kindergarten

T is the letter of the week.

Cullen is SO excited about his class phone book.
Here is his page. They drew a picture of themselves and
wrote their phone number on the line. (The teacher wrote
it below too, some weren't legible.) Now Cullen is itching to
call Kenneth, David, and Anthony and have them over
for a fire in the backyard and s'mores.

This is too precious. Mrs. Lohr is having the kids
sound out words. Here Cullen wrote "Fetbl" for (play) football.
Not bad for a 5 year old. I love the wings he drew on his angel. :)

Cullen's kindergarten class is off and running! I am so impressed with how much they are already covering. He brings home two different books a week that he needs to read to us. (And he is! He's reading really well.) He is learning a lot of Spanish too. I'm very impressed with this school. I volunteered this morning in Cullen's classroom (then the afternoon in the lunchroom) and it is hilarious to see these little people follow the routine of the centers. It's already a well-oiled machine. I had heard Mrs. Lohr makes them toe the line. Perfect for our little Cullen!

On a side note. The hot water heater went out here in our rental house, so the landlords had one replaced today. One of the men (in his 30's) introduced himself when he arrived. His name was Cullen. I asked him to spell it.... I told him our oldest son's name is Cullen. He couldn't believe it, he has NEVER met another Cullen. Then as I was picking Cullen up from school today he told me that there was another boy in line for the car pick-up line named Cullen. (I had heard from several others that there is another Cullen in second grade. What are the odds? Both Cullen and I met another Cullen today. :) I guess it makes sense... there is such a large Irish presence here.

Winfield 2011 #40

Finn is such a little man's man.

Playing football with Uncle D.

The mustache trio.

Random finds in Pecan Grove.

Awww... playing on the hill at Stage 2.
Brings back memories of my childhood!

The uncles gave lots of piggy-back rides!

The boys and I made the LONG (14 hours) drive back to KS for Winfield last week. We did it straight through, it was long, but we all survived it. The weather was cold and rainy, but the boys didn't seem to notice. There was so much to see and do: see the horses and kittens in the horse barn, buy donuts from the John Deere tractor, play with glow sticks, run down the hill at Stage 2, help them selves to drinks and fun (things mommy doesn't normally buy) snacks all day, roast marshmallows, put logs on the fire, the list goes on and on!

Cullen's favorite part of Winfield, meeting Santa. He camped right next to us. Finn's favorite part was seeing "5 big Gators" (like his ride-on John Deere Gator at home). They also loved sleeping in the camper each night. :)

It sure was a fun trip, but I'm glad that drive is over! :) I think we sang The Great Storm is Over in the car about a million times. (It's a song John McCutcheon preforms at Winfield every year. In fact Cullen was singing it again on the car ride home from school today...

My sister put together this video of Winfield. I think it does a great job of summing up Winfield in a 2.5 min clip. :)

my first Notre Dame football game

The football team walking out of the Basilica after Mass
to their bus. What a wonderful tradition.
The tall guy is the starting quarterback, Dayne Crist.

Coach Brian Kelly getting on the bus.

Our seats are at the end of the student section.
All the blue shirts are the students.

The Leprechaun ready to lead the football players
from Mass to the Stadium.

Here come the Irish! :)

See the ND? At the end of singing our
National Anthem, 2 Fighter Jets flew low
over the stadium. Awesome!

Sean and I lined up a babysitter and went to the Notre Dame football game Saturday. It was a very interesting experience. We walked from our house to campus. On the way to our tailgate, we stopped and took a picture of the Leprechaun on the firetruck, when the football players started exiting the Basilica! We couldn't have planned that more perfectly if we tried! I think that's such a cool tradition! Then we walked on the tailgate, where we met ANOTHER military family in the MBA program. (They just got out of the Army, actually.)

We then made our way to the stadium for the beginning of the game. It was SO hot, 97*. Then at half-time the whole stadium had to be evacuated because of severe weather. Sean and I waited it out in the concourse. TWO hours and two storms later, the game continued. I watched the game for a bit, then decided I better get back to our babysitter. I made it back home just as the sun went down. Then after getting the boys in bed, another storm passed over... and I read online the game was delayed again. Crazy weather night here! The game started at 3:30 and Sean didn't get home until 9:30!

We had so much fun, despite the outcome of the game.... I think Sean is going to bring Cullen to the next home game. He's going to love it!!

volunteering

My little raccoon leaving preschool. :)

I've started volunteering for the boys' school this week. I'm helping in the lunchroom every Thursday, there is only one woman that works there that is paid... they rely heavily on volunteers. Cullen was SO excited to see me there. I stayed with him the whole time his class was there. He told everyone I was his mom and pointed to the other lunch table and told me to go talk to them too. At first I didn't, what do I say? Hi, I'm Cullen's mom? But then he told me, go mom, talk to them. So I did. :) Two other kindergarten mom's (both in Cullen's class) were volunteering too. Actually, I met Kenneth's, ((one of the kids Cullen talks about all the time) the other is David)) mom, she is a Radiologist who was on vacation, so she spent the whole week volunteering in the lunchroom. We really hit it off! Kenneth is a really sweet boy too, very polite and talkative. As his class was lining up to leave, he said "Bye, mom. Thanks for coming!" The other women ate it up! :) I need to savor this, soon he will be embarrassed to have an involved mom...

My little raccoon, Finn-Finn is loving preschool! He's disappointed he only goes 2 days a week. It was soooo cute seeing all these little 3 year olds leave the school as raccoons today! After I dropped Finn off, I had to stay for another volunteer meeting to help in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd room. I ran into Finn's teacher and she was singing his praises. She told me he was doing phenomenal! Even though he is the youngest in his class, you would NEVER know it. I am so glad they took him, even though he didn't make the cut-off date. I knew he was ready!