Owen’s 1st Day of Kindergarten

Well, last week on Monday, August 19th, 2013, my baby boy started Kindergarten. It’s really hard to believe we are to this point in life that we now have an Child in Elementary School. We have talked about this day for what seems like an eternity, so it was very shocking when it finally arrived. I swore on everything I wasn’t going to cry, especially since I had done the ‘1st Day’ routine twice before with him for Pre-School & Pre-K. As usual I completely lied to myself. When I saw him line up outside the North East Entrance of the School in a sea of other Kindergarteners, my poor eyes could not hold back the tears. No more walking him into his classroom, no more signing him in and KNOWING he has been accounted for, and no more talking to the teacher at the end of the day to see how he did. My baby is growing and WAY too fast. Just as I expected he got into that line with such confidence and not an ounce of fear in his eyes and followed 17 classmates that he has never met before in while waving goodbye to Brandon, Autumn, and I. As sad as I am to watch him go off & grow, I am so excited for this next chapter of his life and being able to watch him grow over this next 2013-2014 School Year. Mommy & Daddy love you so much Buddy and are beyond proud of the Little Boy you have become. We will forever be your biggest supporters and your biggest Fans. Good Luck Bud!

Here are a few of my First Day Favorites…

I simply cannot put into words how ecstatic he was about this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Backpack :)

1) Because I am Crazy and 2) Because this day felt so big, I tried a couple different chalk designs. Lol!

First Day Comparison from 2011, 2012, & 2013.

 

And it felt like days, but just a few short hours later and I FINALLY had this sweet boy back in my arms.

We sure missed this little guy. Autumn even took him a special 1st Day of School Sucker for him when we picked him up.

Now, to get used to this routine 5 days a week may take some adjusting on all parts, especially now that Autumn has started Pre-School (Autumn’s 1st Day of Pre-School Pics coming soon).

Back to School Night

Well, my sweet little baby boy is now officially a Kindergartener at Normandy Elementary School! I could not be any more excited for him and to say he is ready would be a complete understatement. The school is very highly ranked in Colorado and has a really good reputation within the community so I am really looking forward to this school year.

On Thursday, August 15th, his school had their Ice Cream Social Back to School Night. All the kids got to go to the school, eat a yummy Ice Cream Sundae, drop off their school supplies, check out their classrooms, and most importantly meet their teacher. Owen had been counting down the days for the Ice Cream Social for about 4 weeks, he was beside himself with anticipation. Unfortunately Brandon could not make it that night, so we invited Mimi to join us for the special evening.

My little Normandy Knight!

I cannot explain in words how excited he was for this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Backpack. It was probably the cheapest made backpack out there and will most likely break before Christmas, but I promised he could chose whichever one he wanted and a promise is a promise and he is ecstatic!

Yes, Kindergarten in Colorado are only Half Days. There are obviously some major pro’s and con’s to this, but overall I’m happy I only have to share him for a few hours a day. And because Autumn will be attending Preschool a couple days a week and I can’t be in two places at once, Owen is doing PM Kindergarten. I am so happy with this decision as it will give Owen and I some one on one time (which is an extreme rarity) while Autumn is in school and the class size for PM Kindergarten is a lot less than AM Kindergarten. He has 17 students in his class, 12 Boys & 5 Girls. A bit lopsided, but 17 kids is GREAT for a public school.

Eating their Ice Cream with Mimi :)

Checking out his classroom!

So SO SO SO SO SO SO excited for this little guy and am honestly still in complete shock we are in this new stage of life and have a child in Elementary School.

Here is to an awesome 2013-2014 school year, Best of Luck my Sweet Owen Michael Burgess!!!!!

(Check in soon for 1st Day of School Pictures)

Randomness…

Here are some random pictures from the two weeks before school started, then I can finally do my Back to School Post.

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As an attempt to get back into the routine of learning AND playing we did lots of learning activities over the two weeks leading up to school since most of July was play play play busy busy busy.

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Autumn is starting her 4th 12 week session of Gymnastics and is continuing to love it. We asked her if she wanted to try dance for a little bit and she had a mini heart attack. Her exact words were, “I do gymnastics, I am NOT a dancer.” Point taken. Lol. Just glad she has a deep passion at such a young age.

Autumn and Eisley waiting for class to start. They are seriously adorable!!!!!!

