Thursday, Carter’s kindergarten class went on a field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. I took the day off work so that I could chaperon. Carter and his two buddies, Will and Ben, were in my group. We palled around with Jace and his parents part of the time as well. Here are the photos:

Will, Ben, and Carter

The lions had just received their Halloween pumpkins and were tearing them apart.

Ben, Jace, Carter, Will, and Mrs. Schultz

The notion of raising “sheltered” children has been a topic of conversation between DJ and me on several occasions in the past year. My line of work is really the antithesis of a sheltered existence. It exposes me to the dark underbelly of society — the bizarre, sometimes disturbing, details of peoples lives that you really don’t want to know. Most of the people I deal with have existed at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder for so many generations that the entire culture has evolved into something that most middle-class Americans can’t even begin to imagine, much less comprehend.

Due to this exposure, I feel strongly that my children need to know a thing or two about “the world” before they go venturing out into it. I make sure that their exposure is age appropriate. For example, a month or so ago Carter was sick and couldn’t go to school. I had a couple things that I needed to take care of before I could sit home with him, so I drug him with me. On the drive between the courthouse and my office, I pass through East Lancaster, where there are multiple homeless shelters and related services for the least-fortunate individuals in society — we like to say that our office is located “where our clients are.”

It is not uncommon for traffic to come to a standstill on Lancaster as a schizophrenic individual stands in the middle of the road yelling at someone that only she can see, or as a homeless man drags all his worldly possessions across the street in a plastic tub. People sleeping on the sidewalk are so common that you will see at least one or two every time you leave the office.

On this occasion with Carter, I pointed out all the people milling around the street corner and sleeping in doorways and told him these were “the poor” that he has been praying for lately. He asked a few questions, wondering if they even had 2 dimes, but for the most part he simply took it in. I think it gave some tangible meaning to his nightly prayer request to “please bless the poor.”

You never have to guess how this kid is feeling; his face tells it all.

Last night, I had another opportunity to give some real-life-meaning to something that he said. As I mentioned awhile ago, Carter had a real hard time dealing with the loss of his first tooth. It seemed to have been short lived, just that first day, until last night when he climbed in bed with me, cuddled up, and started crying about his tooth. He mentioned again that he wanted to put some metal (meaning braces) on his teeth in order to prevent any more from falling out, so I told him about the case that I was preparing for trial the next day. It just so happened that the mom in that case had put a grill (hip-hop style, not bar-b-que) on her little boy’s front teeth when he was a toddler. This prevented them from falling out. As the adult teeth grew in, they pushed the grill-capped baby teeth back into the roof of his mouth. I explained to Carter how this little boy required extensive dental surgery to remove the teeth when he came into foster care.

Seriously, how many people can give their kids a real-life illustration of why their ridiculous, five-year-old idea is a bad one? Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I can give that gift to my children!

The kids’ teachers post a photo to twitter everyday to keep parents in the loop on classroom activities. Here are the photos that included Raine and Carter during the first six weeks of school as well as a couple photos from family outings.

8/24/15 Carter’s table playing with the math tubs

8/28/15 Carter’s class working with their 3rd grade technology buddies (Carter is on the left)

9/1/15 Raine working on math with Evan

9/11/15 Raine working on math with Jules

9/15/15 Raine on polka-dot day

9/23/15 Carter and Finley playing war (comparing numbers)

9/25/15 Friday night lights at the Grapevine High School football game

9/29/15 A story that Raine wrote called “Disappearing Dad”

9/30/15 Raine’s class made smoothies during science

9/30/15 another photo from when Raine’s class made smoothies during science, this one includes the principal, Mrs. Shimmick.

10/2/15 Carter’s class celebrating Mrs. Schultz’s birthday

10/4/15 Raine and Carter at Kidsville, we rode our bikes over between sessions of conference

10/8/15 Raine’s class doing Maker Spaces in the library

Saturday, September 26 Carter lost his first tooth! It had been a little wiggly for only a couple days before it fell out while he was eating an over-ripe banana. He didn’t even realize it was gone until Daddy pointed out that he had a gap. We couldn’t find the tooth at first and were worried that he’d swallowed it. Happily, we found it on the napkin in front of him.

Carter had been very excited when it wiggled. He was excited when it first fell out. But a couple hours later, you would’ve thought that his best friend had died by the way he was sobbing! INCONSOLABLE! He was beside himself with grief over the loss of this tooth. He even suggested that maybe he could get braces on his teeth to keep any more from falling out.

