Question

What do you do when you child comes home and says they don't like school because other kids are mean to them. That they want to be in another class with nicer kids. That everyday the question is asked, "How many days until Saturday?" I have contacted the teacher but I'm don't know what to do next.

Blueberries for Sal

Olivia loves going to the library each week to get a new book. This is the book that she picked. I had never seen the book before but Jeremy was excited that she picked it because it was one he remembered as a child. It is a fun story. Olivia is becoming a good reader and loves to read to you but she also loves to still have you read to her. Reading time at our house is my favorite time.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails...

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails are what little boys are made of.
Yes we had a our ultrasound today. We checked out Olivia early from school and we all went to the doctor's office. The baby is healthy and doing great. We are having a BOY. We are excited. Well most of us are excited. Olivia was really sad that she was not getting a little sister. As soon as the doctor said it was going to be a boy she burst into tears. We felt really bad for her. I guess she will have to get used to the idea of a little brother instead. The due date is Feb. 1st.

Corn! Corn! Corn!

We finally were able to harvest some corn out of our garden. We were all so excited--corn was the one thing we were looking forward to eating. Olivia and Garrett helped Robin pick three ears. One looked quite mutant-like. We boiled them up and they got perfectly yellow. We couldn't wait! And then we sat down to eat them... All I can say is, "They were gross!" We couldn't eat more than one bite. Oh well... we still have some pumpkins growing.

Olivia's Library Book

Olivia got to check out a book for the first time at the school library. She picked a book called Allison's Zinnia. She said she picked it because she loved the beautiful pictures. It is an alphabet book. She has spent several day trying to draw some of the pictures of the all the different flowers. She is turning into a good little artist. We're thinking about getting this book for her for her birthday.

We've been Simpsonized!

Here's a composite of our "simpsonized" photos. You can do it too, at www.simpsonizeme.com".

A New Addition to Our Family

Well, we finally did. We got a dog. She's 10 months old and fully grown. Robin and Jennifer picked her up this afternoon. Olivia has already fallen in love with her and they seem to get along pretty well. Jennifer wants to call her "Foxy." We'll let you know when we all agree on something.

Family Home Evening

Baby update

Random pictures

These are some of the things we did this weekend. We picked carrots out of our garden we should have thinned them out so they could grow straighter. Jeremy and Garrett went and got new shoes. Of course Garrett loves Cars and loves these shoes. Jennifer bought a dresser at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago and is refinishing it so Olivia asked if she could help her paint it. We love long weekends.

Here is a picture of what Olivia does when she is bored:

When Jennifer is bored

Jennifer gets home earlier from work so she comes up with some fun things to do. She used the blocks I brought home from my school to make a cool design. My school was going to take them to DI so I took them home for my kids.

Olivia's new trick

Olivia has grown confident enough on her bike to ride recklessly. She likes to ride with one hand while she waves to people, and she likes to take her feet off the petals while she is going really fast. Here's a picture I snapped (Sorry about the tree shadow on her face).

By the way, about 45 seconds after this picture was taken Olivia ran into our neighbor's fence post and got a nice knot on her shin.

First Week of School! First Week of School!

Well, as promised, here are some pictures from the first week of school. It sure was a long week!

Check this out

You might be interested in my class website. Check it out:
www.mrbrunner.com

Our Open Houses

Robin, Olivia, and I all had Open Houses today at our schools. Robin's and mine went alright. You gotta love the parents who "warn" you about their children. It's going to be a fun year!
Olivia's got kind of a neat situation. Her school has so many kids that they have run out of classrooms. Instead of putting her class in a portable, they converted a commons area into a classroom. It's a little kiva (kind of like a mini stadium with raised steps/sitting area). The desks are all down on the ground, and the steps are behind the desks leading up against a wall--we'll post a picture later. The amazing thing is there are only 15 students in her class! She is still on an extended day schedule so for about an hour a day, she will be there with only 7-8 other students. One of the other students lives two houses away from us so we're excited about having a little neighbor in her class. The only drawback is that there are a total of 3 girls named Olivia in the class! Olivia kind of thinks it's neat, but we're worried she won't like it after a while. Her teacher has taught 8 years already so we're pretty excited about Olivia starting 1st grade.
We're all getting an early bedtime tonight!
-Jeremy