Here she is on a different day doing a make-up class.

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Brandon is creating bad habits for my 5 year old boy. Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as Owen shares Brandon’s extreme LOVE for video games, maybe more like addiction to video games. 

Fuzzy picture, but you get the point. Pretty darn cute. And yes they are playing the old school Nintendo from the late 80’s.

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Park Picnics are a weekly thing around here. Probably more like two or three days a week. 

Suzie & Mickey got to join us on this particular afternoon :)

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And what’s better than a Picnic at the Park? A Picnic at the Beach with Friends :)

Blayne, Owen, and Emma.

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And even the biggest of boys still get tired…

So sweet and innocent.

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I also got some power cooking done and made some freezer meals to have on hand for when school is back in and life is crazy!

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So there you have it, a quick little recap of the past two weeks. Check back soon for some Pictures of Owen’s 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Autumn’s 3 Year Check-Up

Yes, I am a bit behind, it’s been crazy busy over here. I sound like a broken record I know. Any who, I didn’t want Autumn’s 3 Year stats to slip through the cracks so better late than never. Since I already did a summary of Autumn’s wild, crazy, and loveable personality and all of her ‘Favorites’ on her 3rd Birthday Party blog I will keep this short and simple.

Although my sweet girl is very small for her age, we were very pleased with her growth this past year she grew 4 Inches and gained 4.5 pounds. The last two years her weight has been in the negative percentile so her actually hitting the chart this year was a very big milestone for her. Her doctor and I agree that she will most likely always be on the low end of the growth chart (no big surprise considering her genes) but she is a very happy, healthy and very active little girl. She is perfectly perfect. So here it is…

Weight: 24.7 lbs. (2nd Percentile) YAY!!!!!

Height: 36.75 in. (33rd Percentile)

Here is a compression of the last 3 years…

Weight:

1 Year, 15.2 lbs. (-2 Percentile)

2 Year, 20.0 lbs. (-13 Percentile)

3 Year, 24.7 lbs. (2 Percentile)

Height:

1 Year, 27.0 in. (4 Percentile)

2 Year, 32.75 in. (22 Percentile)

3 Year, 36.75 in. (33 Percentile)

Summer Trip to ABQ :)

FINALLY I am getting to blog about mine & the kids summer trip to ABQ (Albuquerque to all my CO peeps). As you know from my previous post, Owen went home with my parents after they came to CO for Autumn’s 3rd Birthday. So this trip was to pick him up after his 6 day long trip at Nana & Pampo’s and to spend a week visiting my amazing Family & Friends in New Mexico. As Owen & Autumn will both be in school this year (which starts next week, yikes) we know our trips back to visit are going to be few & far between. Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed our time there making sure to visit everyone we possibly could. Due to time & the amount of pictures I have I will do my typical day by day blog of our time in NM, here we go….

Monday-July 29th: 

That morning was stared with Brandon, Autumn, and I going to finish registering Autumn for her first year of Preschool. She is a total Mama’s girl so I honestly can’t tell if she is excited or terrified about being away from me so long. I think she’ll do great and I truly believe hidden under her nerves is joy & excitement. Once we got all her paperwork/records taken care of we dropped Brandon off at home and Autumn and I hit the road to New Mexico at about 10:30am.

I honestly could not have asked for a better behaved child to road trip with. Her, Blankie, & Grumpy the Giraffe slept a bit (which is really unusual since my kids have never been car sleepers), snacked a bit, & watched 2 movies (Tangled and Beauty & The Beast). I honestly hardly heard a peep from her.

We arrived to my parents house at about 5pm. We were greeted by Owen, My Parents, My Sister & My niece who were all very anxiously awaiting our arrival. The cousins were super excited and immediately got to playing and being super silly. My sister made us a wonderful dinner and we basically spent the evening relaxing and enjoying one another's company. Such a perfect 1st night.

These girls are too cute for words and REALLY miss each other.

Tuesday-July 30th:

Tuesday’s goal was to spend every second with my Sister and Niece since she had to work 4 of the 7 days we were going to be there. My sis and I started the day at Gravity Park with the kiddos. Gravity Park is new to ABQ since we moved and we’ve heard such great things about it we decided we had to check it out. Gravity Park is basically a giant room filled with trampolines & foam pits. It was a blast for all of us, not just the kids. My camera battery was dead so all I had was my phone so the pics aren’t the best.

