Ben's First Day of Kindergarten

Ben's first day of kindergarten was on Monday.  He was so excited that he had a hard time going to sleep on Sunday night, and he woke up extra early on Monday morning.  He was ready for school.  Will has already figured out that summer is pretty great, and he wasn't as enthusiastic as Ben.

When we saw Ben after school, he couldn't wait to tell us all about the Gingerbread man hunt.  He said they looked all over the school for the gingerbread man and he left them notes.  After all that looking he was in the book.  He didn't know how the gingerbread man got in the book.  His words were "It was magical."  I just love that so much.  I hope school is this wonderful for him all year.  By the way, this is so different than Will.  Will loves school, but he doesn't talk about it like Ben does.  Ben is full of stories.  Will has more stories for us the older he gets, but it's not as easy to get them out of him as it is Ben.

I had to get a lot of photos of Ben on his first day of school.

Both of my big boys. 

Of course, I'm making them pose with a sign, which they will probably hate when they are older, but I think it's really cute at this age. (Blame Pinterest)

Will is happy about being in 2nd grade!  

Ben is ready!

Don't they look handsome.  I'm so proud of these two.

The boys and I are ready for the 2014-2015 school year.

My guys posing for a photo to humor me.

Hurrying in the school so mom and dad can get to their school.

This photo is precious.  He was the first one to his class that day. 

He put his backpack away in his locker and then found his seat.

Ben and his sweet teacher.

 Ben has his Play-Doh and name tag.  

Ben was happy when we left him and he was happy after school.  That makes me one happy mommy.

It's going to be a great school year.  

We are thankful for a great elementary school and awesome teachers.

Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Today is the first day of a new school year.  I'm grateful for my job, school, students and parents, and fellow coworkers.  Somehow through God's providence I've been allowed to be in this place at this moment, and I know there is work to be done. My goal is that every day I live out the gospel so others see it.   It's more than just words.  It's actions, too.  That's the light and good works that Matthew 5:16 is talking about.  Those good works are manifested differently for each Christian school teacher that I know, but I see their good works.  It glorifies God, and I thank God for them.  They are making an eternal difference.

I hope and pray this school year that my light shines and brings glory to God.

A cool coincidence happened last week.  I'm not sure if you know this, but many of my blog posts are written well in advance of when they publish.  I had this blog post about Matthew 5:16 written a couple of weeks ago.  A neat thing happened at church on Wednesday night.  Our friend Russell is a teacher and coach, and he gave a devotional on Wednesday night at our Bible study that went along with these thoughts.  It seemed appropriate to include it here.  He shared verses that reminded all of us that our work here is for the Lord and not men.  He also encouraged us to write down Bible verses on note cards and keep them where we can see them throughout the day.  He said he's writing Colossians 3:23-24 on a note card that he will look at in between classes during the school day.  If he looks at it each time there's a class change that would give him the the opportunity to see the verses about 40 times that school week.  Great idea!

 Colossians  3:23-24 

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

The Night Before Kindergarten

It's the night before Ben starts kindergarten and I'm a bundle of emotions.  Mostly I'm happy and excited, but there's a small part of me that's sentimental.  How many times can I use bittersweet to describe my boys growing up?  I know you've heard it before, and I know you'll hear it again from me.  Ben is starting kindergarten in the morning and it's a big transition.  I know that he's old enough and he's more than ready (just a tiny bit nervous).  

We're excited about this new phase in our lives, but...  

I can't believe we're here.  My baby is a big boy!

Whenever I feel emotional about making such big changes, I think about some advice our pediatrician gave us, "One of your jobs as a parent is to prepare your child for independence."  I've got the nurturing and loving part down, but the letting go part is something that takes some effort.  Mark reminds me that they can't stay little forever, and he's right.  Thank goodness both of my boys have always been somewhat independent.  That confidence is really helpful for me since I'm a protective mother.  I'm praying a lot (for them and me) and remembering 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Now...if we could just get them to go to sleep!  As I type this, it's way past their bedtime and they are having a hard time settling down so they can go to sleep.   Oh well!  This is life.

Here are few pics from Meet the Teacher.  It was on Thursday last week.

Ben found his locker.

Ben and his sweet teacher.

Ben checking out his desk with dad.

Will and his new teacher for 2nd grade.

