School Days

School is trucking right along.  The boys have had a wonderful, smooth start to their school year!

 We've had college day, where we supported Papa's Gators!

 Barrett bought a tray in the cafeteria for the first time.

 His teacher emailed me this lovely picture of him.  So proud:)

 Another fun picture from his teacher of him practicing word wall words in shaving cream.

We are enjoying this season of life in kindergarten and 3rd grade with two amazing teachers!!

Brynn will be joining us at school soon for speech... more on that coming up!

Moon Festival

Warning: Long Post!

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply embedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.

The Moon Festival is a distinctly and authentically Asian holiday, which has been likened to a "Chinese Thanksgiving". It is among the most popular holidays in Asia, ranking alongside the celebration of the lunar New Year in cultural significance.

Celebrated for more than 1,000 years in Asia, the Moon Festival marks a time to reflect upon the bounty of the summer harvest and the fullness of the moon.

The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival.

 The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. 

 The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky. 

Her Smile...

lights up the room!

When the room is dark because of the sadness around, seeing the joy across the face of this little girl can certainly help light up the room.  

We are grieving the loss of a friend from our SS class at church, a man our age with a wife and two young school age sons.  Please say a prayer for the family as they deal with his loss.  So heartbreaking.

The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble,
And He knows those who take refuge in Him

Nahum 1:7

Phone Dump

A lot of old pictures sitting on my phone including:

keeping Zoey in the nursery at church,

buying Blake's recorder for 3rd grade music class... ended up getting recorders for the whole family,

Barrett gets to start attending 'big church" with us,

bubble bath Barrett,

teacher's kids playing in the classroom while I get ready for a new year,

hopscotch,

brotherly love during the church service,

The Night Before Kindergarten.

Still more coming soon!

The Time She Wore...

her heels to W@l-Mart.

Sunny Soccer

Blake decided he wanted to give soccer a try this year, and today was game day!

 He hustled and did great!

 The hot fans!

 We had time to run home for lunch and then back to the soccer fields for Barrett's first game ever!  We make the kids wait until they are in kindergarten to sign up for extracurricular activities, and his time has finally come.  He was nervous about his first game, but did great! 

 It was 100 degrees and the sun was directly overhead.  Luckily we survived it!

It was a very hot day, but the boys had fun playing their first soccer games ever!

Be The Change!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

First Day

Luckily Daddy had off work on the first day of school.  Since I had to be there early to get my classroom opened and ready, Daddy took over the first day pictures for me.

 Blake our big 3rd grader.

 Barrett starting his first year of school in kindergarten.

 School brothers!

 A staff member snapped a picture of my crew walking into school that morning and put it on the school website... so I got to steal it!

 A stop by Mommy's room for hugs, I love yous, and good lucks.

 Blake went on to his classroom by himself, while Daddy walked Barrett down to kindergarten.  I can't believe our boy has started school!  The years always fly by once they start school:(

They both had a wonderful first day of school!  They came home with story after story about their day!  And it continued throughout the week.  Every evening at the dinner table there was lots conversation about the wonderful things they did at school that day.

Brynn has done far better than we expected!  She always struggles emotionally at the beginning of a school year with me having to go back to work.  I was worried that she would really struggle this year with her playmate Barrett leaving too.  She was so brave and made it through her days with no tears!  I think she enjoyed having all the attention at home to herself!  We couldn't have been more pleased with the first week back!  We prayed all summer about this week.  We spent each night last week thanking God for His continued blessings!