 

After all our fun jumping around, we headed to my sisters where she made us all a delicious lunch and the kiddos played until they were all ready for naps.

 

After all the kids were all rested & refreshed we headed over our friend Melissa’s house (my old neighbor & very good family friends) to let the kids play and swim. Our other friend Leanne (another old neighbor) and her kids were over too. All the kids had a BLAST!

Linkin (6), Aiden (8), Owen (5) & Averie (6.5) swimming :) Owen sure misses these sweet friends. Owen has known them all since the day he was born.

Aubryn, Abigail, & Owen AND Autumn & Finnley

After the kids swam & played my sister and I dropped the kiddos off to my parents and headed to dinner at Vintage 423 for a girls night out. I completely forgot to take pictures, guess us girls were having way too much fun eating and catching up. It was Me, My Sister, Cammy, Piper, Alison, and Kristin and it was SO much fun and the food/drinks were delish!

Wednesday-July 31st:

My sister, Niece, the kids and I started the day bright and early. We met our dear friend Candice (who is my Sister’s old High School BFF/College Roomate, she is basically like another sister to us) and her 3 kiddos at her house at 8am. Once we were all situated we caravanned up to the Sandia Mountains to go to Tinker Town. Tinker Town is a Museum that is made up of a whole bunch of Folk Art that started as some man’s hobby that later turned into a museum. We used to go there growing up so we thought it would be fun to take the kids there. It was a really fun time watching the kids play and reminiscing about our childhood. 

Writing a message in a bottle :)

 

After the Tinker Town fun we headed back to ABQ and took the kids to the park because they all still wanted to play together.

Owen (5), Abigail (2.5), Autumn (3), Pearl (1.5), Fenn (4), & Seth (7). Such an awesome group of kids.

What Beauty’s!

After the park it was time for naps, kids & mommies! My sister had to go sleep since she worked that night, so we kidnapped Abi for the remainder of the day :)

And the rest of the day we chilled and spent some quality time with Pampo & Nana.

Thursday-August 1st:

Thursday morning the kids and I met our dear friends The Beistline’s & The Altman’s at ABQ Uptown. Us Mommies sat and Chit Chatted while the kids ran around playing and spending some time running through the fountains. Then we headed to McAlister’s Deli for Lunch and then a bit more playtime for the kids. It was a perfect morning spent with some more amazing friends that we miss very much.

Owen, Abby, Olivia & Autumn. Another group of amazing friends that have known each other since the day they were born. All us mommies (Jess, Kaitlyn and I) were pregnant together so their friendship started since before they were even born.

Isaac wanted in on the picture action too but wanted his Mommy (my dear friend Jess. We were pregnant and due within a month of each other with both Owen & Abby and Autumn & Isaac) and baby brother Bennett in the picture also.

Walking to lunch & me getting some sweet Hannah snuggles. Hannah is my dear friend Kaitlyn’s newest addition (Olivia’s baby sister) who is 3 months old. She is the sweetest baby, I just love her!

After lunch we headed back to my parents casa. Let the kids nap/rest and then we headed to Melissa’s again for some more play time for the kids while us mommies visit over tea.

Aubryn & Autumn playing Lalaloopsy’s

We headed back to my parents since my Mom was making us some of her Famous Spaghetti for dinner. It was as always absolutely AMAZING! After dinner we hung out with my Dad for a bit before he had to go to work and then my Mom & I took the kids to Burger King for an Ice Cream for dessert & some play time.

Friday-August 2nd:

Friday was our day to rest. I was honestly pooped from a busy 4 days that it felt amazing to just hang out around my parents taking the day low key. My mom and I got some grocery shopping done and ran to a few stores we needed to go to. That afternoon around 3 we headed over to my friend Leanne’s House (our old neighbor that lived across the street from us) for an afternoon of play. It was so great catching up, we sure miss them a ton.

Linkin (6), Owen (5), Finnley (4), and Autumn (3) playing dress-up.

Too cute for words!!!!

Headed back to my parents for yet again another amazing dinner. After dinner we walked to the kids favorite park by my parents casa.

 

We ended up having to leave the park running…literally, it started raining on us. We got so lucky because the second we got in the door it started down pouring. It was actually really fun running home in the rain hysterically laughing, a memory we’ll never forget.

