Catch Up

Playing catch up with this one, so it is a big mix up of pics.

I can't remember if I ever included this in a post, and I am too lazy to look back...

Jacob always has a hard time his first week or so of school.  When he started Kindergarten, I gave him a pick of us to keep with him so he could look at it when he was sad.  Thus a tradition was started.  He specifically asks for it now.  This year I taped it to the inside of his agenda book :)

 As we all know, Jacob is obsessed with Legos & Star Wars.  Correction:  he WAS obsessed with Legos and Star Wars.  Sniff sniff, he has passed through yet another phase in his childhood.  Deep sadness for me.  

This was his Lego Bible.  Seriously.  He referred to this book whenever he was building free hand, when he was making a birthday/Christmas list, or just wanted to stare at it.  He would memorize facts (it has pertinent trivia such as when the first Millennium Falcon Lego set was released), and he would sit next to us and point out things he liked.  It was loved (notice my attempts at keeping it together with black electrical tape and packing tape)  and I will cherish it forever. Sigh.  

 

The newest obsession of this almost 9 year old?  Football trading cards.  It all started because Grammy likes to take them to the dollar store and let them pick a couple things out.  In the past Michael and I have begged both of our children to just take the dollars because the cheap junk they come home with always ends up in the trash.  But they never do.  Well, it finally paid off for Jacob because it gave birth to this latest craze.  Apparently another boy in his class already had a few cards, which prompted Jacob to buy a couple packs that first day.  Well, almost 600 cards later, here we are...

Anytime he goes Anywhere with Anyone, he will look for cards and ask for a pack.  And because the individual packs only cost a dollar or so, Everyone does.  And then a certain Daddy and a Certain Grammy will buy the occasional 32 card pack, or 80 card pack...you get the idea. And, well, maybe Momma has once (or twice) as well.  

As with the Lego Star Wars book, he will spend time just looking at them, reading the stats (most of which he has memorized), and thrust this knowledge upon us.  Looking for a way to bond with the boy?  Just ask him to bring his card books over and look at them with you.

 He has so many we had to divide them into divisions (AFC & NFC) because the binder was too heavy.

 I bought the little stick on tabs to label and alphabetized them for easier viewing.  One day he went to a friend's house after school and of course had to bring these.  When I picked him up, there were other boys/moms there also, and all the boys ran up to me asking, "Can you do my cards like you did Jacob's?"  One mom said, "Yea, thanks. Conner is driving me crazy wanting me to organize his cards for him."  Um, excuse me?  How do you function knowing there is something to be organized and not doing it?????  I told them I didn't do this for Jacob, I did it for me.  Sheesh.  You non-OCD woman/alien.

Basically this is his American Express card:  He never leaves home without it.

This was the "Dragon Dash" that his school did this year to raise money.  The classes all have color themed t-shirts, and yes, Jacob's class was pink this year.  He hated it.  But he came in 2nd place for the 2nd grade!! He was pretty pumped, even if he was wearing pink...

Took Bob and my Morgie Porgie to the drive in.  I have been wanting to for the last couple of years but it has never worked out because they are not always showing kid-friendly movies, and when they do it is usually in the dead of the summer/100 degree weather.  And of course the glory of the Drive In is to sit outside, not in your car! You might as well go to the theater in my opinion.  We managed to do it Mother's Day weekend, so it was actually kind of perfect.  

 Do you see her hair? I randomly did that one day to her as a joke, and now she does it all the time.  Goob.

Field day for Jake.  And the dreaded pink shirt again.  It rained that day so they had to do it inside.

Playing twister with a friend.  Classic.

Jacob's track banquet.  

 Friends JP and Miles.  We recruited 3 friends this year. You are welcome SYS.

First, the coach is holding a giant poster of the boys and a gift card that ANOTHER MOM COLLECTED MONEY FOR/ORGANIZED.  It was wonderful, I have to say.  She is a friend of mine and I think used to me doing it.  But for some reason the last month of school/work (which is also the end of track season) I was crazy overwhelmed. Anyway, she sent me an email one day letting me know that she was going to take over this.  Bless her. 

 Second, notice how none of the boys are holding trophies.  Would you like to know why? Because the director (who I can not stand because he plays favorites and is the most unorganized, self centered person I have met to date) has a teenage daughter whose last year to run with this organization was this season.  He also is stepping down as the director (thank goodness).  But before he did, he made one last self-centered decision to listen to his daughter when she said that kids don't like trophies.  What?  I guess teenagers might not, but little kids???  The ones we are trying to encourage to keep doing this, stay active, do something other than stare at the tv all day? Yea, they love them.  So they all got t-shirts in a brown paper bag (see how they are all holding them up proudly? No, you don't).  That didn't necessarily fit.  Yea-that's right.  Jacob's was a size smaller than his uniform size.  Dude didn't even coordinate with the uniform order. Oh yea, and our group has to pay $12 per person to attend this banquet held in the auditorium of a church even though Morgan's group is going to Incredible Pizza for free because our director is the most unorganized/self centered person I have met to date and her's isn't.  So basically I paid $24 for a too-small tshirt.  Why yes, that shirt did get sent to the SYS office with a lovely little letter that my mom wrote (brought in the big guns).  Most of the coaches have young kids, and he didn't even take a vote amongst them. Oh, I could go on and on...

Well, to end on a happy note, here is a pic of two spoiled little dogs.  They are funny because they don't get on my lap hardly ever.  Always his.  My theory is because when he sits, he SITS.  You know, he's a man, he doesn't have to keep getting up to put the clothes in the dryer, or put a band aid on a cut, etc... Anyway, they are just cute.