Star of the Week!!

Last week Andrew came home and told us that he was STAR OF THE WEEK!!! This after he came home last week and told us he had been moved to a new table. When I asked him why he said it was to help the girls to pay attention;) Well, OK then! When we asked him how he got picked, He told us that the teacher had everyone stand up and then if they were wearing black they had to sit down, and so it went until he was the last one standing. (We've since figured out that she chooses them ahead of time, but it sounds like doing it this way, they think it's because they were the last one standing:) Not a bad idea, not so many hurt feelings)He had a poster to fill out about himself. He wanted to do it. It took a lot of self control to let him do it. I SO wanted to just take over and write everything for him, but, I let him do it. He also got to take his favorite book to school to share. He wanted to take his new Star Wars book, but it's a chapter book we're reading with him. He said that if it was a little book, then she would read some of it. So we convinced him to choose his favorite book that he could read on his own. He said that he did get to read some of it to the class. He also got to be the line leader where ever they went so he insisted that we get to school early enough that he could meet his class in the cafeteria and lead them. That wasn't good enough and so on Friday I let him eat at school. He LOVED it! He would eat there everyday if I would let him.

Uh OH

On Tuesdays Andrew comes home with a homework folder that has 4 or 5 worksheets for him to do and then turn in on Fri. The teacher doesn't want them to turn it in early if they get it done early, so when he finishes his folder I set it on the piano and try desperately to remember to put it back in his backpack for Friday. This has only been his second week of homework and I was TERRIFIED that I would forget to put it back. So I was stressing over it all week! Come Friday morning I remembered and was so proud of myself. Then, Friday afternoon after I pick up Andrew from school and after we've run some errands, he tells me that he needs to remember to take his homework folder to school on Mon.!!! WHAT?!?!?! I told him that it was in his back pack, he said he never saw it. All I could think of was that this WASN'T happening!!! His second week of homework and he's already forgetting to turn it in? I told him that Connor does the same thing and so that his grades aren't very good. He told me that Connor just doesn't think sometimes. Sorry Connor. When we got home I had him look in his back pack and sure enough, there it was under the papers HE had put in to bring home. I still don't know how he didn't see it. So on Mon, I made sure he gave it to his teacher, I had him carry it in his hands into class. WHEW!!!
Then on Mon we found out that we are having a little girl!! Andrew has decided her name should be Ally, this came after I said no to Aubree and he tried to tell us it should be Aully....Aubree with an l instead of br. Yesterday when I was talking to Ben I asked him if he wanted a baby sister, he said "No thanks" At least by last night he had decided maybe it would be OK, but he does change his mind a lot.

Glenwood Springs

While in Glenwood Springs we got to stay here and swim in the Hot Springs. The boys LOVED it!!!
Andrew even braved the fountain in the middle of the kiddie pool!!!

Their favorite activity was tossing the ball around with Grandpa.

Sometimes Andrew's ball would land IN the fountain, all though he braved it, he still wasn't quite sure of it, it was REALLY cold though.

Can you tell Ben LOVED the ball?!? Unfortunately the next day while we were playing he was bouncing around in the pool and even though it's only 2' deep, he lost his footing and went under. I tried to be really calm and just walked to him and lifted him up. Then we cheered him on about putting his head in the water. He didn't buy it, he's still a little unsure of getting in the pool, even our little kiddie pool. Let's hope next summer is better.

Grandma would hold him while we were in the big pool, but you can still see he's a little unsure, but he doesn't like to wear arm floats. He kept sticking his fingers in his mouth. The water was a little salty and I guess he liked the flavor because he kept liking his fingers, the ball of he even grabbed my hand a few times and tried to eat my fingers. I guess the kid has been deprived of sodium.

Andrew LOVED floating around with grandpa in his fish floater. Once we convinced him that the WHOLE pool was only 4.5' he willingly floated from one end to the other.

They swam for so long, this is how they came out. Check out the wrinkles!!!

There was enough soda or salt (I don't know which it was) in the pool that Andrew came out with white on his face from having water fights with grandpa. Ben was just happy to be OUT of the pool.

After spending the day at the pool, we headed back to the train station to wait for the train. The boys needed a little help with the waiting part, so grandma sang songs with them...a favorite was "Johnny hammers with One Hammer"
Andrew thought the train was REALLY loud and Ben couldn't take his eyes off of it, so, this is the best picture we could get.

A train ride!

While we were in Colorado my parents took us to Glenwood Springs for the night on the train! The boys had a lot of fun.


This is how the boys spent their time, Ben on Grandpa's lap. Or looking out the window.

Andrew spent a lot of time pointing at all the cool things out the window, or just staring.

WHAT?!?!?!

Why yes, yes that is Benjamin sitting on the potty! He thinks he's potty training. Every now and then he'll decide he needs to use the potty, most of the time he's right. But, it must still be easier to not take the time to go to the potty, because there are more times that I have to convince him to let me change his diaper. This is his face when he's "squeezing" it out. Cute huh! We'll take this slow, I'm not ready for the headache of potty training.

Why does Ben have shoes on his hands?

Well, he's dancing of course!

And what is he dancing to? Ooo and Ahhh from Disney Channel!