little road runner

Unlike either of his parents, Bryce enjoys running!  We got a flier in Bryce's school folder about Sunday races at our local park and thought Bryce would really love it.  Jason's cousin's daughter (pink dress) is in Bryce's class and her parents are runners so we figured she and her sister would participate so Bryce was game.  He was even able to talk Chase and Taylor into it too!

 

 

After quite a long wait, they finally called the kids over to tell them how things would work. 

 

Then there was stretching.

 

Then they were ready to go.  His age group ran the quarter mile.

 

The course started off downhill.  This was Bryce coming off the uphill. 

 

Here he is on the home stretch.  I have no idea how he placed or how long it took him, but he did a great job.

 

We have 4 more Sundays of races and all the kids will get medals at the end!

kitchen reveal

You may remember a while back I mentioned we were doing some kitchen renovations.  Well, we are just about finished and we are loving our new kitchen!  I am by no means a decorator or designer and I need lots of help before making decisions.  I turned to pinterest for ideas and consulted a friend before making a few decisions and I really feel like my final product turned out how I envisioned. 

 

Before



After

 We painted our living room and kitchen with "Revere Pewter" by Benjamin Moore and our granite is an arabesco pattern. 

Before

We got a fun new chandelier for the eat in area and pendant lights from Shades of Light.  Our frames are from IKEA (the pictures for the frames are in transit), we got a new table off Craigs List and I found the fun living room chair at Home Goods.  

 

After

Before

 We didn't take before pictures from the best angle, but you can still see how open the space is now.

 

After

Pinterest Inspiration

 I had originally planned to do white subway tile, but when I stumbled on this bead board backsplash, I fell in love.  We used vinyl bead board in our downstairs bathroom and I knew it would be perfect for the kitchen, especially for cleaning purposes.  I love how it turned out!

 

Our end result

 I wish we had taken a panorama view before, but at least we have an after shot.

 

Panorama view of the finished product

 This was my inspiration for the gallery wall in the kitchen.



 

We still have a few things to do here and there, but for the most part, we are done!  Now if only we could get rid of the awful ceramic tile floor and put in hardwoods!  I'm not sure I have the money or the patience for that project any time soon!

it's great to be a kindergartener

Bryce was all smiles when he got home on Wednesday.  His class gets stickers for their buckets when they do things worthy of praise and he had filled his up by Wednesday and got to choose something out of the class treasure chest.  He chose this lion!

 

 

Also, a student is awarded the "outstanding musician award"  each week in music class.  Bryce won this week.  I am SO excited about his music teacher.  It just so happens that the music teacher at the school where I used to teach has to travel to Bryce's school for a few classes and out of all the kindergarten classes, he got to teach Bryce's.  He is one lucky little boy because he is an awesome teacher!

 

Later that day I sprung for a soft pretzel for the kids while we ran a quick errand at Walmart.  They have asked me for one ever since the pretzel place opened and I've never obliged.  I guess it was just their lucky day!

 

Bryce was not a big fan of the school bus after the first day.  By the end of the first week, he found a friend on the bus who lives in our neighborhood and is in his class.  They have become fast friends and couldn't wait for a play date.  Yesterday was the big day and they had lots of fun. 

 

Nanny took us to dinner and ice cream last night.  The kids enjoyed eating in the trunk since the outside benches were wet from the rain.

 

It's been a great week for these two!

what's up wednesday

Oh hey there!  It's Wednesday, and it's been a week since I've popped in.  Sorry about that!  School started and we all hit the ground running and haven't slowed down.  I checked both cameras today and there we no pictures to be found, so I scanned my phone for a few pics to share so you don't forget who we are! 

 

 

Bryce loves learning and loved letting me teach him.  This one is going to give me a run for my money, but she did enjoy sitting in Bryce's bean bag chair last week to read a book while listening to a completely different book on tape!

 

And when she doesn't feel like learning, we play dress up!

 

What's a girl to do with so many accessories?!? 

 

Share them with her brother of course!  He's a good sport!

 

Bryce is already learning so much at school.  Last week he came home and went to his room and came down with this sentence strip and proceeded to teach me the name of the lines.  I had to write them out so I could learn them too!  Sure enough, I learned this exact same thing last night at back to school night!

