Kindergarten Graduation

Today was Reed's Kindergarten graduation.  It was cute.  They sang some songs and each child took a picture accepting a diploma.  Here's my big boy...

Here we are with our little graduate

with Mimi and Pepaw...

and Gammy and DadDad...

and here he is with Mrs. Sain.

I cannot say enough about Mrs. Sain.  She has made is first year of school absolutely wonderful.  It took so much off of my shoulders to know that he had such a sweet teacher who loved him so much!  Thank you Mrs. Sain!

And to our sweet boy - your daddy and I are so very proud of you.  You have done such a great job at school - listening and learning SO much this year.  You are going to be a great first grader and I am so excited to see all the great things that you will do!  Love you little man!

My Big Boy

Today was Reed's 6th birthday.  He came home from school yesterday because he wasn't feeling well and had a fever.  After a trip to the doctor, it was confirmed that he had strep throat.  He started his antibiotics and after a fairly rough day yesterday he woke up feeling great and ready for school.  The doctor said he wouldn't be contagious, so if he felt like going, that would be fine.   A friend of mine mentioned that she had a friend who let her kids eat cake for breakfast on their birthday and I knew Reed would love it.  Here he is this morning with his chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and chocolate milk. :)After breakfast, we left for school a little early for an errand.  On their birthday, the kids are able to have a birthday snack brought to school in the afternoon.  Up until this point, every child has made the obvious choice of cupcakes for their birthday snack. A couple of months after school started, Reed decided that he wanted me to bring donuts on his birthday.  I thought he would change his mind, but his decision stuck.  So this morning we headed to the newest donut store in town that has huge donuts (hey, if you're gonna do something, you might as well do it all the way, right?).  He picked out the donuts he wanted and as we were checking out, the lady handed him a GIANT cookie - without even knowing it was his birthday.  I guess that's what buying $16 worth of donuts will get you these days.  :)  Anyway, I made him hold it up by his head just to show how huge it was. (Check out those glasses - this one's just too cool for school, people!)

This afternoon when I went up to pass out the birthday snack, I walked into his classroom and that kid had on one snazzy hat...
Here is is eating his precious birthday donut sandwiched between two girls - this kid of mine is always surrounded by girls! Oh, the things we have coming in the teenage years... :)After school, we headed to Fort Worth.  Reed had some birthday money that was burning a hole in his pocket so we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart then onto the movies. We went to see How to Train Your Dragon at the movie tavern.  The movie was in 3-D so we were rockin' our glasses...

It was a really cute movie and Reed loved eating in the theater - I could tell he felt pretty special.  We stopped by my parents' house to pick up Hudson - he had been there since Wednesday morning.  I was going to pick him up yesterday, but then Reed got sick and I wanted to make sure that it didn't get passed to Hudson.  Anyway, he had a great time playing with Mimi, Pepaw and Uncle Brandon, so the ride home proved too much for him.
Yes I gave my child a Route 44 at 9:00 at night so he wouldn't scream on the way home.  I'm fine with that. :)

Happy Birthday, Reed!  I can't believe you are already 6!  You are such a blessing and absolute joy - I am so proud to be your momma!  I love you little man!

Reed's First Field Trip

Today I went with Reed and his Kindergarten class to his first school field trip.  I was very excited about it because I don't like missing 'firsts'.  Especially with my kids - that's one of the main reasons I stay home with them!  Anyway, we went to the FW Zoo and it was SO much fun.  I asked for a season pass for Christmas and this was the first time we had been.  After today, I promised myself that we would go a lot more often.  The kids rode up on the school buses and we had drive our own vehicles.  My mom and Hudson rode along with me and they went and did their own thing while I helped chaperone.  Reed's class has 20 kids and there were 14 chaperones!  Wow!!! So I only had Reed and a sweet little girl named Sydney.  They were both so well behaved and we covered a lot of ground!  Here is Reed with the flamingos.  I tried to get him to stand like one - balancing on one foot with the other leg bent, but he was having none of that.

Sydney and Reed checking out the elephants

The kids in front of the new reptile house which I have to say is amazing.  They have a place to sit and eat that has large glass walls and you can see a huge crocodile, turtles, fish and all kinds of stuff swimming around while you eat.  It was so cool!

Reed and the Komodo dragon

Reed riding the alligator

When 1:00 hit, I had to take Sydney back to the zoo entrance to ride the bus home. I signed Reed out and we met up with my mom and Hudson and we spent another 2 hours walking around and checking things out.  This is me and the boys on the train.  With my membership, we got the train fare for 1/2 off!  Awesome!  (Check out their dirty faces!  I guess dirty = fun!)

Turtle sculpture in front of the reptile house

This is looking out one of the windows of the cafe I was talking about above.  This crocodile was HUGE.  I tried to get a picture of the boys by it to give a little perspective, but it still doesn't look as impressive as it did in real life!

Here we are outside the reptile house.  We were all starting to fade a little at this point... :)

Reed wanted to go back to see the birds and buy a seed stick.  (We were instructed not to buy anything for the kids we had in our groups to insure that no one got any special treatment, so I had to wait until Sydney was on her way back to the school.)  Reed loved it.  He quickly learned to walk very slowly up to the birds to get them to eat from the stick.

I got a bird to actually step on the stick and then I handed it to Reed...

Hudson was mesmerized...

A couple of girls squealed when the birds whizzed by their heads, so Hudson started to squeal, too.  The bird freaked out and I was afraid it would get scared and fly off so here's me telling Hudson not to scream like a girl...

A pretty turquoise parakeet

We had the best day.  It definitely made me want to go back again soon!

