he did it!

I posted about how disappointed Brayden was for not trying to win the Read-a-thon in this post last year.

This year, he was so determined to win. He came home from school everyday and read almost 2 hours. Then on Saturday and Sunday he read even more. He read a grand total of 935 minutes!! I have to admit, I was even more stressed about it then he was, after seeing him with his nose in a book for 7 days straight, the thought of him not reaching his goal would have broke my heart. I'm so glad it ended on a happy note! The grand prize was that he got to ride in a limo to Peter Piper Pizza after school. He got plenty of tokens & pizza too. Such a fun day!

lemonade stand

Every kid has to do it at some point~ and we held off as long as we could ;) even though I made the lemonade, set up the stand, made the poster, bought the cups, ran back to refill the pitcher, and sat behind them a little ways in the scorching heat...they declared it was "hard work" but they were very pleased with the $10 they made in less than an hour. They spent their hard earned money on... art supplies!

cereal

brayden. kosty.

When I was little, my mom set up bowls, spoons, and several boxes of cereal & sugar on the table every morning. My brother and sister and I would all pick our favorite and then make little cubicles built of cereal boxes around our bowls as we ate. I enjoyed the privacy to avoid seeing & hearing them slurp their milk, which grossed me out to no end, and still does. I think they just liked being in a cubby. :)

Now, every night before I go to bed, I set out a bowl, spoon, and cereal for Brayden. A few nights ago I heard Kosty scamper out of bed, and I found this in the kitchen after he left. Aw, it was so darn cute. I just love this picture. Its also very telling that Brayden is my healthy eater, and well, Kosty is just like his Daddy.

field trip

{sorry Jono, I tried 3x to get a more flattering picture of you}.

Kosty and his class went to Albertson's for their field trip. They got a tour and got to break off into groups and have a scavenger hunt. I got to chaperone, and well, I thought it was a little (ok, a lot) lame. But, Kosty said it best when I asked him what the best part about it was... "riding the bus!" My favorite part was hanging with my favorite 4 year old.

my artist

Kosty is obsessed with drawing. It makes me so happy to see him take his paper & pencil with him wherever he goes. He even spent a lot of time drawing while we were camping. He draws in the car, at church, while watching TV, every chance he gets.

On a side note: He is doing SO well in school, and I feel bad that I was so worried about his behavior going into school. I really stressed about it. He is a fiery little spitball at home with me. But his teacher often emails and tells me when I see her how well behaved he is and what a great leader he is in class. I'm SO relieved. He also claims to "hate" homework, even though its the very first thing he wants to do when he gets home, or lately, he can't even wait till we get home, he has a clipboard in the car & he does it right when I pick him up. He also gets very good reports from his church teacher and gets the "reverent" sticker every week.

Which leads me to seriously wonder....who is this kid fooling? them or me?

"horns"

Kosty finally loves his haircut. He went through a little period where he was self conscious, but mostly because of all the comments he was getting. He came home one day and said, "I'm SO tired of everyone talking about my haircut!!"

Now he (and everyone else) has gotten used to it. He always asks me to make him "horns" which in his mind, is a little Mohawk. He wanted to give himself horns the other day and boy was he proud!

artichoke night

(please ignore his ribs- I made sure to give him extra butter)

When I was a kid, artichoke night in our house was a huge deal. My dad LOVED artichokes and so he passed on his love to us. We would beg for artichoke night! My dad even had them growing in his garden at one point, and I remember bragging to my friends that we had artichoke plants. I bet they were real jealous ;)

I've held "artichoke night" in our home on a few occasions. Desperate for my kids to fall madly in love as I did, I kept trying even though they just weren't fans. Plus, I thought, not in a gazillion years would my husband, the pickiest eater, be on board. To my surprise, he ended up loving them. So last week, I bought two giant artichokes. One for me, one for jer. I warmed up some soup for the kids, since I had given up on them. Kosty noticed how delicious my artichoke looked, and he started asking for leaves. He ended up taking over and devouring the entire thing. I was such a proud mama!

Have you had an artichoke?

camping

We went camping over Labor Day weekend, for the FIRST time as a family! Jer has taken the boys to father n sons but this was my first time. And it was my first time ever sleeping in a tent. (That I recall). We went with our friends and neighbors and I was excited to go with some more experienced families (aka men with guns). I have been telling Jer for a long time now that I want to be an outdoorsy hiking & camping family, so I got to put my money where my mouth was. The other families were staying two nights but I only committed to one, not knowing how much of a "camping family" we would turn out to be. We got there later than we hoped, but set up our tent, ate dinner, made smores, put the kids down, then sat and chatted by the fire with our friends. Then it was time for bed.

I went pee in the bushes right before I went to sleep.

3:00 AM: I had to go again.

5:00 AM: Brayden had to go.

Going pee in the middle of the night in the dark and scary woods alone = not my favorite. Some of our friends brought their dogs and with every bark, I worried WHAT it was they were barking at. Not the best nights sleep! So the next morning, we ate breakfast, hiked, played with the blow dart, BB gun, the boys caught a horny toad, and we played in the creek. Then we rode quads, which was super fun, and stayed until 7 and decided to go home and sleep in our own beds. Smart move.

So I decided that we are a one night camping family. :)

the farm

We went with our friends to Superstition Farm a few weeks ago. Kosty was really excited to go up until his shoes & socks "boddered" him. He let that ruin his mood and his fun, but I had a good time and learned a lot of cow facts like: cows are not called cows unless they are female and had a baby. Baby cows weigh more than 100 pounds,and they walk within an hour of birth. When you buy milk at Fry's, Safeway, or Albertson's you are supporting local farms. Milk from Walmart & Costco is shipped & not as fresh. We also got to see a baby calf that was born an hour before stand up for the first time. I got to feed all the animals out of my hand, since Kosty opted out. And we got to eat the most delicious fresh ice cream ever!

Choice

I found this quote while planning my YW lesson, and I really liked it.

"Today comes with built in decisions, great and small. The clothes I put on, the road I travel, the people whose lives I touch. In fact, nearly everything in my day depends on how I choose. Today I can choose to carry the blame myself, or to hold out a helping hand...to shout out loud in anger, or to wait ten seconds...to cloud someone's mind with doubt, or to lift a heart with encouragement. Today I can choose to count stars or to count mud puddles. When I go to the store, I can choose to see how much there is to buy instead of how much I have to pay. When I get stuck in traffic, I can see, in every other car, a person just as important as me. Today, because I live in a free land, there are a thousand things I can choose: The neighborhood I live in, the friends I laugh with, the work I do, the thoughts I think, the dreams I dare. And what I will become, in spite of my fears and failures, in spite of the talents I lack, in spite of all the privileges I never had, depends on how I choose to challenge myself today. For I have power, if I choose, to act instead of complaining...to speak out instead of cherishing a hurt...to seek justice instead of getting even...to love the world instead of waiting for the world to embrace me first. What I choose today may well be the cause of my tomorrow. Today...I shall live as I choose. Let me choose wisely and well..."

take 2

So I had to do a "retake" of his first day of school, since this is how he should have looked, according to their rules. Gah, I'm still not used to it!

mysterious lines

Lately, every person kosty draws has had this odd box with lines on its forehead. So, when I asked him what it was all about, he showed me the "lines" on his forehead!