open house - a night to practice!

On Tuesday late afternoon Isaiah and I went to his open house at preschool (thanks mom for watching Levi AGAIN! and unfortunately Mark had to work). The open house was set up for the kids to meet their teachers and see their classroom before the first day of school.

I was telling Isaiah about what we were going to do earlier in the afternoon and I said, "Aren't you so excited?!!?" He didn't really respond. A little while later he comes up to me and says, "I'm not excited, but that doesn't mean I don't want to go." (pretty grown up statement, don't you think?)

Then when we got to his classroom, he got really shy and said, "I don't need to go. I'll go to preschool when I'm 4." His teacher, Mrs. Knapp, got down to his level and talked with him and started asking him questions. She noticed his school supplies that he brought and asked him to come help her put them away. She's so nice!! He got his supplies put away and was having a great time!

His classroom is the same room as his Sunday School room, but he just wasn't putting 2 and 2 together that it was the same place. A few times he said to me, "My church has this toy!!" I think eventually he will catch on! I will admit, they had a few bigger things out that they don't normally have so that might have thrown him off - plus it was mostly new people and a totally different time of the week and day for him to be there.

Walking in. He's not so sure.

Playing in the kitchen.

He spotted his name all by himself!

Coloring his crayon for the wall - of course he picked pink and purple and was finished in about 20 seconds - I watched all the little girls that sat around and worked hard on their crayon for 10+ minutes. boys.He did NOT want to leave. He was having so much fun playing with all the new toys and seeing all the kids. Hopefully this is a good sign that we will have a fun Monday morning!!

Isaiah's thoughts.

I was laying down beside Isaiah tonight after stories with the lights out (but with the Superman light on, of course). I usually lay with him for a few minutes to help him get ready to sleep. Tonight our conversation went like this...

Isaiah: I was dreaming of something really bad.

Me: You were?? What was it?

Isaiah: I was thinking, what if someone dumped a bucket of paint onto someone else's head.

Me: Oh my. That could be really bad.

Isaiah: Yeah. It could.

Me: That person would have paint all over their clothes and their hair, what a mess!

Isaiah: Yeah.

Me: But it might be a little bit funny, don't you think? If it was washable paint, it might be fun.

Isaiah: I wasn't talking about kid paint, I was talking about grown-up paint.

Me: Oh. well you are right, that would be bad.

Isaiah: What's in the dump?

Me: All kinds of old stuff people don't want anymore.

Isaiah: Like what?

Me: Any garbage or broken things that people don't need.

Isaiah: We'll never take my bunk bed to the dump.

Me: No. Never.

Isaiah: (looking around his room) or my light or my door. We need my door so we can be quiet when daddy is sleeping.



Ha ha. He thinks of the strangest things. He is really thinking about things more and more, it's fun when he actually lets us know what he's thinking about! Silly boy.

a little bit of everything.

We have been enjoying the summer fun the last few weeks... we haven't had a whole lot going on (okay we have - but nothing that I've documented with pictures, except the new carpet - I'll show you that later), but I have taken a few pictures here and there to remember these days with the boys. I thought I'd share...

at the park, looking for ducks

brave little boy, I was watching Isaiah and turned around to find this!

Rollerblading! he gets so excited to put them on and then realizes he doesn't really like it and takes them off about 1 minute later! :)

Mud fight with Caiden and grandma - I wasn't home so only got this picture at the very end when Caiden was gone and grandma was cleaned up.

little brother trying to ride big brother's bike.

climbers

taking a break, thanks Grandma Cindy for stopping by

I cleaned out the coat closet and the boys had fun getting all dressed up in hats, winter coats, mittens and boots!

What fun we have!

all set...

In just one week Isaiah will be starting preschool! We've been talking about this with him for a long time. He is so ready. And so excited (most of the time)! We did have our first parent meeting last week, and Isaiah gets to go meet his teachers this week!

He does have a short list of supplies that he needs for school so a few weeks ago, Mark, Isaiah and I made a trip to the store to pick them out! (Thanks mom for watching Levi!). Of course, the most fun thing to pick out was his backpack.