Lost Tooth

Reed went on a little trip with Gammy and DadDad this weekend.  He has had a loose tooth for a couple of weeks and I knew it should be coming out ANY time.  Friday night we got an e-mail from Gammy that it had finally come out!  At first I was a little sad that I wasn't with him to witness him losing his first tooth, but I got over it.  :)  Here's my big boy, minus one teeny tiny tooth...

Mr. Smarty Pants

Reed is a smart little kid. He loves to learn about things and wants to know why stuff works the way it does. He is very much like his daddy in that department. Janna Duty teaches music at Reed's school and she saw me at church last Wednesday and said "I have a story to tell you about Reed - he is very smart!" She told me that they were ringing the triangle (You know - the "Come and get it" triangle that they do for dinnertime on western movies) and the little boy that was ringing it was holding it on the triangle itself and not by the top, so it wasn't making the sound it should. She asked the class why and Reed raised his hand and I can't remember his exact words, but he said something to the effect of the triangle isn't vibrating which means the air around the triangle isn't moving, which is what makes the sound. Janna said in teaching music for 10 years, she said that no one, up through 5th grade, has ever known the answer that question. Wow. He definitely gets that from his daddy. :)

Special Jammies

At school today, Reed's class is going to read The Polar Express while hanging out in their pajamas drinking hot chocolate.  Reed doesn't sleep in pajamas so I actually had to go buy some for the occasion, but it was well worth it - look at my little cutie pie!!

Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone

My Little Casanova

On the ride home from school today-

Reed: "Guess what? I have a girlfriend."

Me:  "You do? What is her name?"

R: "Destiny.  But something weird happened.  She broke up with me."

M: "What?" 

R: "I asked if a marker was hers and she said 'Reed, I'm breaking up with you.' "

M: "Really..."

R: "But now she's my girlfriend again.  Actually I have 3 girlfriends.  Jenna and Maddie are my other ones."

M: "What?"

R: "Well actually there are four... Zoe, too."

M: "Wow, that's a LOT of girlfriends."

R: "Well, I guess I'll have to marry one and then I'll only have 3 girlfriends."  

Wow.  That conversation went downhill fast.

A conversation between myself and my oldest child today:

M: I love you, buddy.

R: I love you too, Mom.

M:  I love you better!

R: No, I love you better!

M:  How can that be? I love you the best!

R: Well....I love you 20 miles an hour.

:)

Thankful Thursday

Reed, today is your 5th birthday and I wanted to list a few of the many reasons we are so thankful for you and enjoy you so much.

• You are a funny, funny kid. You constantly have me, your Daddy and your grandparents in stitches. You have a great sense of humor and are always keeping us on our toes with your funny sayings and come-backs!
  
• You are a great big brother. You are so sweet to Hudson - with your hugs, how you share your toys with him and how you watch out for him. You are helpful, sweet and truly a protector for him!
  
• You have a tender heart. Things affect you in a way that show me how sensitive you are. You care about others and how they are feeling and you love very sweetly.
  
• You are smart. You pick things up quickly, want to figure out how things work and I know you will love all the learning that you'll do at school.
  
• You make good choices. Of course you make some bad ones too, but the good FAR outweigh the bad. You're going to grow up to be a very good man.
  

Your Dad and I are so very thankful for you! We love you so much and wish you a very, very Happy Birthday!

(I know there are a lot of pictures, but trust me, these are pared down!)

Reed's 5th Birthday Party

Reed's birthday is on Thursday, but we celebrated this morning at Chuck E. Cheese. The party started at 10:00. (Ten o'clock in the morning? Isn't that early for pizza, you ask? Well, yes, but if I booked the party at 10:00, each party guest got 20 extra game tokens and when it comes down to it, it's ALL about the tokens, right? And we really didn't eat until about 11:00 which is our lunch time anyway, so it worked out great.) Reed is really into planets and the solar system right now, so we decided to go with that theme (well, as much as you can have a "theme" at Chuck E. Cheese.) They supplied all the stuff we needed for lunch, so I just got a few extras like rocket napkins and outerspace/alien themed favors. I made his cake to look like a planet with a little alien on the border. The inside of the cake was a fun rainbow color - the kids (and adults) loved it. Reed had a great time and is already planning his "Six Birthday" as he calls it. Here some fun shots from the day...

Reed trying his luck at ski-ball

Even Uncle Eric, Aunt Sara and Grace joined in for game time!

Cousin Sarah & the boys

Our little "Birthday Star"
Reed with his cake

Getting ready to blow out the candles

The inside of the cake - it's colorific!

Opening one of the many awesome presents

Reed and the cousins - he was so glad they came!

First Teeth Cleaning

Today I took Reed to the dentist to get his teeth cleaned.  Yes, he is almost five and this was his first trip to the dentist.  I'm sure the reason I have put it off is because of my hate of dental appointments and the pain that I associate with them.  I know that all dental appointments do not involve pain, but I inadvertently associate the dentist chair with discomfort/pain. Because of all the drama I have had lately because of my teeth, I knew that I needed to get Reed on a good cleaning schedule and show him that if he goes to the dentist when he should, things won't get out of hand like in my situation.  About three weeks ago, Reed said "My tooth hurts."  Uh-oh. I asked him to open up and sure enough one of his molars had a tiny piece out of it.  I called right then and scheduled today's appointment.  We went in this morning and they did a couple of X-rays and started to clean his teeth. Some of the things were a little weird and uncomfortable to him in the beginning, but he ended up saying "That wasn't that bad!"  Turns out, he does have to go back to have that tooth fixed (hopefully a filling, but possibly a "pulpotomy" which is fancy talk for a root canal on a baby tooth.  Sweet deal.)  The good news is that he didn't have any other cavities or issues. He was a very brave boy and I was so proud of him!