That's What They Said: Presidents, Cheese, Love, Football, and Robot Knowledge

(While looking in the mirror after an afternoon in the sun ...)
Amalia:  Look!  I have rosy cheeks just like the second President of the United States!


(Baylor wants a Nerf gun that has a foam saw on the front of it for fighting off zombies ... *sigh*)
Baylor:  Mom, I won't be able to cut bread with this one, though.
Me:  No?
Baylor:  Nope.  But I will use it to cut cheese!



Me:  Baylor, do you want some breakfast now, or do you want to wait for your sister to wake up?
Baylor:  I want to wait for when SHE wants to have breakfast.
Me:  (smiling)  Okay.
Baylor:  Mom, I really like Mollie.
(Given how I felt way back when, this was music to my ears.  He loves her, that I knew, but I am overjoyed he actually likes her.)



(While watching MSU play football ...)
Amalia:  Why do they have those binkie-like things?



Amalia:  (Boy from her class) tells me a lot of things at recess.  He told me that his dad got a robot arm.
Me:  Ooh, very cool!
Amalia:  I didn't think it was very cool.  I mean, it's not going to work without the rest of the robot!
Me:  Ah.
Amalia:  How is it going to move without being hooked up to the rest of the robot?  I know stuff about robots because my brother has one.

First Day of School: First and Third Grades!

I can't believe I am typing this, but today is Mollie's first day of FIRST grade and Baylor's first day of THIRD grade!  Seriously?!  Yup, seriously.

Yesterday morning Amalia decided to wear her favorite dress to school, a dress I refer to as her Babe Didrikson dress (it's long on her now and was even longer on her when she first wore it).  We even had enough time to do her hair in pigtails this morning!  She asked me which color of hair ties look the most "adult", and since the blue ones were the only ones that weren't neon that's what we went with.

Baylor didn't really pick out his outfit so much as approve the one I grabbed for him, but he seemed excited for the day and that's all I can ask for.

We headed outside and they started to get into the car when I reminded them that we usually take an outdoor picture, too.  Here's our first attempt:

The second attempt went much better ... or at least the silliness was more positive anyway.

I can't believe how big they're getting!

And, of course, we had the obligatory bunny ears picture; the kids are in that stage of life that makes bunny ears the funniest thing ever!

This was a great morning, so full of smiles and laughter.  And it was so unlike first days of school for me when I was a kid; almost all my first day of school pictures involved eyes puffy from crying and forced smiles.  I didn't like school, so the first day was tough and full of anxiety for me.  I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to know that I haven't passed this on to my wonderful children, that I haven't burdened them with my anxiety.  Yeah, they were nervous this past week or so, but when it came down to it they were brave and happy and ready to go.  Even when they didn't get to walk in together because they are now on different playgrounds, they still bounded off in their separate ways, just happy to be there.  I am amazed by and so proud of my children.  

And for a look at previous first days ...

Baylor in preschool.

Baylor's first day of kindergarten.

Baylor's first day of first grade. And Mollie's first day of preschool!

And I just realized that I never did a blog post about last year's first day of school!  But here is the picture from last year's first day (Baylor in second grade in Mollie in kindergarten):

Yup, they ran in together holding hands last year!  And the thing is, they did that for months!  It warmed my heart like nothing else.

Here's to a great first day of school and a great year to come!

My New Toys!

Okay, this sort of outs me as an office supply geek, but I don't care!  I have a new toy, and I want to share it with the world.  To quote the movie Elf: "I'm in love!  I'm in love!  And I don't care who knows it!"

Meet my new twins: the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto multi-color pen!  I found it on JetPens.com after seeing it on a few of my favorite planner YouTube videos and immediately put it on a wish list.  My husband got it for me for our anniversary, and I have been smitten ever since.  I got the black pen body, violet pen body, ten-color set of ink, apricot orange ink, and apple green ink.

Wait, I need to explain this ...

The top end of these pens flip open, people!  The pen bodies come empty, and you get to fill them with whatever color ink you want!  Let that sink in for a sec, children of the '80s ... a multi-color clicky pen that you can customize.  Perfection, am I right?

I chose the 0.3 mm size ink because, as anyone who has had to grade a paper, read a thank you note, or decipher a recipe written by me will attest, I tend to write very small.  Having a tiny pen tip helps me keep this insanely small writing looking neat and tidy, so I went with the smallest size available.  (The pen tips also come in 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm, in case anyone is interested.)  You can also buy mechanical pencil inserts, eraser inserts, and stylus inserts to go in this pen!  The pen bodies also come in a variety of colors and number of inserts they will hold.  The customization possibilities are endless!

I am excited to use these to help me get even a little more organized, using them to designate task categories (e.g., home, school, self) or to mark which person has something going on on a particular day.  Because of the small pen tip - and because they write very smoothly right out of the packaging - I am able to actually read what I've written and squeeze more in on a page in my notebook.   Plus, it's just pretty, and don't we need more beautiful things in this life?

On the customer side, I was thrilled with my experience with Jet Pens; they originally set the delivery date for my pens and inks (shipping for which I did not pay ... any order over $25 automatically gets free shipping) for Baylor's birthday, September 7th, but the pens arrived MUCH earlier than that ... August 31st!  As someone who has been utterly spoiled by Amazon Prime shipping I was delighted by the early arrival.

Alright, I have waxed rhapsodic about this pen enough.  I'm off to go write a bunch of stuff down and tackle my to-dos like a boss!

Have a wonderful day!