First Grade

So today is the first day of FIRST grade!! I can't believe that my baby is now a first grader!! He wanted me to walk him into his classroom, and even let me hold his hand (probably the last year that he'll let me do that!). He is very nervous about his first day, and mostly about getting home. I had to promise him that I will try to be one of the first cars in the carpool line. When we walked down the hall to his class, we passed the kindergarteners, and they looked so small! It's hard to believe that was him just one year ago! Here are some pictures from this morning, one with his buddy Skylar from last year, and one with his teacher, Ms. Bunchman. He has 14 kids in his class, and knows 8 of them! It should be a good year!!

Jackson FINALLY lost his tooth!!

After an hour of pulling, wiggling, and trying hard to get Jackson's loose tooth to come out, it finally did! Jackson decided that it was so wiggly tonight, and it was ready to come out. He kept begging me to pull it, and even wanted to try to tie it to a door handle and slam the door (which we tried, but not hard and it didn't come out because the thread slipped off of the tooth...probably a good thing!). It was just hanging by a thread, and finally, I was able to just pop it out easily! He is SO excited about what the tooth fairy will bring him, but trying to decide whether to put the tooth under his pillow tonight, or wait until tomorrow and show his brothers and his daddy how little his tooth was.

Back from the Beach

We have spent the last week at Fripp Island, SC, and have fallen in love with it! It is a small beach island outside of Beaufort, and is so relaxing. You park your car when you get there, and spend the week getting around by golf cart. The boys LOVED this about the beach! It was a short ride to the marina, the beach, or the pools. We also went fishing, boogie boarding, and fed lots of deer that roam the island (which is also a wildlife preserve). It was amazing how tame these deer were! There was also a nature center with a baby alligator, lots of turtles, and snakes that the kids could see and touch! Here are a few highlights from the week. The kids had a great time hanging out with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents!

Color me HAPPY!

Wednesday, the kids wanted to color pictures for Grandaddy's birthday to send to heaven (we tied their cards to 3 helium balloons and sent them off high in the sky to reach Grandaddy). The older boys made room at the table, and were happily coloring pictures, and Drew made himself happy on the floor. When I turned back around, Drew was coloring on his stomach. The kids were laughing so hard, I couldn't resist letting them keep doing it. They were washable markers, of course! They got a kick out of coloring on each other, and laughed so much. No harm done...it all washed over very easily in the bath that night, with an added bonus of colored bath water! I may be regretting this in a few months when they decide to color on the walls. Drew and Davis have already colored all over my pretty upholstered chairs with green and orange crayons! They were so proud of their artwork, Ashley said that he couldn't be mad at them!

The Lazy 5 Ranch

Last Friday, we met Debbie, Madeleine, Dana, Whitney, Lane and Harrison up at the Lazy 5 Ranch. This is like a huge petting zoo/ranch in Mooresville, NC complete with Zebras, giraffes, ostriches, emus, llamas, and tons of other wild animals. It is the neatest place!! Once you get inside the ranch, you can go walk around and feed the camels, goats, and llamas. There are peacocks walking all around, and even a baby bear. We all got into my car to ride together, and laid the seats down in my van. Debbie drove, and the rest of us sat in the back with the side doors open. As soon as I got through telling the children to be calm and not scream once the animals approach, I let out a shriek because an emu (similar to an ostrich, and very very friendly here!!!) poked his head, eye level with my face, into the van searching for food. We had purchased three buckets of food for the animals. As you drive through the 3.5 mile ranch, you see all kinds of animals. There were some that actually tried to climb into our car!! The kids had a ball, and loved feeding all of the animals, which for the most part were tame, although very comfortable coming right up to you and eating from your bucket. Jackson was not so sure about feeding the animals, and decided his job was to watch out the back window and warn us when an animal was approaching up the side of the car. He did eventually feed the llamas once we were out of the car. Here are some pictures that I took! Check out the website for more info: http://www.lazy5ranch.com/.

Loose Teeth

Jackson woke up last week and was so excited to find out that his two bottom teeth are loose. He has been asking the dentist if they are loose for his last three visits! He insists that they have been loose forever, but are now loose enough that they can wiggle with his tongue pushing on them! He can't wait for the tooth fairy to visit our house.

Drew has been battling pneumonia and bronchitis this week too. He is on an antibiotic, and is doing breathing treatments three times a day, but he is finally feeling better. The poor little guy has lost almost three pounds! He has started to get his appetite back, and things are looking good for him.

Taking Pictures

On Saturday, Aunt Dana and Uncle Matt came over to help me take some pictures of the kids. They were a bit suprised to find how difficult that has become (but good practice for them...they are expecting their first baby any day now!) Probably partly my fault, because I take so many pictures, they are not interested in "smiling for the camera." That, and the fact that everyone doesn't want to be there and wants to go play in a different direction. Bribery hardly works anymore! Finally, when we were about to give up, Matt climbed on the floor and let the kids jump on him and ride on his back...so little can you tell from this picture, they are sitting on Matt's back, and ALL THREE ARE SMILING!!! Thanks a million Matt and Dana!!!

THE Wii!!!!