The monsoon season in New Mexico is in full swing and the best it’s been in over a decade. It was the greenest I have seen it in so long which is fantastic since NM needs the moisture SO bad.

Saturday-August 3rd:

Saturday morning we met my friends Kaitlyn & Melissa and the crew of kiddos at Chick-fil-a for Breakfast & Play. The kids had a great time and so did us Mommies. So very thankful for these amazing ladies/kids and long lasting friendships despite the distance between us.

Autumn, Aubryn, Olivia, Averie, Aiden & Owen.

More Hannah Lovin’

After breakfast and play we went back to my parents, dropped Owen off with Pampo and picked up Nana and us girls went to get a Pedicure.

 

After Pedi’s the kids went down for naps while my parents and I got things packed up for the super fun filled family night we had ahead of us.

CUTESTEST cousins I have ever seen <3

Once my sister and Abi got to my parents we got all ready and headed off for our first stop dinner at Lumpy’s Burgers & Fries (Owen’s only food request that we HAD to go to while in NM) SOOOOOO DELICIOUS!!!!!! Good call Owen.

After dinner it was off to ABQ’s Annual Summer Fest Downtown in Civic Plaza for a family fun night. My Dad’s favorite band Ozomatli was playing and anyone who knows my Dad knows how much he absolutely LOVES music. This night was honestly a dream of his. Not only did he get to go to an Ozomatli concert with his wife & daughters, BUT he also got all three of his Grandkids to come too! Such a special and VERY fun night.

 

 

The only really bad part of the night was waiting over an HOUR, yes an HOUR, for the kids to get their faces painted. But when the kids had cheek to cheek smiles after getting them done it was almost worth it :)

Owen & Abi have a special bond, they love each other so much. Here they are loving on each other while waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

Hello Kitty Autumn, Batman Owen & Butterfly Abigail!

My Sister, Mom and I stayed to the back of the crowd so the girls could dance their little hearts off while my Dad and Owen made their way to the front of the crowd where it was crazy and loud. Owen and my dad share their love for music so they had a BLAST!

Precious!

Autumn & Abi honestly danced until they basically collapsed. Autumn got fascinated with a group of Break-dancers that were battling and spent most of her time mimicking them or running in circles with her cousin. It was SO fun watching them.

 

Break-Dancing

Best. Picture. Ever!

Seriously an amazing night and perfect way to celebrate my Dad’s Bday a bit early!

Sunday-August 4th:

Sunday morning we were all dragging from a late night on all parts. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight (kids about 11pm)! With that said it was a chill low key kind of morning. After we finally got dressed and moving, we had lunch and then hit the park before naps.

 

Later that evening I made a special dinner in honor of my Parent’s 33rd Anniversary & My Dad’s Birthday. My sister and Abigail came over to help celebrate too. It was a great last night in NM with my fabulous family!

Maple Brown Sugar Pork Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Squash and Zucchini and Rolls. Yum!

Happy Birthday Dad!

The saddest ‘Goodbye’ Hugs ever :”(

Monday-August 5th:

Monday morning we packed up the van and said Goodbye to my parents at about 8:45am. It was a sad goodbye, but we had an absolute wonderful fun filled week long trip so that made it bearable. We met our good friends the Cook Family for Breakfast at the Flying Star Café before hitting the road home. They were out of town the whole week we were there so we had to squeeze in a couple hours with them before leaving. Such an amazing family. We had a great breakfast with them but were really sad that we didn’t get to see Miss Cami since she was at gymnastics.

My kids just absolutely love these girls. Hannah, Autumn, McKenzie, and Owen.

After breakfast, we met my Sis and Abi at the park for another quick goodbye and to burn off some energy before the drive home.

And at about Noon, we were off…

Another fantastic road trip with two amazing kiddos. They were great on the way home and even slept a bit for me which almost never happens.

 

We miss you dearly New Mexico. A HUGE thank you to all my amazing friends who fit us into your busy schedules. We loved seeing each and every one of you and really cherish the memories and forever friendships we have. And a REALLY HUGE GIGANTIC thank you to my amazing parents for opening their home to us and for the generous hospitality. We are so thankful for the amazing people you are and for the tons of love you shower us with. We miss you more than we could ever express and are beyond grateful for the time we got to spend together.

Until next time ABQ……