Meet Miss Ruby Red!

 

Miss Ruby Red, a 2014 Ford Explorer, has joined our family!  Isn't she pretty?!

 

With two children (who travel in two very large car seats), we simply outgrew our awesome Saturn VUE.  Also, the VUE only had air vents in the front, so the backseat was just too hot.  Miss Ruby has vents galore and the backseat is nice and cool.

 

She also has third-row seating, so we can technically fit up to seven people, which is NICE!  My mom just moved here from Washington and it is great that we can fit all of us!

 

Miss Ruby Red is a computer on wheels!  There is so much she does, it's crazy!  We're still trying to figure it all out.  Ford even sent a person to our home to show us everything. One of our favorite features is a rear-view camera that activates when the vehicle is in reverse.  It shows up on the screen in the center console.

 

We also have a navigation screen, which is a permanent feature, rather than a trial feature.

 

 

 

And we can talk to the car, too!  We can tell her what radio station we want to listen to, or the temperature/fan speed we desire, etc.

 

This Explorer was the only red one at the dealership, and she happened to come with leather seats (which was high on my desire list - but having fabric seats wasn't a deal breaker, either).  I know it seems crazy to have leather seats in Phoenix, but they have not been too hot to sit on ... and I don't wear shorts, so I'm not sticking to the seats.  

 

I liked the idea of leather for easy cleanup.  And we were quickly shown we made the right decision when Christian gave Scarlett an unopened container of BBQ sauce from his Happy Meal and she squeezed it open.  Sauce all over her, and her car seat and some onto the leather seats.  But it cleaned up nicely!  WHEW!!!

The funniest part of the new car story is all the back-and-forth texting that took place between the sales guy and myself over the course of several days, working out details, pricing, trade-in value for the VUE, etc.  Doing it that way enabled me to be much more bold than I could have been in person.

In the end, we're good with the trade-in amount we got, and are good with the price of Miss Ruby Red!

 

Christian's Third Day of Kindergarten

Ah, this kiddo of mine!  He makes me laugh.

 

Today at drop-off, HE stopped ME at the sidewalk and said,

 

"Now, Mommy.  Stop right here, take my picture and I will go in by myself."

 

And that is exactly what happened. :)

 

 

Christian's Second Day of Kindergarten

School starts at 7:30am and is a bit of a drive for us.  Yesterday, Jonathan and I tag-teamed and got everybody out the door on time.  Today, it was just me and I am happy to report I got him to school early today.  GO TEAM MOM!!

 

We are encouraged to let our kiddos walk to the classroom by themselves, so I stopped at the sidewalk at his room, took some pictures and to the door he walked.   He stopped and hesitated at the door, and I walked in and pointed out his teacher was inside.   And then he was okay.

 

 

Christian's First Day of Kindergarten

The big day finally arrived: 

Christian is a kindergartener!

 

 

Lately, he's got a thing for sticking is tongue out for pictures.

He's such a little boy these days.

Standing in front of his school, excited for the day to start!

 

Checking out his new classroom.

 

He asked if he wanted to color, and he actually did! 

(Sister wants to be in kindergarten, too!)

Saying goodbye!

They had a "Boo Hoo Brunch" in the gym and Scarlett found a ball to kick around.

Pickup after school.  We parents must stand outside the gate and hold up a card with our kiddo's name, and then they release the child to us.  Reminds me of an auction!

 

 

Kindergarten at this school is only a 1/2 day, Monday - Thursday (actually, all grades at this school are Monday - Thursday.  No Friday classes for anybody - ever).   Though he didn't have much to say about his first day, we know he had a good time.  He was all smiles when we picked him up!