School's In Session!

Carter started Transitional Kindergarten this week (the first year of a two-year Kindergarten program for kids who are not yet five years old). He was fine but I was a bundle of anxiety and nerves. He is going to a big elementary school with so many kids (during the overlap there are 32 kids in his class!) I can't imagine how his teacher handles this but she does! Carter's teacher is Mrs. Reddick and he loved her right from the start! What a relief. She is very sweet and kind and after his first day of school he told me that his favorite things were Mrs. Reddick and that they had a fun slide on the playground! Yesterday he came home chatting about building blocks, playing with teddy bears, and reading books. So far it has been a success and he is really happy so whew! Archie is NOT happy about Carter being in school all day. He cried when I told him he couldn't go until he was 4 years old. His response: "Look! 1, 2, 3, 4. See?! Now I am 4!"

Even though he is growing up, his cuteness factor seems to exponentially grow right along with him.

New Mario Brothers backpack!

His first assignment was to decorate this puppet to look like himself to share with his class.

Archie HAS to wear Carter's backpack after pickup.

After I picked Carter up on Friday we decided to head over to Disneyland to celebrate the end of a great first week! We met my friend Joanna and her little boy Mateo and explored the happiest place on earth. It was SO EMPTY! After a crazy crowded summer we could not believe how short the lines were--nothing over 15 minutes. It was wonderful! Archie rode his very first rollercoaster ever--the ToonTown one--and loved it! But the highlight for my kids was meeting Thor and Captain America. Archie looked at Captain America and said, "You are my favorite!"

Jungle Cruise with Mateo!

Playing video games

Waiting in line for the roller coaster!

Proof that the night was a success!

The Mystery of the Candy Creatures

Tonight we solved a mystery. A very elaborate mystery concocted by an imaginative 4 year old. Carter asked if he could have a piece of chocolate after dinner tonight. (We keep a candy dish on our fireplace mantel.) When he looked inside the dish and only saw three pieces left he exclaimed, "Who has been stealing all our candy?" I looked puzzled and said I didn't know. He then proceeded to tell me what had happened...

Three creatures came into our house at night and stole all our chocolate. 

Then Carter grabbed a magnifying glass and spent the next hour on a creature hunt with Archie as they looked for clues to solve the mystery. He came up with steps to finding the creatures. Step number one was to find the missing candy. Step number two was to find all the creatures. Step number three was to get our candy back and eat it. When Carter said he saw creature footprints leading into my bedroom, Archie burst into tears. He did NOT want any creatures to be in our house ever and kept saying that he was so afraid of candy creatures. I texted Dave on the way home from work and told him to put the remaining chocolates in his pocket. That way, he could show Archie that there were no creatures and that it was just Daddy all along who had been eating the candy. Archie was so relieved when he saw the chocolate in Dave's pocket that he burst into giggles. The idea that the candy creature was Daddy was the best news ever! Carter on the other hand, burst into tears. He was truly disappointed that his creature mystery was turning out to not be true. We pulled Carter aside and said that it still might be a creature mystery after all (but to keep it a secret from Archie) and his imagination once again went wild. We took a recap video and had the boys explain more about the creatures.

Dave especially thought this candy creature mystery was hilarious because it reminded him of the stories his parents told about him as a child and how creative his imagination was too.