First Days

How do you prepare yourself for this day? Everest started Kindergarten last week. It is so cliche, but where does the time go? This year was not as bad as I anticipated with Everest. He is still at Montessori and knows most of his class already. He is in a different class with different teacher (who are all amazing), and he goes 5 afternoons.This year will be more academic than the last 2, but I think he is ready for the challenge.

Ready and excited for his first day! Everest picked out a Planet Box lunchbox. It is wonderful. I gave him the choice of many lunchboxes and this is what he wanted. Thanks Nonnie and Papa.

Nonnie rode a bike to school with us. Everest was so excited she could come. She and Papa left right after he went to school. We miss them!

 Everest putting his school bag into his locker and then changing into his indoor shoes. He wanted Sketchers this year, because Ryan (a girl in his class last year) had them. She is a very cute red head.

After school daddy surprised Everest and was at pick up. We wanted to bike to the ice cream shop, but it was pouring rain, so we drove the 2 blocks instead. The ice cream shop has about 100 flavors, the boys did exactly what I used to do as a kid. They picked rainbow, at least that is what it was called when I was a kid. Today it was called Superman and it was bright red, blue and yellow. What kid couldn't resist that, especially when their was a poster on the wall of Superman with Superman ice cream.

 Guess who got a hold of Leaf's ice cream. Luckily he was in a generous mood and continued sharing with her. I do not even want to think about the amount of food coloring my kids had.

 It is 7am Monday morning August 29, 2011. I never thought this day would come so early, and I have been very surprised at how I am handling it. Leaf started the Montessori Toddler program. He goes Monday and Tuesday morning. He has dreamed about this day for a year. He has been excited about it since I signed him up in March. His teachers visited this summer and then we visited the classroom. He is all prepared. He got his own Montessori bag, with his name on it. He has indoor shoes (Sketchers, just like Everest), he calls them fire shoes because the toes have flames and they light up. There is a flashlight waiting to be taken apart at school, his teachers put it in a special place just for him, when I apologized early about the fact that he LOVES to take things apart. He tends to not be able to put them back together and asks a grownup. Only to show up 2 minutes later with it taken apart again and the request to "fix it". He is ready.....I am not. I thought I would be, he wants so much to be independent and I know he will thrive there. He needs his own space, he needs to get out of his brothers shadow. But...he is young. I know he is not really, he is among the oldest, some kids have just turned 2, he will be 3 in October. I know all of this, but it was so much harder than I expected it to be. I am so thankful that I have 3 children. I had no choice but to say good bye, have a great day and walk out of the room, because I have 2 other kids that need to be taken care of too. Today I needed the distraction of having multiple kids.

Blueberry pancakes, with fresh blueberries. It is his favorite. Nathan put the kids table next to the dining room table as a special treat. Leaf loved it...so did Everest. I made the boys take off their shirts, they had their school clothes on and blueberry pancakes and nice clothing do not go well together.

All dressed up and ready to go.

Wearing his MSGL bag to school like daddy does.

Daddy stayed home to take Leaf to school.

Giving big brother a hug. Everest was so helpful with Leaf this morning.

Giving daddy one last hug.

Silly boys!

 Walking Leaf to class. Everest has grown up so much this past year.

 In the class. He had a great day, no tears and he is ready to go back tomorrow. The kids bring a framed picture of their family to keep in the classroom. Miss Dena said Leaf carried the photo with his all day. He had it on the playground when we picked him up. I guess we were with him all day. That's my boy, very independent, but mama and daddy are never far from his heart.

All tuckered out

For some reason, this post never got posted. The first two pictures were taken in the late summer, early Fall of 2009. The last one was taken in December of 2009. They are so beautiful, and peaceful when they sleep. Unfortunately for us, it is a rare occurrence.

Everest is in the process of phasing out nap time. He has been a little crankier than usual, because some days he still needs a nap, (or he needs to sleep in- haha!)

Everest will come home from school some days and sit in the sunroom on the floor and read. The next thing I know, he is zonked.
Asleep in the trailer. They were both so hot, they only slept a few more minutes once we stopped riding.

Asleep at Nonnie and Papa's house in December 2009.

 

Cooking- Kitchen Fun

Wow! This was taken when we first moved into our house in August 2009! Everest looks so little!. He and Leaf still love playing in the kitchen. Everest is getting old enough that he helps in some real cooking. He still loves to be helpful.

