Whenever Maggie wears a skirt, or in this case, a long top with a tutu like bottom, she spins around and pretends she is a princess.

She’s strange, but cute.

“Mom, I know that you really can see me when I am wearing my camouflage jammies, but thank you for always pretending that you can’t.”

I started doing some preschool work with Luke last week. My goal is to do activities Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week. We worked on the letter A last week and also spent some time on patterns and colors.

Adding eyes to the aliens.

Maggie liked the eyes too.

Adam scored his second goal last week. This picture was taken just after the goal (so close!).

We use a desk we got from my Aunt Cathy for the schoolwork. Adam gets homework each week now that he’s a big first grader. He had his first spelling test last week, and got all 10 words right!

Maggie has been all about puzzles lately. Thankfully, since both her older brothers loves puzzles as well, we have a bunch.

Luke loves to play the Lego Star Wars video game. He and Adam work together pretty well – they do have their tiffs when Luke doesn’t do exactly what Adam thinks he should.

We spent a rainy Saturday afternoon at the children’s museum.

The kids loved watching the otters and Adam even made friends with one.

And that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to lately.

Last Thursday was a super busy one for us. Maggie and Luke had gymnastics in the morning. I was finally able to get a couple of pictures of Maggie. She loves walking on the balance beam and was thrilled to finally be allowed to jump into the foam pit.

Adam and Luke both had soccer on Thursday night. I stayed with Luke at his practice, while Dave and Maggie watched Adam’s game.

Adam scored his first goal! It was also the first goal of the season for his team!

Luke, on the other hand, spend most of his practice on my lap, pretending to be a cat.

He’s been doing that a lot lately. When in cat-mode, he only answers to Fluffy (or Fluffminster Tabby) and does a lot of meowing. It’s pretty cute – most of the time. It’s less amusing during church and when I am trying to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do, like pick up his toys (“Kitties can’t pick up toys mommy, they only have paws”).

We had a play date with two other little boys from his team on Friday. So I’m hoping that he’ll be more excited about actually playing soccer this week.

Yesterday morning the little kids went on my morning walk with me. Maggie decided about halfway through that she didn’t want to ride in the stroller.

She insisted on carrying her purse and her water bottle.  I mapped it out when we got home – she walked 0.94 miles. She was one tired little lady. When we got back to the house, she got her kindle and put herself to bed.

Luke and Maggie both still look forward to going to the bus stop to get Adam at the end of the school day.

I love how Luke insists on giving Adam a big hug each day.

I also love how much Luke loves that shirt he’s wearing. Let me tell you the story about that shirt.

Adam had a t-shirt with a ripped sleeve. So while we were at my parents’ house, he had my mom cut the sleeves off of it. A very upset Luke insisted that his shirt needed the same treatment.

I told him no.

There was nothing wrong with his shirt. He had other sleeveless shirts. But reasoning with a 4-year-old doesn’t always work. Especially when he has Mabel on his side.

My mom snipped a hole in Luke’s previously unblemished sleeve, and then had him come show me the tear and ask if it was okay for Mabel to cut the sleeves off now.

I told him yes.

Kind of hard to argue with that.

(And for the record, it was totally worth it. Luke loves his shirt and he was thrilled to have the sleeves cut off like Adam. Mabel knows best.)

Maggie and Luke had their first gymnastics classes this morning. Luke did so well. He listened to the instructors, followed their directions, waited to take his turns, and really thought about what he was doing during each station. He really nailed it and I was so proud of him!

Maggie did well too, it was a little harder to keep her focused. All she wanted to do was jump on the trampolines. No pictures or videos of her class, since the parents have to be in the room helping. She did do a good job with her forward rolls though and on the balance beams. Here’s a picture I snapped when I got home of her in her cute little gymnast outfit.

I can’t wait until next week’s class.

Adam went to a Lego event at our local library today.

The kids all built with the bricks and then put their creations on display on the cart.

The event was extra special because two young authors were there. These brothers wrote a book about two kids (brothers actually) that have amazing Lego building super powers. I got Adam a copy of their book beforehand and he had them sign it and posed for a picture with them.

We took Maggie and Luke to a reptile show at the mall today. When the Reptile Guy asked for volunteers to hold this snake, Luke was the first in line.

I have to give the kid some credit though, because it’s not something I would do. I cringed the entire time and was incredibly thankful that Luke wasn’t picked during the tarantula part of the demonstration.

Seriously.

That crazy man put a big, hairy spider on top of a kid’s head. I might have passed out if he did that to my Luke.

And then probably shaved his head.

We have had a busy few days. Yesterday, we signed Maggie and Luke up for gymnastics. They’ll start their classes next week.

The two of them are constantly jumping off furniture and somersaulting around the living room. We’re hoping that gymnastics will help them to learn to do these things a little more safely, while burning off some extra energy at the same time.

Of course, this could completely backfire on us. Their new-found confidence could turn our couch into a balance beam that they use to launch themselves on to the ceiling fan.

It really could go either way.

Adam has his first soccer game next week. I’m so excited for him. He’s really enjoying it and does a great job following the coach’s instructions.

The kids got a very special back-to-school care package from my friend Shannon. They get super excited about any mail, but a box full of cookies was a really fantastic surprise.

Luke had a follow-up appointment with the ear, nose, and throat doctor today. Everything looks good with his ear tubes.

Maggie had a blast spinning around on the doctor’s stool as we waited.

These last several days have really worn her out though. She crashed as soon as we got home and stayed that way until we woke her up to go to Adam’s soccer practice.

Adam had his first day of school today. He woke up before his alarm went off and was very excited to start his day.

The rest of us spent the day running errands.

One of the things on our to-do list was a haircut for Luke. He cried the entire time. Then he cried when it was over because he wanted it shorter. Then he stopped crying and said, “Wow! My hair looks like Papa’s!” After that revelation, he was all smiles.

We were home in plenty of time to meet Adam at the bus. He had a great first day and told us that his new teacher might be even nicer than his kindergarten teacher. That’s a pretty high compliment in my book, since his teacher last year was wonderful.

We had picked up a cookie cake earlier, to continue the tradition we started last year. Adam was pretty excited about his after school snack.

And just for comparison’s sake, here is the first day of kindergarten versus today.

What a difference a year makes!