John, Laura, Kyle, Christopher (CJ) and Alyssa Mullen

Tuesday

CJ had a great day today. He learned about the letter C, colored buttons and played on the playground. He ate a "good lunch" and came home very tired. Here he is relaxing while watching a show. He's ready for bed!

Kyle took his gifted and talented test today where he had to solve puzzles, "but not the 3d kind, on paper like problems". He also said that he wrote a story about "a castle and a dragon named fire who shot out fire and ice", and he got to play games. We'll see what the results say when the tester tabulates them.
Here he is striking a karate pose just for Daddy.

Alyssa had a good day until she fell and bumped her cheek next to her eye. She had to be held and drink juice from a straw until she felt better. Then she "mugged" for the camera showing mommy her grapes.

We still miss you Daddy and we'll talk to you tonight!

Monday

Although we love to talk to Daddy on the webcam (albeit after we act silly for awhile), we are keeping ourselves busy to keep from missing him too much.

Alyssa helps vacuum and she loves her new shoes. She got two new pair and cried when mommy took them off. What a girly girl she is getting to be!

The boys have been doing schoolwork and homework, and working on Awana verses. CJ got his preschool pictures taken today and is working on his alphabet and scissor skills. Kyle is doing math and reading and science although he seemingly only remembers lunch and recess when Mom asks for the three things he did today.

Here are the three sweeties watching Sesame Street while waiting for dinner.

We do miss you Daddy!
Try to enjoy Mexico...and before you know it, you'll be back with us.

John's Trip to Mexico

Well, the American flight trackers only go to the border so we can't track Daddy once he gets to Mexico but we could watch his plane until then. Here he is at the border. :-)

We miss you already, Daddy!

Dinosaurs Alive

We went to see the dinosaur invasion at the Heard Museum this weekend. They had 12 different moving, growling dinosaurs and three baby dinosaurs. Everyone loved them (even Alyssa).

I tried to get a picture of my family in front of the T-rex but he was the only one who cooperated with the picture!

But I did a quick picture of Kyle, CJ and Alyssa petting a dinosaur in the "picture spot".

The baby dinosaurs were a big hit with Alyssa although she liked Dad to take her up to each one so she could touch them.
Here she is with Baby Rex.

She has such great facial expressions especially since she isn't very verbal right now, but you could tell exactly what she was thinking.

Kyle and CJ would run ahead on the path and warn us of upcoming dinosaurs. It would startle them just slightly to hear them roar.

Because we went on opening day, they had dinosaur egg hunts where they hunted for dino eggs with baby dinos inside of them. They got to keep whatever they found. They also had coloring pages, a mask making table and tatoos! To top it all off, there was cake!

In the main part of the museum, there are several permanent exhibits that the kids all enjoyed: the dinosaur excavation, a giant alligator you can run through, mazes, snakes, dinosaur play area, and a beginning scientist exploration area.

Alyssa played scientist while the boys played with dinosaurs.

All in all it was a great adventure!

500 Posts --- Wow

Well, it seems that I have reached the 500 mark, and that is even with not having any time to post this summer. Not bad. Of course, you will see daily posts in September/October when John is out of the country...so keep looking...I'll keep updating as I get a chance.

:-)

Kyle gets his purple belt

With his cheering section in full force (Alyssa even wore her black belt little dragon outfit), Kyle set out to get his purple belt.

He had to show a six move combination, demonstrate a choke hold, throwing an opponent and escaping a choke hold, take-down six opponents using a one leg grab move and try to not be taken down when faced with an opponent. (Meaning check --- the opponents were one at a time, not all six at once).

He did an excellent job and we were very proud of him, and he was very proud of himself too.

Here is the choke hold and the escape (by throwing opponent over shoulder).

Kyle taking down an opponent.

Kyle getting his purple belt tied on.

CJ's First Day of 4 Year Old Preschool

This year CJ is a little monkey (his class that is) and he has the same teacher that Kyle had when he was four.

He had a great first day --- he made a graham cracker house with rice chex windows and oreo wheels on it. (no, I do not know why his house had wheels but I am sure that CJ knows.) He also worked on Annie Apple and A's. He got to play on the playground and made friends with CJ Cook, the other CJ as he puts it. What a great Day!