Releasing the butterflies

Today we decided to let the butterflies fly free. This was an amazing experience for the boys to get to witness their entire life cycle, thank you so much mom for gifting them with this. I don't think they'll ever forget it.












Here's the link to see the whole process from the beginning: Butterfly Treehouse

He's home!

AJ just got home from his first day of school! He had such a fun time, he really likes his teacher, and he says they got to do P.E. today.

He said he couldn't remember much of what they did, there was a weather bear felt board thing that they dressed according to the weather, and he learned today's date. He brought home some papers and a folder that we'll fill out weekly about reading and such.

Curriculum night is in 2 weeks, so I'll find out more than about what they will be doing.

I'm still contemplating joining the PTA, I think I'll go to the first meeting and find out how intense it really is. Andrew's in co-op preschool this year (the same one that AJ has been in for the past 2 years), and that comes with some commitments, so I want to make sure that I balance and don't overwhelm myself.

Corey and I are hoping to volunteer in AJ's classroom once a week, and we'll do the required once a week in Andrew's class as well.

This feels like it's going to be a fantastic year, both boys have teachers and programs that we feel really good about, and we'll be able to have the level of involvement that we're comfortable with. It's important to us to be in the classrooms, be involved with the kids and also provide the teachers with the support that they deserve.

So anyway, digression over, here's some pictures of picking him up.

AJ's first day of Kindergarten!

The day has come, my little boy is off to school! I actually did ok, I'm not too nervous, not too sad. He is as excited as can be.

He got some new shoes last night, he picked ones with Bumblebee from the Transformers.

On his way out the door

On the way to school

There was NO parking at the school, so we parked in a parking lot down the hill and this was our walk up - we may be doing this every day. It wasn't bad though, it was kind of nice.

Hanging up his backpack

His first assignment, writing his name. The black scribbles are me, I edited the pictures to cover up our last name - because, well, this is the internet. He wrote his full name beautifully though.

I'm not sure what was going on with his eyes in this picture, isn't it great!

One last picture before the teacher kicked the parents out

Andrew on the ride home, with AJ's empty carseat :(

I get to go pick him up in a few hours!!

AJ's new backpack

AJ got to pick out a backpack tonight since he starts kindergarten in 2 days!

He picked Cars, and got a little matching notebook. He got crayons and scissors and glue, and tissues, and a pencil box to keep his stuff in his desk. I wrote his name on everything with sharpie - each individual crayon even!






*ignore the scuzzy door, it's due to be repainted because we used the wrong kind of paint the first time. The paint is in my garage, I just need to make the time to do it! Now with the boys starting school, I should have more time for stuff like that.

The birthday gift Andrew picked

I mentioned before that my grandparents sent Andrew some birthday money to pick out his own gift, and here's what he picked:







It's Wall-E! The robot from the newest Disney/Pixar release. He absolutely loves the movie, and when he saw this little robot on the shelves he just had to have it. It's fully interactive, we haven't messed with all the features yet, but it's got a remote control and is voice activated. He has been playing with it ever since we got it out of the box!

Thank you grandma and grandpa!

Corey's company party

Sunday was Corey's first company party. It was so much fun. In addition to his coworkers, several of our family friends were there, since they know Corey's bosses, so that was fun too.

Also, Corey's bosses' son has been filming a movie and they finished yesterday so they combined the wrap party with the company party. Cor and I went to high school with their son, we hadn't seen him in a few years since he's moved to LA, so it was really nice seeing him again.

One of our friends that was there has 2 kids that the boys know really well, the oldest has been in AJ's preschool class for the past 2 years and the youngest will be in Andrew's preschool class starting in about 2 weeks - so the boys had a blast playing with them all night.

There was a scavenger hunt in hay, some of the adults hid a ton of little trinkety things and change in a pile of hay and the kids got to dig for it, that was so much fun to watch, and the boys scored - they came home with almost $10 in change and lots of little toys.

I forgot my camera so I didn't take any pictures, but my friend Marissa did, so I'll upload some as soon as I get them from her.

***I'm editing this now to add in pictures - thanks Marissa!!!***

Searching in the hay (I blurred out the faces of the children who don't belong to me)

Corey, listening to Karoke in the barn

The boys with Azmyth, he's a friend of Corey and I from high school, Corey now works for his parents. He has been in a couple shows/movies - Pirate Master and then POTC3. He just finished filming his newest movie, The Cost of Living

And then there were 5

I'm a little late in posting, but the very next day after our first butterfly hatched, we woke up to see that they'd all hatched!

The red stuff isn't blood, it's meconium. The instructions say that's what they use to add color to their wing patterns soon after they are born, and they shed the excess color that they don't use.

Also, it said to put an orange slice in there for them to suck the sugary juice out of, so that's on the bottom of the house.











We're going to let them loose tomorrow or the next day, so expect pictures of that soon!