Cody = Student of the Month!

Cody's teacher picked him to be the September Student of the Month for his class. The SOTMs are those who best demonstrate their school motto of being respectful, responsible, life-long learners. Yay Cody!

The Students of the Month from all the classes around the school come and stand in the hallway before the Spirit Assembly (which celebrates the SOTMs), and they cheer and wave pompoms and signs as the classes all walk into the gym.  

Here's Cody waving his clapper....

Cody was nice enough to let Luke stand next to him and cheer, although he doesn't exactly look thrilled about it, does he?

Do you see how much bigger Cody is than the other First Grade SOTMs standing next to him?

Our school mascot is a tiger.

So at the Spirit Assemblies, all the kids have Tiger Paws that they wave around. Paws up!

Here's the VIP section where the SOTMs sit. Cody's in the front row, 3rd from the right. Again, he looks kind of underwhelmed about it all, don't you think?

Cody really doesn't enjoy all the attention. He's proud of himself, but he doesn't like everyone looking at him and he feels really uncomfortable about it all. Whereas Luke, if he ever is chosen for something like this, will be leading a freakin' conga line of SOTMs across the stage. LOL It never ceases to amaze me how different siblings can be! 

Cody has just been wowing us all in First Grade. Not only was he chosen as his class' first SOTM, his teacher also sent us "Tiger Mail." It's an email to parents celebrating a kiddo's accomplishments, and the teacher cc's the principal on the message. Then the principal calls the student down to the office for a more personal recognition and a little prize (a tiger pencil). 

Cody certainly is Tigerific, and we're very proud of him! 

Wordless Wednesday

Texas State Fair 2011

We look forward to the State Fair all year, and today was finally the day! The boys were so excited.

First, we tried out a few rides. After a disastrous attempt at a little rollercoaster we THOUGHT was a relatively gentle one that turned out to be quite spinny, jolty and rough (Cody was NOT happy), we chose to stick with the simple pleasures of monster trucks that go around in a slow, small circle.

And then Jackson used his awesome pitching skills to pop some balloons with a hacky sack (yep), and he won...a banana. 

See the resemblance? Jacks named him Banana Fred (instead of banana BREAD...get it?).

Jackson, Luke and I rode the giant ferris wheel, the Texas Star. It's SOOOOOOOOO big! 

Check out the view from the top! Hello Downtown Dallas!

Lukey said, "Hey look, we can see the Eiffel Tower!" To Luke, all tall skinny towers are the Eiffel Tower. :)

It was a fun ride! Even Banana Fred loved it. 

Though we always enjoy the corn dogs, pretzels, funnel cake and cotton candy, we usually avoid any of the deep-fried options the fair is known for.

Seriously? Fried chicken skin? Who thought that was a good idea? EW.

We said howdy to Big Tex.

We visited the car show and the dog show, and we checked out some beautiful quilts and a life-size lady and her cow carved out of butter. Wow! That's not something you see every day!

We always have fun at the fair!

Arboretum Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we headed over to the Arboretum to get a taste of fall with their beautiful displays.

There were horses made out of hay!

And sunflowers...of a different flavor than we're used to seeing!

And of course, many, many, MANY pumpkins!

The boys were real troupers and posed in a million different places for me.

We were so excited to have Kate-Kate with us! She makes everything twice as fun. :)

And some individual shots of my handsome boys!

And look, Anthony and I were there, too!

Now here's a little blast from the past...this next shot is one from 2 1/2 years ago. Look how Lukey's little eyes barely peek over the windowsill! 

And here's this past weekend looking out of the same treehouse window:

How time flies! Happy Fall to All!

Luke's First Day of School

Today was Luke's first day of preschool! Though he is going to the same school, he is in a different class this year with different teachers, so he says he is no longer in preschool. :)

Luke has Mrs. Stillwell and Mrs. Stecklein this year. They taught Cody for 2 years, too, so they know our family pretty well.  Mrs. Stecklein actually lives in our neighborhood which is really fun because we occasionally run into her on bike rides and walks, and we always make sure to Trick or Treat at her house on Halloween. 

Here's Luke with his new teachers last Friday at Meet the Teacher.

Looks pretty comfortable already, doesn't he? 

He was SO ready to go this morning!  Finally, finally it was HIS turn for school!

We marched in, found his name tag, and put away his bag.

He gave me a kiss goodbye, and then he was off!  When I came back to pick him up, he bounced right up into my arms and said, "My school is AWESOME!!!"  He had a great day and can't wait to go back on Wednesday.

Yay for school! (and for Mommy getting a little time to herself!)