The Night Before... School!

School starts tomorrow (with students) and I just can't believe that another summer has come and gone. Cullen has his first day of preschool tomorrow, I'm a little nervous for him. On the first day of preschool a parent gets to go with their kid. So Nick will be missing part of his first day of school to attend Cullen's school. Nick lost in paper-rock-scissors, just kidding he volunteered to go and since that meant I didn't have to make sub plans I obliged.

This might sound shallow of me but I sort of hope for Cullen's sake that his teacher is perhaps nice looking. Cullen has been practicing his "teacher greeting" for some time now. They are never the same and interesting to say the least. I've been trying to steer him clear of pick-up sounding lines but his seem to veer in that direction. Such as "Hi, Ms. ----, I'm Cullen and you are cute-ifully!" I'm anxious to hear what he actually says when the BIG moment arrives, hopefully he gets shy and doesn't say anything:)

Geremu has also been practicing his greeting for Cullen's teacher. I've tried to gently break it to him that he is not going to school with Cullen but he doesn't want to take no for an answer. Cullen has played his role in this as well by begging me to, "Please, let Geremu go to my school with me." I did sign Geremu up for a class at the Y 2-days a week so he gets to experience some sort of school.

Cullen is a little worried that he won't have any friends and he doesn't want to have to be friends with the "ugly kids". It has taken me numerous "You need to be nice and friendly with everyone" talks to finally figured out that by "ugly" he is talking "mean". I made the mistake during one of the talks of saying, "kill 'em with kindness". Lesson learned, NEVER say that to a 4 year old, I was doing a lot of back peddling trying to explain that expression after he asked me, "Who do I have to kill?"

So the adventures of a preschool parent officially begin tomorrow!

TV Update

If you have been following our blog you may recall the post back in June when we lost TV because of the digital transition. Well we are now set-up with rabbit ears and a converter box so all systems are a go in our bedroom. We still haven't taken care of our living room TV. We are clearly in no rush to fix that situation since it's only been a little over 2 months without it working:)

Anyways, here is what happens when we have company and the Packers are playing... Party in the bedroom!

Nick and the boys were not around to attend the Packer party because they were attending a local high school football game. It was a late game delayed because of thunder and lightning. This is Nick's second year not coaching varsity football and I think he is a little sad not to be coaching. But it's also been nice for our family since we have a lot more time to spend together.

Geremu punched out at the game and Nick carried him in the house for bed.

The Teachers Go Back to School

So today Nick and I headed back to school. It's just teachers today and tomorrow then we have a four day weekend before the kids start school on Sep. 1st.

It really doesn't matter how old you are, a first day of school picture is always a MUST. I figured that between the two boys one of them should be able to snap a picture of us this year.

The following picture is thanks to Geremu's turn with the camera (this was his best shot of 4).

We hit the jackpot with one of Cullen's pictures, he included our heads.

This morning Cullen asked me when he gets to go to college. I gave him a beautiful speech outlining the sequence of schooling, probably with more detail than a 4-year old needs. After I finished he asked if he goes to college does that mean he will be a teacher. I explained that he can be anything he wants to be with examples such as teacher, fire fighter, scientist, dolphin trainer, etc... When I was done talking I asked Cullen what he though he might want to be. He thought for a minute then said, "I think I want to be a toad. Yep, a toad or turtle."

Chicago, Pictures of the Family

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Chicago!

With all the interesting things in the park why do my kids have to gravitate to the mud puddles?

Geremu + Belachew = Reunion '09

Friday we headed to Chicago for a little weekend fun.

We arrived in the early afternoon and walked around with the boys after checking into our hotel. Both of my boys like the saying, "a penny for a wish", so when they found some water with wishing pennies in they knew just what to do. Here Cullen is wishing for Gulchy (his favorite stuffed animal) to come alive to play and talk with him. Geremu on the other hand wished to play with Belachew. Geremu already knew that Belachew was coming and he was going to play with him. I don't think he really understands what a wish is but I was alright with his current wish because I knew it would come true:)
Belachew and Geremu were great friends in Ethiopia. Belachew's parents had recognized the bond these two shared and left us a note with contact information on it in Ethiopia. We received this note when we were in Ethiopia. Geremu still talks about Belachew and obviously cares for him a great deal. Last August Belachew came to our house so we could all meet and this last weekend we met in Chicago. It didn't take them long to warm up to each other and start wrestling.