He wanted to cook, like me. We had a discussion about ONLY playing like this if 1. he asks and I am right there, 2. the oven is not in use or does not feel warm. He is very good about staying away from the oven when it is warm. Even now, that we have torn the kitchen apart and the oven has been in the middle of the floor so we can do the drywall and windows.

Look how long his hair was. He looks so different now with short hair. He still wears his apron often.

Making sure dinner is done. When Leaf got a kitchen from my parents, I ordered kid size oven mitts. I got them from Montessori Services, kids can really use them for hot things. They are so cute.

I can barely remember the kitchen like this. It has been almost a year since we tore down the walls. I do not miss them AT ALL! I love my new kitchen, even though it is not done yet. We are getting there. Slowly, but we are doing it ourselves. Although we are exhausted from staying up working until 1 or 2 am, we both enjoy doing the work and working together.

Cabinet fun

Hmmmmmm....does anyone know where Everest and Leaf might be?????????
I think I see some fingers.....

...and some toes.

There they are.

Funny things kids say

Here are a few "classic" moments in our life from Everest's point of view....

On a warm Spring day, Nathan was cleaning out the garage. I was in the house doing some Spring cleaning, and Everest was outside playing. We told Everest we would play in a little bit, but he started to get bored. The neighbor kids were out playing across the street. Everest kept yelling "hellllloooo" to them. After a while of this, the little boy (about 2nd grade) yelled back "hello damn it." Everest ran into the garage and said to Nathan (who had heard the whole thing), I don't know why he said "hello Janet, I didn't even ask his name". Classic 4 year old.

When we play a game or get something new that has to be put together, Everest insists that we first read the "constructions".

When we told Everest we were having another baby, he was very excited. He told us he wanted two more babies. We told him this was the last baby we would have, that we would have 3 babies altogether. He has been telling people I am having 3 babies. We have gotten a lot of surprised looks.

Late in the summer, the boys and I biked to the local library. It is a block away from Nathan's building at Purdue. We decided to get some lunch and meet daddy outside to eat. There were a lot of college students hanging out, since the semester had just started. While I was getting Leaf out of the trailer, Everest said "Mama look, that boy's hair looks like a dragon!". As I turned around, sure enough there was a college student dressed in goth, with a long, blue mohawk. As he passed us, Everest turned and watched him, then he turned to me and said "Mama, can I get my hair like that?". He was in complete awe of this student. While Everest was saying this to me, the kid flipped off Everest. I was so mad, I almost went after him and said something. Here is a 3 year old, who thinks this is totally cool, but this kid took it the wrong way and flipped off a 3 year old. A 3 year old!!!! Who does that? I realize there are probably a lot of people who make comments about someone dressed like this, but if you can't handle the comments, DON'T dress like that!
When we met Nathan for lunch the first thing Everest told him about was this cool kid that looked like a dragon. After lunch Everest played on the lawn a little and I told Nathan what happened. I didn't realize how mad Nathan was, until the next day, when he said he saw a guy with a blue mohawk on campus and almost said something to him.

Everest likes to play with calculators. He pretends they are phones, computers, garage door openers, etc. He calls it his cockulator. =)

Fixing owees

I forgot about this post. I wrote it up almost a year ago........look how little Leaf is. It really is amazing how quickly they grow.

May 2010
Everest has been into helping everyone and everything that is hurt. He fixes things with stickers. If Leaf has an “ouwee” he puts stickers on it, or if the wall or cabinet has a scratch or mark, he fixes it with stickers. This has lead to many arguments about where stickers can and CAN NOT go (like affixed to the hardwood floors, I am still trying to get some of them off).

Everest “doctored up” Leaf and then himself.

He even put stickers on the bottom of their feet.

Everest was tickled about Leaf participating too. Later this day he added more stickers..one he put in a sensitive area. He cried when he tried to take it off. We had to give him a bath to loosen it up. This is one lesson he learned on his own.

Building blocks

Blocks are something I think all kids like and every family needs. There are so many different styles, but any blocks will do. We got these blocks from a friend when we lived in Logan and Everest was a baby. They have been used on a weekly basis since we got them.

Leaf and his tower. He was very proud!

Everest decided to build steps.

Leaf trying out a new style tower.....this one didn't stand alone very long.

Everest's steps tower stood well, but he wanted to add support to it. He built columns on both sides. (plus a Lego column)

Then he wanted to add an elevator bigger than he was. He made it taller than me, but didn't have enough blocks to support it. This is the more economical and durable model.

But wait there is more. He decided to add stores and a connecting sky walk. If you look closely you can see the Lego house he built and an airplane. The boys had such a good time building.
Did you notice Aurora on the side lines? She happily sat and watched her brothers build. She chewed on a few blocks the whole time.

