kindergarten complete

 

 

 As you can see, this is a book Ryan wrote back in January about school.  Ever since Christmas break, they've had to write one book a week, and then they invited the parents to come in for a breakfast a few weeks ago, and our children shared their books with us.  It was really neat, and I loved reading what Ryan has written and seeing how his writing has improved the last few months.  It also warms my heart to see how much of his writing has to do with our family.  In any case, I thought that was a fitting one to share this week.

Ryan finished kindergarten on Friday.  I cried.  He did this:

 But then he tells me every day that he's sad school is over because he won't get to see his teacher anymore.  Have I mentioned that he had the most wonderful kindergarten teacher imagineable?

 Ryan adores her, as do we.  She made this year such a positive experience for Ryan and for us as first time grade school parents.  I felt completely confident sending my baby to her every day.  SO thankful.

Here's the official final day of school photo:

And the first to last day comparison.  The camera angle was different, so he hasn't grown quite as much as it appears, but still... can you just tell how much confidence he gained?

 I'm looking forward to a packed summer with all three of my boys at home.  Before I know it, he'll be starting 1st grade.  Crazy.

Birthday Celebrations

Ryan's been saying for a year now that he wanted a Lego birthday when he turned six, which I was thrilled about.  Ryan's actual birthday fell on a Wednesday this year (same as the year he was born, which made reliving the events all the more fun) - it was a full day of school, plus his kindergarten performance that night, but we tried to fit in a little celebrating with some birthday pancakes in the morning.

His performance that night was so much fun for all of us that I don't think he minded giving up his birthday evening for it!

 

The next day, we finally got around to opening presents:

 

He loved playing with his snap circuits set from Uncle Dain!

Reading to Daddy from "Now we are Six"

 Saturday was the big party day.  It was a new experience for me, inviting school friends that we don't know that well and having to plan actual activities rather than just letting them run around and play and then feeding them cake :)  All in all, it seemed to go pretty well.

The first game was a duplo toss, where they had to try to throw a duplo into the smallest possible ring.

Then we did a relay race where they had to run down to a bucket of legos, get a spoonful and carry it back to their team's bucket at the other end.  After everybody had a turn, the team had to try to build the tallest tower with their legos.  We were pretty lenient on rules (especially since we had younger siblings and cousins), and I'm not sure there even ended up being a winner, but the kids seemed to have fun.

 

 

Then came Ryan's big request, the pinata.

 

Uncle Bret and Courtney watching on the sidelines :)

And, finally, lunchtime!

 

 

Ethan, trying to drink the last of the cake crumbs off his plate

 

During the down time, we had legos and duplos out for the kids to play with. 

Kaeden and Caroline were best buds for the morning :)

And apparently polar bear ears as well!

It was a lot of work, but very rewarding, and we've only had a tiny bit of birthday withdrawal since :)

6 years old

 I don't even know where to begin in talking about my 6-year-old Ryan.  I have been loving this age way more than I ever thought I would.  As the kindergarten year has gone by, Ryan continues to gain more and more confidence, and it has been a joy to watch.  

 

Ryan is kind, thoughtful, and loving.  He still tells me many times a day that he loves me, and I am dreading the day when that changes.  He really cares about people and has been showing a lot of empathy lately, which is such a huge step after those baby/toddler/preschool years of almost complete self-centeredness.  

 

Ryan has been thriving in kindergarten.  It helps that he has had the most incredible teacher I could have ever hoped for.  He has come way out of his shell this year, to the point where we are now calling him an extrovert, which is shocking to the two introverted parents who used to have a very shy, quiet toddler.  He loves to be around people - especially his friends - and it really seems to make him crazy when he is forced to spend too much time on his own.  In typical first-born fashion, he still desires to be entertained at all times, and kindergarten has been very helpful for that :)  

 As I think is true of most 6-year-olds, Ryan is also completely goofy and, at times, out of control.  When he does "go crazy," as I've taken to calling it, he seems to lose all of his good judgment, and it can be amazing the things he'll do without thinking when he's normally quite well-behaved and good at following rules.  Thankfully it doesn't happen too often, and that's when the Legos in his room come in particularly handy :)

 

Ryan is officially a reader.  After a slow start, one day it just seemed to click, and he has been steadily improving ever since.  It's such fun to see his confidence grow and for him to start asking if he can read to me instead of me forcing him to do it for practice.  It also comes in quite handy for entertaining his little brother, since books are Ethan's favorite things.

