Walking With Dinosaurs

Friday night was date night for Tade and I. Several months ago we had heard about a show called Walking With Dinosaurs. When I checked it out there were no shows close to our area. I would periodically check for the show after that, but still nothing was coming here. As time passed I forgot to keep checking for the show. Then two weeks ago I got an email from a friend saying there is a show called Walking With Dinosaurs coming in town and did we want to go with them. I began to freak out and so did Tade. He'd been waiting for this for a long time. So we got our tickets and this past friday Tade and I headed down to DC to walk with the dinosaurs. We took the metro downtown, ate at McDonalds, then hit the show.

The Host Paleontologist and Plateosaurus

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus vs. Allosaurus

Mommy and Baby Brachiosaurus vs. Allosaurus

Orinthocheirus

Utahraptors

Torosaurus

Ankylosaurus

Tyrannosaurus Rex

T-Rex vs. Ankylosaurus and Torosaurus

Mommy and Baby T-Rex

Scaring the audience. It was a lot louder than it sounds.

We went to the show with our friends Coleman and his parents, Celeste and Brandon. Jake was on his way home from Cleveland so he couldn't make the show. It was an awesome show. I was completely amazed with how real the dinosaurs looked. Well as real as I imagined them being. It's was a must see show.

Our metro ride home. I think the boys had just as much fun on the metro as in the Dino show. Thanks Celeste for telling us about the show!

Green Goblins

Tade is now playing on his first soccer team. He has taken many classes in the past, but no teams yet. Where we live most of the organizations won't let you play on a team until you are in first grade. I totally agree with this because a team full of kindergartners playing for a whole season would be total chaos. Near our house there is a wonderful facility called the Germantown Soccerplex. They have about 20 beautiful fields. Tade has been taking classes there for two years and is getting pretty bored with just classes. Fortunately the soccerplex will let kindergartners play up a year if they feel they can handle it. I gave Tade the option of one more year of classes or a team. I made sure to let him know that most of the team would be older and bigger. He didn't even hesitate, "Mom I don't care. I'm good at soccer and want to play on a team." So Tade is now a Green Goblin. They had their first game this past saturday. Everyone has told me that younger soccer is funny to watch and I completely agree. All the parents could do on the sideline was giggle. We were playing a team that has played together before and been practicing since July. That compared to our team who had only had two practices made quite the match up. I was pretty impressed by the other team. For first graders they had some kids attempting tricks with the ball. One kid looked like he was trying to be a little Ronaldinho. In the end the score was something like 1-10, but that one goal we scored close to the end was way more exciting than any the other team had scored. At least they now have the worst game out of the way. The best part was the Green Goblins didn't even care. They were having so much fun out there just playing a real game.

Tade is waiting for his turn to be subbed back in. They would go in and out every couple minutes.

Each one got a turn in goal. Tade was the last goalie of the game. He had been waiting for that moment the whole day.

How Do I Love Thee...

Can I just say I love the east coast. Maryland in particular. I am sitting here on my couch watching the rain outside. At first I was thinking this is a yucky and gloomy day. Then as I sat here looking into our forest of a backyard I noticed how absolutely beautiful it was. The rain makes the leaves look so green against their dark trunks. Without this rain Maryland would not be so green. I guess that goes for the humidity we get too. Without that sometimes unpleasant weather we would not be able to enjoy the gorgeous things that accompany it.

On sunny days we get to enjoy beautiful scenes like this one.

Silence and Mischief

We have made it through Tade's first week of kindergarten. He came home happy each day and has made all sorts of new friends. Each day I would ask him who he played with at recess. The first day he played with his buddy Aiden from church, but after that when I asked he always had different names. I was so proud of Tade branching out. One day he even played with second graders. While Tade was at school I was able to have one on one time with Seth. This is something very new to both of us. Seth has never been around without Tade for very long. I must say I rather like having one kid home at a time. Seth was so quiet and played with toys in the corner almost the whole day every day. I think he liked having a quiet home with no brother to pick on him. Seth and Tade actually play very nicely together, but the volume levels are always loud. When Seth wasn't playing quietly in the corner though he was getting into trouble. This is partly from his brothers influence. Tade is always telling Seth to do stuff he's not supposed to be doing. They both find it quite funny. So with Tade gone at school of course Seth had to keep up this mischievous behavior.

