Back in the swing of things....

We have slowly found our routine again with the start of a new school year. Although the routine is a little crazy with various activities/commitments and business travel, everyone is doing well. Quick synopsis of events in the Mayfield casa since our last post.

Logan: Is still really enjoying Kindergarten. We have been blessed with no separation anxiety and minimal evening meltdowns resulting from being over-tired. He is meeting some new friends and loving the bus, recess and lunch. Last Friday Shawn volunteered for a couple of hours in the am, and Logan wanted to ride the bus instead of drive to school with dad. Oh well. Volunteering was a great experience. It was fun to watch Logan interact with the other kids and see how his teacher directs the class. I was amazed at her organization! From 9:30-11:30am they went from one project to the next. During reading/spelling, they were following nursery rhymes on the projector doing a letter/word recognition exercise. If the kids went ahead of the group she would walk over and tear up their paper and tell them their is no cheating in class. YIKES! Logan is memorizing his nursery rhymes for their program next Friday. Logan's soccer team also won their first game this weekend (5-4). In the words of a 5-year old..."we are no longer losers!"

Carter: Still loves to watch the "wiggles" and go to the zoo. This weekend we let Carter pick our Sunday activity and he said, "go see animals." Carter has adjusted to daycare well without his brother. He loves reading books and playing matchbox cars in the basement. He likes to line them all up in a line. Carter and Logan are starting to be "older brothers" pushing each others nerves and wrestling. In short, Carter won't let his big brother push him around. Yesterday Carter was laying on the coach and Logan tried to sit next to him - Carter pushed him right off the coach.

Shawn and Sara: Still remaining sane between work and raising 2 busy boys. Shawn is coaching soccer on Mondays/Saturdays and we are splitting Logan's HALO (Sunday School) small group on Wednesdays. Shawn is also taking an HR certification prep course on Thursdays; not to mention traveling most weeks. Yes, exhausting! But we are excited for vacation - Switzerland and Austria here we come. The boys are counting the days to grandma(s) time. They are pushing us out the door :-)

Hopefully everyone will remain healthy. For those out-of-towners who read our blog. One of the elementary schools in Lakeville had 30% (over 170 students) of their students out with the flu last week. It is not Logan's school, but close to daycare. Logan's school has some strict rules to avoid germs spreading (i.e. no drinking fountains).

Have a great week!

1st Week of Kindergarten

Logan is doing really well. Meeting new friends and having more fun each day. Yesterday, Logan and Madison (former neighbor) received the Awesome Possum award for being the best sleepers during nap time.

Here are some pics from the first week.

Logan and Madison:

Logan and Iliad on the 1st day at the bus stop.


Neighborhood kids waiting for the bus on the 1st day.

Logan's locker.

Logan survived his 1st day of Kindergarten

Sorry grandparents - my goal was to download a ton of pictures from Kindergarten orientation and the first day today, but work has been a nightmare. Let's just say merging 2 banks with 280,000 team members is a 24 hr/day, 7 days/wk job right now - and that does not include the insane travel. Shawn was originally hoping to achieve Platinum status this year (75,000 miles), now it looks like he may fly between 90,000-110,000 miles.

Anyway - what everyone is really interested in....LOGAN!

Logan woke up at 6:15am this morning SUPER excited for school. His Star Wars clothes were picked the night before, his backpack was stuffed with his Star Wars lunch bag and "3 special things" (Star Wars action figure, photo album from grandma far-far, and his Pokémon stuffed animal). He ran to the bus stop and met his neighborhood friends. I guess the bus requires all Kindergartners to sit in the front of the bus for safety reasons....so Logan sat next to Iliad (neighbor boy down the street). Sara drove to school and took pictures of Logan walking in the building.

Here is Logan's version of the day:
-Lunch (mom packed) needs a bigger sandwich and less carrots. Need to work on opening his juice box; needed help from the teacher.
-Recess was to short
-Jacob wore really fancy clothes (Jacob is one of 3 boys from his soccer team in his class)
-Fell asleep during rest time
-Went to the bathroom 3 times. Why doesn't the teacher have a bathroom in her classroom Dad?
-We read lots of stories

In short, he had an excellent first day. I have to admit I am incredibly AMAZED at his teacher. She has been teaching Kindergarten for 24 years and is one of the most organized people I have ever seen. She also owns a Kindergarten consulting company (http://www.kidscount1234.com) where she travels the country training other Kindergarten teachers. I think Logan is going to have an excellent year. The youngest child in his class turned "5" in May so the teacher (Mrs. Sloan) is excited about having a more mature group of kids - all the summer birthdays in his class are already 6. So much more to share, but we will save for another post with pictures.

More pictures from the 2nd Annual Mayfield BBQ

Fore......

"Grandma closer" was a brave sole and took Logan golfing on Monday for a special day. Logan took a series of lessons earlier this spring and played a couple of rounds with Dad. Unfortunately the last time Dad and Logan went on the course it took all of my patience to make it through 9 holes. Logan was cranky and refused to listen. That was 6 weeks ago. I told Logan that if he wanted to go with grandma we had to go to the driving range and practice. He did great at the driving range and was actually "swinging" verses "chopping" at the ball. His only challenge is to align with the hole and keep his head still.

Grandma helped him line up each shot and he had a BLAST! On the 127yd 9th hole he almost got his first par. His 3rd shot hit the flag stick and fell a couple inches from the cup - he considered it a par anyways.