 

Math would have to be his favorite subject in school, and the math genes on both sides of the family seem to be coming through strong.  Lately, he's been working on multiplication and loves to have us quiz him.  Writing seems to be his biggest challenge.  He just doesn't seem to enjoy doing it very much, and he gets frustrated because he wants things to be spelled correctly but most of the time doesn't know how to yet.  I will say, though, that my favorite days are when his journal comes home from school and I get to see his drawings and read what he's written... Mason and I often get quite a few laughs both from content and execution :) 

This year, we signed Ryan up for his first sports.  Our county has a great program called "Start Smart", and they offer 6 week sessions for soccer (fall), basketball (winter), and baseball (spring).  It's been nice to introduce Ryan to some organized athletics, and he seemed to enjoy them fine but didn't latch onto anything.  What he does love are his swimming lessons, which we have started back up this spring.  He is very confident in the water and really seems to love learning new skills. 

Ryan has become Mason's little side-kick.  He loves his mommy, but he wants nothing to do with me when Daddy is around.  It is sweet to watch their relationship develop as they bond over board games as well as video games.  

Ryan also adores his brothers, and he is a great big brother.  He's been a big help to me this year, keeping Ethan entertained when I need to cook dinner or just run upstairs to grab something.  When Ethan's upset, "Ry Ry" can almost always make him feel better.  He really is great with babies in general and he loves helping out with younger kids and making them smile.  We still have to calm his enthusiasm quite often, but it's always fun to see him relating to kids of all ages. 

 

Ryan loves anything involving computers/screens (especially video games with Daddy and playing DreamBox - a math game - on the computer).  He loves swinging on the tire swing and riding his bike.  Otherwise, he'd really rather not be outside unless he has friends to play with.  He still likes building, especially with Lego (stay tuned for his Lego themed birthday party!), and he loves dancing too.

 

Ryan does not like having to do things on his own (unless there is a screen involved), being bored, spending a lot of time outside, being bored, long car rides (think being bored), waiting (again, being bored) - do you see a trend?  :)

I'm so very proud of all that Ryan has accomplished this year and the ways he has grown in his character.  He continues to be a joy to parent, and I can't wait to see what the coming year will bring. 

Happy Mother's Day!

So lucky to be the mama in this wonderful, silly group of people we call our family :-)

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Camera timer fun

Life is busy for us right now, and most of the time, that feels like a massive understatement.  I miss blogging, but there are only so many hours in a day.  I hope to catch up a bit soon on some of the fun we've been having lately, but for now, just a few pictures...

I was taking photos of the boys last week, and Ryan suggested that I be in the pictures too (nice that someone noticed that I'm always the one behind the camera!) - so we set up the camera timer.  I had very low expectations, but all three boys were super cooperative, and Ryan and Kaeden LOVED it.  We took way too many pictures, but these are some of my favorites.  

So blessed to be their mom!

Ice Storm

We had a big ice storm here Thursday night/Friday morning.  We woke up the first time Friday morning to the power going out (and, thankfully, the generator going on!) and the second time to the sound of this tree falling down.  Kind of freaky.

 

We lost power for about 36 hours, and Mason spent about 3 hours clearing pine trees off of our driveway with the chainsaw.  There is a lot of mess and destruction, and it's likely going to take us weeks to get it all cleaned up, but thankfully nothing hit the house.  

 The upside to all of that is that ice is really beautiful.  This is my favorite picture from yesterday, when the skies were still gray...

 

And then this morning, the sun came out, and WOW.  Gorgeous.

 

And then there's our driveway:

 Thankful today for safety, a warm house, and beauty in spite of the storm.