Tomorrow is Jimmy's birthday...

I have been keeping this secret for about a month. I've told some friends, because if I didn't, I would literally bust! But now that we're only one day out, I think it's safe. We'll see how often he checks our little blog...

So, for Jimmy's birthday, I decided to book a little surprise trip.Summer is very busy for him at work, with closing one budget to open another...and we all know how fun finances have been lately...school finance is no different. So, we're leaving on a jet plane.

And we're going to enjoy some time on a beach...without the kids.

I'm hoping the weather cooperates and we can go on a whale-watching cruise...and some bike rides, to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage...of...Maine! I've dreamt of a trip like this for a very long time. I hope Jimmy is half as excited as I am. :)

Our little man

Seriously, he never ceases to amaze me with his crazy get-ups. As if the sunglasses weren't enough, he found a nice set of snowboots, which may have been appropriate given a snow, or the fact that it wasn't August. But he doesn't care...this is our Joshie in all his glory.

He has to be big stuff, just like big brother and sister. I anticipate he'll be able to drive this lawn mower sooner than we all may be ready for...

A nice, cool, AUGUST day!

We have definitely taken advantage of these beautiful fall-like days in August. Lawson and I have been taking morning strolls every chance we get. It has been such a nice summer season. Today, when we got home from our neighborhood walk, my AC was running, set on 78. I reluctantly opened the windows, not sure how much more fever of the hay I could take...my thermostat now reads 73!

Each of my kids has a melt-my-heart factor to them. Landen is our first-born, and growing into such a fine, smart, young man. Lily is our only girl, such a sweet spirit, and is girly to the max. And little Lawson...he is just a sweet, funny kid, beyond his years.

I was sitting by the sliding glass doors in my bedroom, and he went out onto the deck. I could hear him talking, but wasn't paying a great deal of attention to exactly what he was doing. I peeked out, and he was playing with the cat, so I grabbed my camera. I'm still not used to uploading my pictures in reverse order on the blog, so the first one you see is the final shot. The one at the bottom is through the glass door before he knew I was watching him...he had pushed the chairs together and was having quite the one-sided conversation with Jill...in fact, when I snapped the picture, he was clapping. Jill hadn't done anything that I considered to be clap-worthy, but apparently, little Lawson saw things differently. :)

A birthday dinner

We took the kids to a family favorite BBQ joint for Landen's choice of birthday dinner. As you can see in the background, it's a family favorite, perhaps because airplanes are involved. Here, the kids are being their silly selves.

I have to wonder what he was thinking...he wouldn't tell me. :)

A weekend of celebration for the big 7

Yep, we started celebrating Friday at school, with treats for friends, and the celebration didn't end until we hit the pillow Sunday night. We had a lot of fun. It's incredibly hard to believe my baby is 7. Seems.like.yesterday.

We celebrated with friends at Monkey Bizness. Let me tell you, that's the way to throw a birthday party...EASY.

Uh, yeah, Lawson enjoyed his monkey cupcake.

Landen thought the rock wall was pretty cool...it was definitely a party favorite, of the kids and adults.

This was probably Landen's favorite gift...a hydropowered rocket that blasted up to 100 feet into the air. In this picture, it hadn't reached it's highest altitude yet. It is a pretty cool rocket.

1st Day of School

Well, the 2009-10 school year is officially off to a great start for the Hay fam. The kids seemed excited enough.

An annual fave...by the tree, in front of the house.
Miss Lily starting kindergarten.

Miss Lily starting preschool. WOW.

Mr. Landen starting 2nd grade. I kid you not, his hair was FINE when I came outside. I gave it a quick spit shine before he went into school. ;)

Mr. Landen starting 1st grade.

I love getting a picture of the kids in front of the school. Lawson could not be left out. Then, he INSISTED he hold the door, that probably weighs at least five times what he weighs. Such a big kid, he is.

For some brainiac reason, I thought it would be a good idea to drop off Lily, first. To get to her room, we had to walk past another kindergarten room. There was one kid absolutely frantic, chasing his Mom down the hall. There was a hubbub. I can’t tell you exactly what was being said (it all got foggy at that point), but I could hear lots of reassurance and a general “it will be okay” sentiment. The verclemptness begins. I’m not one to caudle and cuddle to extremes. I’m more of a “Yep, you’re fine, you’ll have a great day, see you after school” type, and that’s always worked well for us. But, I am a softie when it comes to my girl. I tried to choke it back, but wow. She did great…GREAT. She looked a little sad, but that’s her normal…kind of her shyness coming out when she’s a little unsure. I have no doubt she’ll be an old pro by the end of the week. However, I’m afraid I’ll be dropping her off for her junior year in high school, STILL crying like a baby! Come to think of it, I probably will, because that will be the first year that she will be the oldest kid in school and Landen should be off to college. Cool, something else to get geared up for, 10 years in advance. :)

I love Lily's outfit. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. It fit her well and looked so sweet. My big, big girl.