I was originally thinking that I wanted him to pick out a non-character bag, but after some more thought, I realized he will only be little for a short time and won't be interested in the characters for long - so whatever he wants is what will be! And there is absolutely no surprise in the backpack that he picked out. We picked out our other things, but it was not nearly as fun for Isaiah. The one funny thing was he needs a pack of pencils. After looking at all of his options, he picked the plain "original" yellow pencils with the pink erasers. Nothing fancy for this boy! :)

We got to my parents to pick up Levi and Isaiah was so excited to show off his new backpack!

I've talked with Isaiah several times in the last few weeks to get a feeling for what he's thinking about preschool. All along he's had it in his mind that he has to be 4 before he goes to school. I've always responded that he will be almost 4 when he starts school. A few days ago we were talking and I said, "Isaiah you get to start preschool next week!!!" and he said, "no, I don't need to go until I'm 4." I asked him if he was scared to go and he got a shy look on his face and said, "yeah." I reminded him that Caiden will be in his class with him and that they can stick together and he was excited again. I know he will love it, and it will be so good for him, what a big change coming!! How exciting!!

Knockel Reunion

My Grandma Irene's side of the family has an annual family reunion the last weekend in July. It is a big deal. There is always a big horseshoe tournament, a big potluck style meal, kids running around and lots of conversation - it's about the only time of the year that many of this side of the family get together! It is always held at the same park in Cascade, Iowa. The weather was beautiful this year! I remember in years past it has been unbearably hot, but not this time around. We walked down to the lake and watched a few people fishing - next year we may be ready to bring our own fishing poles!Mark and my dad really enjoy the horseshoe tournament - Mark looks forward to it all year long! Levi was very interested in the horseshoes and got to play a little bit too.The old, old playground that I remember playing on as a little kid is still there! It was fun to see my kids enjoying the playground like I remember it. (I must admit it was a bit scary having them up so high - it had to have been at least 15 feet up!)We also found a toad. The boys were so excited (I think this was like the 5th frog/toad we've found this summer!) Isaiah really wanted to catch it, so Levi and I guarded the frog while Isaiah went on a mission to find a container. Levi took his job very seriously! :) It was cute. Grandma came to the rescue and we captured the poor toad.The boys played with the little toad for the rest of the afternoon. I'm sure the little guy was so releaved when we eventually let him go by the lake later that day.What a fun reunion! See you next July!

Happy 2nd Birthday Levi James!

How can it be that my baby boy turns TWO today?

Of course we had to celebrate all day long - Levi woke me up around 6:30 as usual and we snuggled and watched Curious George (his favorite). When Mark woke up I decided to run to Casey's to get him a special treat - donuts for breakfast!After Isaiah got up, we surprised Levi with his birthday present - a pirate water table! Levi thought it was great so we quickly went inside to get swimming suits on (and eat another donut!:) and they played and played in the water which ended in a water fight!
My mom and dad stopped over to say hi to the birthday boy right as we were heading to Chuck E Cheese so they joined us - and bought lunch (Thank you!!). Everyone seemed to have lots of fun playing games and eating pizza.

So excited to be at Chuck E Cheese!

After Chuck E Cheese it was time for a nap ... and then Mark had to go to work. The boys and I headed to get Levi's pictures taken. We did make a quick stop at Wal-Mart and the boys each picked out an umbrella - it was one of those days that if they asked for it they got it! :)We stopped at my parents for dinner and then home to play in the water table again and then one more present before bed. Isaiah gave Levi his gift - a remote control train. I think this was Levi's favorite part of the day. He saw the train and just stared at it for several minutes. I finally asked him if he wanted to open it and he was even more excited to get it out!What a busy day! Happy Birthday baby boy!!

Here is a glimpse of Levi James at 2 years...

* WHY? WHY? WHY? I think he asks why at least 100 times per day. He almost always asks why to the answer he gets for his first why. If you ask him why, he will almost always respond with "cuz"

*and if he's not asking why, he's saying NO. When just about anyone asks Levi a question, or even talks to him, he'll often respond with no.

*He officially has switched over from whole milk to skim. His doctor gave the okay to switch when he turned two. We ran out of our last gallon of whole milk on his birthday - so he's officially off the whole milk!

*He love, love LOVES his big brother. If he can't see where Isaiah is or what he is doing, he'll ask, "where's Zay-ah?"

*He likes to wrestle and is very good at it! He can easily take down Isaiah. He definitely has some tackling/wrestling instincts! Maybe a hint of what our future will hold?

