Ryan is Officially 5!

[My blog is acting a little screwy right now for some reason. This post was supposed to have been posted on Ryan's birthday - 6/26/13, but it was posted late. It's ok though - better than never.]

Well, the toddler days have officially ended. Even though I tried to prolong them for one more year. I tried convincing Ryan to have another 4th Birthday rather than a 5th Birthday. I told him that I wanted him to turn 4 so he could enjoy being a 4 year old one more year. His response: "Mom, I can't help it. I'm 5 now."  I guess he's right :(

When he woke up the morning of his birthday, I had his favorite breakfast waiting for him - mini donuts. Then we also sang "Happy Birthday" to him and let him blow out the candles on his cake.

We celebrated his actual birthday on Wednesday last week and went out to dinner at Chili's. Then we had his birthday party on Saturday the 29th at our house. WHAT. A. PARTY! It was so much fun - even for the adults.

We had an Avenger-themed party, complete with the triple-tiered cake he wanted from Walmart. We also had the huge water slide in the front yard that all the kids have come to expect for Ryan's birthday parties. It's always so much fun for the kids, and keeps them all cool since his birthday is in the dead heat of summer. And this summer has been a hot one (as usual)!

Even the parents had fun on the water slide. Stacie and Jane got it started by going down the slide, then me and Shannon, and Bud and Steve, followed afterwards. It felt a little silly, but the water felt great and really helped to cool things down. 

Ryan is excited about being 5!

REDNECK WATER PARK!

Bud and our neighbor, Steve, cool off in the kiddie pool. Haha!

Ryan's 1st Day of Kinder (and JD's 1st day in 2nd grade)

Today was the first day of the 2013/2014 school year and it was a very exciting day in the Blair family. Ryan started Kindergarten and JD started the 2nd grade. Both boys were really looking forward to school and couldn't wait for today to get here. In the car yesterday, when Ryan realized today was the first day, he said "I CAN NOT wait for tomorrow. I CAN NOT wait for tomorrow!" He was beside himself - just couldn't wait to get started.

On Friday, we went to the school to meet their teachers. Ryan's Kinder teacher is Mrs. Smith. She's new to Potranco Elementary, came from the Lufkin school district in East Texas. She seems very sweet and I think she's going to be great. Ryan walked right into the room for "Meet the Teacher," sat down and immediately wanted a pen and paper so he could start working. It was so cute.



JD has Mrs. Garcia who was a 3rd grade teacher last year but has moved to the 2nd grade. She used to be a Catholic school teacher, seems very soft spoken and is a very strong believer in the importance of reading which is great. JD likes to read and is a pretty good reader already, so I like that she's going to focus on that with his class.

When we got to school today, I walked them both in to their classes to drop them off, snap a few pictures and give good luck kisses. We dropped off Ryan first and he did so fantastic. He walked right in, put his backpack in his cubby, picked a seat and started coloring. Not once did he get upset, cling onto me or tear up. I took a few pictures, wished him good luck, then took JD to his class. Same thing with JD - no problems at all. At one point, I thought there was something wrong because he looked worried or something. I asked if something was wrong, and he said "no, I'm just really excited." I took some pictures of him too, then headed out.

I decided to sneak one small peek at Ryan on my way out. I didn't want him to see me because I didn't want to take the chance of him getting upset, so I just took a quick look as I passed. He didn't see me - he was watching the other kids and had this little look on his face. I couldn't tell what was wrong but it looked like one of curiosity mixed with a little bit of nerves. My instinct at that moment was to go in there, swoop him up and take him home with me. I got really sad all of a sudden, and then I just needed to get out of the building before the tears started flowing. And they did. I cried the whole way home. I'm so happy that he's in school and he's so excited to be there and be like the "big kids," but a part of me really just wanted to run in and get him.

3:00 couldn't come fast enough today. As soon as I could, I left to go pick them up. When I finally got them, they said they had a good time. They didn't learn anything new today and they don't have any homework, but it was a very good, 100% successful 1st day of school.