First Day of School!!!

Today was Joshua's first day of Kindergarden!!! Here's a picture of my handsome little man getting in the car to go to school this morning.

I really like how his teachers had things organized for these first days of school. Yesterday was the official first day of school but they split the class and had some of them come yesterday and then the rest of the kids came today, and the ones that came yesterday stayed home today. This way they could help the kids go through the routine slowly and really comprehend what they will be doing on a day to day basis. The whole class will be together on Monday, so that ought to be real exciting. Joshua has 17 kids in his class.

This sign was right outside Joshua's classroom this morning welcoming the kids to school. They lined up the kids and parents outside the classroom door and brought the kids in one at a time. They would go in the classroom (without mommy and daddy), find their cubby, put their backpack and lunch box away, and then they would come back to tell mommy and daddy goodbye for the day. I thought that was a pretty neat way to do it so you don't have 10 kids running in at one time trying to find their stuff.

I managed not to cry at the school, but had a few teary eyed moments once I got back home. I think the hardest thing was first of all, realizing my son is growing up FOR REAL! It's easy to think of them still being babies when they are 4 and younger but boy that first day of real school will shock you as to how much they have grown up.

I missed Joshua so much today. The house was so quiet and I just didn't know what to do with my time. The day seemed to go by sooooo slow and I could not wait to go pick up Joshua.

FINALLY, it was time to go pick up my little man!! Me and Rodney went to get him and had his favorite drink (SWEET TEA) and snack (M&M's) ready for him in the car.

We heard the announcement over the intercom dismissing the car riders and moments later we saw JOSHUA!!!! (That's him with the blue lunchbox) He walked out and when he spotted us he started waving and had a smile on his face from ear to ear! He was so stinkin cute!!!
YAY!!! My little kindergardener had a great first day! I'm so proud of him!!
We surprised Joshua by having a "WAY TO GO JOSHUA" cake for him when he got home. We wanted to celebrate him being such a big boy and going to big boy school today. He LOVED his cake. He said, "WOW, is that whole cake for me?" And then he put his finger in the icing and as you can see below he started eating it up. There was no need for forks. He said to me and Rodney, "Thanks Mommy, Thanks Daddy for the cake. It's delicious."


I asked Joshua what was one thing he was looking forward to about going back to school on Monday. He said, "I'll get to walk in all by myself. You and daddy will stay in the car next time." SUCH A NUT!!! He wanted to walk in by himself this morning, but mommy was not ready for that and I didn't want to miss his first day so he agreed to let me go this one time. (haha) He's growing up so fast and becoming so independent. I'm looking forward to this school year and all the fun times it will bring. I know there will probably be some tough days too, BUT, I choose to focus on the good and stay positive. You only get to go through this stage once and I want him to enjoy it to the fullest!

Well, this mommy is off to bed now. It's been a very draining day... getting up earlier than usual and being emotional will exhaust you. :)

Tomorrow's The Big Day!!

Well, tomorrow's the big day. Joshua starts kindergarden! WOW, it just doesn't seem real yet. Of course I'll have tons of pictures to share with everyone tomorrow of him getting in the car, out of the car, in his classroom, walking to his classroom and any other special moment I can capture. (haha) I put him to bed tonight and he said, "sleeping just takes way too long. I'm ready to go to kindergarden." SWEET! And, then he reminds me before I leave his room that he doesn't need me to walk with him into school. He said, "I know where my classroom is and can get there all by myself." He's definitely ready for this, but I'm not sure if I am. But, ready or not here we go.

Pray that everything goes smoothly tomorrow and that it's an easy transition. And, of course pray that I don't cry too much... (haha)

I'll report back tomorrow!! :)

Kindergarden Orientation and Tons of Rain

Joshua's kindergarden orientation was this past Tuesday night. We went to his school and saw his classroom, met his teacher, and filled out A MILLION forms (haha). I can't believe the amount of forms we had to fill out for him and I felt like I just kept writing the same information over and over. It was crazy, but it was fun too. It's pretty neat knowing that my little man has grown up and is entering school. I'm a little nervous but excited to. It's the beginning of a new chapter for us and I'm looking forward to it. I volunteered for just about everything they would need a parent to do at the school so I'll probably be at the school just as much as Joshua is. (haha) At least I'll be able to keep an eye on him and know what's going on.