 

Bryce had his first school project last week.  He had to make a boy like him.  He really enjoyed this.  He has on red shoes because his school shoes are red.  He has camo paints because he loves hunting with his daddy.  He chose an Orioles jersey because he loves playing baseball and we added the letters MCC to his hat because that is our church.  I wanted some way to squeeze in his faith without a cross necklace because I wasn't sure how he'd feel about a necklace!

 

My two camo loving boys.  This was one morning before church believe it or not!

 

Hopefully I'll get around to posting our before and after pictures of our newly renovated kitchen.  I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  We even hosted our neighbors for the first time since we've lived here in four years.  Next week I'm hosting a MOPS social here.  It's so fun to entertain when you love your space!

 

 

The neighbors hung out for quite a while after dinner and Bryce and Emmy loved playing with the other kids.  They are older and our kids try so hard to hang with them, but with Bryce's exhaustion from school, he just couldn't keep up any longer and fell asleep in the playroom while everyone played around him!

wordless wednesday

gymnastics

I couldn't wait to put Emmy in gymnastics.  Our friend who owns the gym where Emmy is taking classes told me not to start lessons until she was 2 1/2.  Now that Bryce is in school, it was the perfect time to start!  She had her first class on Friday and she had lots of fun.  They have a large gym where the started out and finished the class and a smaller gym where they spent most of their time. 

 

She has on her listening ears if you're wondering why her fingers are in her ears, ha!

After listening to the directions, the kids started off on their rotations.  First up was the bear walk on the parallel bars. 

 

Next they hopped the "rocks" and walked the balance beam.  She did fine by herself the next few times across.

 

Then they did a forward roll down a wedge and a handstand on the wall.

 

She cracked me up when it came time to sit on the swing.  She tried to sit on it like a regular swing and finally had to get help!

 

When they were finished in the little gym, they went out to the big gym for the tumble track.  Can't go wrong with a trampoline! 

 

She's so excited that her friend Avery is in her class.

 

We're both pretty excited about this little outing on Fridays.

first day of KINDERGARTEN

Bryce was super excited about today!

 

 

I have given up on dressing Bryce in clothes that I want him to wear and given in to his athletic look.  We did a little back to school shopping so he would at least have matching outfits since he's inclined to wearing any color/style basketball shorts with any color t-shirt.  I was pleased with his choice today!

 

He hopped on the bus and never looked back.  Of course, by bedtime, he was upset about the bus and wants me take him to school because he doesn't know anyone.  I told him he can't give up yet, so we'll see how this goes!  And that lunch box he's holding was misplaced by another teacher before he made it to his class so I got a call from the school at 9:30 today that Bryce didn't have a lunch.  Of course I was at Bible study, so my mom saved the day and took him a new lunch and bought him a new lunchbox! 

 

Luckily, I had planned a few surprises for Bryce when he got home from school and boy was I glad I did.  It was even more important after the whole lunch incident.  But sources tell me, the lunchbox has been found and will be returned to us tomorrow!

 

We may have also had a fun snack when he got home.  Don't mind the kitchen renovation going on in the background!

 

I had also already planned to fix his favorite dinner tonight too!

 

And it helped that he had his first baseball practice tonight and his cousin Chase, two preschool friends, and a teammate from last year are all on the team this year!  He was super excited to be reunited with everyone!  Hoping for an even better day tomorrow!

the last day of summer

Not only is today Labor Day, but for our school system, it's the last day of summer vacation.  Tomorrow we start a new chapter..........kindergarten (and a long road of schooling).  We packed our day with fun to end summer with a bang!  First stop, Krispy Kreme for breakfast!

Today is opening day of dove season and Jason and Bryce were ready!  Bryce doesn't actually hold or shoot a gun yet, but he's got the dove call down pat!

 

With a little team work, they brought home two doves.  It was way too hot today to stay out long.

 

Our neighbors invited us over for a cookout this afternoon so we joined in for some pool time before heading to Jason's parent's house for a cookout for his sister's birthday.

 

 

We ended the night with the perfect book and prayers for Bryce's day tomorrow, his teacher, bus driver, and classmates.

 

I've had my sappy moments this week about the reality of Bryce going to kindergarten, but tonight I'm doing pretty well.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow, but with that smile on his face, I can sleep in peace tonight knowing that Bryce is excited for this new adventure!