Kindergarten is Awesome

At Leo's school the theme is "Purefoy is Awesome" which is a nod to the Lego Movie. In fact, on Thursday, as we were walking up to the school, they were pumping the song from said movie outside: "Everything is Awesome, everything is cool when you're part of a team…" Still in my head.

Now I'm not going to expect this to last (although I hope it does!) but so far Leo is very excited about school. Yesterday when I picked him up he said, "I had so much fun today! School is so cool!" He has NEVER uttered those words. What was he excited about? This binder, for one thing:

To tell you the truth, I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's just a binder he takes home everyday with his work, a calendar and some notes. But he was STOKED about it. "I can't wait to show it to you!" he said. So, if that's what gets ya giddy, fine with me! 

He was also excited that he gets to play his favorite game on the playground--zombies. He played it in preschool with his Wolf friends and one of his boy wolf friends is in Kinder too (different class) so they get to play zombies like old time. Funny note about this: Leo said, "I play zombies with Harrison and Colin from the Wolves class!" I said, "But Colin doesn't go to school here." Leo: "Yes, he does." I think I know who he is talking about and he does resemble Colin. Poor Leo; not exactly a "People Person." Could never be a politician. 

But he COULD be an artist because art class was another favorite of his. The teacher made fun of her own name, which sounds like "Nose." Leo has been laughing about that since Kinder orientation so, when she joked about it too, he was hysterical. Add in the fact that she said, "My name is not Ms. Bottom," and she is by far his favorite "specials" teacher. 

This is what made ME laugh this week--Can you spot Leo's book box?  

"Which of these things just doesn't belong here? Can you guess which kid is doing his own thing?" A

And this is just a sample. They were all very elaborate! 

This is Leo's first experience with "my parents are not artistic at all." We will NOT be helping him with any crafts for the rest of his school career. Same goes for science projects. 

Getting to school went pretty well. We don't have a bus since we just live one mile away so our options are to walk, ride a bike or drop off. We chose a combo: we drive about half a mile and park in a friend's driveway. Then Leo walks, rides his bike or (in a moment of poor judgement on my part) rides his scooter the other half a mile. The bike was by far our favorite transportation method. Leo rides way ahead while Gus and I trail behind on foot/stroller. 

Today Leo's teacher emailed us this photo while he was at school. What an amazing age we live in when a teacher can send pics with her phone during school! Hopefully she wasn't also checking Facebook all day ;) Oh, and Ava is the girl who sits next to him. I guess he figured he could spell that cause her name is right there. Or she is replacing Gus in our family? 

So here is a picture recap of Leo's first week, ending with an ice cream (shhh, don't tell them it's really fro yo) at his favorite hangout, Race Trac. 

Kindergarteners Say the Darndest Things

It's the night before Kindergarten and Leo just said two smart/funny things:

"I like it when you have the carpets cleaned. Then they roll up my rug and it's more fun to make up stories. It's a symbiotic relationship. You get your carpets cleaned and I get to make up stories."

Then, after giggling over that, I gave him a hug and said, "I love you and I'm proud of you." He asked, "Why are you proud of me?"

I said, "Because you're big enough and smart enough to go to Kindergarten."

He said, "What? Everybody goes to Kindergarten! It's part of life. It's not like I won a reward or something."

Can't argue with that.

Good luck to his teacher!

Ice Bucket Challenge

Leo and Gus loved watching videos of people doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. So when Leo was nominated, they already knew exactly what to do. But there weren't a lot of people left to nominate so we went with some pseudo celebrities! 

Coming Soon…er or later

Lately I have noticed ridiculously specific "Coming Soon" type signs.

At LegoLand in Grapevine on August 6th: The boys and I walked past a barbed-wire fence with some construction going on behind it. There were people digging but it wasn't obvious what they were building. Then I saw a sign about a little water park, like Aqua Lego Land or something. It was hot so I silently wished that it had opened five minutes ago. But the sign promised it would open soon:

Coming August 2014

August 2014? That's real soon. That's now. And the only thing done on this attraction was a few holes--and that barbed wire fence. It wasn't even going to be close to ready by August 31st.

Later that week I saw a sign in Frisco's "City Center" about an apartment complex.

Ground Breaking Spring 2014

Well, Spring 2014 has come and gone, folks. Summer's almost over too. And that ground ain't broken. It's just a field, a field with a fictional sign on it.

I'm sure when the people make the signs they think the projects will really happen at the expected time. But why, why do they think that? Because has any construction project in the history of businesses, houses and water parks EVER been completed on time? I know this and I'm not even in the construction business.

So why not build in a little time on those "Coming Soon" signs? Or better yet, be a little more vague: that's why someone invented the phrase "Coming Soon." Who's to say what is soon? It could be next week. It could be a few months. It could be a few years. You're totally safe in the "soon" zone.

My dad had a good idea for a sign of this nature. I can't remember exactly what it was so correct me if I'm wrong, GR. But I think it was something like:

"Coming Before You Die."

And maybe the sign could have a little footnote: "…unless you are really old already or you are in an unfortunate accident, in either case you won't be missing much."

VA Beach 2014

The first time we went to Virginia Beach Leo was the only Simcik grandchild and he had just learned to walk. This year we took our fourth trip there and now there are six Simcik/Prince grandchildren and all can walk! We met up with Popsy's siblings and their kids and their kids and altogether we had about 40 people in three houses. 

Here are some pics from our fun week. 

Cousins after church

 Leo on the boogie board

Popsy and Gus on the beach

Raising the flag to let everyone know we are a house full of scary pirates

Our home for the week, Lyon's Den

Hanging out at Baja (the local restaurant/bar near our houses) with the 20 and 30-year-olds (Uncle Rob, age 50, not pictured)

Popsy and Leo sitting down on the Stand Up Paddleboard:

Leo and Ellie were attached at the hip (or the hands) all week. Cute cousins!

More cute cousins on movie night

The Lewis Family came to visit from Richmond! Here are Leo and Gus with Dawson

Me with Debbie; So good to see our friends!

If we keep up our tradition of going every other year, the boys will be 8 and 5 next time we go back. 

Everyone should watch out because they will be even scarier pirates by then! 

Serious Biking

I wouldn't normally post about the same topic back to back but I must document this new biking milestone! So, to refresh your memory (or you could just scroll down), Leo learned to ride his bike without training wheels and Gus learned to pedal his trike a couple of weeks ago. Then we slacked a little bit on the biking practice plus there a was a week-long, bikeless vacation. But today, Leo really, truly biked on his own, way more than he did in his first biking endeavor. (Gus is still a little slow with the tricycle pedaling; there was a long, frustrating ride from the pool to our house in which both of us may have cried…we'll keep working on it.)

But back to Leo…Frank took him to the elementary school parking lot and this time, he took off the balance bar handle. And here's what happened:

Now he can get himself going and everything! Pretty good for a kid who used to be terrified of being off balance. 

And here he is riding to the pool on his bike and he's already doing tricks! 

We are hoping he can ride his bike to school this year. Of course I will run along beside him while Gus throws a tantrum on his tricycle.