Kindergarten!

Yes folks, we have TWO Kindergarteners in our house now!  And boy were they excited this morning.
Here is Sam with his first homework assignment.  Yes, due the first day of school.  Gee whiz.  If you can't read it, the things that make Sam special (in his opinion) are: funny dancing, playing with cousins, and baseball.

 Maggie's things that she said make her special are: singing songs, caring for people (Miles), and coloring/art projects.

 The next three pictures were a request from Sam.  He wanted pictures taken showing him "pretending to walk to school".  So here they are:

 And last but not least, our three beautiful - although somewhat cheesy - children.

Killin' me with cuteness.

Aw, MAN.  This is my favorite photo by far that Hannah (World's Apart Photography) took.  I just think my kids are so CUTE!

We....

...went for a day trip to Manzanita Lake in Lassen National Park...

 ...with my parents...

 ...while there we chased some geese...

 ...played in some mud...

 ...posed all cutesie...

 ...lounged while we stuffed our faces...

 ...attempted another dude picture...

 ...collected A LOT of lichen...

 ...failed to look at the camera...

 ...made it back to Chico and sunbathed....

 ...played in the swiss cheese at the park...

 ...hung out with Humpty...

 ...played in the cheese some more (it was a huge hit this go 'round)...

 ...ran a half marathon (Leah that is...)...

 ...see?  I RAN!...

 ...went camping at Silver Falls State Park...

 ...drank a LOT of coffee...

 ...roasted some bannak (sp??)...

 ...just goofed around...

 ...smiled even though we were tired...

 ...hiked to a ton of water falls...

We....

...went camping and saw some waterfalls...

 ...hiked behind some of the waterfalls....

 ...attempted a family picture...

 ...washed some camp dishes...

 ...looked all mischievous....

 ...took some naps at strange times of the day....

 ...played in the forest...

 ...tried to get three dudes to smile....

 ...sported an ugly handlebar 'stash for a whole hour or so....

 ...tried to keep collars on the kittens after they got fixed...

 ...decoupaged Maggie's bed with scrapbook paper....

(here's a close-up of the paper she picked)

Day 165: Focused Artist.

Coloring and singing along to the Tangled Soundtrack.  Life doesn't get any better than that.

Day 164: Keep on Keepin' on

This post is so that when I think that Miles isn't moving forward at all and has totally and completely stagnated, I can look back at this and see some evidence that he's always changing and learning new things.  This is a good ol' bar chart showing his scores in the six major areas that he gets evaluated in as part of the Early Intervention program.  The 8/2009 date he was 14 months old.  On 7/2010 he was 25 months old, and on the 5/2011 evaluation date he was one month shy of 3 years old.  As you can see, he's made HUGE strides over the last year.  I asked why his adaptive score went down while all others went up and found out that it's because the expectations in that area (adaptive=self care.  ie: teeth brushing, hand washing, getting dressed, bathed, fed, etc) increase drastically as you approach three years old.  SO, we've got some work to do in that area, but who cares.  He'll get there eventually....right?  Right!?!? ;-)

Day 163: The fearless leader.

Tadd is one of Eric's good friends at work and was the one heading up most of this trip.  Here is the fearless leader in all of his "Field Experience" paraphernalia.

Day 162: Mr. Mo, on the Ranch.

I told him that if he does this trip again, we would get him stocked up on plaid flannels and an urban cowboy hat before he left....