We tried everything to console him. We told him that a new one would grow in its place — but he argued that it would be a big one (and let’s be honest, big teeth do look a little funny in small kids). We also told him that he didn’t have to leave it for the tooth fairy. But he was committed to the process and that was not a viable option. Somehow he had gotten into his mind that the tooth fairy turned the tooth into money. When I suggested that she simply took the tooth with her and left money in it’s place, he patiently pointed out (between heaving sobs) that tooth fairies are only “this big” (fingers about 3 inches apart) and therefore not big enough to carry money with them so clearly they had to turn the tooth into money instead. It seemed so obvious when he explained it that I felt a little silly for not realizing it on my own!

Eventually, he calmed down enough to eat a hamburger at Mooya. Unfortunately, the waterworks started again at bedtime. And of course, to make matters worse, just three days earlier I had gone to a training about how traumatic childhood losses, if not handled properly, could result in a whole score of issues later in life — think addiction, exploitation, and the list goes on. So I couldn’t help but worry just a little that one small, insensitive gesture could send him spiraling into a life of ruin.

He ended up sleeping upstairs in the playroom that night because the poor little tooth under his pillow was just too much for him to bear. This should have made it easier for the tooth fairy, but somehow, when he came in the next morning with his tooth-fairy haul it included four dollars rather than the three that the tooth fairy thought she left. Fortunately, Raine didn’t seem to notice the discrepancy.

As you can see, the tears and drama of the day before were long gone the next morning.

Raine turned 7 this year — only 1 more year until she’s baptized! Naturally, we celebrated with dinner at a local Brewhouse followed by a concert at the wine festival! (There is actually a very logical explanation for it, but I found it mildly amusing that the two locations we chose to celebrate Raine’s last birthday before reaching the age of accountability, both had something to do with alcohol.)

Since Raine’s birthday fell on a Monday, we celebrated on Saturday. Raine had two requests for her birthday: she wanted a pazookie and she wanted to go to a concert. Naturally, we went to BJ’s Restaurant (& Brewhouse) because they have the best pazookies.

When she said that she wanted to go to a concert, I immediately thought of Grapefest — because festivals always have concerts. Sure enough, they had three different stages with various performers throughout the evening. Raine and I listened to some of the performers online and she decided that she wanted to see Chaz Marie perform.

During the concert I asked Raine if she liked it and whether it was what she wanted. She said it was different than she was thinking but she liked it. Later that night, I probed a little deeper into how the concert differed from what she expected. It turned out that when Raine had said “concert,” she was thinking of a symphony concert, like we had gone to a few months ago. Whoops! That makes a lot more sense!

Carter wasn’t as impressed with the concert so he headed over to Legoland.

After the concert, we visited the petting coral…

…and the carnival.

On Monday, we celebrated with the usual birthday regimen.

Raine wanted pizza for dinner.

Then she opened presents with both sets of grandparents on the phone while she opened their respective gifts.

After presents, we ate cake.

Raine’s gifts were perfect for her: a rock and geology kit, a paper weaving kit, and a robot building kit. Raine has been trying to build a robot — using trash from the recycling bin — for months! Now, finally, she is able to build a REAL robot. Here is the remote-controlled robotic duck that she built first.

Raine is an energetic little smarty pants who loves school and books. She believes that she can do everything and isn’t afraid to try anything. She loves art and music, she doesn’t like PE (because she is the slow one), and she enjoys riding her bike and playing soccer. Raine always wears skirts and dresses, she looks out for Carter, and she is always ready with a prediction or hypothesis to try out. It’s not easy keeping up with Raine, but it is so much fun to watch her learn and pursue her goals. Just the other day, she told me that she wanted to be a lawyer (I was ecstatic) “because lawyers help people.” Raine is always thinking of ways to help the less-fortunate (building houses for the homeless, creating jobs for the poor, etc.), I can’t wait for her to grow up and make those ideas a reality. She will certainly change the world someday.

Daddy completed his first full triathlon on Labor Day and it was BRUTAL! We had record high temps over 100* and oppressive humidity. Daddy wasn’t the only one who struggled to make it to the finish line — Carter was a sweaty little ball of tears by the end of the race!

