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?