Here's a picture I snapped of him and some of his classmates in his classroom at orientation last night. He loved playing with them and didn't want to leave.

Joshua's teacher is AWESOME! She has been teaching kindergarden for 13 years and has two grown sons so she knows all about little boys and how they are so that's great. She was also very engaging with the kids at orientation. She got down on the floor with them and any time she spoke to them she got down on the same eye-level as they were. I was very impressed. She also seems very structured and routine oriented which is right up Joshua's ally. He LOVES and thrives off of a routine. His teacher also showed Joshua a picture of her dog and told him that she brings her dog to school every now and then for the kids to see and play with. She stole Joshua's heart when she told him that. He loves dogs! I'm looking forward to a great school year and know that we will have struggles and learn a lot, but that it will be lots of fun too.

Now, for a little bit of a topic change... RAIN!! It's been doing some serious raining here since Sunday and we've seen a lot of flooding. Me and Rodney took a drive tonight to see some of the flood areas and snapped a few pictures.

Here's a shot right down the street from where we live.. this was flowing right down beside the road.

This is an overflow area that usually has water in it, but not like this. You can normally walk to the other side and it's not deep at all. As you can see, I was a little SHOCKED from seeing soooo much water.. (haha)
Taking advantage of a photo opportunity. You know me, got to capture those moments. :)
Water rising under the bridge.
Another look at the overflow
Pretty rainbow...
After driving around we decided Starbucks sounded wonderful and when we got there we saw that the Heavens agreed with us.. (haha) I had an amazing Grande nonfat/no whip Cafe Mocha!! YUM YUM!!

Cancelled Swim Lessons = Trip to Zoo

We got to the YMCA this morning for Joshua's last day of Eel swim lessons and they had cancelled them due to the pool having too much clorine in it. Joshua was very disappointed. He LOVES going to swim lessons!! So, we decided since we have a zoo membership that we would head there for a couple of hours.

Here a good shot of Joshua swimming all by himself during his swim lesson. I am very proud of him. He's come a long way with his swimming this summer. We will start our 3rd session of swim lessons (stingrays) next week and then we'll hopefully be ready for the YMCA swim team.
We were the first ones into the bird feeding area this morning and needless to say, those babies were HUNGRY!!! It was hilarious! As soon as we walked in and they saw we had food they flew straight to us. One of the birds landed on Joshua's head and before I could take a picture he had knocked it off his head and poured out all his bird juice and told the birds, "I ain't feeding you if you land on my head!" Me and Rodney laughed soooo hard! He was serious and definitely gave those birds a nice lecture about leaving his head alone. So, since Joshua would not feed them the birds decided that they would go after me and Rodney. One bird started nibbling on Rodney's ear (picture below). I had two or three birds on my arm and still managed to get a good shot of the bird nibbling on Rodney's ear. Shortly after I snapped the picture of Rodney a bird decided to land on my head. All I could think was "oh crap, it's going to poop in my hair." I'm very thankful it did not!!


Here's a good shot of the birds being nice and eating the way they are suppose to. :)
Of course we had to stop and pose for some "photo moments".

Telling Rodney to LOOK at that big tiger!! It was a real one.. (haha)
Joshua, the Lion Keeper
We have been trying to get Joshua to climb this rock wall at the zoo all summer long and he just decided on his own that today was going to be the day. It was sooooo neat watching him climb this thing and do as well as he did. I was very impressed. Luckily, there was hardly nobody at the zoo today so he got to play on the rock wall as long as he wanted to. He really loved coming down off the wall. He thought it was cool to "fly" down.
Rodney decided to race him to the top. Joshua loved trying to beat him. And, of course I had to give it a shot!! I went about half way up with my flip flops on. Although I've been bungee jumping before, the height still gets to me and I chickened out and went back down.
Taking a ride!! Everytime we go to the zoo Joshua gets excited about one particular animal. It's always a different animal, but he will talk about whatever animal he happens to pick that day all the way through the zoo. Today's animal was the koala bear. We visited that exhibit quite a few times today.
The new kangaroo exhibit is really cool. You walk down a path and they are just jumping around all around you.

