Star Wars Spaceship?

Does this look like a Star Wars spaceship to you?

 Yeah, no, I didn't think so.

 

When asked what they thought this was a picture of, Vincent responded: "It looks like some kind of Star Wars ship!" I guess there is a funky PacMan-looking shape in the middle that might be its hand. Tyler muttered some odd made-up thing of what he thought it was.

 

Yes, we're having another baby!

What A Week!

Seriously, this was quite the week. Kindergarten, new preschool location and schedule, starting a new Chinese school, a Sounders game, swim lesson, birthday party...

Yeah, so Vincent started back at Chinese school on Saturdays. This year, he is attending a new school, called Tzu Chi Academy. I've been pretty excited to get him started here. He could have done it last year, but we had already been at the other school, so I figured we'd stick to that one. Unfortunately, that school didn't work out so well for us, and we pulled him out halfway through the year. I have confidence in this school. 

For one, my mom is a teacher for the Monrovia, CA, chapter. Secondly, they were a uniform. Third, Vincent's new teacher was so organized on Saturday. I received an email last week with a supplies list. Nice. I like being prepared, as does Vincent. He gets that from me. No wait, David likes being prepared, too. Ooh, double whammy!

Another cool thing about this school is there are two pretty decent sized playgrounds at the elementary school right next door. That means that I can bring Tyler with us and give David Saturday mornings off. Tyler won't be so bored out of his mind and driving me bonkers. And, nearby, there are yummy Chinese eats! I stopped there with my friend to pick up some lunch for Vincent and I. Vincent loved his food. I love when he loves his food, and I hear him going, "Mmmm, good," from the back of the car.

Right after Chinese school, we drove downtown to meet David and Tyler at Century Link Field for our first MLS game. Go Sounders! It was so fun! I'm totally a Sounders fan now. Vincent's kind of pumped about soccer, too. David's pumped for Vincent. And, Tyler, well, he acted like a crazy kid who couldn't sit still from being over-tired. He fell asleep in David's arms immediately after the game as we were walking down to meet the players. Yeah, Vincent spun this wheel and won a wristband to "Autograph Alley" where he got to meet 3 of the players, take pictures with them and get their autographs. Tyler slept through all of it, and continued to sleep all the way until we made it home. 

Today, I went to work at Mt. Townsend Creamery. David & the boys dropped me off, and then they went to Queen Anne to meet friends for Jon Hildebrandt's birthday brunch and football. Oh, and David got up early to go for a 6-mile run with Jayson! 

After the brunch, David took the boys to Vincent's first swim lesson (aside from the one he took when he was 6 months old) at 12:30pm. There, they ran into the Beatty's, who's kids were also taking lessons. "Mr. Beatty" is actually Jayson, David's morning running-mate! What a coincidence.

Then, a quick meal of pizza and video games at Pritty Boys, and Vincent was off at a birthday party at 2pm.

I got off work, took the bus to Capitol Hill to Lark, to wish Evan a happy birthday and drop off cupcakes to the staff. David picked me up there, and we went to pick up Vincent by 5pm.

Dinner was at the ale house. I was so hungry, and couldn't think of what to make for dinner. Frankly, I was in the mood for a burger with blue cheese and fries. Success.

After dinner, we came home, David stopped in for a few minutes, but was soon back out the door. He is now enjoying a nice, mellow concert at the Moore Theater, seeing The Tallest Man On Earth. Lucky! I wanted to go to this show, but didn't pull the trigger on planning it. A couple days ago, a friend of David's had an extra ticket. I've never met this friend, so David got to go. I'm glad one of us did.

I gave the boys each a bath, read them chapter 1 of Harry Potter (book 1), and put them to bed.

Now, rest.

It's Official, We Have A Kindergartner!!

Hey hey, first day of school! We all got up by 7:30am and within an hour, we were fed, dressed, and heading out the door to accompany Vincent to his new school. 

I have to say, Vincent sure was a cutie today! Oh, oh, sorry...he looked cool.

We were the second to arrive in class. This was a good thing because Vincent tends to have a harder time coming into a situation where there are already several other kids. It seems to overwhelm him, so it was nice he was able to have some space going into the class. He had tons of hooks to choose from for his backpack. He was the second lunchbox into the bin. And, he was the first to find a seat and "table top" activity. 

We knew a couple of kids that would be in class with him, but it turned out that a kid from his previous karate class is in this class, too. Right away, he knew who he wanted to sit next to, so he moved to a seat in between both of them. Before the bell rang, he was wondering if we were going to leave already. Well, okay, I guess so.

David took Tyler to school, while I stuck around to sign up for PTA volunteering stuff. Gosh, I really feel like a parent now. At 9:20am, all the kids came out to the schoolyard and we had a morning assembling. The principle introduced all the staff, and got the kids pumped for the new year. 

Tyler had a good second day of school. Tonight, at bedtime, he said to me, "Mommy, I love my school." Awww, that warms my heart. Seriously. I've been feeling bad that he wasn't going to Secret Garden, like Vincent, but I feel so good about this new school, and I'm relieved that he's so happy. He even has a favorite teacher.

