shopping spree

My son hates new clothes. He hates picking them out for himself, he hates anything anyone else picks out for him, he just hates new clothes. He was happy as a lark wearing the same clothes this summer as he did last summer. Which would be fine, if he wasn't growing so much... but that didn't bother him. So he wore shirts that were a bit too short and shorts that luckily don't look too short, since they're shorts. His pants on the other hand, are a little bit like capris.

He's also a boy of comfort. Don't try to get him into anything besides basketball shorts and sweatpants. He won't wear them. It's a texture thing for him- he has said that anything else is not soft and it itches his legs. He has to have the right texture on his skin at all times.

He is also the PICKIEST child I've ever met. He has two pair of red basketball shorts, but he won't wear one of them because the INSIDE of the waistband has blue in it. He can't stand that.

So this weekend, we took him to Casper and told him to shop 'til he dropped. Josh and I are desperate for him to have new clothes- clothes that fit a little better. Clothes for when it gets cold (which it will any day now) that will keep him warm and aren't capri-length sweatpants.

We looked at every single shirt in Target and JC Penney. EVERY. SINGLE. SHIRT. At Target, he'd hold up a shirt and say, "HEY! Look at this one!" We'd say, "Do you like it?" "Nope." would always be the answer and back on the rack it would go. The only thing he found was two pairs of new sweatpants. Both grey. Totally identical. They had navy blue, black, and brown sitting there too, but no. He wanted two pairs of exactly the same thing. Grey. I guess that means they'll always match his shirts. :) He tried on the basketball pants that were right next to the sweatpants, but they didn't feel good on his legs. So back they went.

At JC Penney, we did the game again. EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE OF CLOTHING. He found some sweatpants that might look ok, but then he had to put them back after he saw that there were stripes running down the outside of the leg. I really wanted him to get the shirt that said "Daddy knows a lot but Mommy knows everything". He wasn't interested. :) Finally, my mom found some glow-in-the-dark shirts. YES! That excited him!! He picked out two. Yes, two. For him, that's hitting the jackpot. :)

(I should mention that we found some snowpants while there, and B needs new snowpants for this winter. I thought that was going to be a struggle, but it wasn't! He wanted to try them on, so on they went, and he promptly laid down in the middle of the floor in the store, on his back, to make sure they would move enough to make a snow angel. They did, so he was happy and announced that he loved them.)

So we now have two outfits for the fall/winter. Two glowing long sleeved t-shirts that will be worn with the two pair of grey sweatpants. When you see us and wonder, "Didn't he wear that outfit the other day?" The answer will be yes. Yes, he did. Josh and I will be doing a lot of laundry.

But hey- at least they fit. :)

first day of school!

For all of us!! Brecken has talked non-stop about school since we got home. They have a song for snacktime that he learned today, and has sung it to me over and over! It goes like this:

(to the tune of "Where is Thumbkin")

Where is Brecken,
Where is Brecken,
Here I am!
Here I am!
How are you today sir,
Very well I thank you,
Let's eat snack,
Let's eat snack!

It's pretty cute!

I took his obligatory "1st Day Of School" picture this afternoon and I can't belive how much he's changed since the first day last year. WOW. Here's the comparison:

another day, another dollar

Here we go again! Josh and I stared teacher days on Wednesday, meaning Brecken started back to daycare. Never fails- I get tears on that first day of dropping him off. :( He likes Val's house though. He has fun playing and coloring and they even have a basketball hoop in their living room now, so he spends his day shootin' hoops. :)

However, he will not eat!! I don't know why he is afraid to eat Val's food! We told him it's OK to eat her lunch, but he doesn't want to. So Thursday and Friday this week, he brought his own lunch. Hey- whatever works!! It's a little weird to be packing my 3-year-old's lunch though. HA!

Two more days of teacher work days on Monday and Tuesday next week. Kids start school on Wednesday. I originally thought 5 days of in-service was a bit much, and now I'm wishing we had more! My classroom got new carpet this summer, and everything I own (which is a LOT! I have the biggest classroom in the school!!) was just left in the middle of my room. *sigh*. I've been putting things away and haven't gotten any time to plan the first week of school yet. Or print out any of my back-to-school stuff, because our server at school went down this summer and they had to replace it- but none of us have access to our home folders where all of our documents are stored. *another sigh*.

Brecken starts school on Wednesday as well. This year, he will be going from 12:00-3:15 Monday-Thursday. He's pretty excited to go!!

i spy, with my little eye...

I took Brecken to his preschool developmental screening today. He had to do all sorts of stuff this year, as someone turning 4. He had to:

*identify colors (easy)

*identify letters (easy)

*look at a picture of a triangle, a plus sign, a "b", a circle, etc. and draw them himself (he did pretty good!!)

*watch his teacher stack blocks in different ways and then he had to stack his blocks in the same way (he thought that was awesome that he did it right!)

*he had to catch a bean bag from a couple feet away, with both hands and then with just one hand (piece of cake)

*hop on one foot (which last I knew, he couldn't do yet, but he wouldn't try today)

*WRITE HIS NAME! AND HE DID IT!! (only, the K turned out a lot like an H. But heck! Oh well- he has a hard name!)

*take a block and put it beside a big block, under the big block, around the big block, on the big block, etc... (easy)

*identify sounds letters make when shown the letter (which he got most of them...)

*identify pictures of things like a hanger, a clock, a pencil, etc... and then had to tell what each one does (he didn't know it was called thermometer, but when asked which one of the pictures tells how hot it is, he pointed right to it.)