Gone Fishin'

Today was FISHIN' DAY with my momma, Rodney, Joshua and my aunt Dianne! We have really gotten into fishing this summer and really enjoy it! It's so relaxing and fun to sit and fish, laugh and poke fun at each other. Joshua thinks it's so cool to go fishing and he's a blast to watch when we are realing a fish in. He gets so excited!! He runs and grabs the net, gets the fish, goes to the bucket and dumps it in there. He'll sit still some and actually fish...but he gets bored with it after a while and starts exploring and waits for us to tell him we've caught a fish. Then he runs over and gets the rest of the job done.. (haha)

Here he is with his net, waiting on meme to catch a fish..

Daddy caught a big fish and Joshua was to the rescue with his net. He was really impressed with daddy's big fish.
I was doing so good catching brim fish. I actually caught 12 of them today (some were small so I threw them back) but I was so excited to catch my 12. Then, my mom and Rodney started catching BASS and showed me up with their BIG fish! So, Rodney was "sweet" enough (cough, cough) to let me wear his hat and said it would bring me good luck so I could catch a big one.. TOTALLY DID NOT WORK THOUGH!! (haha)
Joshua got brave enough to hold a little fish I caught. But, he said he HAD to wear gloves to touch it. He held on to this fish until we got back down to granny's house and proceeded to walk right in the house with it and sat it down on granny's kitchen table to show her his fish!! (hahaha) We definitely got a kick out of that.
A cute snapshot of Joshua and Rodney fishing together. I imagine they were discussing the deep things of life as they sat there .... NOT (haha)
Joshua reflecting on his 5 years of life.. (hahaha) Or, it's just Joshua resting and watching his fishing pole to see if he could catch something.
Momma and Joshua. Joshua was getting just a little tired at this point.
I totally LOVE this picture. Rodney had just caught his first bass and Joshua had never seen a fish this size. He thought it was sooooo cool. He's giving his "check out dat awesome fish" pose.
Me and my hunny fishing...
Time to clean the fish.. Joshua walked up to the table and said "awe, look at those poor little fella's." Needless to say he did NOT like it when the cleaning process began. We had to "walk away" to prevent a massive melt down.
We had a great day and made some lasting memories today! I'm loving all the time we are getting with family since we've moved back from Texas. We're making up for the 3 years we missed with them while we were there and plan on spending a lot more time together. At the end of the day, there's nothing like family and I thank God for all of mine.

Profound Truth!

The Lord does not take lightly what we have gone through or are currently going through. He sincerely and deeply cares!!

Joshua's Last Day of Preschool in Fort Worth

Today was Joshua's last day at his preschool here in Fort Worth. This preschool has been so good to Joshua and he's had the best teachers. When Joshua gets up in the mornings he can't wait to get to school and play with his friends. We have been so blessed to have a preschool that Joshua really loves and that has such great teachers.

Here's a picture of the sweet things he brought home today. We have his preschool graduation diploma and a sweet, sweet card that his teachers and friends made for him today.

Inside the card all the teachers wrote a note to Joshua and his friends drew pictures for him.

Here's the note from his teacher this year - Mrs. Torres
A note from Ms. Lisa A note from Mrs. Lyons

It's so true that you don't realize what you have until it's gone. When we moved to Fort Worth I remember missing our family soooo bad and it just hurt all the time. Over the course of the 2 years we've been here we've been blessed with such great friends that have become family to us. As excited as I am to be moving back to South Carolina to be with our family, it really does hurt to leave the great friends we've made here. They have made our time in Fort Worth special and they will not be forgotten!

Sunday Afternoon Fun

Joshua spent the afternoon riding around on his super, duper big wheel! He loves pretending he's in a fast race car and speed through the playground.
He has discovered a new fun way to scare mommy!! He thinks this is a cool "TRICK".
He comes around the corner so fast that he usually ends up spinning around.. when he does it he screams out "oh man, that's so awesome". Such a cutie!

After wearing himself out on his big wheel I had him work on his letters. He actually enjoyed doing it and was quite proud of himself for doing so good.

We are working on spelling and reading words now too.
Great Job Joshua!!!! :)