Sam's inheritance

Eric has finally bequeathed (part of) his lego collection to his son. The duplos moved to Awyn's room, and Sam got a tub of regular legos. We're contemplating getting Sam the Anniversary collection for Christmas (shh, don't tell Sam!) but I'm not sure who's more excited - Daddy or Sammy.

Awyn and Monkey

When it rains I park a plastic wheelbarrel under a good spot to collect roof runoff, and Awyn gets to water the plants for the next couple of days. She keeps my flowers happy.

Cheesy Grins

She knows it when she's cute, she does.

Awyn being Awyn

Awyn has come up with all sorts of ways to be herself. Here she's creating a 'Princess Bed' out of our drapes and a little pillow. She's really been enjoying the time she gets as an only child while Sam is at school.

Sam Started Kindergarten

Last Wednesday was Sam's first day of school. He seems to like it a lot, but is having trouble adjusting to the schedule. The bus picks him up at about 7:10 am, and brings him home at around 4:15 pm. Sam is full of lots of stories about school. Tomorrow is school picture day. I find it strange that there isn't any class photo listed in any of the packages. I remember ordering class pictures as a child; I generally liked them better than my actual school photos.

Crawling with Tiger

Sam crawled back and forth on the ledge in front of the tiger's pen, pacing alongside it. The tiger seemed to be keeping an eye on him. A good day was had by all at the zoo. If only they'd done the 'way back Wednesday' admission fees back when we could have come more often. Somehow I don't think it was any kind of mistake for the zoo to pick a month when the kids would be going back to school to lower admission fees so drastically.

Sam's new friend

At the zoo

Splashing with Grandma

Awyn and Grandpa

Dino Dig

At the Sam Noble Museum there's a dinosaur dig that the kids get to excavate with rubber scrapers and brushes (and goggles!).

Awyn, excavator extraordinaire

Awyn prefers not only to see the world through rose colored glasses, but to have the glasses upside down. This upside-down style is also apparently appropriate for all types of eyewear, and has been since she could first put a pair on glasses on herself.

Underfoot

Sam strikes a common pose at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. He's been wanting to do that for ages.

Sam's First Day of Kindergarten

I'm typing this entry as I wait for Sam to arrive home on the school bus from his first day of kindergarten. I expect he'll be tired; it's a long day. Our neighbor told us that the bus usually arrives around 4 pm in the afternoon, but that he doesn't ride it in the morning. Sam is supposed to ride it, but the bus didn't show up this morning. Nobody at the school seems to know much about the bus routes or times, so we're left to hope it all works itself out.
Yesterday we took Sam shopping for a couple of new school outfits. Old Navy has nice boys clothes, although a little limited in selection.
In good news to share, we finally ordered satellite internet service. It should be installed in about 2 weeks. I chose the lowest possible version, to be cheap. It should still beat the pants off the current dial-up, and we won't have to hog up a phone line anymore. For all of you who call and hear nothing but ring, ring, ring, and no answering machine, it's because we're either online or ignoring the call-waiting. Most commonly the former. If it's the latter, I'll generally call you back after I get off the phone.
Sam arrived home just shy of 4:30. He'd fallen asleep, and our neighbor couldn't quite tell Sam from the other sleeping little boys, so we had to flag down the bus after it had turned around at a neighbor's barn. Sam was so tired he apparently slept most of the way home. It's a long bus ride. He also left his spare clothing, his lunchbox, and his hat. I did write his name on all of it, so hopefully we'll be seeing some or most of it back. I don't actually have a spare lunchbox for him. Tomorrow's lunch will have to go in a plastic sack and not include anything requiring refrigeration. He gave us quite the convoluted story of how his day went. What I understand of it is that he played on a computer, on a merry-go-round that went to fast and could make you bong, and something about someone named Rusty and having to sit in a different seat on the bus. It changes a bit with each telling. He wants to go back tomorrow, so that's a good thing, since he'd have to go back anyway.
I have some pictures I want to post of our recent visitors. Grandma and Grandpa came out for a fun week. The kids had so much fun, and were very sad when we dropped Dan and Joyce off at Will Rogers World Airport. (the airport with the coolest logo ever, seriously, go look it up)