Just In Case...

 

...you thought (all two people who may or may not read this blog, I mean) I was loosing major mommy points for making my son clean his room on the last two days of summer...

 

I did ask him if there was any treat on earth that I could make for him to bring on the new school year, what would it be.  The world was his oyster...as long as I had the ingredients on hand.

 

He chose lemon cupcakes.  This kid has a soft spot in his heart for lemon flavor.

 

 

So, lemon cupcakes he received.  Hmmmm, fresh lemon cupcakes. They were delish. So stinkin' rich, but so very scrumptious.

 

 

He snarfed one pretty quick.  I love this picture of him trying to keep his bulging mouthful at bay as he smiled, I mean smirked, at the camera.

 

You're welcome, kiddo.

The End Is Here

I don't know who was more sad about saying goodbye to summer; the boy, or his parents.

 

After a beautiful father's blessing, full of encouragement and great counsel, Jeff and I got all verklempt as we got ready to say goodbye to our buddy for another school year.  I seem to need to take a few minutes to adjust to the thought of school being out for the summer.  Then, I have a hard time letting him go back when it's over.

 

I am very much a "don't move my cheese" kind of person.

 

 

So handsome.  A third grader.  Really? 

 

Last year, I started taking his school picture in front of our front door so that we could see his growth from year to year.  He has grown 3 inches since last year.  What the...!

 

For the first time since kindergarten, Chase has a young, enthusiastic teacher.  He is quite excited about his year ahead with Mrs. Frandsen. He thinks she is pretty great. I asked him if he thought she was pretty.  He said,

 

Uh, sure.

 

He soooo doesn't speak that language yet.

 

So, here's goodbye to a great summer, and hello to another school year. It's going to be a great year.  I am so proud of you, Chase!

 

Go get 'em, Tiger!

Not My Type

Two days before school started last week, I got a little antsy.  I mean I got a LOT antsy.  Chase's room was making my hair stand on end. Seriously.  Since that child seems to be a tornado, when his room is in chaos, our whole house seems to follow suit.

 

I am not sure what the starting of school had to do with the cleaning of his room.  But for some weird reason, I couldn't stand the thought of him entering the third grade with his room in such disarray.

 

Whatever.

 

I forgot to take a before picture; before the 4 bags of trash, before the filled bag of DI donations, the box of misplaced household items, the shampooed carpet...

 

 My child is a S-E-R-I-O-U-S WALL-E.  His favorite words to live by:

 

"One man's trash is another man's treasure"

 

And live by them he does.

 

I do happen to have a picture that I took of his room last year for a school assignment.  This is pretty close to how bad his room was before our two day odyssey.  I know it just shouldn't seem possible, but it actually was WORSE than this picture: 

 

 

 

Funny thing about this messy picture.  He came home last fall, in the second grade, with an assignment to bring back something from his house that described one of the words on his weekly vocabulary list.

 

He chose the word "disaster".

 

So, after 4 hours of organizing, rearranging, discarding, tear-shedding (from boy and from mom), dusting, vacuuming, shampooing...

 

We have this:

 

 

Ahhhhh.  Soooooo fabulous.

That night at bedtime, Chase, after having walked in and out of his newly cleaned pad several times that day, exclaimed:

"Arghhhh!  This room is too clean for my type!"

Apparently, I have converted him somewhat.  A week later, it still looks that same.

Suh-weeeeet!