Adventures at the Darden House: November 2008

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

What in the....

So... this post is gonna take some explaining! It seems that our oldest son Riley has two "best friends" or in his writing "best freds" -- Grace and Summer... did you catch that... our son has 2 girls as best friends. Not that I have a problem with him being friends with girls... it's just that I think each of these sweet girls thinks that they are "the" best friend.

So, last weekend Riley wrote them each a "letter." Each of the letters was the same, except the name.
"You are my best friend (insert either name)." Summer received hers on Monday but Grace was absent that day - so she got hers on Tuesday.

Another piece of important information - Summer has told her Daddy that she "likes" Riley because he has a cute smile.... yeah, this has already started in KINDERGARTEN!!!!

Then.... today.... Riley came home with this:this is the front of the card.

And here is the inside:
now, my guess is that Summer got help writing the first part... but the part that almost caused me to fall over "You love me".... WOW!!!! what can we say to that????

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Makin' mama proud!

Riley is LOVING school! He recently received an award for 1st quarter. He is crazy about reading! He has completed the Kindergarten list of words they must be able to read on sight and is now working to master the 1st grade list (his goal is to start the 2nd grade list in February and I have no doubt he will!

So... his school is doing this breakfast thing for all the kids and their families... they did a power point presentation...
and this is the picture they had of him...

I'm not sure what kind of look this is but surely they didn't say "smile"... it must have gone something like "show me every one of your teeth or no recess for you for a MONTH!"

It's pretty amazing to watch what he is learning!

While at the school for breakfast, there was a paper he had written on the wall outside the classroom. The assignment was "I am proud of me because..." and I cried when I read his.
Riley wrote that he was proud of himself because he crosses the street by himself (disclaimer: I have started letting him cross at the crosswalk by himself while i stare down any car that comes within a mile of my sweet baby!)

He then wrote about asking a friend to not push him down... i think we have a writer... everyone else wrote a sentence and Riley had 3 or 4 sentences explaining how he handled the situation.

I feel like everyday I have to remind myself that it is our job to prepare him for the world and not to protect him from the world.
Right now, I'm pretty darn proud of how he is handling himself in his world!

New things at the Darden House

It's been an interesting month or so... to say the least... we have a couple new additions to the house. Most recently:

TA-DA!!!! Just what everyone wants to purchase right before the holidays! The fridge DIED and we had to replace it... so fun!!
On a positive note, Brian hooked up the water supply (with a little help from our favorite local uncle... Thanks Uncle Jim)!!

and... approximately a month earlier we got these:

OOOOOOOOOh, Awwwwwwwww... i know.. amazing...
and yet another expense we were SO excited about!
if you notice - the manuals are still on the washer and dryer... you need a degree in engineering or something to work these suckers!

Ok, enough complaining...
we have much to be thankful for... eventhough we didn't want to spend the moolah!

Halloween - part 2!

We were invited to Trick or Treat with Grace's family and their neighbors and other friends... we've never been a part of such hard core trick or treating... the kids got more candy than anyone needs... and boy did we have fun!