Keepin' It Real

 How I would like to think it is.........

And how it really is.
Smart's are keepin' it real.

Gunnar Starts Pre-School

Last week my boy started his Tuesday/Thursday Pre-School at Sugar & Spice. He finally got to legitimately hold the chalk board! 

This year he would technically be in the two's class, but a few weeks before school started I got a call. They asked if he could be moved into the three's class since he was a total Einstein and was bored with his grade level work. No, just kidding! Ha! They actually had about 10 kids from his old class that had October birthdays, and wanted to move the whole group up together into the three's class since they would be 3 so soon.

So far so good! I think he skipped learning colors and went straight to foreign language. I came home with all his work colored in red crayon. I asked him what color the ladybug was and he replied, "rojo". So I guess we've bypassed English. LOL!

Gunnar had a great first week. He loves his teacher, Ms. Shannon. She told me he was such a sweet little boy! His class is called the Cool Camels. The whole hall was repainted in an Ark theme. He picked out a shark backpack and it is pretty cute! I took it to get monogrammed and they spelled his name wrong. When I went back to get it after they fixed the mistake, they didn't even charge me! I love a great deal!

School is Back.....

It was a lovely summer and we were NOT ready to start back to school!!! We needed another month! But alas, August 26th was here in the blink of an eye, and it was back to business. Although, I don't feel like it is really school until September, but that is neither here, not there anymore. So, without further delay, here are the Smarties.......

 Slade Smart - 5th Grade, Mrs. Barkowski

 Finley Smart - 1st Grade, Mrs. Sypert

 Group shot for all the Smart kids.

And he was having a break down because he didn't get to hold the board in a picture! Kyle wrote his name and all was well!!!

I will be honest. Our first week was rough. It was hard getting into a routine. Nobody wanted to go to bed, nobody could fall asleep, and NOBODY wanted to do any homework. Slade had lots of homework the first week and Finley had something to do each night. It is just hard to go to school when we had been living it up the week before at the pool. And running around with friends. And going to bed when we felt like it. Sighhhhhh. It didn't help matters, either, that I threw my back out lifting Finley onto the bathroom counter and I was practically useless. I could hardly get around. The first week was not my shining moment as a mother, nor was it for my kids. The good thing  is that we get a repeat this week. Here's to a great 2nd week, and a four day week!!! Yay!

Finley's Tooth #2

So Finny lost her 2nd tooth on July 20th, on our Devil's River trip. It was all quite dramatic. The tooth was lost in the dark the last night of our trip. By lost, I mean we actually misplaced the tooth. She dropped it in the grass and we never found it. Miraculously, the tooth fairy found her way down south to the river, must have recovered the tooth?, and left money under the pillow of Finley's cot! Wow, what a fairy! She travels great distances. (For the record, Finny's nose it not this big-this was a bad camera angle in these photos. She has a very nice nose. I just felt the need to point this out.)

And as you can see, we don't have much space for our teeth. We think this is probably going to be a problem. Maybe the tooth fairy can leave a big bag of money for the orthodontist.

See.....super cute nose.

I Know a Good Yard Guy.......

When we moved into our house, the front yard was bad. It had not been taken care of and there was alot of dead grass, weeds, and dirt. But never fear, I know the owner of the best lawn service in town! Ha!

 In June, Kyle had his guys start tearing out the yard.....everything was torn out! He left only two trees. The shrubs had grown up on the windows and we actually had to get some of the wood replaced around our windows because it was rotten. Then it had to be painted so we repainted all of our house trim.

 Here is are the new borders for the flower bed being poured.

 You can see it was all dirt and weeds.

 More weeding. Then they worked their magic and walaaaa......................

 Beautiful!!! Isn't is so pretty!!! Remember, there was nothing here after we tore everything out.

I love the trees and flowers!

 Finley, Gunnar, and my handprints. Kyle and Slade were not home when the cement was wet so they missed the imprinting.

 This is the breakfast nook window and the kitchen sink window.

 And this has to be my favorite part! The potato vine is growing onto the front porch sidewalk.

 My favorite view!!!

 And I am throwing in some of our family pics in front to the new landscaping. This is us before church yesterday.

 My Smarties.

 My handsome yard man and the Smarties.

The Smart Pad. P.S. We have been blessed with some wonderful summer rains! We love rain!!!

Slade at Ceta Canyon 2013

 In July, Slade and some friends headed to camp at Ceta Canyon in Happy, Texas. This was his first year to go away to a camp and they were very excited!

 Slade, Hudson, Payton, & Bob-in front of the Lane's house before we left. We carpooled and Catherine and Bob rode with us.

 Here are the boys in their dorm. We got them checked in and they went and picked out which bunk beds they wanted. They were acting crazy at this point and could not tear their clothes off fast enough to put on swim trunks and go swimming! They basically rushed out the doors without even telling us goodbye! Nor were they interested in us taking photos. We were just kinda standing there as they rushed outside. They didn't really need us to hug and kiss on them. It was a little sad but we were happy that they were excited!

 Here's the pool. Ceta Canyon is a really pretty place. They have had campers there since the 1930's I believe.

All the dorm boys waiting to swim.

We left them on Monday and all was well.....until Kyle got a call on Wednesday. I had taken Slade to the doctor that Monday morning before we left and they had given him ear drops for swimmers ear which he had acquired from the river. I though the next day he would be better. That wasn't the case and evidently he was miserable with his ear by Wednesday. They told us to come get him. I had to drive back and pick him up. He was in tears. He was miserable but tears were running down his face because he didn't want to leave! I felt so bad for him! He told me he loved it there but his ear was killing him! Poor, dude!!! I told him he could go back next summer! He ended up having to take oral antibiotics-he could not hear out of his ear and it hurt probably for another 3-4 days. I guess he picked up a bad bacteria that made him have a terrible swimmers ear case. We are hoping to make it till Friday next summer!!!

My Little Star

I was hugging and kissing on this little baby boy the other night, you know that sweet part of their neck that either smells like Baby Magic or has a ring of caked on dirt on it.

Me: I love you to the moon and back.

Gunnar: I love you to twinkle twinkle little star.

I love how kids just speak right from the heart. And it's SO DARN ADORABLE! I won't ever forget that he said that to me. Love him!!!