I think tomorrow, I'm actually getting a full morning all to myself!!

The New School Year

I technically don't feel like we've really officially started school until Vincent's first day of kindergarten arrives (tomorrow!!). Nonetheless, it is the beginning of a new school year for our little Tyler. And, although he's been going to preschool for a few months now, this is like him officially starting preschool, since he started at the school mid-year for the previous school year. Am I making sense?

It's especially exciting for Tyler because his school opened a new location, a little further of a drive north, that we decided to move him to. It's such a beautiful, large space that they've created for the kids, with its own playground. We drove Tyler past there a couple weeks ago to see it, and he's been pretty happy to make the move.

Drop off this morning went smoothly. Vincent and I accompanied him there. This morning, Vincent, who had been going to the old location with Tyler two days a week over the summer, said to Ty, "Now Tyler, when you are all done with school today, I want you to tell me all about school, and what you did with Jayden." Um, I guess Jayden is this friend they made over the summer. And, after we dropped Tyler off, Vincent said to me, "Aw, Mama, I wish I could go to school there, too." I reminded him that he's starting kindergarten, and he quickly changed his mind.

Here's Tylie with the giant bear and little bear. He has on his "indoor" shoes. He said he had a good day, and was very happy at pick up.

As for Vincent, he and I had the morning together. We came home and played a board game. Then, I let him play on my old computer while I checked email. At 11am, we walked over to the school to find out Vincent's class assignment:

Not that this means anything to anyone except the families with these kids, and their teacher. He will know one girl, and be forced to know one boy (his mom is my friend). Well, no, we won't force him, but I'm happy the other boy is in his class.

After we checked out his classroom, I let him play on the playground for a while. My eyes started to well up as I watched him playing. He wasn't playing with any other kids, but just enjoying himself. He was climbing on this arched monkey bars thing, and when two other kids got in his way, he carefully, and patiently, worked his way around them. It made me realize how far we've come the last 5 3/4 years.

We stopped at Target to get a couple of last school supplies, and then had a quick lunch before picking Tyler up from school.

After nap/quiet time, I took the boys to Madrona playground to meet up with old friends, the Mahoneys. We haven't really seen them all summer. It was so fun to catch up, and see the kids pick up where they left off. 

Tomorrow, we will have a kindergartener. 

Last Days of Summer Break

Ah, the final days of summer before starting a new school year - the first "real" school year. What did we do?

Saturday, Sept. 1 - This was our first, and probably last, Saturday that we didn't have anything to do or anywhere to be. I take it back, we had a couple of things to do, but no major commitments.

We lounged around the house for a long time, then took the kids to Rejuvenation in SoDo to look for hardware for our windows. Fun, huh? Then, we stopped at Costco. The kids filled up on samples, so there was no need to stop for lunch before going home. Instead, we came home and fixed some food here.

For dinner, we fired up our new charcoal grill and had delicious steak.

Isn't she a beauty?

Sunday, Sept. 2 - I went to work in the morning. 

David took the boys to QFC's "Coinstar" machine to cash in the kids' loose change. It was so cute. They both went through their money banks. Vincent had a bunch of dollar bills from his weekly allowance, and counted those up. He had $10 and was so excited to find out that the new Lego catalog showed the green ninja sold individually for $10. He stood up and cheered, "Yay! I can buy just him and I don't need to ask Santa for that big set anymore!" He also gathered all his loose change and put those in a baggie to take to Coinstar. Tyler only had coins, but set aside some that he wanted to save, and bagged up the rest. 

So, they went to the Coinstar machine, got their dollars, and went to Bellevue Square to the Lego store. Unfortunately, Green Ninja (Lloyd) was sold out! Vincent did find a stumpy Ninjago snake for $5, and Tyler opted to save his money.

The boys picked me up from work, and David took them to the playground while I got ready for a wedding we were going to.

Then, there was the wedding. So wonderful. Our friends, Cameron and Serafina, after 10 years together, got married. It was such a beautiful ceremony and space. And, we came home with these pictures:

Monday, Sept. 3 - The kids hung out in their pjs until just before lunch time. They asked us why they weren't dressed, yet. We let them veg out while we got the house ready for a Labor Day BBQ in our backyard. We were debuting the new grill.

It was a fun time. We had kalbi steak tacos, garlic-lime marinated tacos, and coconut-lime chicken tacos. People brought lots of delicious food to share. Oh, and I made my first "ranch" dip from scratch. It was more like a creamy dill, but whatever. It was good. Especially with potato chips. Mmmm, love me some potato chips. 

We had a small pinata for the kids, too. They each got a turn taking a whack at it, and Oliver, the biggest kid of all, took it down. It didn't break open, so David just pick it up, pulled it open, and sprinkled the kids with candy.

Tomorrow, Tyler starts at his preschool's new location, and Vincent and I will have the morning together. He will find out who is kindergarten teacher is, and his classmates.

Happy End O' Summer To All!!