First day of Preschool

Tuesday was Clayton's first day of preschool.  He was very excited to be in the big kids class and have Brinley's old teachers.  He was so excited that he made me leave 30 minutes before it started and we had to sit in the parking lot and wait.

His teachers said he had a great day (with the exception of him wanting to talk more than eat lunch...ha ha)!!

First day of 1st grade

Monday was Brinley's first day of school.  She was beyond excited to start first grade.  She has had her first day outfit picked out for weeks.

 Sitting at her desk, which was right next to one of her good friends from her Kindergarten class

 

Clayton was quite upset that he did not start school today.  His first day will be Tuesday.

Gymnastics

Our summer activity to keep the kids busy was gymnastics (this was our 3rd summer to take it).  One because Brinley loves it and two because it is indoors and we don't have to endure the Texas heat! This was Clayton's first time to be in a class without me, so I was able to have 1 hour to sit in silence 1 day of each week.

 

Brinley moved up a level, so more time was spent working on the parallel bars and balance beam.  She also perfected her handstand (and walking handstand) and is almost able to do a complete split.

 

 

Brinley getting her gold medal

Clayton had fun in his class too.  He is able to do a roll, do a chin up on the bar, pull himself up to the rings and hold himself there and kinda do a cartwheel.

 

Clayton getting his gold medal



Clayton, Addison, Brinley and Austin showing off their medals

 

It is hard to believe the summer is over and Brinley will be starting first grade tomorrow! The summer went by so fast.  We look forward to gymnastics next summer, but we are getting ready to kick off soccer (clayton gets to play too) and dance! Onward to a new kind of busy!!!

Lake Livingston

Last Saturday, we headed to Lake Livingston to visit my cousin and her family at their lake house.  This was the first time the kids have been to the lake and they LOVED it!!! Swimming, fishing and catching bugs made for a very fun day!

Jason decided to try out his Olympic diving techniques off the dock into the lake! I gave him a 6.0 since his legs weren't straight :-)

Of course, once the kids saw daddy doing it, they had to try.  I really thought they would only do it once and then realize how high it was, but I was wrong.  They loved it and spent the next hour doing it over and over again!!!

Clayton chose the superhero dive into the lake.

Brinley preferred the cannon ball dive into the lake

Brinley loved swimming in the lake

Between diving and swimming, they took turns having Daddy throw them into the water

The kids also were able to fish for the first time.  They sat a lot longer than I expected, but the fish weren't biting.

Later on in the afternoon, a catfish was caught on the trout line.  Clayton was very curious in seeing him up close!

We left that evening with two very tired kiddos!They had a blast and we look forward to making more lake trips next summer!

The tooth fairy's first visit to our house

I will start this post with it being known that Brinley has been dying to lose a tooth since May of last year! She asked the dentist what she could do to help her loosen them and he told her to eat lots of corn on the cob and apples.  So for the last year, she has asked for those daily! By March, she was quite concerned why she was the only kid in her class that hasn't lost a tooth. All we could tell her is that the Smith's have strong teeth bones and it takes a while for their teeth to fall out (true story per Jason's mom).  When we visited our dentist again in June, she questioned him again.  He told her her two bottom teeth were moving (barely) and he bet she would lose her first tooth before school starts.

Monday night (two weeks before school starts) she bit into her red beans and rice with sausage and out her tooth came.  It wasn't really loose, it just popped out. Of course I had trouble distinguishing her tooth from the rice, so she had to spit out what was in her mouth into a bowl so I could find her tooth.  We put her tooth into the pillow and the tooth fairy left her a glittery dollar bill ("mom, she left her magic on the dollar")

Needless to say, this girl has been grinning nonstop to show everyone her hole and now she is wanting to work on the tooth next to it getting loose......I have never seen a kid so excited to lose teeth!!!! 

Morning at the zoo

We spent last sunday morning at the zoo.  The kids had been asking to see the Robotic Dinosaur exhibit that has been advertised at the Dynamo games and we wanted to go first thing in the morning to beat the heat.  The animals were out and very playful first thing in the morning!

This 3 week old giraffe played with the kids, he was so cute and following them as they moved everywhere!

 Of course, feeding the giraffes is a must when we visit the zoo

 While we were eating our lunch, this bunny hopped up and sat right next to us.  We had extra chips so the kids took turn feeding him.  He took a cheeto right out of my hand! It was so neat! Once he was full, he hopped off back into the bushes.

 The best part of the zoo visit was being about to see the robotic dinosaurs.  They moved and made noises, the kids loved it! It was really amamzing to see how big those things really were! The kids favorite was the T Rex.

Just as we were exiting the last exhibit of our trip, it started thundering and raining! We ran to the car and were thankful we were able to see everything before the heat storm.