Panini Sticker Books

Remember how I wrote about how World-Cup-crazy we were this summer?  Who would have thought that come mid-September we still would find the boys obsessed with their Panini World Cup sticker books?  

Before the World Cup started in mid-June, I had read about the Panini sticker books in the Wall Street Journal.  Here is an article from The Guardian entitled "Panini World Cup sticker swaps have become a worldwide craze."  detailing the sticker trading excitement.  Both children and adults around the world aimed to collect the stickers for all of the players and teams participating in the WC to complete their books.  (See below for the pages of Hayes' favorite teams).

 

 

Luckily, I found the sticker books at our local Target and came home with three books and some sticker packs for the kids to peruse.  

 

E truly was not interested in the collecting and trading but the boys, especially once the World Cup officially began, became obsessed.   These books helped the kids learn players and teams and were great resources during the tournament.

Once the tournament began, it was impossible to find sticker packs at our local Targets for the rest of the summer.  Then, in late August,  I looked at the racks as I headed to check out, and there they were!  I bought the kids a few packs, they bought some with their own money, and we said we might have to come back for more later that week.  Thomas returned with the kids that Saturday, and they were heart-broken to hear that the vendor had switched out the soccer stickers and books for NFL ones.  We have since found the stickers on Amazon and received another shipment of a few packs just this week.  

Mid-summer, we learned that our neighbors, the Djurics, were also Panini-crazy.  We have had Henry and Maddy down to our house a few times to actually trade stickers

 

as the boys continue to fill in their remaining sticker holes.  

Tom's Ice Cream

Last week after a visit from cousin Baylor, Ben rediscovered our toy food.  He set-up shop under the name "Tom's Ice Cream" (because "it sounded better than Ben's Ice Cream")

 

and opened for business in the early part of the week.  He served dinner but specialized in homemade ice cream sundaes.  

 

I must admit that my mint chocolate chip sundae with sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry on top hit the spot late one afternoon. 

Ben's Quote

Ben, in the middle of his second week of school earlier this month,

turned to me while we were in the car and said, "Why do I feel like my school is my whole life?  Except for nighttime and summer."  

I only felt sympathy for him after he shared this with me, knowing that he's going to have a rough time of it if he's already tired of school after one week of kindergarten!

E's First Day of Middle School

Eleanor barely had enough time to unpack from camp (four days) before her official start to middle school.  Lucky for her, she had two hours of orientation the Tuesday before her first day on Wednesday.  Her first "official" day in the middle school was a half-day, followed by an extra hour allotted to the sixth grade girls to decorate their lockers.  Before she left for school on Wednesday, we almost forgot the annual "first day of school" photo as she was running to get into our carpool. 

 

This picture isn't very clear.  I could not get Eleanor to stand still for a millisecond as she was too excited.  (You can see the wrapping paper, ready to be used as locker wallpaper, sticking out of her backpack.)  She honestly hasn't been able to contain her excitement about school each morning since this first day.  I'm wondering when her "school is fun" energy will finally wear out? 

Falcons Pre-Season Game

The night Eleanor came home from camp, Thomas had tickets to the Falcons first home exhibition game.  Eleanor and I passed on the opportunity to attend, but the boys were very eager to go. 

They love their time with Dad, especially when he buys them new Falcons Julio Jones jerseys! 

 

This purchase marked Ben's first official jersey that has not been a hand-me-down from Hayes.  Admittedly, it was time to get a new jersey as the player on the one Hayes wore to the game (Michael Turner) was released a few years ago. 

Another Summer at Greystone

This year, Eleanor decided to attend Camp Greystone's two-week session, after reporting that she felt the three-week session last year was too long.  So, for the last week of July and the first week of August, Eleanor was in Tuxedo, NC having the time of her life.  She had one friend from home in her cabin, Holley,

 

and then discovered that her pen pal Annie from Virginia

 

was in her cabin too once we arrived at camp.  After I helped E unpack and get settled, it was time to say a quick good-bye

 

before her cabin was off to get their picture taken. 

After lunch, the girls immediately dove into their seven daily classes.  E signed up for crafts,

 

ceramics,

 

cake decorating, water park,

 

farm and garden,

archery and dog camp.  As I had in prior years while she was away, I perused through the 1,000+ daily photos each night in the hopes that I would find her smiling face. 

Here she is in her cabin skit, where she played the role of Flounder from the movie "The Little Mermaid".  

Here is the rest of her cabin post-performance.  

She had been looking forward to running Sunday morning as part of the "Stumblers" three-mile running tradition so I was happy to see her out there doing exactly as she wished. 

This photo was taken on a Sunday because they have to wear all white on that day of the week.  They had face paint on because the upper camp was challenging the lower camp that night to some activities.  

All in all, E loved her time back at camp this summer and thought that the two-week session was too short!  Next summer, she's eager to return for three weeks again. 

First Day of School - Kindergarten and Third Grade

On Monday August 4th, Ben started kindergarten, and Hayes began third grade.

 

(Eleanor missed the boys' first week of school since she was at camp.  She starts next week.) Hayes was excited to have a new male teacher, Mr. Ashton.  When Hayes met him last Friday night when he visited his classroom, Mr. Ashton confided that recess was his favorite subject too!  He knew how to win Hayes over!

Can you tell by Ben's smile that he is already tired of my few pictures? 

Ben was eager to put on his new backpack before he traipsed down to the bus stop.  He picked out the blue color. 