Swim

300m in 5:08

Bike

15-miles in 50:51 (17.7mph)

Cheering squad (prior to hiking out in the blistering sun along the running route to the finish line)

Run

5K in 30:38 (9:53/M)

Total time = 1:30:35

Even though he hit a wall near the end of the bike ride, Daddy finished 106th overall (out of 312 racers) and 6th in his age group (out of 20). His swim time put him 32nd overall. The full stats.

But most important, he looked a lot better doing it this time compared to last time when he went riding by on a mountain bike in a baggy t-shirt and basketball shorts!

Yesterday after the soccer games, Daddy, Raine, and I were sitting in the library when all of a sudden Carter jumped into the doorway and growled. As soon as we stopped laughing enough to speak, we asked him what in the world he was doing. He said, “This is me being Hulk!”

This picture is going to end up in a Senior slideshow or something many years from now! The farmer’s tan on those skinny little arms is priceless.

Monday was the first day of school. Carter started kindergarten…

And Raine started 2nd grade.

We all walked over to the school.

We dropped off Carter in Mrs. Schultz’s class.

Then we took Raine upstairs to Mrs. Allen’s class.

Today, I took off work to spend a little extra time with Carter since the kindergartners only attend half day the first 3 days of school. We rode our bikes to school and back.

Carter still can’t pass a flower patch without picking one for me!

See that painted fingernail? I was painting Raine’s nails for the first day of school and Carter begged and pleaded to have his painted too. I tried to pacify him by saying that I would paint a couple toenails, but he wanted it visible. This one finger on his right hand was our compromise! I told myself that it’s an educational aid because it helps him remember which hand is the right one. He likes it because it looks green indoors and then turns blue outside.

These past three weeks, cousin Sydney has been staying with us to be a nanny for the kids. They (meaning the kids, I can’t speak for Sydney) had a BLAST! Sydney is 14 years old and therefore can’t drive, so everywhere they went, they rode bikes. They made countless trips to the library and the local playgrounds. They also rode to Jump Street trampoline park, the McDonald’s play place, Baskin Robbins ice cream, Milwaukee Joes ice cream, the Kids-ville playground, the nice covered playground at the elementary school, and the movie theater (I think). It’s great that we live so close to so many fun places!

They spent plenty of time around the house too. I think Sydney did enough crafts to last her for the next six months!

We’ve had the most mild summer this year… until Sydney got here, then the temps soared to 106* and sat there. Each afternoon, they soaked in the little inflatable pool in the backyard. They also spent time on the trampoline.

Playing crack the egg.

On the weekends, we tried to show Sydney some of our favorite “everyday” kind of things. Things like shopping at the Grapevine Mills mall (during tax-free weekend no less), Bahama Bucks shaved ice, Central Market, and the Colleyville City library party.

The City hosts great, completely free, parties. They had pony rides:

and a petting zoo.

The kids really liked this pig!

They also had inflatable obstacle courses, crafts, carnival games, and prizes. It was so much fun that we didn’t even mind the evening heat.

When Sydney mentioned that she had never been to a rodeo, we knew we had to take her to the Fort Worth Stockyards Rodeo.

Nothing says Texas like longhorns.

And nothing is more Texan than a rodeo.

Raine did the mutton chase… in flip-flops!

This kid can sleep ANYWHERE!

We also made a couple trips to the water park.

All the photos are of Carter because Raine and Sydney were off riding slides the entire time. They both worked up the courage to ride the Green Extreme roller coaster slide (once at least—I won’t mention who chickened out the second time ;)!

We loved having Sydney here. We worked her like a dog! But hopefully it wasn’t too traumatic of an experience because it was super nice to have a babysitter available *ALL*THE*TIME* And since she is family, she does most things like we do them so she fit right into the family. The kids were especially sad to see her go. She was the big sister that they never had. Tonight at dinner, Raine was telling Carter that he should turn into a girl so that she could have a sister! I think she really enjoyed having a girl around 24/7 to play with her.

I’ll be honest, I’m just glad to have this crazy summer almost over! The kids will start school next Monday and I’m counting on my life getting a whole lot simpler.

Mid-week birthdays aren’t as exciting as weekend birthdays, so there isn’t much to report. The kids put together a 13-clue treasure hunt around the house that lead him to two of his favorite things — bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper and Reese’s peanut butter cups. Daddy opened his presents, we had a yummy ice cream cake, and now he’s another year closer to the big one!