*Is still VERY addicted to his binky and blankie. When he's tired or cranky, having both of these items is a MUST. We try to only allow the binky when it's bed time, but he often finds one on his own and gets away with it. He can't be fooled with an imitation blankie and will not go to sleep without it.

*He sleeps to the CD "Snooze" by Go Fish Guys every night. He loves it.

*Levi likes bugs. He likes to look for them outside and will point them out when he finds them. He is often caught stepping on ants and other bugs he finds.

*He's not much of an eater these days. He usually takes a few bites at each meal and is full enough. His favorite foods are: waffles, pizza, spaghetti, ceral bars, granola bars, and ravioli.

*He takes one good nap each day, and goes down easily as long as he has binky, blankie and Snooze. He usually sleeps from around 1pm to 3:30pm. But is very flexible with this schedule.

*Levi has an opinion and he makes it known. He will shout if something doesn't go his way and will refuse to do something if he doesn't want to. We have all out tantrums occasionally (or maybe daily) when things don't go his way. I guess would you expect any less of a 2 year old? :)

*He is definitely a happy little boy - and just like his brother - I'd classify him as "all boy." He is fearless, curious to the extreme, thrives on being rowdy and will not sit still.

We couldn't be more blessed with a little one. We love you Levi James!

UNI Museum

We were looking for a fun family outing on Monday morning when we decided to go to the UNI museum. I don't think I had ever been to this museum and it had been a long time since Isaiah had (he used to go with Kammy when he was very little-I'm sure he didn't remember it). Mark and I were both impressed with it! It's just a little museum, but full of animals everywhere!

The front room is their changing exhibit. This month it was full of games past and present from all over the world. Isaiah was so excited to play a game he'd never seen before!

Levi was not so interested in the games so he quickly found the animal room. WOW!

There was so many different animals to look at! Levi's favorite was the turkey. He kept pointing at it and saying, "turkey" and then laughing. Isaiah said he liked Alvin the best (we have little chipmunks that run around our house and we call them all Alvin - like Alvin and the chipmunks). I was most impressed by the big lion and if I had to guess, I think Mark would have liked the antelopes.

Isaiah was also impressed by the dinosaur bones! Looking back I realize I didn't get a good picture to capture how neat the exibits are in this museum, I guess we'll have to go back! :)

where's Levi?

The other day we were all just doing our own thing when Mark realized we couldn't see or hear Levi. He went looking and found him...He was smart enough to figure out that if he opened the drawers he could use them as steps to get on top of the dresser...sneaky little boy.

By the way Jayda - we owe you a new chapstick!! (if you look closely, you'll see he is showing off his finger with the chapstick lid on it and the other one is shoved into the chapstick itself!)

the big firetruck

We were making another regular stop at Target the other night when we pulled up and saw a police car with flashing lights. I was a bit concerned until I saw the stand full of balloons and a sign for "safety night." We went to check out the action, but the event was just starting and there wasn't much going on - so we decided to go get what we needed (more band-aids, unfortunately they were out of Spiderman, but Isaiah was equally happy with the Transformers-I don't think he even knows what they are, but they look rough and tough so he was happy). When we came back out, not only were there policemen around the police car but a big firetruck! The boys were definitely interested in checking it out!

I think we may have been the first kids to actually go up to the policeman because he was VERY eager to tell Isaiah and Levi all about his car. He was trying to explain in great detail all about the car, the boys were hardly listening, but I was interested to find out that the police officers use their laptop computers to find directions to locations they are sent to as well as check on license plate numbers and communicate with other officers. They also have two HUGE rifles (or some kind of gun, I can't remember - but he gave the exact numbers and models) in the middle of the two front seats...I could go on and on about what he was telling our 1 and 3 year old. As soon as we could get away from the policeman, we hurried to the firetruck. The fireman was about the exact opposite of the policeman and was quiet and just let the boys look - exactly what we needed! :) They even got to go up inside the firetruck!! Isaiah has talked several times about the HUGE flashlight that he got to hold inside the truck!! Unfortunately my camera was in the car so I didn't get to capture their amazement, but I couldn't resist and we did go back quick so I could take a couple pictures -I've never been so happy with my trip to Target! Hooray for Safety Night!