Jared the Kindergartner

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

 

Jared was really excited for his first day of kindergarten! He helped pack his lunch the night before and Daddy went into work late that morning so he could walk Jared to the bus. Before going to his bus stop spot, I took a bunch of pictures of him.

Speedrunners!!

  He was so cute and excited! After giving me a hug and stepping down from the porch, he turned back and told me not to miss him or cry.  ....I guess I forgot.

 

Ryan walked Jared a couple houses down and waited for the bus with Jared. When the bus came, Ryan reminded him about not crossing the street until the stop signs were up and the bus driver showed him the green smiley face sign.

 Then Ryan let Jared cross by himself. But after Jared crossed half-way in front of the bus, he looked back at Ryan and kind of shrugged his shoulders. So Ryan crossed and walked around the bus with him, and watched him get on. Jared got on and found that there was a seat near the front with his name already labeled on it.

 After he and Ryan left, and I was alone, I of course cried and missed Jared all day. It was so strange not to have him there with us all day any more. When Karl woke up, he also cried, and said "I was going to tell him something." :( Poor kid!

Later, when Jared was dropped off by the bus, he sounded like he really enjoyed getting to be at school. But, he didn't like the bus ride home. It was a lot longer than he thought it would be. Since the bus driver goes on a loop, he's the last one to be picked up before school, but the last one to be dropped off after school. So I guess he kept trying to stand up to look out the window for our house, and the bus driver had to keep reminding him to sit down.

First day of Kindergarten hat.

I made the mistake of telling him that I missed him and cried, and he was very disappointed with me, seeing as he had specifically told me not to. I promised I would not cry the next day, which I didn't, but I couldn't promise that I wouldn't miss him at least.

It was the third or second day of school that he started saying he didn't want to go to school anymore. Luckily it was easy to persuade him to pick out one of his cool shirts and then he was happy to go. Since then, he's done great getting into a routine and he enjoys school most days.

He's also learned to use his alarm clock now. The first couple days we tried it out, you'd thought he was dead. The alarm would beep and beep and he wouldn't move a muscle. The first time I kept nudging him and he wouldn't wake up. I finally jerked on his blanket and that woke him up enough that he slowly registered and then hopped out of bed to turn off his alarm. By then I had sneaked back to my room. Jared came right in and proudly told us "my alarm clock woke me up!" The next morning, Ryan had the fun of "helping" Jared wake up to his alarm clock. By now he's in a good enough of a routine that he wakes up to it himself most days.

 

This is some of the many pages he's started bringing home. They're all so fun and cute I knew I'd want to keep them all, but couldn't. So when Jared gets home, Ryan asks him about his different pages and drawings. I write it down and date them. Then, I scan them so we can always have a digital copy of everything, even if we throw most of it away.

 

 Jared is and always has been, ever since he was a one-year-old, big into drawing, so we find with a lot of his work pages that once he's finished it he'll turn it over and draw a picture on the back. Most of his pictures are pretty funny and creative.

 We'll also find that he'll draw different guys and things into the front of his work pages too.

 We're so proud of our little kindergartner, and so happy for him starting this new phase of his life!

Let's Cruize!

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

While Roni was here, she baby-sat for me one afternoon, so I could go pick up a landrover for the kids. A girl in my Valient 8 class was too big for it. When her mom asked her who in ward she wanted to give it to, she said she wanted to give it to Emmaline. We gladly accepted, though I knew it would be the boys driving it for the first while.

 They helped me get it into the back of my car, and when I got home, the boys were so excited. I waited 'til Ryan was home, though before getting it out and letting them play with it.

 Karl tried driving it a bit, but it was a little tricky, and questionably safe. Luckily Jared is happy to do all the driving, and he's pretty good at it too. We didn't really have to teach him; he took to it pretty easily.

 Emmaline loved getting to ride in it! I imagine this it probably the coolest thing ever for a kid to get to ride their own car in their backyard. They ended up drive it as much as they could those first couple weeks. I had to keep taking the battery out and recharge it though. We're very grateful to have such good church and neighbor friends!

Summer Visit

August 21 - September 1, 2017

This summer, we got to have Aunt Roni come visit, before she had to get back to Utah to start her fall semester at BYU. She was very excited to be accepted into their accounting program and was looking forward to starting it that semester.

That last time she came, it was winter, so we were excited to show her what Holland can be like during the summer, particularly the lake. While she was here we did some shopping and some craft projects. Roni, of course, played a lot of zombie games and video games with them.

One night when the sister missionaries were over for dinner, she made her Swedish Kladdkaka. They loved it. Kladdkaka means mud cake. It's almost like a molten chocolate cake, and so heavenly and addicting!

Friday evening, we drove up to JCPenny to get our family portraits done. We arranged so that Roni would be getting her pictures done too.

During the weekend, Mark and Kris were able to stop by and visit a bit. So, Ryan got some work done on the shed with the help. Roni also pitched in a bit, in between jogs and her other exercising.

One Sunday, we had Ryan's friend, Chris, over for hot dogs and s'mores. Roni also wanted to make her Kladdkaka again; we didn't complain.

 On Monday, Ryan had to leave for a work trip to Mexico. During that time Roni was very kind and mowed our entire front and back lawn; which isn't an easy feat. I also gave her a hair trim and we went to the beach twice. At the beach, Roni spent the majority of the time out in the water. Luckily for her it was a great week for swimming, water temperature wise. The second day we went the waves were bigger. She, and the kids, loved it. Roni spent even less time on the shore that day. Emmaline loved having me hold her out in the water as we got pushed by the waves. Jared and Karl played in the sand a lot and made a baby turtle nest for themselves, but they also liked getting out and being pushed by the waves.

On Tuesday, Jared's school was open for an open house. We all went together and got to see Jared's kindergarten classroom and meet his teacher. He got to sit at a desk and play with some of the toys. Before we left, he wanted to take a picture with his teacher.

On Wednesday, we got out and went to our local park. I was glad Roni was there to play with the kids and walk Alfie a little. My pregnancy was starting to lower my energy again at this point. We also went over to a second-hand store we like over here, called Ditto. Roni was looking for a pair of shorts, she found a pair she liked, but she also found some money in the pockets of the one pairs she tried on. She showed it to one of the employees, who told her to keep. So that paid for her shorts with some extra. :-)

Roni painting a pig for our art wall in the basement.

On Thursday we had our second beach day, and then Ryan came home from Mexico in the late evening. Meanwhile the kids and I showed Roni how we do our pilates and Roni showed us how she does her boxing. The boys really enjoyed doing that, and Emmaline was just adorable trying to do whatever we were doing.

Friday was our last day with Roni, so we took her out canoeing at Pigeon Creek. Roni paddled in the front and Ryan in the back, while I managed Emmaline in the middle. Jared and Karl we pretty chill sitting in the middle too, eating snacks and trying to see all the turtles Ryan was spotting. We then took her to lunch at Cluver's, one of our favorite new burger and frozen custard places here in Holland.



We had to say good-bye to Roni and send her off at the airport that afternoon. We had a such a fun visit with her! She's such a source of joy and laughter whenever she comes! We're so glad to have her. :-)