First Day of Kindergarten

It's 3:00 and so far we've all survived! Only one more hour until pick-up time. The kindergarten classes met outside the building this morning, so it was a little hectic with all those people milling around. Jack seemed a little hesitant when we left him, but I'm sure once they got into their classroom he was just fine. Nathan went to work late so he could walk up to school with us too. On the way home Henry picked dandelions, or as he calls them "Daniel Tigers."
And for the record, no real tears were shed... Yes, there were tears glistening in some eyes around here, but we held it together. Can't wait to pick him up and see how his first day was!

Here he is with Cameryn, our sweet neighbor. They are in the same class this year.


And here are Cameryn, Jack and Taylor (4th grade) -- all ready for the big day!

‘Twas the Night Before Kindergarten

No more countdowns… tomorrow is the real deal. I guess I thought he wouldn’t grow up, but it seems he is, in fact, doing just that. His backpack is ready and his clothes are ready. We met his teacher last night at back-to-school night and put his supplies in his cubby.

I am trying to be brave, but if he tells me he “doesn’t want to go to school because he’s going to miss Mommy” one more time, I’m going to lose it. He will love kindergarten and he does want to go. He is ready and he will be great, but I’m going to miss him too. More than he knows.

Wilderness Lodge Resort

Last week we went to Lesterville, MO (2 hours south of St. Louis) for our summer vacation. I had never really been to this part of the state before and it was very pretty and there was tons to do. We chose Wilderness Lodge instead of Colorado because it is 6 hours away instead of 12. We stayed at a 100-year old resort, called Wilderness Lodge, on the Black River. It was an old-fashioned vacation… we stayed in a rustic cabin, the boys fished, Nathan and Jack floated, ate lots of good food, took some hikes, played at the river, had a campfire and chased fireflies. It ended up being a great vacation, but poor Jack had some trouble on the way there. The drive was on very hilly and windy roads. We confirmed our suspicion that Jack does, in fact, get carsick after he puked a second time. He was pretty miserable the last hour of the drive. He didn’t really want his picture taken.

When we arrived at Wilderness Lodge I had my typical first few hours of freaking out that our lodgings were not adequate and we needed to cut the trip short. According to Nathan, I do this on every vacation. My hesitations continued until we had supper the first night. After tasting the delicious food, I decided we were going to be just fine. We knew breakfast and dinners were included and had read tons of great reviews about the food. Sure enough, Trip Advisor was right. Each night we had a wonderful three-course meal and each morning they served a different hot breakfast item, along with cereal and fresh fruit. Jack’s favorite thing of the whole trip was getting to eat Apple Jacks every morning (sometimes two boxes). The staff was very friendly and we got to know the owner, Tom, pretty well. We arrived on Wednesday, so for the first two nights they didn’t have that many guests. That gave us a chance to get to know the staff before the weekend crowd arrived. Henry and Jack were constantly asking where Tom was. Along with Tom, another constant topic of conversation at dinner was deer and why there were deer heads hanging on the walls.

On our first full day Jack and Nathan went on a three-mile float trip, while Henry and I stayed and played at the river and Henry took a nap. They had a great time in the canoe and both fished a lot. That night after supper the staff made a campfire and brought out s’mores stuff. The second day I realized I need to start taking pictures… That morning, we went to a nearby state park called Johnson’s Shut Ins. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a really fun place with lots of rocks and boulders in the river. You’re basically hiking and climbing huge rocks in a river. While it was fun, it will be a lot more fun when the boys are bigger and it’s not so hard for them to navigate without the chance of getting hurt.

They were both exhausted after our picnic lunch and promptly took naps and did not want to be woken up at all.

They perked up when we went down to the river and fished. Henry caught his first fish!

Jack also caught a fish.

And I made Henry take a picture with me.

On our last full day we went to another state park called Elephant Rocks and did some more hiking and exploring seeing some huge granite boulders.

After nap we checked out the tree house and zip line that was above the putt-putt golf course. The tree house was huge and the zip line was fun. Jack was a little too short to do it, and a lot too scared! Nathan and I did it though. Although there may have been some yelling and screaming involved during my turn; things like, “Nathan stop me. Don’t let me run into the tree.”

Then we went to the river again to swim; no fishing this time. They loved playing and splashing, throwing rocks and shooting their water guns. The water was shallow and pretty cold so they didn’t really swim.

We had a great time and it was nice to get away and relax and have fun. Jack says he wants to go back so he can eat Apple Jacks and Henry wants to go back so he can see Tom. He cried when we had to leave.