This is where she had looked sad, but I asked her to smile, and she did. I can't wait to hear about her day.

My big 2nd grader...my how the past seven years have flown by. I can't wait to hear about his day, too. This morning, he did awesome, as always. I heard lots of excited voices, coming from his line of classmates, yelling out “Hi Landen!”, so that felt good to know he’s with familiar folks. I know his teacher, and Lily’s, pretty well, so I’m confident they will make both kids’ days great. I've actually already gotten a report that all is well with both kids. :)

So, another first day of school, and kindergarten, down. I should be getting pretty good at this, but every year, it has an elment of difficulty to it. But all in all, we had a great morning.

Sneak Peek means...

Yes, Sneak Peek 2009 means none other than...school starts tomorrow. WOW, where DID the summer go?

Lily and her teacher Mrs. Cash...Landen had Mrs. Cash as Miss Haley until spring break when she got married. We are excited about having another one of our kidlets in her kindergarten class.

Landen and his teacher Mrs. Boehm...we are so excited about the prospect of 2nd grade and all the exciting things that are in store. We also know Mrs. Boehm pretty well, and are sure that Landen will have a great year in her classroom. He actually knows 10 kids in his room, which is almost half.

The kids stood by some wizardy lookin' fella'. I thought it was funny how it looked like the wizard was going to whap Landen on top of the head. :)

Lily is longingly looking at the "big kids" playground where she will spend many-a-recess. When she was in preschool, they played on a much smaller scale playground that was soft. Lily has a way of falling a lot...not sure if she and the big kids playground will mesh or not.

My little Linus...don't know if you can tell, but his shirt is Linus' body, from Peanuts. I couldn't ever get him to stand still long enough to get a great picture. He was in his element tonight.

So, now everybody is off to nighty-night and tomorrow starts the 2009-10 school year. As of tomorrow, I will have a kindergartner and a 2nd grader. Seriously, don't blink.

Jill

Meet Jill. Jill is/was a stray cat. Jill and Landen were told, by our middle school-aged neighbor boy, to “keep that cat away from here” as he pointed to his house. I guess Jill scratched the neighbor boy and he was none too happy. I mean, don’t pick her up.

So, the kids are in love with Jill…seriously, seeing her is the first thing they want to do when they get up, and they go outside and play with her multiple times a day. It’s almost enough to make me invite Jill in to be part of the family…almost.

The kids got ahold of my camera. I love to see the pictures they take. If this tells you anything, I’ve picked the best pictures of the bunch, and I cropped out about an acre of house from one of them. What can I say, they’re 5 and 6. :)


Lily took this one...can you tell?

Who IS that masked boy?

Ah, yes...appears to be none other than the Lawson Joshie. He appears to be fancying the masks, these days. And you should have heard the ferocious roar...scary stuff.

Bittersweet...

We are very excited for school to start - the prospect of a new year with a new teacher and new classmates...all the exciting and fun things that the kids have in store for the next nine months.

But golly, we sure have enjoyed the pool this year...probably more than ever. We are so happy to have such a great pool in our small little neck of the woods. We have had such fun times with family and friends during the past 2.5 months. We even had Lily's 5th birthday, there...and if she'll go for it, I plan to have her next 13 birthday celebrations, there. :)

One very exciting accomplishment of the summer is Landen going off the high dive. He looks so little when he climbs that enormous ladder, and steps out to the edge. I was able to get an action shot, today.
Lily on the frog slide...it's been a Hay family favorite for the past four summers, or so.

A new trick we started today, then may have regretted. Lily stood on my feet and then did the Nestea plunge. It went well with her, but Landen was murder on my ankles!

Wow, they really look like they love each other for a change!

Had a bad day...

Isn’t every day a tough one in the life of a two year old? Yesterday was a bit tougher than usual for poor, little Lawson Joshie. It all started with his trip down the stairs on his tummy…let me back up and correct myself…his INTENTIONAL trip down the stairs on his tummy. Lily was coaching him down and all of a sudden, I hear a “ker-thunk” and crying. You know, that uncontrollable-I-can’t-cry-I’m-going-to-stop-breathing type of cry. Upon first examination, yep, blood. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from his teeth (PLEASE NO!!!!) or his lip. As the day went on, the center of his top lip puffed up more and more. Pictures follow.

Then we went to the pool…we had a ton of fun with a friend we hadn’t seen in awhile and my sister-in-law and nieces. Most of you probably already saw my Facebook post about Lawson’s big poo in his swimmer and my McGyver-esque diaper changing technique. Yep, it was a tough day.

Batman!

I can’t really think of much that I can add to this picture…it really speaks, mostly, for itself.