Pre -K!

Okay so I am a little delayed in this posting about six weeks or so.

Ethan started Pre-K at Livermore playschool and could not be more excited that he got to experience the same rituals Brother does.

Here he is posing by the red door with the biggest backpack ever! He was so excited to be at school
It was definitely a bittersweet moment for me

Then again, the next morning he proclaimed as we drove into the parking lot," wait a minute, am I going to school again?!"

Unlike his brother he isn't all about the socializing,but I'm sure as time goes by he will be loving it all the same!










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Our Becca

June was a very big month for us. You see, after almost six years of driving practically every day to Theresa Way, we actually experienced our last day at Becca's Special Friends Day Care.  Such a bittersweet moment for us!

While we are very excited to have Possum engage and learn and grow, we are deeply saddened by the fact that we don't get to see Becca every day.  Words cannot describe how amazing she is!  While I think Scrumpy grew attached to her faster, I KNOW Possum has the deepest bound.  Many times, I wasn't sure she was his provider or his Gramma- he had her wrapped around his little fingers.

The good news is that Becca has become a very dear friend so I know we will be visiting her often and now she will get to enjoy our boys, like grammas do :)

Here is to the next chapter of life- PreK!








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Cherry picking

In an attempt to appreciate our local surroundings, we decided to take the kids to Brentwood for cherry picking.  Now, this is one of those instances when getting up at 5:30 every day is an advantage.  It allows you to get to the farms by 8am when the air is still cool and the farms are relatively empty.  Make no mistake though when I say relatively as there were people there!

The boys loved it!  They loved picking the cherries and climbing the trees.  If it wasn't for Patrick reminding us that we don't need 25 pounds of cherries they could have picked all day!  This is definitely a repeat activity for next year.  As I reap the benefits of my cheap labor.










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Graduation day

When my youngest sister graduated from college, I remember my mother saying, "I guess the next graduation we will go to is kindergarten."  That was YEARS ago!  Even so, I cannot believe that here we are...graduation of kindergarten.

This first year at St. Michaels flew by!  I cannot believe how much he has learned let alone how much he's grown.  While I am not the greatest in capturing moments, I am proud to say I remembered to capture pictures on the first and last days of school.  Take a look at my big boy!











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Single parent marathon!

Patrick went to Paso for the weekend and I took the kids to :
1. Livermore honey wine festival
2. 7-11 because I wasn't paying 12 dollars for festival snow cones.
3. Puppy birthday party
4. St michaels bowling event
5. Cinco de mayo birthday party
6. Super franks birthday party

I am so proud that Patrick came home and I still had two kids!




Livermore festival














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Student of the Month

This is a big moment in the Crossett household.  You see, Scrumpy has had challenges with the social aspect of school.  There is a daily behavior chart, where the Tiger Mom in me wants him to come home every day with the highest colored star (purple) and yet for some time there, it was more hoping that he didn't come home with a negative star (yellow, orange or God forbid, red). 

I guess age does improve maturity as Scumpy came home with a target gift card for being Student of the Month in Extended Care.  This means he followed all the teachers and did above and beyond anyone else did for the whole month!

He is so proud of this accomplishment.  What better way to celebrate than to take that Target gift card and blow it on some Rescue Bots.  Way to Go Scrumpy!

Playing

Who knew movie theater lobbies could be so much fun?!









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Wine Country With Kids

It is no surprise that we love wine wountry, and wine tasting.  Pre-kids, I cannot tell you the number of times we went to Napa, or even scooted around Livermore on a random Saturday.  It is definitely one of the things we thought we had to greatly diminish once we had kids.

Well, when there is a will, there is definitely a way!  One weekend, determined to believe that our lives had not changed because we had kids, we loaded them into the car and attempted a Napa wine tasting trip.

We began with a pit stop to Bouchon for some breakfast, primarily because we are early risers and forgot that wine tasting doesn't begin till 11.

We decided to stick to our standard favorites.  Primarily those taht we were hoping were kid friendly.  All in all, the wineries were very gracious.  The trick is doing shifts.  One of you tastes while the other entertains.  Bring a camera so they can pretend they are movie stars and TONS of goldfish, pretzels and m&ms. 

It is not the wine tasting we used to do, but its still a lot of fun.  And who knows?  Maybe we are just cultivating early oenophiles.

Shack-o-latern

Last year, we found ut that Ethan had to have 12 of his teeth corrected.  No, he does not eat candy and such all the live long day.  He just happened to get the combination of genetics that had him prone to dental work amongst other things.  (See previous post on why there will be no third Crossett).  8 baby root canals and 4 fillings.  Given the amount of work they wanted to do, Ethan had to have outpatient surgery with full anesthesia.

As I myself has never had any kind of surgical procedure that required full anesthesia, you can imagine my dismay.  The folks at Valley Care were amazing!  I am not really sure Ethan understand what he was getting into as he arrived and they provided him with teddy bears and stickers, but he handled it like a trooper!  I was stunned how quickly he recovered and back to playing in no time (well over the weekend, but still....)

We were unable to save his two front teeth, so midway through surgery, we had to make the decision to have them pulled.  I was extremely concerned he would have image issues about it, but after the initial shock of looking at himself without front teeth in the mirror, he has handled it with the confidence only a leo can possess. I guess if you have too be toothless, best when you're little. 

Ethan and Savannah

One day, Ethan was snuggling up to me and I asked, "what are you doing?"
Ethan: I am baby
Me: You're not a baby, you're a big boy.
Looking at me thoughtfully, Ethan: I can get you a REAL baby
Me: From where?
Ethan: Becca's house

Yes, it was totally creepy.  But ever since Savannah has come into Becca's house, or rather ever since Ethan has been around Savannah, he's been obsessed with her.  I know when she comes to school, when she's sick, everything.  And just so you know, he has asked Savannah's mom if we can have Savannah.  Imagine his shock when she said no.










I think he is truly in love with her.  She on the other hand....well it is questionable whether she is silent in fear of all his adoration :)

Sympathic pains

If my son wasn't so cute, I would never have posted these photos.  One weekend, I was seriously nursing a horrific migraine.  I laid on the couch with an ice bag on my head, hoping the hurt would go away.  Possum felt so bad for me that he had to get his own ice pack and live my misery alongside.  Ignore the awful photo of me and focus on the sweetness of my baby boy.


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Meet Jedi Daniel and Darth Ethan

Last year, Grandpa Rob got the boys light sabers.  You see, even at the tender age of 4 and 2 ( in 2011), the force ran deep in these boys.  I think George Lucas must have just tapped into that Y Chromosome and identified all the right elements that make any boy of any generation a fan.  Over the last year, their appreciation for Star Wars has only grown stronger.  We have Darth Vader light up shoes and hoodies that vaguely resemble characters from the movies.  The sad part is...they have never even seen one of the movies (and I'm talking 4, 5, 6). 

A year later, they still play often with the light sabers.  The only problem is, they are getting much better at sword play.  It is only a matter of time before I hear the shatter of INSERT IMPORTANT HEIRLOOM HERE.