts and tried to stuff them in her backpack.

Later we got to visit with more of DH's family.

We hope you all had as much fun and family as we did!

Tristen's 5th Birthday

My oldest turned 5 last month. He is getting so tall I am beginning to miss my baby! We had a family party at Chuck E Cheese. I love the one in Plano because the kids can get their fill of games and the CEC experience without the loud noise and obnoxious full house that is at most of these places. We had a great time! I still haven't downloaded the pictures from this party.

For Tristen's friends party we went to the newly opened Boomerang's in Plano. It is really cute with a small playground for little ones and TVs for Dads who just can't miss the game. We had 22 kids attend! So it was very crazy but so much fun. Tristen was so excited to hand out his 'inbitations' to all his friends. The morning of the party he woke me up at 7am. 'Is it time to go to my party now?' Uh. no. He is at a great age for birthday parties so we had a lot of fun planning and getting ready for this.

Tristen loves the slides.

Sydney is a bounce house afficianado.

Transformer goody bags.

Decepticon and Autobot cupcakes with rings.

Yum! Cake!

Tristen loved seeing all his friends there.

Cheese!

One of my favorite presents!

Happy Birthday to Matty!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Matty!

Happy Birthday to youuuuuuu!

Matthew Gibbons is our adorable and very active nephew. Both of my kids miss him terribly now that he relocated to San Antonio while his Dad finishes med school.


Hope you have a great birthday!! We love you!!