D's first day of Kinder!

So it begins. My big boy started Kindergarten today! He woke up with a grin on his face all ready to go. I showed him one more time where his food was in his lunchkit, had him sign his name to his teacher's survival kit, and we headed out the door. For the first day, I decided to walk him to school. Half way there, he asked if I would hold his hand. It gets me all choked up just thinking about it, and I think he was starting to get a bit anxious with his excitement. He was great in the classroom though and waved me off without a problem. I hope all the new kinder kids are having an awesome day today!!

Just to compare how much he has GROWN in 3 years...here is the pic from his first day at AHA Preschool when he was 2, just a week after I got him...

And here he is this morning. In his first outfit...and his official kinder first day pic. Unfortunately, the pants were big, with no adjustable waist and we had belt issues and I didn't want to send him without a belt, so we changed into smaller shorts at the last minute for actual school, hence the pant difference...lol

In front of his new school...so excited!

D with his new teacher, hope you have a great first day at school, D!!!!

First Day of Kinder Part 1 - The Lunch

As D starts school tomorrow, I find myself becoming very obsessed with every little detail. Today (or rather, around midnight Saturday night, I prepared his lunch). This is subject to some changes today/Monday morning but I think I'm pretty set with this.

First, the lunchkit and backpack that D picked out. The black bottom part of the lunchkit is where one of the food containers goes.

This is the container that slides into the bottom. He's going to have pasta with a bit of olive oil and shredded cheese on top, plus pepperoni, a few pickle slices and broccoli drizzled with light ranch. It's all items I know he'll eat consistently.

In a snack container in the top part, I put some apple newtons, popcorn, and 3 little frosted animal crackers.

Can't forget a bottle of water!

Teacher Survival Kit

After seeing the idea (and using parts of it) on DAM, we decided to make one for D's new teacher. D is so excited to take it to her on the first day of school!!

Our 3 year anniversary week!

Aug 16th - 21st, 2006 was one exciting week! Aug 16th was the day I first got to meet D in person. Aug 18th, he came home with me for the weekend, but I had to bring him back that Sunday to his foster home. And then Aug 21st, I signed all the paperwork and he came home with me for good!! To commemorate it being 3 years since then, I thought I'd share some pics from that first week. Enjoy!

Aug 16th, 2006 He bonded so easy!

Aug 16th, 2006 Cutie!

Aug 17th, 2006 Got to take him for an hour or so, we went to McDs for dinner...

Aug 19th - relaxing at home with his soon to be new mommy!
Aug 19th - finding out he's a GOOD eater...lolAug 20th - morning playtime

Aug 21st - The papers are signed and this little man is ALL MINE!!!

Another surgery for D

D had surgery today to get tubes put in his ears, plus examine his sinuses. It ended up also being partly an adenoidectomy, as the doc found some adenoid tissue still in there, so he cauterized it.

D before the surgery...such innocence...

Sleeping off the drugs, and drooling all over the place...

He kept saying he was gona "frow up", so he had the trashcan in his lap, as i went over to take a pic of him, he nodded off into it. Hilarious!

Dinner with sweet friends!

This evening we joined our friends Amanda and her two beautiful girls for dinner at Chilis! Just had to show pics!

Such a cute outfit!!

D loves his future sis in law!

Someday Miss Thang on the left will be my daughter in law...I can't wait!

Beauties!

A bday celebration at my grandma's

Today we met up with my grandma, two aunts, and brother for lunch to celebrate my upcoming birthday. We ate at a place in Oak Cliff called La Calla Doce. The food...was EXCELLENT! Then we headed back to gmas for homemade carrot cake. I got to blow out candles...lol

My sweet boy and I

3 candles, one for each decade...that's right, its the big 3-0 comin up!

Whoosh.

Patiently awaiting is piece of the carrotcake...that he only ate the icing off of...lol

An owie for D

Poor guy...he fell on the carpet (according to him) at school and really caused himself quite an ouchie. :( Nice lil rug burn there...

Happy July 4th!!!

Well due to unforeseen circumstances, we ended up not going OOT to the lake for a family reunion and had to stay in Dallas today. True to D and I's form, we made it worth it!

This evening for dinner we joined our friends Teresa and her fam at SNUFFER'S! I have not had a decent burger in forever, and we chowed our way through a burger and fried pickles. lol Not very diet-like but I worked it out.

Then we joined Amanda, her DH, Stacy and all the kiddos for some playtime at Bob Woodruff and then fireworks! It was a great evening!

Silly boy waiting on some food

The obligatory pic of me and my boy (I've really been trying this year to ASK people to take pics of us, I don't want regrets later even though I hate the pics. You guys only get to see the half decent ones)

Thanks for joining us, Teresa and fam! We had a great time!

Look who I got to get my hands on out at Bob Woodruff!!

I *heart* these kiddos...

Sweet sisters...

D and his girl...bout to watch some fireworks...

Waiting...waiting, oh so patiently...

Fireworks! And my camera sucks so no good pics of those!!

KaBOOM Town!

I think we've figured out how to avoid the worst of Kaboom Town. Thanks to our friend Krisinda showing us exactly where to park, and then some pure dumb luck, our friends Jenn, her daughter, and D and I were able to have a few relaxing hours and then see some of the best fireworks around in Addison (AND get out of there pretty quickly!!!)

We let the kids play in the water abit, but we already knew we weren't spending money on food or bounce houses, so we wandered over to Addison Circle to see if we could find a restaurant to chill out in. Turns out, Greenz has a slightly raised patio overlooking foot traffic. We camped out there for 2 hours, sipping on drinks (the NONalcoholic ones...lol). Our other friends Chera, her DH and her daughter ended up joining us for a bit and the kids had a ball performing for people passing by. So uuuhhh I apologize if you got heckled by a half nekkid 5 year old on a patio!

Jenn and her beautiful, SUPER sweet daughter (this kiddo has such an awesome heart for God, she's so sincere, just an absolute joy to be around, you can tell her momma is raising her up right!)

D was telling her "come hereeeeeee"

My beautiful boy...half nekkid. A summer night on the patio just isn't the same fully clothed lol

Back story on this pic...they'd been playing "tag" the whole time at IKEA and this evening. I asked them to stand together for the pic and hold off on the tagging til I took the pic. She's just WAITING for me to take it so she can tag him and take off!! lol

Look who joined us!!!
"What?" Heckling pedestrians...
Me and my sweet boy, watching some fireworks.

Celebrate Freedom 2009

It was quite a long day for D and I! We were up at 5am to be walking at 6am. He got a bit of a nap and then we hit up Celebrate Freedom this evening for some fun, music, and food! It was so freakin hot out there but we had a great time! The line up was AWESOME. We got to see Newsboys, Mark Shultz, Kirk Franklin, and Jeremy Camp! A bunch of favorites, all in one place...it couldn't have gotten any better.

First up, bounce houses!

Me and my boy
Our friends, Stacy and her kiddos
Bout to try out some golf...
The kids loved the petting zoo
I don't wanna make a "crack" about two "@$$es", and the picture really speaks for itself...so I won't...lol
"MOM, REALLY? An umbrella in my hair? Can I not down my snocone in peace??"
The closest thing to "drank" you can get at Celebrate Freedom...a margarita flavored sno cone!
Silly boy
Abit later, we met up with Beth and her family to finish out the evening with all the great music and worship. I had contemplated not going for quite a few reasons, and was really glad I did. It was def an experience I really needed.