Austin's a Weaver on Sundays

Austin's buddy Jonathan

David looking like a bonafide country boy

I love that baby!

Gotta fill her up.

Joseph's Sunday School Class

Penn Station for Lunch- gotta love free kids meals

Little Volunteer football fan

David has this really cute way of saying "Bye." He sounds like such a country boy, you'd never believe he was from the city.

Sisters

Jane and Emily

This is the face of a girl who has just found the perfect wedding dress. I'm so happy for my "little" sister!

Pin the Tail on the Mario

Mario with his racoon suit

If you are familiar with Super Mario Brothers (old school Mario, not the Wii version), you will remember that Mario had a flying racoon suit.

Well, Joseph is very creative, so he used squares of construction paper to create this Pin the Tail on the Mario game. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was awesome! See the screenshot below to compare our version to the original. Pretty cool, huh?

A screenshot from Super Mario 3

The secret to yummy Mario cupcakes...

It's a Mario!

Austin's Super Mario birthday party was a success. Here are some of the cupcakes I made. I found the figurines on Amazon.com, and I made the cupcakes from a boxed mix. Everyone always likes my cupcakes, and I'll let you in on my little secret.... (I don't have an electric mixer, so I just use a whisk to mix up the batter by hand.) I guess all that extra love makes the cupcakes extra yummy :)

What's Austin going to bring home from school today?

While we are generally satisfied with our decision to send Austin to public school, there are definitely a few downfalls to having him exposed to so many kids every day.

Probably the worst thing so far is that Austin has been carrying home germs and giving them to David. In the past month, both boys have had tummy troubles and colds, and Austin also caught a more violent stomach bug that ran through the school (One day alone, 65+ kids were sent home vomiting. That doesn't include those who stayed home or those who were sent home on different days. There are only about 400 kids in the school, so I can't imagine how busy they have been in the office this past week.)

Not only has Austin been bringing home germs, he has also picked up a few bad attitudes. He always gets good marks on his behavior chart at school, so I think he must save up all his badness for when he gets home. One problem in particular we have been having is with him sticking his tongue out at us. In so many ways, Austin is becoming more mature and independent. However, with that independence comes a whole new phase of misbehavior. I need to get out Shepherding a Child's Heart again and read the section about appealing to the conscience.

As I type this, I am anxiously awaiting another thing that Austin brings home from school every Wednesday- his WOW folder (Weekly on Wednesday). Every week the school fills a folder with paperwork, newsletters, advertisements for afterschool activities, etc. I'm such a geeky mom because I really enjoy getting these kinds of papers sent home from school. Well, today is Wednesday, and there are two things in his WOW folder that I can't wait to get my hands on- Austin's first report card and his school picture proofs. I'm anxious to find out what his report card says, and I'm hoping he gave a nice smile for his first ever yearbook picture.