Anniversary and Leadville Train

Ryan wowed me on our anniversary with a nice camera to capture our moments. While I have since misplaced it (I did not throw away the silver camera), you can see my first pics with the camera. Dogs and kids, of course. And the trusty picture of a dinner date around our anniversary and I can still fit into my wedding dress (YAY!).

As you can see from the above pictures, Eban has really gotten into Legos. They are a huge motivator for him and keep him busy. I'm impressed with his prowess and ability to follow the directions without help from us. This skill continues to amaze me.

Grandpa, as you know, loves trains. He has been wanting to take the boys up to Leadville on this historical train. Finally, to celebrate kindergarten and to also take in some of Colorados' activities, we headed up to Leadville, Colorado, to hop on board the Leadville train. It was a cute little ride through the mountains and the conductor talked about the mines and how the train came to be. The scenery was stellar and the boys were just bonkers on the train. They wanted to run and explore so being confined wasn't too easy on them (thus us as well).

After our excursion, we drove down and hit up the infamous Beau Jo's Pizza where they ate the pizza which has honey as a dipping sauce for the thick crust.

Kindergarten and Preschool 2011

August 2011 monumental month for the kids. (p.s. DON'T CLICK on the links in this...they are automatically populating them and I don't know why).
Kindergarten AND Preschool.

In the beginning of the month, we finally celebrated Eban's birthday in the manner that he requested. While we had cake and sang songs for his real birthday, he wanted to spend the whole day with his best preschool buddy, Dylan. So I had to call Shelby and schedule this three months ahead of time as she works on the weekends selling donuts at fairs/community events.

Eban didn't ask for any presents, but he wanted to spend the day playing with Dylan. So we went down to Santa's Workshop in Manitou Springs for a Saturday. The boys had a blast and I took a ton of photos but have since lost my camera after Ryan purchased me a new camera for our anniversary. I have the above one as I copied it from facebook. Crazy, I know.

I also lost Eban's first day of kindergarten photos with the exception of what you'll see below.
AND we had an exciting choice to make in the beginning of August. We received a message from Stargate Charter School that there was a spot open for Eban. Stargate is the area's wholly integrated GT school and it's a lottery system to get in. We had heard that we didn't get a spot in March of 2011 so I forgot about the fact that we applied and was all set to go to the neighborhood public school. Given the fact that Eban was tested (although I feel it's somewhat subjective) and we had really wanted to gain entrance here, it surprised me when I checked our answerig machine to learn that a spot opened up and his name was next on the list. They said we had 24 hours to call back and accept or not. Talk about quick turn around!
Ryan and talked about it and we opted to accept - - happily. Although I had started to develop relationships with the elementary school in the neighborhood and even served on a hiring committee for their new kindergarten teacher, it was the right choice for Eban and his learning style. I figured I could develop the same relationships with Stargate.

Grandpa came up for the big day and we took pictures on the lawn and at school. As we loaded up to go to school, Eban chose to drive with Grandpa. I thought that was very sweet! We dropped off Jackson in his new classroom (as he's now potty trained). He was excited to be in a new place although we were going to miss his preschool teacher Miss Amber. Miss Gabi and Miss Brittany were his new teachers. Miss Brittany even had Eban when he attended Goddard School so it was nice to see a familiar face.

Once we arrived to the packed school parking lot, we had to line up and essentially, the school said come in - drop them off - and say goodbye. I was more nervous than Eban and I thought the structure they had in place really set the right tone for helicopter parents and for nervous parents (like myself).

Eban lined up outside his classroom door with the other kids and off he went. I was watching him and he went into his class (after the bell) and hung up his things in his cubby and didn't even blink an eye when we said goodbye. I didn't cry although other folks were and I was just so proud of the first day of kindergarten. Ahhh...another milestone!