Both boys wanted to ride the bus with all of the other kids on the street on the first day.  I even offered to give Ben a ride to the Primary Center since I was working as the "Morning Mom", but he declined my offer.

Here are the three kindergartners on our street this year - Ben, Ann Clay and Joey - with the six grade girls in the back, at the bus stop for fun. 

Next we have the first day of school's Beaverbrook gang.  We are starting to look very boy-heavy, and we were even missing two boys!

When it came time to board the bus, the kindergartners had been waiting for this day for years so they didn't look back. 

When the bus arrived at school, Ben walked right by my desk, and let me take one quick shot of him before he walked by himself downstairs to his classroom.  (He wouldn't let me escort him.)

Just before the 8am bell rang, I snuck down to see his class.  I was able to take this quick picture before he pointed to the door and politely told me to go. 

I was eager to hear his impression of his first day when he got off the bus.

 

He reported that his day was okay, but he definitely was exasperated by the kids who didn't behave.  That's typical Ben for you!  Hayes just told me about the soccer game that his team won at recess.  That's also typical Hayes for you too!

Mrs. Djuric provided her traditional iced alphabet cookies for all of the kids when they exited the school bus, and they were delicious!

Here's to a wonderful school year ahead!

The Night Before Kindergarten . . .

With Ben starting kindergarten the next morning, he had an assignment to bring to school with him on the first day. 

When he met his teacher, Ms. Halligan, at school on Friday night, she handed him this sheet and asked that he draw and dictate what he did the night before his first day of school.  Here is what he said . . .

The "dirt" refers to what was once our lush, green grassy front lawn. 

Weekend of Boys' Birthday Celebrations

We decided to finally celebrate the boys' summer birthdays the weekend before school started on August 4th. 

First came Ben's gathering.  He wanted to go to Legoland in Phipps Plaza so we took Ben, Hayes, and Ben's friends Hayes R, Hemming and Andrew to Legoland Friday morning.

 

 

 

After spending about an hour and a half playing there,

 

we treated the boys to lunch at Moe's in the mall before coming home for some homemade chocolate chip cookie cake (Ben's request). 

Ben was thrilled to finally celebrate his June 23rd birthday, even though it was August 1!

On Saturday morning, it was Hayes' turn.  He invited his friends Martin, Owen, Graham, JD and Jack to the pool to swim and eat lunch before we came home for doughnuts. (He prefers doughnuts over any cake.) 

By the time his three-hour celebration ended, I had forgotten to get a shot of the group, but I did capture Hayes making a wish and blowing out his candles. 

Happy (belated) Birthdays boys!

Ben's Recycled Robot

This summer, our local library branch held a competition for children to design recycled robots.  Our kids have never expressed an interest in participating in these annual summer competitions so I was surprised but excited that Ben declared that he wanted to do it.  We spent much of the month of July collecting recycled items that he thought he would use for his robot design.  He had very strong opinions about how he wanted to construct this guy so we let him run with the design.  I forgot to take a picture of Ben with his creation before we took it to the library, so the only photo I have is of the robot on display.  Here is Ben's recycled robot creation!

I sure hope he keeps his enthusiasm next summer and participates in whatever competition they come up with for the children. 

Summer To-Do Status

With such a crazy June, we spent much of the end of July/early August checking items off of our Summer-To-Do List.  Eleanor, Ben and I picked blueberries up north in Woodstock at Berry Patch Farms the second full week of July while Hayes went to soccer camp.

One weekend in July, we parents got brave and took the kids to Dave & Busters (like Chuck E Cheese x 1000) where the kids were stimulated beyond their wildest imaginations with all of the noise, lights and people around!  Hayes and his lifetime of good luck continued . . . The first game he played he hit the jackpot and won 1,000 tickets! 

Once our experience at D&B was over, Thomas and I both agreed that we would be content to never return to that place.  Whew it was crazy!

We took Eleanor to camp the last weekend of July.  Once she was gone, the boys and I checked off items on the list that she said she could miss.  We hit the Atlanta Botanical Gardens first. 

 There, this metal/wood chair reminded me of the "Game of Thrones" Iron Throne. 

 The boys loved the ogre

 and these new season sculptures, representing the bounty harvested each season. 

 This guy representing winter

 was Ben's favorite while Hayes preferred this one representing summer.  

 We never miss the Children's Garden on our visits as it is the kids' favorite spot.

Hayes got tired of "smiling" for photos so he agreed to take a picture of me and Ben, as long as he didn't have to be in it. 

Later that same week, we drove down to Grant Park to visit the Atlanta Zoo.  We arrived just 30 minutes after opening at 9:00, but the place was already packed.  

After flying through the exhibits in an hour and a half (the boys know what they want to see so we spent most of our time in the reptile house - YUCK!), I decided to take the boys to Ria's Bluebird Cafe for lunch.  Parking in Ria's lot was full so we parked at Oakland Cemetery instead and walked over to Ria's.  On our way to and from lunch, we stopped by the grave of Bobby Jones and his wife Mary.  The boys asked if they could bring their clubs the next time we visited the cemetery. 

Finally, one Sunday afternoon we decided to explore the portion of the BeltLine less than a mile from our house. 

 

Ben rode his bike while Hayes, Thomas and I walked with Dixie.  I think our stretch probably measured 1.5 - 2.0 miles along a straight path.  We passed two playgrounds on our walk, and all agreed that exploring the path further was worth a return visit. 

Hopefully, we will complete our To-Do items this month!