2nd Grade Music Program

     V had his 2nd grade music program on Thursday. The theme was "Music Is..."  They were told to wear comfortable clothing which unfortunately meant that I was wrong in making him put on a clean shirt. "But Mom, they said I didn't have to wear anything special!" (He was happy though when I said he could wear his Hawaiian shirt.)

     Here are the boys before the program while we were waiting for our ride:

     B sat calmly throughout the whole thing:

     Each class had a special song that they were featured in. V got to play the glockenspiel during his:

     During the weeks before the performance, he would quiz me on which songs I knew, so afterwards, he asked if I had learned any new ones. Apparently, I'm a slow learner.

     V did a great job. He sang really well (except for when he was hamming it up for the camera). His favorite song was "On Top of Spaghetti" and "Chook Chook" because he got to play an instrument. The only thing that he would like to add is:      "I'm famous."

     Here he is with a buddy from church:

Fall in Birmingham

Fall has been wonderful this year. The weather has been great and the trees are gorgeous. I think my family is tired of me exclaiming how pretty it is every time we are outside.

The boys and I headed out to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy the outdoors with some friends.

 We found a caterpillar:

 

Played in the woods:

Fed the fish and turtles:

 

Rang the gong:

 

Enjoyed the fall foliage:

Made silly faces:

 

 

And generally had a fun time. The Gardens has become one of our favorite spots.

2nd Grade Pictures

I may be biased, but I think V's becoming quite the handsome young man.

 

I can't believe how grown-up he is becoming. 

He is loving school and is doing well. He's an avid reader and excels at math. 

His favorite school activity is wall ball, I hear all about it everyday after school. 

He loves spicy food and has deemed green Tabasco sauce as his condiment of choice. 

He still loves to make paper airplanes and has come up with a few "secret designs" that no one else knows how to make. 

He likes to have collections. He currently has a wall ball collection, a rock collection, a shell collection, a rubber band collection, a paper airplane collection, a bouncy ball collection, an animal bracelet collection, a pencil collection, an eraser collection, etc. (It's fun trying to keep that room clean).

He has developed a special relationship with B that is fun to watch.

He's a great brother and son, and we couldn't picture our family without him.

My New Toy

I was given a new camera lens for my birthday. I was pretty excited about my new toy, but C was disappointed by its apparent lack of 'fun-ness.' 

"But what does it do?"

Well, I've had fun trying to answer that question. Here's some pics from an extemporaneous photo shoot (hence the messy hair and unmatched clothes):

And he's off...

B's first haircut

I had requests for pics of B's new haircut. So only a month after the fact, here they are...

BEFORE:

 

 DURING: (Yes, I distracted him with candy, it's better that way).

 

AFTER:

  
Here are some pictures after he was all cleaned up and ready for bed:

I always feel so sad when I cut my boys' hair for the first time. It always takes about a week before I feel like I didn't completely butcher their hair. B looks a lot different with shorter hair, and he's a bit more blonde now. R's happy that he now looks like a boy, and I'm getting used to the new 'do.
 

Why we only use washable ink