Having His & Eating It Too

Max had a great 1st Birthday! Here are some shots of him enjoying his cake! He's not nearly as messy as my other child was w/ his 1st cake!

Max's fave part... the marshmallows!

The colors turned out very vibrant!

We loaded up some cake to share with the PreSchool friends today... gotta get these sweets outta my house!

PreSchool Theme - Color Exploration

I'm so excited to begin another year of "at-home lessons" with Jaxon! Color Exploration is the first theme for the new PreSchool year. One great way to teach your kids about color is by talking about rainbows and the colors they are made of.

Jaxon began our lesson this morning by teaching me a song he learned from a show on PBS called The Cat in the Hat... red, orange, yellow, green, followed by blue, then we go into violet, that's the rainbow song for you! Take a listen!

After our music lesson, Jaxon painted a beautiful picture of a rainbow using what he remembered from his song to get the colors in the correct order. Here he is painting his rainbow! 

We concluded our "at-home lesson" this morning by making "Coffee Filter Sun Catchers". This is a great way for kids to learn how to mix colors to get new ones! For directions on how to make your own "Coffee Filter Sun Catchers"... see the link below!

Read more: Color Experiments for Children | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8609857_color-experiments-children.html#ixzz1WWP26odG

Back to PreSchool

The day is finally here... PreSchool's back in session and Jaxon couldn't be more excited! He woke up bright and early this morning ready to learn, (more like play), and like the big boy he is, fed himself, brushed his own teeth and got himself dressed! I think if I would have let him, he probably would have driven himself there too! 

Here are a few candid shots I took this morning while he was getting for his first day back!

He wanted to be prepared so he laid out his clothes last night before bed!

Here he is all ready to go... Max is helping Mommy clean up after breakfast by eating the crumbs off the floor!

Getting ready to get in the car... I think he was sort of ready to be done with the home photos!

Here he is with the sign outside of his school!

Even though he only gets to ride this bus once or twice a year, I always make him pose next to it!

He can't wait to ride the bus every day!

Getting ready to head down to his classroom!

Hanging up his book bag... he was really excited about getting the green  name tag!

Settling back in with his friends... this is a new table in their class! It looks like it's going to be a big hit!

He had a great day and can't wait to go back on Wednesday. It's going to be a great year!

Making a BIG Splash

School starts in 2 weeks! I think I'm more excited than Jaxon at this point! Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed most of our Summer Vacation but there comes a time in every young man's life when he's had just about enough "Mommy time" and vice versa!

One of the ways that we've kept from killing, I mean driving each other, I mean staying busy this Summer has been by going swimming. Not only is it great exercises but it's also a great way to waste a few hours in an otherwise boring at-home afternoon!

Jaxon's big thing this Summer has been swimming in the BIG kids pool. Since he hasn't had lessons yet I wasn't sure this idea was a real great one until a friend of mine introduced us to arm floaties... or as I like to call them my lifeline to sanity at the pool! Jaxon thinks these little, plastic, lifesavers are the next best thing to sliced bread!

Max likes to swim too. Even more than swimming though, Max likes the snacks! Here he is enjoying a Chips a Hoy cookie while BIG brother makes a BIG splash!

Jaxon's learning to doggie paddle...

and use his goggles!

I dread telling him that the pool will be closing soon... oh well, PreSchool will be a great distraction!

Last Day

The dreaded summer break is upon us! And what a way to start but w/ rain, rain and more rain! I didn't feel right about sending Jaxon to his last day of PreSchool for the 2010-2011 year in jeans and a coat but Mother Nature once again ruined our shot of wearing shorts.

Here he is ready for his last day! I fixed biscuits & gravy for breakfast since it's his favorite. Max enjoyed his special last day breakfast too!
Here they both are in their car seats ready to take that final ride to school for the year!

Here is hanging up his backpack & coat for the last time this school year!

It was a great year! It's hard to believe how much he's grown up over the past few months. On the first day of school I helped him get dressed, brush his teeth and put his shoes on... yesterday he did all of those things on his own! He's writing his name, recognizing words and numbers, counting higher than he was back in August and teaching me new songs!

We are very proud of all of his accomplishments and look forward to the start of his 2nd year in PreSchool this fall! But until then I plan to enjoy every minute of our time together... because as everyone says it does, time really gos way too fast!

Jaxon's 1st Track Meet

I've never been a big fan of sitting at track meets. It's always hot, usually windy and I find myself spending most of my time waiting for it to be over! So when I got the newsletter from Jaxon's school stating that he and his classmates would be participating in their annual track meet, I wasn't real excited!

Being a first-timer Mom I didn't have a clue as to what was going on... Jaxon wasn't any help! I asked him what events he'd be competing in and he looked at me puzzled and said, "What's a track meet?" Not knowing what to expect we packed our lunch and headed out the door.

Here are some highlights from our day!

Here are the PreSchoolers warming up... Mrs. Amy looks about as confused as I was!

Here's Mrs. Amy explaining to the kids what they were doing for their 1st event.

Their first event was kicking a soccor ball into laundry baskets... Jaxon's turns usually ended in the upsetting of the baskets!

Sharing some encouraging hugs while waiting their turn to throw the ball next in the football/baseball toss.

The obstackle course was a fun way for the kiddos to get some wiggles out!

Here is Jaxon in mid summersault!

Moving on to the balance beam!

If they had offered Limbo as an event when I was a kid at these track meets I would have signed up! Instead all we got to do was throw a softball threw a tire!

Here's Jaxon waiting patiently for Riana to finish her turn!

Most of the kids did army crawls toward the end to make it under the bottom rung... Jaxon did his army crawl all the way back to the back of the line!

Standing long jump was the final field event of the day. Here's Jaxon getting ready to jump!

Here he is in mid-jump....

and here he is landing in the pit!

The best event by far was the sack race! Here are the kiddos all lined up and ready to race!

All of the kids recieved "partcipant" ribbons for their efforts... they were all very excited!

Here's Jaxon holding his ribbon!

Believe it or not I'm actually looking forward to next year's meet! Who knew track meets could be so much fun?!

The BIG Field Trip

Jaxon's PreSchool class went on their final field trip of the year yesterday. For their BIG trip Mrs. Amy chose two really fun locations in Lincoln, NE. The class started their trip by visiting an indoor playground called Lost In Fun. Jaxon asked several times if he would really be getting lost there and was a little nervous about me not going for fear that he might really need to be found!

He quickly discovered that he wouldn't be needing rescuing and must have really enjoyed the foam pits because he went on and on about them when he got home.

Jaxon & his good buddy Aiden swimming in the sea of foam!

The second part of their BIG trip was spent at The Lincoln Children's Museum. Jaxon & I had spent some time researching these two locations before they went so he could see what was in store for the class. He was really excited about the prarie dog holes and couldn't wait to find out if they could climb inside them... as you can see they were big enough to climb in and apparently you also needed to be in costume for this part!!!

Costume change!



Transportation was a BIG hit w/ this male dominated class!
Fire trucks, baggage carriers, airplanes & semi trucks were crowded w/ little guys in Linn Lutheran t-shirts!

And after their many travels the kids made a stop at the grocery store to pick up some supper! Jaxon & his friend Cody must really enjoy shopping together... this is the second time now that they've been grocery shopping together!



Astronaut Jaxon suited up for his first space flight... hope ground control was ready for a wild ride!



Here are 5 out of the 7 PreSchoolers taking advantage of a much needed rest in the BIG red chair... what a fun way to end a fun day and even more fun year!