Jonathan's New Look

About a week ago Jonathan went to see Dr. Suh for his six month eye exam.  His pressures were good so we are going without his eye drops for three months to see how he does.  However it was decided at this visit that he would need glasses.  He was borderline six months ago for needing them and was still borderline.  Dr. Suh decided that with the increase amount of reading and work that third grade would bring he was going to say he needed glasses.  Jonathan was so excited.  I have never seen anyone that excited for glasses before.  We went and picked out some frames, which was not easy because he couldn't decide what he wanted.  He finally found a pair that I also approved of.  They are black with red.  He says they are his Darth Vader glasses since they are black like Darth Vader and red like his light saber.  We had to wait a week to get them in and I thought that week would kill him.  We finally got them on Wednesday after school.  He just kept saying how different things looked.  Things looked better.  I think he looks really good in them.

A New Year Begins

The new school year began on Wednesday the 15th.  Madison is in the 6th grade, Jonathan is in the 3rd grade, and Andrew is in the 1st grade. The kids were not really excited to have to go back to school.  Madison and Andrew have a new principle this year which will bring about some positive changes for the school.  I have had the opportunity to talk with him and am really impressed with him.  Jonathan this year has to rude the shuttle bus to Reinbeck so he has a new school to get used to. Here they are on their first morning as they were ready to go out the door.

They have now survived three day of school and are starting to get into a routine.  Things have gone smoothly so far and hopefully they are starting to look forward to the rest of the year.  They have declared though that they want their teachers to be sick so that I can be their teacher sometimes since I am one of the subs for the district.

Fun at the Museum

While in the Quad Cities we went to the Putnam museum to see the Lights, Sirens, Action exhibit.  This was all about emergency responders.  The kids had fun showing Greg all their favorite parts of the museum that they saw a few weeks before.  They also really had fun dressing up in the new exhibit.

Madison is 10

Madison celebrated her tenth birthday on Saturday.  My sister-in-law made her a very beautiful cake that fit Madison perfectly.  It was her favorite color and had her two favorite things on it.  We were at my parents house for the weekend so we were able to celebrate with them. 

She got nail polish and an I tunes card for her birthday.  When we got home there was a metronome waiting for her.  It was the one thing she really wanted for her birthday.  She has been using mine and it is nice to have her own.

Omaha

A few weeks ago Greg was asked to help out with a youth temple trip to Winter Quarters.  The kids and I ended up going along to help out some friends by watching their kids so they could go with the youth to the temple (he is in the bishopric and she is the young women's president).  While everyone was in the temple, I took the kids to the Mormon Trail Center.  While we were there they did a treasure hunt where they found facts from the exhibits to answer clues to find a geocache at the end.  We were met by a really great sister missionary who was really great with the kids.  She took them and dressed them as pioneers and at one point had them all sit on the floor with her and told them a story.  She was wonderful and helped the time go fast.

 After they were done in the temple we spent the rest of the day at the Omaha zoo enjoying time  together.  The highlights of the day were the aquarium where this is a shark tunnel, and the gorillas.

Here the boys are hanging around the rain forest.  Everyone had a really fun day.  It did make for a really late night followed by a really early Sunday morning.

I-cubs game

Greg had the opportunity through work to take us to a ballgame.  They had tailgating before hand where the kids enjoyed yummy food and they had fun playing games.  The game itself was very slow moving and the kids had fun playing on the kindles while watching the game.  We only made it to the fifth inning.

Andrew's Ledges Trip

This year for his camping trip with dad Andrew wanted to go to Boone to ride the train.  So they camped at Ledges State Park near Boone.  While at Ledges they enjoyed playing on the playground and hiking to find a geocache.

Must be one great s'more!

 They rode the trolley in Boone before riding the train.  He really enjoyed the ride.  He was also excited that they were running the steam engine.

He really enjoyed the time he had alone with his dad.  The kids look forward to this time every year.