The second day of school I was on the phone upstairs. I could hear Seth playing downstairs with my keys. After a little while it dawned on me that my keys had been in my purse. Seth and purses are a bad combination. He will turn your entire purse inside out looking for something to mess with or eat. Well he happened to come across my lipstick. I have several lip glosses with screw on lids and one regular lipstick. See I don't spend much money on makeup, but this one lipstick is one piece that I invested in a little more than I normally would. Of course this is the item in my purse that attracted my 2 year old. I think these pictures tell the rest of the story.

I was impressed that he spared the carpet and other items around him.

This is after we went up to the bathroom and I rubbed his head forever with toilet paper.


If Seth decided to dye his hair pink it could look something like this.

Two very heavy shampoos later his hair was pink free, but the bath water had a nice new tint.

School Lunch

In my last post I mentioned that by the second day of school I'd already had to contact Tade's teacher. The story behind that goes as follows as we were driving home from a trip to the grocery store immediately after school:

Mom:"Tade how was your lunch?" I was asking because I had put another note in his lunch and wanted to know if he found it.

Tade: "I bought my lunch."

Mom: "You what?"

Tade: "Bought my lunch, I just had to write my name on a piece of paper and they let me get lunch."

Mom: "Tade we still have to pay for the lunch."

Tade: "No we don't I just had to write my name and then use my pin number."

Mom: "I sent lunch with you, what were you thinking?"

Tade: "I just wanted to try out my number."

At this point I think I was frustrated at both Tade and the school. Tade because I didn't know what he was thinking. I had packed a lunch for him then he didn't eat it. The school because I had not put money in Tade's lunch account and hadn't sent in money that day. This sent up no red flags to check for home lunch. Then when he took his lunch from home to lunch with him and still bought a school lunch I thought that might be weird. Anyway, Tade just really wanted to use his lunch pin number which he had memorized on the first day. In the morning when the teacher asked who is buying lunch he raised his hand not thinking twice about it. He ended up eating grilled cheese for lunch which turns out to be the reduced lunch meal. So he didn't even get the normal menu item for the day. I called the school just to let his teacher know Tade will almost always bring lunch from home. I'm glad I can look back and laugh.

Tade's cool Bakugan lunch box.

First Day of Kindergarten

On Monday I sent my little boy off to school. Tade has been waiting for this day for a long time. He was up and ready to go before I got up. He ate his breakfast in record time and was extra nice to Seth as we headed off to school. It was at this point that I realized that life as we know it will never be the same again. We are saying goodbye to spontaneous vacations and outings. School now controls when we do things for the next who knows how long. On the bright side Tade loved his first two days of school. He's already made new friends, had music and PE class, and given me cause to call his teacher. He's been a busy boy.

Family Fun magazine had a cute idea for counting down the last week of summer. So I wrapped up school supplies and snacks and every morning Tade would come down and unwrap one. On the first morning of school he came down to find a Bakugan lunch box. I think he was the happiest boy on earth at the moment.

As you can tell Tade wasn't nervous in the least bit.

He could hardly hold still long enough for me to take a more serious picture.

In the end we did get a couple good first day of school pictures.

Seth of course had to be like his big brother. So he threw on his backpack and headed to school with Tade. He was very sad when he found out that he couldn't actually go to school with Tade. The whole way home he kept saying, "Tade, where's Tade, want Tade, go school Tade." It was so cute and sad at the same time. When we got home it was so peaceful though. I haven't have a day like that if forever. Having only one child around really makes a difference.

My boy made it through the first day in one piece. He loved it and was so excited to return the next day.

I was all about making signs the first day. I even slipped a note into his lunch. I know you're thinking how cheesy, but I have to fit things like that in now while he will still let me. Before long he will be all grown up and not get so excited about surprises like that. Tade I'm so proud of
you. Your teacher and class are lucky to have you.