The Harvey Family: August {2018}

This month Brett:

started wearing his puddle jumper to swim. Once we started going to our new pool, there wasn't an easy place for his to play, just on a small set of stairs. It was nervewracking for me to make sure he was safe while Blake was away from the steps trying to swim without any floats either. I convinced him that I'd give him a treat if he tried it on one day and he ended up loving it (thank goodness)! He loved the freedom it gave him (at least when the water was warm enough).
has not been getting enough sleep. Without the routine of school pickup, he didn't get very many naps this summer (this was typically when he would fall asleep for a nap), and bedtime ended up too late most nights.
decided he doesn't like Sunbutter anymore. He used to eat Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches for lunch most days, but he decided that Sunbutter is too sticky so he likes to eat a jelly sandwich and a hot dog now for lunch.
has gotten very picky with food in general. He used to be very open to eating fruits and veggies, but now he has a very limited list of them that he'll eat.
started eating granola bars because that is what TeeTee ate every morning when she came to visit us. She had some bars that were part of her meal plan, and Brett thought it was so fun to eat them for breakfast. I figured he'd just eat them for a couple days while TeeTee was in town, but it has been going on for about a month now.

This month Blake:

has been super excited about starting at a new school. He has been in a new school every year that he has gone to school, so he's no stranger to this process. Now that he's older, he had quite a bit of anxiety about having to wait to see what the inside of his new school would look like. Luckily, we had a few different events where he got to see different parts of his school and with each one he was more excited and had less anxiety. We came to turn in some paperwork first, and he got to walk into the office at least and see part of the library which looked really colorful and inviting. Then we got to attend New Student Orientation and take a tour of the school along with taking part in a scavenger hunt to find some of the main rooms in the building. Then the most exciting visit was 1st grade Orientation (Meet the Teacher) night and we got to see his classroom, meet his teacher, and meet some of his classmates. After this night, he was totally pumped for school to start.
got so much more confidence with swimming finally! Most of his summer goals revolved around being able to swim. During the last week that the pool was open, he reached all of the swimming ones, and he can now swim across the pool (the short direction) without any float. He still hasn't gotten comfortable putting his face in the water so that was the only goal that he didn't reach this summer. We're still so proud of him and feel that much more comfortable having him be around water now.
started sleeping in his own room in the new house but then his imagination got the better of him again. I think Brett mentioned that one of the shadows looked like something scary and Blake couldn't get it out of his head so that was the end of that.
planted our pumpkin seeds from last year's pumpkins. We forgot about them until August so hopefully they'll stay alive long enough to produce a pumpkin or 2 before Halloween.
loves joining me in the garden each morning. He said he enjoys watching the plants grow and get new leaves and fruit, and he might even want to be a farmer when he grows up.
makes weapons from k'nex and pretends to be a character from Clash of Clans. Both the boys make weapons with k'nex and the straw connectors and have each other guess which character they are from the mobile games that they play. Either Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Clash of Empires, or Boom Beach. They get really detailed into it too.
got the highest score on his gifted placement testing. Before he started school, he had the opportunity to take the gifted placement test that all the other kindergarteners had taken last year. There were about 25 other first graders there with him that were given the chance since they were also new to the district. The OLSAT testing was split into 2 days, for an hour each day and it tested how your brain thinks (not just math and reading knowledge). We got an email about a week later giving us all the info that let us know he had been accepted into the gifted program. If a student scores 126-131 they get advanced learning opportunites in their classroom, but if they get 132-150 they are welcomed into a program where they go to a special classroom for 60 minutes each week to learn advanced things. Blake scored a 150 and he said he is one of 9 first grade students in the program. Chris and I are just so amazed by this boy and couldn't be more proud!

Pics:

Our patio garden. It makes me so happy when it is doing well.

Then this is the other side of the kitchen door. I'm not sure how we fit all of this on that little front porch of our apartment.

My little garden helper was working on his own project.

These 2 plants (lunchbox bell pepper and cherry tomato) have been the best producers since we moved to the new house.

The sunflower is so close to blooming!

We were excited that this zinnia plant had more than one bloom. They just kept coming.

Our marigolds have been so full and beautiful this year.

Our big sunflower finally bloomed!

Blake with his sunflower.

A close up of the beautiful bloom.

And Brett didn't want to be left out.

There were so many hot days this summer.

Our new pool already has so many new memories.

First day of school pics. Another year, another door to stand in front of. Hopefully this will be the door we take many first/last day of school pictures with.