Purplicious

To help Rebecah adjust to Kimball's absence the first week of school we distracted her by painting her room.  We promised the kids when we moved to our house that they could pick the color of their rooms.  Rebecah, of course, chose purple.  I wasn't too keen on the lavender/pastel purple color so I gently swayed her to a darker purple color.  

Rebecah was SO excited to have her room painted.  We worked on her room the first 3 days of school and it really helped keep her occupied.  She was so happy to go buy the paint with Joseph and to sit on her bed and watch the transformation.

The following pictures don't do the color justice, but with the lighting it was hard to get the true color.  The curtains were a little more difficult.  We needed darkening curtains for the summer since it is fully light at 5:30  in the morning.  The curtains weren't my favorite, but they were pink, which Rebecah wanted and they provided the darkening that I wanted.  

We still don't have all of the pictures up on the walls, but Rebecah and I made a name banner for her room that we will hang up once we get some matching ribbon.  

 We thought the room would be too dark if we painted all four walls dark purple, so we did two purple and two light gray.  I love the way purple and gray look together.

You can see Rebecah dutifully picking up her toys while I'm taking pictures.

First Day of Preschool

It is hard to believe that this cute girl is old enough for preschool!  We signed Rebecah up for preschool 5 months ago and she has been excited ever since.  To help give her a time line I would just tell her that preschool would start after Kimball's birthday.  Once Kimball's birthday passed, Rebecah kept asking when school would start.  Her big day came this week!

She was so excited until we walked into the lobby and then she clammed up and stuck to my side.  Good thing the first day of school was a 30 minute orientation/meet the teacher and classroom.  While the other kids played with toys and had fun, Rebecah sat right next to me.  It wasn't until another little girl brought Rebecah a little doll that she actually played.  I think preschool will be good for Rebecah because she does tend to stick to Mom a little more than Kimball did at this age.  The good news is that Rebecah is excited to go back tomorrow.

Rebecah will go to preschool 2 mornings a week.  Her class tomorrow will be another abbreviated class for an hour where I will be in a meeting at her school and she will be in her class to help ease the transition.

Double Window

Kimball just turned six, but that hasn't stopped him from loosing a lot of teeth over the last 10  months.  He lost his first tooth 3 days after we arrived in Syracuse, we didn't even know it was loose.  Since that time Kimball has lost 6 teeth.

He lost his 5th tooth while we were on vacation.  It seemed to hang on by one corner for days.  Kimball finally pulled it and was surprised it didn't hurt.





On Monday he lost his 6th tooth creating a double window because he lost his top center teeth.  I'm not a fan of tooth windows, let alone a double window, but I will admit that the 6th tooth was hanging on by a corner and it was crooked and looked ridiculous.  It came out with a lot of fan fair and the tooth fairy remembered to visit.

Here is Kimball on Monday after he pulled his tooth.

Let's hope new ones grow quickly!

First Day of School

I can't believe Kimball is old enough to start school.  Techinically, here in the state of New York, he could have started last year, but with our move we didn't start him in school.  Kimball has been excited to start school for YEARS!  For the last three years he kept asking me when he could start school and I always told him when he was 6 and the day finally came!

Kimball was very excited this morning to get ready for his big day.  I made him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  I found a new shirt I had bought him months ago and had forgotten about so he wore that today. Most kids here ride the bus and Kimball said he wanted to do so as well.  I walked him to the bus and when the doors opened he climbed on and didn't even look back. I must confess that it made me a little sad that I didn't get one last goodbye hug or look or wave.  He was just gone. 

Kimball had a great day at school.  He came home so excited.  I really thought he would come home a little tired, but he was SO FULL of energy as always.  He can't wait to go back again tomorrow.  That is a good thing since he doesn't really have a say in the matter!

The happy kindergartner.  I couldn't get a great expression from him.

He looks so grown up!

We decided to all wear green today in honor of Kimball's first day of school since he had his new green polo shirt.  We had to take a few group shots to commemorate the clothing.

My two favorite kids.

With my 3 favorite people.

Chittenango Falls

On Labor Day, we took a short trip to Chittenango Falls.  It had rained the night before so the water was in abundance.  It was really pretty and not too crowded.  There isn't much to the park other than seeing the waterfall, but the kids were good sports about the small hike to get to the waterfall.

New York State Fair

Last Thursday we went to the New York State Fair.  Lucky for us it is held right here in Syracuse, NY.  It was a lot of fun.  I had been to the Utah State Fair about 15 years ago with good family friends.  They took me to help distract me after I received the news that my dad's cancer had become terminal.  It was my Freshman year at BYU and it was only the 2nd or 3rd week of school.  

Anyway, Joseph looked in to the Fair and we were pleasantly surprised that tickets were so reasonable and that a discount was given for tickets purchased in advance.  Kids under 12 were free too!  Joseph had the day off from work so we got to the Fair early to avoid some of the crowds and we had a great time.

There was a really nice petting zoo: 

You could pay $3 to go into the parakeet house and have them land on you...
we didn't do this, but plenty of people did.  

This alpaca was SO soft.  I had no idea it's fur would be so soft.

This was a hungry giraffe and loved eating carrots that people fed to him.

There were some Army tanks that kids could explore and climb through.  You can imagine that Kimball was in HEAVEN!

One of my favorite things was seeing all of the farm animals.  There were cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, etc.  Your typical farm animals.  There were baby cows that were born the day before we visited and one calf that was born while we were at the fair, although, we didn't witness the birth.  They were rather cute.

Kimball is with a calf that was born in June.

Watching a sheep get a hair cut.

These piglets were only 3 weeks old.  They were cute.  It was fun watching
various piglet litters fighting over milk positions.

Here Kimball and Rebecah were riding on some cows.

We attended the Stunt Dog show.  It was neat to see some of the tricks these dogs could do.

Here is Kimball riding a dump truck ride.  I didn't get a pick of Rebecah on the carousel.

We had a great time at the fair.  The kids enjoyed their first taste of cotton candy.  I attended a cooking demonstration and won a door prize.  We saw a large butter sculpture and the "ball of death" where the motorcycles ride around.  I think while the kids are young and still enchanted with the Fair we will try to go regularly.

K'nex and a bike

I thought Kimball's K'nex building needed a post of its own.  Here are some pictures of two of the creations he made.  He followed directions on both of these.  He and Rebecah also enjoyed making K'nex swords and other weapons throughout the week!

The first is a sailboat with a sail that swivels.   

His second creation is an All Terrain Vehicle.  I thought it was pretty impressive that a 5 almost 6 year old could put it together.

The happy builder!

I included the instructions for the ATV because this was all Kimball had to work with.
I would have given up after 10 minutes, but Kimball patiently worked on it and needed
 minimal help, which was good because that was all the help I could give!

When we got back home, this nice orange bike was waiting for Kimball in his bedroom.  He was only slightly surprised because we told him we would get him a bigger bike once he mastered riding without training wheels.