Seven Years {Riley}

Riley is seven years old today. He weighs 53.8 pounds and stands about 50 inches tall. He is still stubborn and wonky and silly and sweet and so much more.

Here’s his annual birthday interview!

What is your favorite color? Silver and gold

What is your favorite toy? Legos

What is your favorite fruit? Mango

What is your favorite tv show? Ninjago

What is your favorite movie? Lego Ninjago movie (even though he hasn’t seen it yet!)

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pepperoni

What is your favorite snack? Fruit roll-up

What is your favorite animal? Snake

What is your favorite song? Uh, I don’t have a favorite song.

What is your favorite book? The Notebook of Doom

Who is your best friend? Ainnsley and Claire and Alcee

What makes you happiest? Playing with Legos

What do you want to be when you grow up? Potion maker and world controller

What is your favorite drink? Limeade

What is your favorite holiday? My birthday

What is your favorite thing to do outside? I don’t have a favorite thing to do outside.

What is your favorite game? Lego battles

What do you like to sleep with? Giraffey and Hoo-Hoo

What is your favorite thing to wear? My Ninjago pjs

How would you describe yourself? I would say I love everything.

What is the best thing about you? That I love Legos! And that I’m wonky.

Happy happy birthday, my sweet Riley-bean. Daddy, Rory, and I love you so very much!

Ten Things

1. Sunday dinner with this motley crew!

2. Three fun girls nights out, at Velvet Cactus, Domenica, and Lagers. These nights help to keep me sane!

3. Sweet Sleepy Sprout.

4. Riley and Maggie relishing their last couple days of summer before school started again.

5. Brothers playing together. It was my idea for them to throw a cup full of bouncy balls down the hall, which they loved. It was raining and they were at each other’s throats and I was looking for any distraction. And it worked! Oh, and Riley built a pretty sweet Lego tower later that afternoon. Love his patterning!

  

6. I have officially converted them to chocolate snoballs….yes!

7. Sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s house!

 

8. Two recent pretty sunsets.

9. Well, they did it: QP and James moved to France. They now live in Flavigny, about a couple of hours outside of Paris. We had a going away dinner for them at Nola and Nopsi’s house a few days before they left and we made sure to get a picture of them with the four kids before we said goodbye. They’ll be back for Thanksgiving!

10. I have officially started training again, for the 2018 Disney Half Marathon. Wish me luck, especially in this heat. It’s been brutal out there, y’all!

School Days: First Days of PK4 {Rory} and 2nd Grade {Riley}

School is officially back in session. Kenny and I met the boys’ teachers and saw their classrooms last Tuesday night. Riley got Ms. Paulin, who he had for readiness camp, and he was so excited. And his desk is right where he wanted it to be: directly in front of Ms. Paulin’s desk.

Riley will have Ms. Cobb too, for ELA, spelling, and handwriting, but his homeroom teacher is Ms. Paulin. Claire is unfortunately in Ms. Cobb’s homeroom. But the younger boys are together: Rory and Colin both have Mrs. Sue and Ms. Megan. It’s gonna be a good year!

Rory’s first day was last Thursday. He went for an hour and a half in the morning, from 9-10:30. He had no issues putting his uniform on or taking first day pictures for me.

 

 

But I still fully expected him to cry, especially since Riley didn’t have to go that day. But he did SO great. I was so proud of him. Mrs. Sue pinned his nametag on him, he gave her her cookies, we found his desk, and I showed him the trucks that I spied on Tuesday night. He was all smiles!

 

 

 

 

 

Riley and I hung out in the cafeteria getting to know some of the new parents while we waited for Rory to be done. Then we walked back to his classroom to pick him up and head home. Day one, done!

 

We celebrated surviving the first day by going to jump at Sky Zone for an hour and then having lunch at Chick-Fil-A. So fun!

The next day was Riley’s turn. He went to second grade for the first time for half a day.

Rory and I walked him in, me crossing my fingers the whole time that this would finally be the year he didn’t cry. And it was. He did wonderfully.

 

 

Sometime that morning I got this picture from Ms. Paulin of Riley and Cole being silly. So glad he had a smile on his face all day.

The real test was when they both went for their first full day, on Monday of this week. But they were happy that morning (even though we had to wake both of them up), did everything they needed to do at home without any issues, took one more first day picture for me, and loaded up into the car easily. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and crossed my fingers that the good vibes would continue.

My sweet boys. I’m so proud of you. You’re going to absolutely rock PK4 and 2nd grade, and I can’t wait to see how much you grow this year. Love you both!