100+ Hour Reader!

This summer both Buzz and Boo participated in our library's reading program this summer. The rewards were earned for number of hours read instead of number of books read. Boo ended up reading 80 hours total and Buzz read 120 hours! All of the kids who reached 100 or more hours of reading by the end of the summer were invited for a special award ceremony this week. The librarians gave a speech about how kids who love to read can be reading ambassadors in their communities to help other kids who may not enjoy reading by sharing book suggestions. Each kid was asked to stand up front and share what their favorite book of the summer was and why. Buzz was really nervous about having to talk in front of so many people but he a great job!

Then the librarians handed out a certificate to each child.

Buzz was excited to be recognized for his love of reading and we are so proud of him! Way to go Buzz!

My "Students" 2011-2012

We won't officially start the new school year until after Labor Day but on the first day we will, of course, be taking the customary picture of each child holding up a sign with their grade written on it :)

For now I'll share their birthday photos, taken last month:

Buzz - 7 years old, 2nd grade

Buzz loves anything Toy Story, Transformers or Legos. He's an amazing reader and would rather read than play outside. He's sweet, funny, kind and a great big brother. Basically he's just an all-around awesome kid!

Boo - 5 years old, Kindergarten

Boo loves to dance and has recently developed a love of horses. She reads way above grade level and loves to learn. She's very compassionate and loving but she's also our resident drama queen!

Bean - 1 year old, Tot School

If I had to pick one word to describe Bean it would be JOY. She is almost always happy and has brought so much laughter and love into our home! She spends her days trying to keep up with the big kids and getting into adorable mischief.

Happy Birthday Buzz!

Buzz turned 7 today, how crazy is that ?!?! Ok, maybe not crazy for you, but I feel like we just brought him home from the hospital and all of a sudden he's so...big! The birthday kid in our house gets to be king or queen for the day: picking what we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and choosing whatever fun activity that they want to do to celebrate (within reason of course).

I surprised Buzz with peanut butter & jelly muffins (I'll the post the recipe later) they're one of his favorites and I hadn't made them for a long time. For lunch he chose Lunchables. Yes, the boxed ones from the store, Buzz is nuts for them. Only Buzz and Boo had Lunchables though, Ruben, Bean and I just had regular ol' sandwiches. Ruben and Buzz share a birthday (how cool is that?!?) so Ruben takes him out just the two of them to do some kind of "birthday boys" activity each year. Today they went to Chuck E. Cheese and had a blast. For dinner Buzz wanted to order pizza, so we ate pizza in the living room while watching a movie.

In the last few weeks Buzz has gotten really into Transformers (which Ruben is so psyched about because he loved Transformers as a kid too). Buzz hasn't seen the movies, and won't for quite a few years still, but he has seen the cartoon and he thinks it's awesome. So for his birthday present of course he asked for Transformer action figures! He also got gum as a present, which probably seems like a weird gift, but we very rarely let our kids chew gum, so it was a treat!

He picked out this fun hamburger cake!

He's becoming less and less of mommy's little boy and more and more of a boy boy. It's really neat to see the person that he's becoming and I feel so blessed to be his mom!

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy, we love you!

Buzz's Tooth!

Buzz lost his first tooth over the weekend! It had been loose for quite a while and I was really hoping that it would hang on a little longer so that Ruben could be home when it came out, but it took me completely by surprise when it fell out on Friday evening. Buzz was so excited! He put his tooth and a penny under his pillow (the penny was a present for the tooth fairy). He woke up to an envelope containing a note from the tooth fairy, fairy dust and $5.

Breakfast Date

I think that spending one-on-one time with each of my kids is so important, it gives us a chance to connect on a different level than when we are hanging out as a family. Ruben or I try to take one of the kids out on a special date whenever we get a chance. Yesterday was Buzz's turn, for his date he chose for he and I to eat at Panera and then head over to Barnes and Noble (yeah, he's definitely my kid). We got to Panera right after it opened for our "breakfast date", we shared a bagel and a bear claw and then walked over to the book store. We browsed, read a few books and then I let him pick out something for himself and Boo. He chose the boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia. We had a great time!



Orange Belt!

Buzz spent the last two weeks testing for his orange belt in karate and Friday he had his belt presentation. He was so excited that two of his favorite people in the world, Mr. Joe and Miss Heidi, came to cheer him on!

After the belt presentation we all headed over to Pizza Hut to celebrate. The amazing Miss Lyn showed up at the restaurant with a surprise, a giant chocolate chip cookie with a smiley face on it, in honor of his achievement. How sweet is she?!? We feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

We had a great evening and we are so proud of all of the hard work Buzz put in to earning his next belt!