Going Home

As we were packing the truck for our (according to mapquest) 10 hour drive, we knew the kids needed to get rid of some energy. When Nathan was little he had these scooters. We brought them back for the boys and they turned out to be the perfect things for getting out wiggles.

Everest found a motorcycle helmet too, and HAD to play with it.

Do you remember these scooters from elementary school? I loved them.

Leaf got a turn with the helmet. Both were a little too big for him.

He had to hold the helmet up to see.

His feet almost reach. Everest was scooting all over the driveway. In the 30 minutes they were outside riding the scooters, Leaf may have gone 10 feet on his own. It didn't matter he had fun trying.

Everest's 5th birthday party

We usually have a small party at home for our kids. This year we had a unique opportunity, at the Montessori auction in the Spring, a firefighter birthday party was auctioned off. The party is at a Lafayette fire station, with 8 firefighters. They have food, games, decorations, one of the firefighters makes a cake in the shape of a firetruck and the best thing of all, a ride around the station on the firetruck. The party itself sounded cool, but then we found out you actually get to ride on the truck. We have visited many stations and Everest always begs to ride on the truck. He loves firetrucks.
We have been looking forward to this party since May. But on the day, an hour before the party, the firefighters were called to a fire. We did not hear if anyone was hurt, but we hope it was a small fire with little damage. 

Here is the fire helmet pinata Everest, Nathan and I worked very hard to complete. Everest decided to save it for his party at the station. Luckily there is not food in the pinata. We sealed it after we put the stuff in.

Some of the party goers enjoying a couch firetruck ride. Everest and Nolan were the drivers.

The kids played dress up at the party. We have an extensive dress up bin. Elliot was a cheetah (which was Everest's Halloween costume) and Meredith was a Purdue cheerleader police officer.

We changed plans quickly and had the party at our house. The kids all had a blast and are looking forward to having another party sometime this Spring.

On the nineth day of Christmas

My baby turned 5!!!!! I can't believe it has been 5 years already. WOW time really does fly. I came across a quote about raising children recently but can't remember who said it, "the days are long but the years are short". How true that is. There are many days I feel will never end, but then a week seems to go by and I haven't even noticed. 
Everest was supposed to have a Firefighter birthday party this year. Nathan and I won it at Montessori's auction in the Spring. We have been so excited for the party. We had everything planned for the day after his birthday. The party was at 4. As I was picking him up from school at 3 on Friday, I got a phone call....the firefighters got called to a house fire. We were all very disappointed but knew this was a possibility and we hope that no one was hurt in the fire. We quickly changed gears and had the party at our house instead. We will reschedule his party for sometime in 2011. We will definitely post pictures when it happens.

Dec. 9th 2010. Everest Nathan Mentzer turns 5 years old. 5 years ago he was born in Logan UT. Nonnie and Papa had just arrived in UT the night before. Perfect timing Everest. He has grown into an amazing boy. We love you so much Everest. Happy Birthday!

Starting the morning with hot chocolate.

Next, we baked a cookie cake. I asked Everest what type of cake he wanted. He wanted a gingerbread cake. He has never had gingerbread so I wasn't sure how it would go, but it is what he wanted. At night he has a very small piece. He liked it, but was too excited about his presents to eat much.

Everest's birthday outfit. It is a firefighter print.

Birthday ring with new ornament. Everest is into cheetah's so he got a cheetah ornament this year. He placed it in the middle where the number usually goes.

Aurora was helping Everest and daddy put together his lego tractor and log loader. Thanks Nonnie and Papa.

Leaf was trying so hard to ride Everest's new scooter.

We love you Everest!

Becoming a Pirate

Over the summer, my mom read a book to Everest about pirates and a treasure hunt. Since then, he has been obsessed with treasures and treasure hunts. He made Nonnie promise to do a treasure hunt the next time she came to Indiana. Of course, she did.

She had all the stuff a pirate needs. When Everest woke up he had a note and a treasure map waiting for him. He found his hat first. And is off to find the next red "X", treasure map in hand.

Reading the treasure map, Leaf was listening intently.

Hat, eye patch and sword, what is next?

A real treasure chest with a lock too!

Leaf wearing the eye patch and watching as Everest opened his treaure chest.

WOW, there is money in the treasure chest! What a great treasure hunt. Thanks Nonnie and Papa.

Papa made the newspaper sword. He taught Leaf and Everest how to make them. Now we have about a hundred paper swords floating around the house.