Legoland

I've been trying to find a day to take the boys to Legoland all summer... today it finally worked out to go. Nathan is home since we're leaving on Wednesday for vacation. When we told Jack this morning that we were going, he starting jumping on the bed and screaming he was so excited. Both boys love legos. Last Christmas Jack got his first box of "real" legos and Henry inherited the duplos. Both of them spend considerable amounts of time in their rooms building. However, I wasn't sure how long Henry would last at Legoland. I figured two hours tops. We even drove two cars so Jack and Nathan could stay longer. Well, I underestimated Henry! We arrived at 10 and didn't get in until about 10:45, and we didn't leave until 3:15. They both absolutely loved it. We rode both rides two times and Jack did a master builder class. We all watched one 4D movie together; they only last about 15 minutes. The movies are really cool and it even snows on you during the show. Henry didn't like that at all and started crying. So after lunch Nathan and Jack went back and watched two more movies and I went to the last one with Jack. All the while Henry was completely content playing in the duplo corner, building and going down a slide (at least 30 times) that was just his size. They also had fun playing in the huge play structure for awhile. Needless to say, they had a blast! When we got home they had a snack and I parked them on the couch to watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. We all needed a little break... Legoland wore us out!

It's So Hard to Leave

Our good friends the Turveys and Jones came over Friday night for a long-due get together. The Turveys moved to Oklahoma City in December and we have been missing them ever since. Our three families have been in small groups together, in some form or another, for the past nine years, starting way back when there were no kids around! Now there are seven kids, from age 6 down to 15 months. We had a blast on Friday swimming, playing outside and catching up on the last six months. And then babysitters came over and the kids played in the basement so the adults could actually have a conversation.

As everyone was leaving later that evening, all the boys were giving each other hugs and high fives to say goodbye. Jack turned to me and said, "Mommy, Sam keeps giving me hugs. It's just so hard to leave." Such a sweet thing to say and so true, it's so hard to say goodbye to such good friends who now live five hours away. We miss you Turveys!

Say It Ain't So... 21 Days Until Kindergarten

Despite my best attempts to pretend otherwise, the first day of school is creeping up on us. This morning was the first of many milestones we'll be experiencing the next few weeks -- shopping for school supplies. Even though we have a couple of weeks, I decided to go ahead and get it done since we'll be on vacation next week. Surprisingly, we were the only people in the school supply section at Target -- which made for easy shopping.





This week and last week have really been our first "normal" weeks of the summer, with no summer school, traveling or VBS. So I've been trying to get all of our fun summer stuff in while we still have time left. Last week we went to the zoo twice, one time Nathan even got to come. We went on Saturday specifically to see the cheetahs run, which we all enjoyed. Then we took the boys to Waldo Pizza and made them listen to stories about how we used to go there all the time when we lived there. We've also had a visit from Grandma Pam, gone swimming at Wanda's and went to Tiffany Springs water park on Monday. The water was pretty cold at Tiffany Springs and it was cloudy. That combination made for chilly swimming and sliding. Henry didn't really like the water slides and all the water spraying everywhere. I think he was a bit scared of all of it. I'm sure he'll love it next summer.

In other big news, Jack is now a swimmer! He'd been kind of doggy paddling all summer, but after a trip to the pool with a friend and his older brother, he figured it out. It's so fun to go to the pool with him now because he loves swimming underwater and going down to the bottom to get toys and bring them back up. Another favorite game is swimming underneath my (and Henry's) legs. Then I go under the boys' legs and that cracks them up. Henry is happy floating around in his puddle jumper... for now at least. He's already talking about how he wants to learn how to swim.

Music Appreciation Day

Vacation Bible School - SonWest Round Up

Last week was VBS at church... the boys had a blast! The theme was all about cowboys and the Wild West, so they insisted on wearing their matching cowboy boots. You have to be four years old to go to VBS, but Henry got to come too since I was teaching. He loved his teacher, Ms. Maryann, along with music class and craft time. He also learned to go down the fire pole on the playground.

This was Jack's second year in VBS and he loved it again. The kids go around to different stations (music, Bible story, missions, crafts, games and snacks) during the morning and he loved every single one, along with his teachers. He also loved listening to his CD and practicing his songs for the Friday night program.

The whole week is a great time and it was fun to watch him up on stage Friday night singing and so proud of himself. Henry was ready to be up on stage too. So he stood in the aisle and did the actions to the song. He'll have to wait until next year to make his VBS singing debut.

Summer Nights

Jack bought his first popsicle from the ice cream man the other night... and graciously used his own money to buy Henry one too!


After they finished their popsicles, Henry decided to take strip down and take a dip in the pool. They ended their fun night with a water gun fight.

T-Ball

Jack finished his second t-ball season with the Dragons last night. The highlight of the season for him was last night's ice cream party after the game. He enjoyed playing and Nathan did a great job as one of the coaches.








Henry's favorite part of t-ball was also the ice cream party.