Jackson's actual birthday was on Wednesday. He got the Wii that he's been wanting for such a long time. He found it in my car about a month ago (they are so hard to find and sold out everywhere!). I was so upset because I really wanted him to be suprised. I disappointed him when I told him that it was really one for his cousin, and that we were just keeping it at our house so she wouldn't find it and would be suprised for her birthday! He told me that I must have a lot of money to be buying a wii for his cousin! Anyway, I wrapped it in a diaper box so that he'd be a little suprised. He got upset when he saw the diaper box and wanted to know why I bought him diapers for his birthday!! Later that night, he kept telling me that I was the best mommy in the world because I bought him the Wii! He also told Ashley that he just knew that daddy wouldn't let him down! Too cute! He also got some games and a Nintendo DS from his grandparents. This was a big year for Jackson!

Backyard Campout!

For Jackson's birthday this year, he decided that he wanted to have a campout in the backyard. He invited six boys for this sixth birthday, and they had a blast! We were a little overwhelmed by all of the boys, realizing that we were very out numbered! Some of our friends stayed to help out, and we couldn't have made it without them (Thanks Bo, Noelle, Kenny, Roseanne, and John!!!) We had quite a bit of trouble figuring out how to get the tent to stand up, and this was AJ and my first time setting up a tent on our own. Bo came to the rescue, and we had it standing pretty quickly! The boys had water balloon fights, played with water guns, played baseball, roasted marshmallows, and had a big pancake breakfast this morning! Jackson and Griffin decided to sleep inside and didn't make it through the night in the tent. They said that the crickets and frogs were too loud. They all agreed that they had the most fun playing on the slip and slide, and even suggested adding some soap to the slide to make it super fast! We did, and they flew down it. Jackson wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing (no suprise here...his favorite! My son is a true chocaholic!!!) and wanted to decorate it himself with a six, tent, and some windows for the tent. Here are a few highlights from the night!

Like father like son!!!!

So when I said last month that Drew looked a lot like Ashley, I hadn't seen that many photos of him as a baby. Whitney ran across a lot of old family photos this week, and found these. It is AMAZING how similar they look! Look at the photo of him in the pool! It's just because the photo of Ashley has colored a little over the years, that you can actually tell that it's not Drew.

Davis also looks quite a bit like Ashley when he was 3 and 4 years old. Here's the proof...notice the silly face that Davis likes to make all the time now!!!

Catch-up time...

So I really like the blog thing as a way to keep in touch and let family and friends know what's going on in our lives, and it's a great way to share videos and photos, but it is hard to keep up with. Here are some video highlights from the past few weeks. Check the right side of the page for photo highlights!

We have 100s of baby frogs in our yard, and the kids like to catch them. The other day, they caught one, which they named "Max," and put him in the frog table. Drew especially liked the frog, and you can hear him squeal with delight throughout the video!

We also recently went to Atlanta for a visit. The kids had lots of fun playing and going to the arcade and Monkey Joes (an indoor playground for kids!). Drew had the most fun playing hide and seek in the curtains. Who needs fancy toys???

This is a video of Jackson from the parent/child graduation author showcase. Each of the children in the class wrote a short book, which they also illustrated. The children sat in front of the kids and parents to read their books. It's hard to hear Jackson here (especially with Davis and Drew talking in the background), but I wanted to share. Jackson has learned to be such a good reader this year!! His book here was about surfing the perfect wave! Too cute!

This summer, Davis has turned into quite a little fish! He loves to go down the slide, and says that he really likes it because he gets to go under!!

Fishing

We went to Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jay's new house over the weekend. Davis had a blast fishing in the lake by their house. It only took a few minutes to get a bite every cast. Caroline had recently caught a HUGE catfish in the same spot, so she really had fun giving Davis pointers on how to catch a fish. He was so proud when he reeled one in!

Davis also had fun riding on the cool new golf cart that they have to ride around in...although he wasn't quite brave enough to sit on the back. Drew and Ava watched the fishing from the stroller.

Here is some video of the kids from the beach...

Putting on a show for the parents...

and bath time...

A long day...

Before we headed home today from the beach, we decided to take some pictures of the boys on the beach. Yes, we waited until the last minute, and the boys were all overtired and not very cooperative, but here's how they turned out. Somehow, I imagine that this last one may be expressions that I get from them when we want to know who did it, and they all might be in trouble...just a guess! They even got Drew to look down and not smile for the camera!

Jackson frowned and squinted in most of them, and by the end, Drew melted. He began running a 103 fever, and started throwing up just before we got into the car. He continued to vomit the several times on the way home, which made for a long trip!

Good news about the week is that Davis is finally potty trained. I hate to say that too soon, but he's done great the last week, and we are hoping that we're down to one child in diapers! Something that hasn't been true for almost four years!

Oak Island

We have just spent the week at Oak Island with the Berry clan. The kids have had a ball playing in the ocean, using the boogie board, chasing crabs, finding shark's teeth, and playing with their cousins. Drew does not like the sand, but finally warmed up to the ocean, if he were in my lap sitting in the surf, and not touching the sand! Here are some pictures to highlight the week. I'll upload some video soon...

Profiles

I took the boys to get their profiles done on Saturday. I am so happy with the results. I know that they won't look this way for long. Here are some pictures of how they turned out.