Kindergarten

Dallin started school in August. I still find it hard to believe that he is old enough for Kindergarten. He loves school so far and was very excited for it to start. For a solid month before, he asked every day if it was school time yet, and then would get mad at me when I said no, like it was my fault that there is no school during the summer. Making a paper chain to count down the days helped somewhat so he could at least visually see that we were getting closer to a school day.

On the first day of school, he was up and ready so quickly.

Watching for the bus and sporting the R2D2 backpack he picked out himself. (You know, to match the Star Wars lunch box he got for his birthday.)

 Notice the lovely bruise/mark on his left cheek?

Connor bit him... on the cheek... the day before school started!! You could see it on his cheek for a whole week. Connor got in BIIIIIIGGGG trouble for that one.

First day of school shoes.

Connor's aren't new, he just wanted to be in the picture.

 Still waiting for the bus.

It turns out there was a "mix-up" with the bus and with Transportation not having Dallin's information (their fault, not ours). We knew there was a problem but went out that morning hoping it had been resolved. Nope. So we got to take Dallin to school ourselves and see him off into the classroom. And I got to pick him up from school. When I picked him up at the end of the day, he started crying at the sight of me. I thought he missed me and it made me start to get all emotional and worry that he wasn't ready for full day school everyday. Then he said through his tears, "I want to ride the bus!" He didn't miss me after all, he was actually sad at the sight of me because it meant he didn't get to ride the bus with his friends. Thanks for the love, kid. We did eventually get his bus situation figured out and now he is happily riding the bus to and from school. I keep waiting for him to get tired of going to school every day, but it hasn't happened yet.

He is in a regular Kindergarten classroom with his typical peers and is pulled out daily for math, reading and writing with the Special Education teacher. It seems like a good mix for him. He is still pretty far behind his peers in some areas, but he is learning quickly and I love seeing his progress. Today, he brought home a picture that he drew of our family.

Drawing people is a very new skill for him. I love so many things about this picture: the hair, Mckay's cone head, the circle ears. The best part is the baby in my tummy. His teachers don't know that I'm pregnant, so that had to have been his own, unprompted addition to the drawing. I never thought I would get so excited about a silly little drawing, but I seriously love this picture. I can't wait to see what he draws next.

Walk for Williams 2014

In May, I organized a Walk for Williams in Indiana to raise awareness for Williams Syndrome. We've been to several walks before, and even helped to plan one two years ago, but this year it was all organized by me. Well, me AND Mckay. There is no way that I would have been able to get it all done without him. He helped me plan it all out, we bounced ideas off each other, he was my "muscle" with setting everything up at the event, and he walked/ran the walk route several times to plan out the walk path and put up signs.

In addition to the actual one mile walk at the park, our event included a silent auction. I have several amazing, creative friends who donated handmade craft items to the auction.

Skirts, hair bows, artwork, a quilt, a tote bag, and felt food. Can you guess what I made? Yep, I love felt food a little too much.

 My aunt Stephanie works for Ulta Beauty and she sent some donated beauty products for the auction.

It was the best smelling package I've ever received.

The other fundraising part of the walk was selling tickets to carnival games. That meant we needed to get some carnival games. So Mckay made them.

Skee ball and Plinko.

Yeah, he's pretty amazing.

The prizes for the games were donated by several  businesses.

Coupons for free appetizers, drinks, breadsticks, movie popcorn, family video rentals, and pizzas. 

The days before the walk were really rainy and cold. I was worried about the weather, but it ended up being a beautiful day. It was a little cool in the morning as we were setting up, but the weather was very pleasant.

A photographer in the area donated her time and skills to take pictures at the walk. Kim Davis did an amazing job. All these pictures below were taken by her. (If you ever need a photographer in the Lafayette area...)

 At the registration table

I can't remember what we were excited about here, but we were having a good time. My wonderful friend Nicole helped with registration. (She did so much more than that. She brought us dinner a few times the week before the walk because she knew how busy we were. She came over the day before the walk to help with all the last minute things, including an 11pm run to the grocery store for last minute food items for the walk. And when the walk required me to be in two places at once, she became my clone and did anything I needed her to do for me. Seriously, such a good friend.)

 Silent auction table

Dallin and Kendal (5, WS) are buddies. I love that they're holding hands here.

Mckay and another WS dad leading the walkers.

I made signs to put along the walk pathway.

Mckay, inspiring the crowd.

Dallin's preschool teacher came to the walk. It was great to see how many of our friends came to support the walk.

The two oldest participants with WS.

This is Amy. She is such a wonderful person. She is very friendly and genuine. I'm pretty sure she personally introduced herself to all 100+ people at the walk.

James, a very handsome young man.

 At the end of the walk path, we had lunch waiting.

Jimmy Johns donated sub sandwiches. We also had bagels from Panera. Bottled water and apples were donated by two grocery stores (Kroger and Marsh). And Texas Roadhouse donated rolls. With the cinnamon butter. DE-licious!

People ate and listened to live music provided by Friends n' Stuff.

Then we began the games.

The missionaries in our ward volunteered to help run the games.

We had a frisbee toss game. 

The kids loved this water gun game. They had to shoot all the ping pong balls off the tees in 30 seconds.

And Mckay made balloon animals.

I bet you didn't know he could make balloons animals. He is a man of many talents.

Two girls from church (they also happen to be my piano students) did face painting.

The Lafayette Fire Department brought a fire truck over so the kids could climb inside and have a seat.

We couldn't have a walk without a picture of Dallin in a fire truck.

A wonderful young man from church volunteered to watch Dallin and Connor for us at the walk. I knew that with Mckay and I being so involved with running everything, I would need someone to keep a constant eye on the kids and to keep Connor from running away to the playground.

He did a great job and kept the boys safe.

Amy loved dancing along with the music.

I said a few words about the importance of raising awareness.

And I announced the silent auction winners.

It was a wonderful day. We raised just over $2000 for the Williams Syndrome Association. We didn't quite reach our goal, but I'm still impressed with all we managed to pull off in our small city. (If you're interested in helping us meet our goal, donations are still accepted through the end of July. :)  )

I'm proud of what we accomplished. It was time consuming and a lot of work, but I'd do just about anything for this sweet boy.

Why I haven't blogged

I haven't blogged as much this month as I normally do. The main reason is because I organized a Walk for Williams Syndrome here in Indiana this month and it took A LOT of time and energy to put it all together. I'll post more about it later when I get pictures from the photographer. Words will not do it enough justice. I'll just say it was an awesome day.

The other reason is that I've been growing things:

Baby Easton #3 will be joining our family December 2014!

(We really will also be growing beans and peas, in case anyone really cared...)

We felt like corn seeds were appropriate for the picture above, seeing as this is an Indiana grown baby. Corn is a big deal here. And growing a baby is pretty much like gardening. You have to make sure the baby gets the right amount of sun (none) and nutrients and lots of water. The difference is that harvesting food from a garden (even in the Indiana heat) is much more enjoyable than harvesting a baby.

Dallin and Connor don't really understand that we're having a baby yet. My belly doesn't look very different yet, and I don't know if they can quite wrap their heads around there being a baby inside of me. We'll probably talk more about it with them as we get closer to the ultrasound date at 20 weeks. They both love seeing babies though and they are always looking for babies to hug and kiss and speak in high voices to. They'll be good little helpers.

So, between feeling extra tired, extra naeseous, extra hungry, and planning an event for 100+ people, I've felt pretty exhausted. Now that the walk is over and the first trimester is almost over, I'm getting some energy back. Blogging should return to normal, especially with all the fun summer adventures coming up.