The boys obviously enjoyed each others company.

The boys playing in the water at Millennium Park.

They mimicked and laughed at each other.

They preformed stunts over each other.

They cleaned up together (this is a story for another time)

They hung out together.

Their all time favorite seemed to be wrestling with each other.

We enjoyed our time with Belachew and his family.

More pictures to come of our family during this trip.

Quality Time Together

Last night Cullen got to spend some quality time with Nick and Geremu got me for the night. Frankly, I think Cullen got the boobie prize but that's besides the point.

Nick and Cullen spent the night tenting it and Cullen was in HEAVEN!

Geremu and I spent extra time reading books and just snuggling.

This morning we got up and hit the ground running.

We headed south to a park/zoo with our friends; Katie, Billy, Carson and Sophia.

The boys had fun exploring

and playing with each other.

Geremu did spend a little time in timeout looking precious as ever.

Tune in again to find out what we have up our sleeves for the coming weekend!

Water Fun

Four weeks ago I went to a doctors appointment because my blood work has been coming back off for about 6 months. So at my last appointment they adjusted my medication and wanted to draw some more blood for lab work. I was totally unprepared for the lab work. I'm the type of person that likes to know in advance so I'm mentally prepared and I drink lots of extra water. I ended up passing out while they were drawing blood. I have no idea how long I was out for but when I came to there were 5 nurses in front of me.

I have a doctors apt tomorrow and had the lab work for the apt today. I was sick to my stomach about the lab work and had a VERY restless nights sleep, fortunately the apt. was uneventful. In my defense last time they took a LOT more blood than they did this time.

Without going into detail, I'm healthy and this is nothing to be concerned or worried about. This is just something I need to get straightened out and back on track.

After the appointment the family headed out to a campground that we had spent a few days at last summer to meet up with Nick's Aunt Karrie and Uncle Mike.

I needed to test out the slide to make sure it was safe...

for Geremu to go down.
Cullen is really not a slide kid, he prefers to just swim.

Geremu loves a fast slide. I wanted him to go down with someone to play it safe

but somehow he managed to do it his way most of the time.

He's a slippery little fella when he is wet!

Cullen drying off after a long day of swimming.

Geremu and Dad relaxing after an hour and a half on the slide.

We have two pooped out boys on our hands tonight!

A Visit from Pop and Granny Bird

Megan, Kyle and Meredith had to skedaddle on to a family wedding last night. But we had a bit of fun before they left water balloon style. Geremu loves water balloons! Cullen on the other hand just likes to be pelted with the hose, no water balloons for him.

I sure am going to miss Meredith and her dimples!

Also, check out her legs, I could just eat them up:)

This afternoon Granny Bird and Pop came to visit for the night. The boys made a bridge that they had lots of fun on. Geremu even went so far as to ride his scooter across the bridge.
Since it was a hot day again, Granny Bird got the hose out and in true Granny Bird fashion chased the kids around with it. They loved every minute of it. Well Cullen did at least.

Geremu on the other hand likes to be in charge of the hose, he never did manage to get the hose away from Granny.

While Dad is away...

the kids will play. The boys have been really very good while Nick has been away. The weather has been nice the last two weeks and it finally seems like summer. Just in time for the school year to start! The boys have had lots of play time in their pool.
The boys stayed busy for most of the afternoon yesterday after I filled a bucket up with water and gave them each a paint brush and told them to paint the house. Every few minutes Geremu would ask me, "Too good Mom?" I would tell him that it was really good then he would go back to painting.
The boys have also spent quite a bit of time playing dress-up. I never knew boys played dress-up. This game involves emptying their dressers and/or closets and switching clothes. Today I decided to prevent the mess by getting out old costumes. They were so HOT but cute and the mess was minimal.

Here's a picture of Cullen getting a little air on the tramp. This was a great investment!My sister Megan, Kyle and Meredith came today and are staying until tomorrow.

Here Meredith is enjoying play time.
Kyle kept the boys busy most of the afternoon playing games with them.

Lastly, here is a clip of Geremu singing Happy Birthday to me.

This clip also includes 2 bonus tracks, enjoy!