*count

*say his ABC's (he sang the whole song! :) )

*move 3 blocks from one pile to the other side of the table, and then seven... (got the 3, didn't get the 7 for some reason)

*twiddle his thumbs (wouldn't try this one either)

*and then the last thing- play "I Spy". He LOVES this game, but it was hard today! He was shown a picture of a child's bedroom with lots of stuff in it. His teacher said, "I spy something that starts with the b sound." (She actually did the b sound.) He had to find something like a ball or a book. He had to do that with the D sound and the SH sound too. I guess we'll be working on that at home, as he pointed to a chair for the B sound, a ball for the D sound, and my favorite- the roll of tape for the SH sound. HA! Guess we have a homework project to do when we play I Spy now. :)

I'm sure there are other things, but I can't remember right now.

Brecken was sooo excited to see his teachers. I think he'll be glad school is starting again. Can't believe he's about to be 4!!!

winding down

Summer is coming to an end. Football starts tomorrow, and teachers go back to school on Wednesday. *sigh* I LOVE my job, but sometimes I wish we were rich so both Josh and I could stay home all the time and have fun!

We went to some friends' house last night for a BBQ with most of the other coaches from Josh's school. We had so much fun. And I realized just how much Brecken has come out of his shy shell this summer. He was running around with the other kids, paying no attention to Josh and I. He was even picking on one of Josh's fellow football coaches, stealing his bean bag from the game the adults were playing, and saying, "Come get me!" He has NEVER initiated play from another adult before (besides Grandmas and Grandpas) so this was quite new. Josh and I watched in amazement. One of the other basketball coaches told us that he noticed how much more social Brecken is now. It was pretty fun to watch. However, by the time 9:30 hit, I told Brecken we'd probably get ready to go pretty soon and he stopped playing, came right over to me, and said, "I just want to go now, Mom." He was so tired from running with the kids- and man, did he sleep good last night!! :)

minnesota, don'tcha know?

We had a great trip to see my sister last week. The trip started on Sunday, with a drive across South Dakota after spending the night with my parents. Of course, no trip across South Dakota is complete without a stop at Wall Drug:

We stopped in Sioux Falls for the night. Brecken was a SUPER car-rider, but we had all had enough of sitting in the car. We got out at the mall, walked around and got some leg energy out, then went to a hotel for the night. They had a super-cool pool area for Brecken to get the rest of his energy out in!

Monday, we got back in the car and continued on. We got to my sister's house shortly after lunch, so it wasn't too much of a drive. Brecken was so excited to see Ryan and play in his new back yard!!

Tuesday was a great day! We got to see our dear friend Amy and her son Dylan, who is Brecken's best buddy ever! He talks about Dylan ALL.THE.TIME and misses him soooo much. (They moved to MN last October.) Amy's other sons, Harrison and Cooper, came along too. We met at Chuck E. Cheese's and the boys played and played and played, and we got to catch up with Amy. It was SOOO good to see them. I wish they didn't have to move, but it sounds like it was for the best- they are doing great out there! Brecken was so sad when it was time to go, but hopefully we will see them again soon! (In the picture below, Dylan is in the long sleeves- he is about 6 months older than Brecken but you wouldn't know it! The other little boy in red is Cooper. He's two. And huge.)

L-R- Dylan, Brecken, Cooper, Harrison. Harrison was so good at helping the little boys play all the games!

Tuesday night, we went on a dinner cruise on the St. Croix river with my sister and her family. Brecken was sooo excited to eat dinner on a boat! It was a lot of fun. On the way back to the dock, we headed right into a storm. I was ever so thankful we had 4 adults for the 4 children- we each grabbed one and made a run for it in the absolute downpour and lightning to get to the cars. It got a bit scary!

Getting ready to eat:

Outside on the deck:

Brecken and Ryan were pretty sure they saw a whale. In the river. :)

Wednesday, we got to play at the school playground in Kristen's town. And then we headed to the Como Zoo. It was the PERFECT weather to do the zoo- not too muggy, not to hot... worked out great!

Thursday- what a fun, fun day! My niece Brooke turned 2 on this day. We spent the day at the Mall of America (or, Mall of Kamaria as Brecken called it) at the Nickelodeon Universe. WHAT A FUN PLACE!!! They have a ton of rides that are small-child friendly and we got the all day wristbands and let the kids go to town! We got there about 10:45 am and finally had to give the "pick one more ride" at 7:00 that night! The kids could have stayed all night long! We broke for lunch, but otherwise it was go, go, go! They have a Blue's Clues ride, a child-friendly roller coaster, all sorts of fun stuff. Brecken LOVED it. His favorite ride was the bumper cars- he rode it four times. :)

Friday was Brooke's birthday party. We went to The Giggle Factory, an indoor playground, with some of David and Kristen's friends to play in the morning. We all went back to David and Kristen's house for lunch and birthday cake and presents!

Saturday was our last full day in Minnesota. We spent it at Lake Elmo. My son, the fish, loved every single minute of it. He played so hard that he fell asleep in the car when we left. Josh and I took that opportunity to drive around exploring the area while he got some rest. :) We had a great day there and the weather, once again, was perfect! It was even overcast most of the day so we didn't all get sunburned!

Sunday was the day we had to leave. :( It was a LONG trip south through Minnesota and Iowa and into Nebraska. We stopped in Grand Island, NE for the night and got home on Monday afternoon. It was a really long two days, especially since Brecken sported a fever and wasn't feeling the greatest. :(

All in all, it was an awesome trip! We can't wait to go back!

our parrot

Josh: Brecken, go get me your cup, if you want more milk.
Brecken: Fine! For crying out loud!!

Hmmm... Daddy... guess it's time for you to stop using that phrase!!!

Another new one this week: OH. MY. GOSH.

I'm not lost. I'm still here. We went on a fabulous trip to Minnesota and just got back last night, so I'm playing catch-up! A post with pictures from our trip is soon to come!