Weekend Update

We celebrated James' first day of preschool with a "First Day of Preschool Party." James got to pick out everything for the party including the guest list (Steff), food (make your own pizza), and theme (snap, crackle, pop). We even surprised him with his first ever Rice Krispie Treats and sang the Snap, Crackle, Pop song I remembered from Girl Scouts. James has a bizarre fascination with Snap, Crackle, (and especially) Pop so he was thrilled. 

Rolling out the dough for our grilled pizza. James' favorite had asparagus and sun dried tomatoes on it.
Tim went all out and made James this very authentic Pop hat. It has seen a lot of wear the past few days.
The Boulder County Fair has been going on all week at the Fairgrounds right by our house. It kicked off with a parade last weekend (A parade in the Mont? Shocking!) and the rodeo/fair/carnival went on all week. James and I went with the Haley fam on the first night to check out the animals, but he was mainly interested in the rides and games. We saved that fun for when Tim came back with all of us on Friday night. There was a large display of old tractors to climb on that the boys loved.
Heading to the carnival to eat some fried food on a stick.
James' first ever carnival ride. We kind of had to have him stand on his tippy toes to make the height cut off, but he love every second of the motorcycle ride with John and Colin (hiding behind John).
Carnie ride #2-a much tamer train ride. But still a huge hit with all 3 boys.
I am pretty sure James is some kind of Carnie Game savant-his first one ever and he popped a balloon with a dart on the first try!
Showing off his prize, Kelly the bear, who did not leave his side for 2 days.
Showing off prizes while waiting for Carnie food-snow cones, funnel cakes, corn dogs, oh my!
James finally got the hang of his Strider bike this weekend and went for a couple of rides around the block on it! He decided his bike needed a bath after yesterday's ride. The apron and undies were James' outfit of choice for bathing the bike.
Today we decided with Kelly and Seth to take all the boys bowling for the first time-it was only 50 cents per game so we figured it would be a fun/cheap family outing. It was a monumental family togetherness fail. I have literally never been so mortified or embarassed by James' behavior. He was such a disaster that we had to leave and James and I both spent a good part of the afternoon crying. Yuck. Sometimes parenting a 2 3/4 year old is not as easy as it looks :-) But before all hell broke loose at the bowling alley, I did get some pictures of James and his buddy John in their awesome bowling shoes. Looking good, right?
And yes, James' shirt does say Bowling Maniac. I am a fan of dressing him for the occasion.
James' first 2 days of preschool went exceedingly well and he was apparently a dream while at school both days. He has had a little bit of a tougher time adjusting at home. He has been upset each day when he wakes up and finds out it is not a school day, and his waking up at 6am excited for school has now become a new trend that leads to a very grumpy boy a few hours after waking up each morning. I made James a calendar so he can see what days he gets to go to school and he helped me make a Positive Attitude chart, so we will see if these help to curb the numerous meltdowns that we have been so lucky to experience the past few days. Now if I could just figure out how to get him back to sleeping an hour and a half later in the morning, I think we would all be much happier. Luckily we ended tonight on a good note and I am now listening to James sing himself to sleep-his own personal mash up of Kei$ha's Tick Tock and the Fraggle Rock theme song. I am glad his quirkiness and sweetness by far outweigh his moments of being a nightmare.