Nathan's Act Local Project

Nathan's school asks that every student participates in the Act Local program. This is where the kids get to choose a way to volunteer and help the community in some way. It could be something as simple as going to a local park to pick up trash. The kids can choose to work individually or in a group. And after they have completed their project, they have to make some sort of multimedia presentation to present to the class. Last year, Nathan and a group of friends made cards to pass out to a nursing home. This year, he and two other boys decided to donate food to The Seven Loaves Food Pantry which is located at St. Andrew United Methodist Church, and is where Charlotte goes to school (Nathan too before he started Kindergarten). Drew and Barron came over one day after school, and we explained (tried to explain) to them that not everyone has as much as they do. And how we can go to the grocery store or McDonald's whenever we want, but that there are a lot of people who don't have as much money to do that, and that they need help to feed themselves and their families. This is such a hard thing to get across to kids who think that you can just buy whatever you want! Anyway, I told them about the food pantry and how people who don't have enough money can go there and get groceries. But in order for the Pantry to have food to give to other people, they need volunteers to donate canned food to them. The moms and I were doing our best to explain this concept, but I'm not sure they totally got it. Anyway, I printed out a list of items that the food pantry really needed and then had each of the boys make a grocery list of 10 items that they wanted to buy. After they made their lists, we all piled in our cars and went to Kroger to buy the groceries. 

The boys were so cute! They each got their own carts and did a really good job of shopping. But the lists of 10 things turned into about 20! Charlotte wanted to pick out a few things and then each of the boys would see other things that weren't on their lists, but maybe on someone else's, and throw those things in too! And when we tried to tell them not to pick out so many things, they'd remind us that these people don't have as much as us, so what's the big deal? Who wants to just eat canned corn and peas and TUNA?! Let's give them some Honey Nut Cheerios and pancake mix and a few boxes of granola bars. And I'm thinking, yes I want to be generous but not THAT generous! 

The next week, we took all of our canned foods (and name brand snacks) to the church. We met Charles who is the director of the pantry, and he let the boys see where they keep all of the food and put a few things on the shelves. They loved it! 

The last part of the project was for each of them to make a short video explaining different parts of the project and why they were glad they did this project. And then Drew's mom is going to put the pictures and videos together into a slide show. So Nathan had to explain the part about making the grocery list and going to the store to buy the things on the list. The videos at the end are several of our attempts...I deleted 5 more that weren't good, but now I wish I had kept them. Nathan got so frustrated because we had to keep stopping and doing it over. Either he was rambling on and telling about the WHOLE project instead of just his part, or he wasn't saying enough. Pretty soon, he was in tears saying that he wished he hadn't even done this project, and then I was getting mad at him for not taking it seriously. I wanted to just stop and finish the videos the next day when we weren't so grouchy, but Nathan wanted to get it over with. So we're arguing with each other when the video is off, and then we've got to get it together when the video starts...it was not a good evening! When you watch the videos, notice that he keeps calling them "foods and cans" instead of "canned foods"  That was one of the things I was trying to make him re-do, but finally I gave up. Oh and he kept saying that we were buying food for "lonely" people instead of "hungry" people. And every time I tried to correct that, he'd tell me that they probably are lonely if they don't have enough food to eat because they can't have fun going to restaurants. Fine, whatever, let's just get this thing done!

Nathan's First Field Trip

I went with Nathan's class on their first field trip of the year to the Frisco Fire Safety Town. It was so much fun! First, all of the kids were in a big classroom where one of the firemen went over basic safety rules: how to properly wear a seat belt, walking on the sidewalk, holding an adult's hand in the parking lot, etc... Then they got to put their safety skills to the test. The two classes were divided into two groups: jeep drivers and pedestrians. This fire station has a miniature town set up next to their station complete with buildings, streets (some one way), stop lights, railroad crossings, crosswalks with buttons for the walkers to push, driveways, stop signs, pretty much anything a real little town would have. So half the kids got to drive their motorized jeeps and follow the driving rules while the other group walked around the town, but also had to follow pedestrian rules. It was HILARIOUS! Nathan was a great driver because he has driven both Grandmother and Mama and Papa's golf cart often, but some kids were going up on the sidewalks and running into moms and buildings! Even if the pedestrians were following the rules, they had to look out for the these crazy drivers! And it's not like the jeeps went super slow...they didn't go extremely fast but fast enough that you did have to look out. We all had so much fun, and Nathan loved it!

Girls's/Guy's Weekend

This last weekend was a very fun weekend! Carrie and I (along with Marla F.) went to Fayetteville to visit Adriana, Marla A., and Allison. We had the best time catching up with each other, eating good food, and being silly. While we were gone, Wayne and Nathan had their own "guy's" weekend. Chris, Darien (and his boys Nick and Jake), and Uncle Mike (with his grandson) came here. I think they pretty much did the same thing we did but also went to the Arkansas game at the new AT&T Stadium. Nathan LOVED being part of the group, and had so much fun with the big boys. 

Poor little Charlotte was a little sick...I found out later that she had a double ear infection, so she wasn't totally up to par, but she had fun splitting her time up between Grandmother and Mama and Papa. She spent Friday and Friday night with Grandmother and Saturday and Saturday night with Mama and Papa. I was able to have a great time knowing that Nathan and Charlotte were each having their own fun. 

Random IPhone Pics

I chopped my hair off! I had been wanting to go shorter for a while, and then Wayne really encouraged me to do it. So I thought, what the heck? I'll just do it! I have to say, I was a little bit in hair shock at first. It was such a big difference, and it took a while for me to really get used to it and know how to fix it. I have to say that I love it now! It is so easy and fast and so much more of a style. Before, I mainly just put my hair into a ponytail. And Wayne really loves it :)

Labor Day party at our neighbor's house. Here is Charlotte with Skylar.

Silly little girl :)

This was one day at Mama's house. I was sewing and Charlotte and Mama made cookies. She got something on her dress so Mama washed it, and then they snuggled up to read a book. Charlotte has a stack of her favorite books here, and Mama reads them all!

My first lunch with Nathan at his school. I brought him McDonald's, and he was so happy to see me. When it was time for me to leave, I could tell he was sad, but he did really well and didn't cry. He did hug and kiss me a ton though! And after he lined up with his class and started walking to his room, he kept turning around to wave and blow me a kiss. I love my little boy so much! 

We had a playdate with one of Charlotte's friends from last year and her brother who is Nathan's age. This was during Charlotte's 2nd week of school, and she was still getting used to the schedule and going to school every day. On this day, she was SO TIRED! Charlotte was swinging in the backyard and started to fall asleep!That's when I got these popsicles out to try to wake her up :)

So Nathan snuck his IPad up to his room one night. When I went up to turn his light out, this is what I found. It's so funny that he fell asleep in his "watching" position.

This was Nathan's first project at school, making a "Mini Me." He was supposed to decorate his Mini Me to tell about himself. So he's wearing a Ninjago shirt with a Lego sign, wearing Nikes, playing soccer, reading about Minecraft, and holding an IPad. I think that pretty much sums him up!

At church, all of the first graders were presented with their very own bibles; blue for boys and pink for girls. Nathan was so proud of his new bible, and Charlotte was jealous. Now she wants one for herself. 

So after having my hair cut for two weeks, I decided that there were a few things I wanted to improve on. So I went back and had Anh give me some bangs and thin it out a little. Now I really love it!