School!

I just wanted to give a quick follow-up to the last post. Griffin had a GREAT first day of school. He was so happy when I picked him up. He liked his classroom, his new friends and his teacher. He got to play with the magnetic squares (I've never seen these before) which he loves. He told me how they put all their lunch boxes/bags in a big Rubbermaid container in the morning then take it down to lunch to put their boxes/bags in again when they go to recess. He loved the playground. They had a birthday celebration which included Yogos from a little girl who was turning 5.

One funny thing was I asked him if they practiced the alphabet or numbers? He said, "no alphabet Mommy but we did work on the number 1." I had to laugh. I think this will be LONG year for Griffin if they only go at it one number and/or letter at a time! :)

The first day of school

The day has finally come. Griffin started full-day Kindergarten this morning at Southbury Elementary School. We are just so proud of him! He started his day at about 5:50am. He really likes to get up early. He joined his daddy for a waffle and bacon breakfast then caught a few cartoons on tv before I woke up at 6:50. The rule is no cartoons before school however, when you wake up that early and your mom's still in bed, you can watch tv.

We made a list yesterday of all the things Griffin needs to do before heading off. He was very excited to complete them all in a very timely manner! He made his bed, got dressed, brushed hair and teeth, packed his lunch (with some help), got his backpack ready and posed for some pictures. We even said a prayer together that was super cute!

In the car he said, "Mommy, are you going to cry and cry when you drop me off?" I am happy to say that I didn't cry. The excitement in the school was really neat and I didn't see a tear shed by parent or student.

So now I turn to the "to do" list I've been writing over the past week. My goodness, I have a lot of things to accomplish!

I hope to be posting about our vacation today or tomorrow.

Happy first day of school Griffin! We love you buddy!

Haircut

Do you remember my post from last December about my haircut? How I asked you to please not let me go so far between haircuts. Well, I did it again. I went from December until yesterday without getting a haircut. Once again, I have no idea why I wait so long and I am vowing, with your help, to not go so long between cuts.

My wonderful friend Beth asked for a picture when I talked to her this afternoon. So what better place to put it than on my blog. Here I am!

I'm pretty sure this would be considered a "mom" haircut! Oh well, appropriate, I guess.

Cathi

Cooking

Griffin has taken to helping me in the kitchen. He enjoys measuring things, stirring and just hanging out with me. Last week we had just picked several zucchini. I wanted to grill them and G wanted to help. Of course, he has no interested in eating them he just wants to fix them. And as you can see from the pictures, we still have LOTS of zucchini left even after cutting 2 to grill AND making zucchini bread.

In case you can't tell what he's doing, he's brushing the zucchini with olive oil.

A helping hand

Last weekend we went to a county flea market. It was a fun afternoon (well for me anyway.) We bought were two blue spruce trees. I love spruce trees. Now please don't laugh when you see them. Ok, promise? I won't show you a picture if you're going to laugh. Well, here's one of them. It's about 24 inches tall. I'm going to have to stay here a long time to truly enjoy enjoy them.

Griffin wanted to help Dallas plant them. He ran inside and got one of Dallas' yard work shirt out of his dresser and got his own shovel from the garage and off he went.

Of course, these trees were planted just one day before we lost our big tree. We might have done things differently had we known what was going to happen.

A quick update on the big tree. The insurance adjuster finally came to the house this morning. It's funny what is covered and not covered. They will only pay for the removal of the part of the tree that is on the fence. So we will have to pay to have the big trunk removed. It is rotting so we must get rid of the whole thing. A couple of neighbors have offered to help Dallas fix the fence so we might just do it ourselves (read: Dallas and the neighbors).

And lastly, the weather. It's amazing. Now I know why people here suffer thru the horrific winters - it's to enjoy the summers. It is Aug. 10th and it's 71 degrees at 4 in the afternoon. The sun is shinning, there is no humidity. Wonderful.

Cathi

The Space

As you can see, the expander is working. Griffin now has a very large space between his front teeth. We have one more week of expanding then he'll be done. The expander will stay in his mouth for a couple of months to firm things up. The dentist said the space will close a bit even though the plates won't move. I trust him, so we'll have to see what happens.

So long ol' tree

When we bought this house, one of the features we LOVED was our beloved tree. This tree sat right in the middle of our backyard. I called it my Charlie Brown tree even though it's a big ol' tree. It was about the ugliest tree I've ever seen yet I still loved it. Last summer we put a large perennial garden around the base. I have been tending it and loving on it for a year now. I had plants in it that required shade as well as sun. This tree provided for both. Well last night some wicked storm blew threw and just after the power went out, our tree went down. Right through our fence and vegetable garden. But a couple of amazing things did happen. The tree hit 2/3 of our garden leaving the tomato plants completely untouched. And the bird feeder sitting right next to the tree is still intact. And the perennial garden - I only lost one hosta. And if you know anything about hostas, it's a super easy plant to grow and split so I'll just split one from the side of the house and put it in the missing spot.

Something we did not know about this tree was that there was a family of raccoons living in the hollowed out trunk. I am very perplexed by this discovery because I have NEVER EVER seen the raccoon. I am outside in the backyard every single day and have spent a lot of time looking at this tree. About a week ago, our neighbor did tell me that he had some "strange looking poop" in his yard and that something has eaten their tomatoes but we never thought it was a raccoon from my tree. I guess I need to call animal control to come out and remove the litter before the tree guy comes to take it down.

Honestly, Griffin and I cried last night over the tree. Those of you who have been to our house know how much I loved that thing.

Well here are some pictures of our mess.

And here is a picture from early June of our perennial garden. It looks so small and bare compared to what it looks like today. Those of you not from the north must note that early June is still spring for us up here!