School Days

The little man has almost a week under his belt of first grade. So far so good. His teacher had her baby girl yesterday morning, so she is gone for 6 weeks now. We'll have to go buy her something cute. I asked him what he wanted me to make him for his after school snack and he said "rice krispie bars", so I made them up with fruity pebbles in them also. Yummy!

 My big 1st grader

 Ryder at his new desk

 After school yummy-goodness

 Coming home on the bus

His auntie Misty wants to do a picture every year now on the first day of school (we did it last year too), we didn't catch her in the morning at school, but we did in the afternoon after school at her house.  It may be a challange as he gets older but his auntie will wrangle him up. Haha!

He has 21 children in his room this year.  That may change yet as the year goes on, they will probably get a few new kids with the oil boom. He took cold lunch today, as chili on a day when it's supposed to be 100* probably isn't a good thing.

The night before school, I asked Ryder a few questions and made this during his first day. I am going to try and do this every year. What a great way to look back!

I did very well on the first day. No tears. I am a little lonely at home without his toothless grin to see throughout the day, but I know he's having fun learning and playing with his buddies. This is such a growing time for a child in school, learning how to interact with others.
I found this poem on FB, a friend had posted it. How true and fitting.

Uff-da!!

Okay, so it has only been.....um.......close to 3 months since I blogged. Yah-that's a little too long. I guess you could say I took the summer off. Since tomorrow my little man is going back to school. It doesn't bother me as much this year, I know he likes it and has made friends so that just makes it that much easier. He is going to be a big 1st grader! He is excited. He has his clothes all picked out, right down to his underwear. haha!!   His backpack is all ready to go, and I remembered to call the bus driver to say he won't be on in the morning (his mama still needs to take him in on his first day-although little man didn't think so. oy oy oy.) He has Mrs. Barth this year. She is a young teacher, her first year even! She won't be there though after this week because she is having a baby next week, so the kids will have a sub for 6 weeks, but Ryder knows the substitute as well and likes her. 

We are bringing Mrs. Barth a little treat

 

Back to the grind for another 9 months.  Getting up early and getting little man onto the bus by 8:05am. Luckily he is the last one on and first one off, that will change come next year I hope. Come end of December I will have a little one to take care of also-I am SO excited for that. I will be watching my niece or nephew  (don't know what yet) after my sister in law's 8 week leave.

It was a busy summer with a lot happening.  We started out going to Minneapolis for a little trip (my last blog post) and ended up.....not doing much of anything. June was a busy month. Ryder celebrated his 7th Birthday with a birthday party, 7 little boys came and they had a blast at his dinosaur themed party.

Happy 7th Birthday Ryder

 



Soon after, my Grandpa Woody started taking a turn for the worse.  We (my mom, Ryder, and  I) went to a birthday party for the folks at the nursing home (his would have been on June 24), and I feel that was the last time we saw him. He slept most of the time, but he did look at us and smiled big when he saw us. When we left, he said goodbye. He told us to take care of Ryder. I wish we would have stayed a little longer because that's the last time I saw my grandpa where he responded and talked to us. He passed away peacefully on  June 17, 2012. Father's Day. How fitting for such a wonderful man. He passed on to his eternal home and I know my Grandma Phyllis and Aunt Cynthia met him at the pearly gates with open arms!! He is in no more pain and I know I will see him again someday.

So that next week was a lot of company and family. I am so glad Ryder got to know his great-grandpa. He was truly a remarkable man. He had a special bond with Ryder, he really thought a lot about him. He always hugged him or shook his hand or patted him on the back every time he saw him. I feel that they had a special relationship and that will be something Ryder will always remember.

Ryder and Granpa Woody (June 2005)

 

 

The end of June brought us to a big occasion-my big brother Andy married his lovely bride, Shelly. It was a hot day, but we all enjoyed it. This time for a happy occasion. 

 Andy and I

 My Wiedrich Sisters and I

Andy and Shelly

July...Quay and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything I don't think. Oh wait--we took the power boat out to the lake.  We sold our sailboat in hopes to buy a newer one in the spring. We did the annual Wiedrich Olympics on the 4th of July, most everyone was able to be there.  Late month we went to the state fair. We took in Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan, Chris Young, and Blake Shelton. Ryder went with to the first two and decided that wasn't his thing...yet. He did enjoy ZBB once it got going. 

4th of July

 Zac Brown Band Concert

 Blake Shelton!!

Quay and I at Blake Shelton

 

August came and went, it's almost to an end as well. Ryder took swimming lessons and we have been out combining with my dad. I have been taking maternity pics for my sister-in-law all summer as well. She is nearing her due date!!

Ryder at swimming lessons

 Ryder and Grandpa Earl going combining

 Harvest time!

I  was in the hot seat of the combine for awhile even! Fun times with my papa.

 Misty at 30 weeks!

Misty and Shawn with their little bundle-on-the-way.

 



Here are just a few more pics from our summer!!

 At the lake

 Happy Father's Day to Quay

 Wreath I made. :)

 Ryder and the farm kitties

 We bought a backyard pool-Ryder had a lot of fun in it acting like a fish!

 Ryder in the flax field

 Ryder lost a lot of teeth over the summer!

 Our old-man-dog, Roo, enjoying my bed

 Pickles!

My niece and nephew came and stayed a week at the farm





Mini Vaca

Okay-so we took a mini vacation to Minneapolis last week. We had a lot of fun! It was nice just to get away for a few days.  We started out Monday evening when Quay got home from work and went as far as Fargo. We stayed the night with Dan and April. Tuesday morning we were off for the cities.

Oh--Ryder finally lost that top tooth!! Now for the other one. 

Our first stop was the Minnesota Zoo.  It was a nice cool day but a great one for a zoo visit.  They had the animatronic dinosaurs there which Ryder loved! The animals were all cool too. We were there for over 6 hours!!  We took the tram ride around the zoo after we walked it all. The next few days we did the shopping thing at Ikea, the Mall of America, and then some. Ryder loved Legoland in MOA, and we took him on his first roller coaster ride. He wasn't too impressed with that. It will probably be awhile before we do that again with him.  We ate at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Factory in MOA-yummy!

Ryder was quite impressed with this bedroom at Ikea.  I think this will be in the making soon.

The next day we went to tour a few sailboats. We are itching to upgrade to a newer model than what we have now, and I believe we found a winner.  I am not sure when this upgrade will happen, but at least we know what we want now.  It was nice to see them up close and in person-it does so much more than pictures on the internet. We cut our trip one day short, so we had to cancel our last night at the hotel-never will I book through Expedia again. That was a major pain in the butt!!  It was a long ride home, but Ryder watched a few movies, and we took a different road once we got back to ND.

When we got home from our trip we had a surprising message on our machine. The man that has the land we have made an offer on called and said if we still want it, the land can be ours.  Oh boy.  This isn't what we were expecting at all. We had pretty much washed our hands of that idea since it's been over 6 months of trying to get it. But--we are going to go ahead with it. It's something we have wanted for some time now, and we aren't going to pass it up now.

We went out to the lake and stayed on the sailboat the day after our trip. Ryder and I walked to the beach for a little while. We went "sailing" and put up both sails, but since the lake was almost glass-we just floated for awhile. It was a beautiful day on the water!

Onto a new week now. Ryder's party is tomorrow. We have gotten 3 rsvp's out of the 16 invites he gave out. I really hope more than three kids show up. And I really hope it doesn't rain like is forecasted because I was planning on an outside party.