He's so excited that his desk is by his best friend.

It's going to be a great year!

Insta End of Summer 2014

Summer 2014

It was a good one!  

  We had fun and made so many good memories.

If you are reading my blog, then you most likely follow me on Instagram @redbirdblue, but there are few who don't so here's our summer in photos.

We shop at Target a lot, and whoever decided to put Starbucks in Target was a genius.  Target gave me about 100 coupons for BOGO Frappuccinos at Starbucks.  We used them so much, that the boys started referring to their Vanilla Bean Frappuccino as "the usual".  Seriously!  My goodness!

We have a weakness for Dairy Queen Blizzards.  Will is all about quality control and he turned it upside down just like the DQ workers do. (Thank goodness it didn't all come out!!!)

I love raising little boys.  Who wouldn't love a Ninja Turtle at the dinner table?

Mark's birthday was at the end of July.  My in-laws kept the boys so we could celebrate.

Mark loves good barbecue so we went to one of the best places around Dallas.  Pecan Lodge has a new location in Deep Ellum that we hadn't visited and we tried it.  It's as good as we remembered.

Once they run out of an item, they mark it off the chalkboard.  We arrived early, around 10:40am and stood in line for it to open at 11am.  It was worth the effort to get there early.  Kayreen, if you're reading this, this is where I want to take you if you visit!

Happy Birthday, Mark!  Love you!

Mark let me pick the movie even though it was his birthday.  He's a nice guy.

We really liked Begin Again and thought it was one of the best films we've seen in a long time. 

Just a birthday selfie with my favorite person. 

We stayed at the NYLO. 

We went to two beautiful outdoor weddings this summer.

The first was my teacher BFF, Kacie.  She and Ryan had the sweetest ceremony.  Ryan even sang to her as she walked down the aisle.  Someone pass the tissues please!  Isn't she a gorgeous bride?

This is another one of my teacher friends and shopping buddies, Alichia.

The loves of my life right here.  Sorry, weddings make me sappy.

My boys participated in a summer reading program for the first time, and one of the rewards was a field trip to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  We watched an Omni Imax movie and then explored the museum. 

The boys rode the bus to museum, but we signed them out so we could stay behind and hang out in Fort Worth.  You can't be in Fort Worth and not eat at Joe T's.  It's the best!

Summer allowed us more time to spend with family.  We visited Mama Winnie at the nursing home.  I'm not ready to write it, but I have some heartfelt thoughts on having a loved one with Alzheimer's.  So many of the comments on this photo on Instagram really touched me.  I cried many tears from the kind things that were said.  The IG community really is caring and supportive. 

We were able to take Will and Ben to visit.  I'll share more about that visit later.

Love this sweet photo.

Precious

I have an entire blog post about my family from Virginia visiting Texas.  I'll have to share more of those photos later. It was a good visit.  We had some drama when Will's tooth got knocked out, but like I said, that's going to take about 10 blog posts to cover all of that.

Love this funny guy!

Love this silly boy!

Here's the second summer wedding we went to.  Rex and Cheyenne are a couple that are about as perfect for each other as any couple I've ever seen.  It was a beautiful outdoor wedding.  Storm clouds loomed overhead the entire ceremony, but it didn't rain until the ceremony was over.  

Can you see the clouds in the sky?

I was trying to get a photo, but I think they felt rain and they started running.  Crazy boys!

Just dreamy

We got new glasses at Warby Parker.

Will's good friend Keaton got to hang out with us to enjoy the last days of summer. We went bowling at Splitsville. I'm so thankful Will has such a good friend.

Ben's begged all summer to go to Chuck E. Cheese's so we decided to celebrate the final days of summer there.  

My teacher friends (from L to R: Rebecca, Alichia, me, Kacy, and Kacie) and I ended the summer a little differently than the kids do.  Tex Mex and shopping are our idea of a good time.

I'll call this "Chuy's chips, queso, salsa, and dip massacre", ha! Can you tell we really like dip?  Will saw this photo and said, "That's a lot of dip!"

I can't believe I have two big boys now!  

Ben will be in kindergarten and Will is about to start 2nd grade.

Back to work selfie with my boys.  The boys spent the last week with my mother-in-law while Mark and I had teacher in-service at school.  

Linking up to Life Rearranged InstaFriday.