Anna Caitlin Goes to Kindergarten!!

Today is the day I have been dreading for the past year. My baby girl's very first day of Kindergaten. It has been a long year preparing for today. I have gone back and forth many times on whether to send her to her home school or to take her with me. After ALOT of talking, deliberating, and praying, I finally decided to bring her to school with me. I am SO glad I made that decision. It is so nice to have her right down the hall where I can check in on her any time. There are so many wonderful people that I work with who keep an eye on her also.

Anna Caitlin was so very excited about starting school. We have been counting down for at least the past 11 days to her first day of Kindergarten. Last night we got everything ready, which was alot of work!! We had to pack school supplies, label some, leave some unlabeled, pack a lunch, get a snack, fill out paperwork for ASP, and pick out clothes. (That does not include everything we had to get together for her brothers!!) When I was tucking her in, she had a huge smile across her face.

At 3:00 AM, I hear little footsteps coming in my room. "Mommy, is it morning yet?" I sent her back to bed and went back to sleep. When I went to wake her up this morning, she was looking around in her bed for her notebook. She showed me the picture she drew of her school at, yep you guessed it, 3:oo in the morning. I mean a flag, school bell, windows, clouds, sun, the whole shebang. Who knows when she went back to sleep...

Anna Caitlin went right to her room this morning with her new teacher. It was definitely harder on me than it was on her. I showed alot of self control and only peeked in on her about 3 times, which I thought was pretty good for the first day :) She was all smiles when I picked her up this afternoon and said that she loved Kindergarten. Of course, her very favorite part was recess and running around the track. I am so glad that she had such a good day. I know she is going to do great in school!!

Our Last Official Weekend of Summer

I cannot believe it, the summer is really coming to an end. My baby girl starts Kindergarten tomorrow. We spent all day Saturday on the lake with Shanna, Brent, Macenzie, and Abbie. We had a great time out on the boat. The kids loved swimming and jumping off the boat.

Shanna had this great idea that we should go waterskiing. Now back in the day, I was a pretty good waterskiier. But, I have not skiied since before I was pregnant with Anna Caitlin, so at least 6 years ago. Shanna went first and did really well. Came up on the first try and was jumping the wake from side to side. I went next. I came up on the first try and did okay, but my legs were burning from about 30 seconds into the ride. I don't know how long it has been since I used those muscles. The good news is that I did not fall and let go when I was ready, which was fairly soon. Jonathan went last. He took a HARD spill on his second try and called it quits for the day. We are both SO sore today, but at least we know we are not too old to ski. I think we may teach Anna Caitlin and Macenzie next summer.

Where did the summer go??

I cannot believe that our summer is coming to an end!! Having my maternity leave go straight into the summer has given me four months with my babies and made me feel like a stay at home mommy, which I have LOVED!! We have had such a fun, busy summer. We spent ALOT of time at the pool. Anna Caitlin took swimming lessons and Drew is all of a sudden swimming on his own too!! Baby Joshua was content to just sleep for hours under the shade in his swing. Perfect afternoons with the kiddos!!

We also had a fun trip to the beach with our good friends the Riveras. The kids liked the ocean and sand, but they loved the pool and the hot tub. Not sure we had to go all the way to Florida to find that, but we had a great trip.

The rest of our summer has been packed as well. We have had lots of fun playdates with our friends, cheerleading camp, VBS, the lake, weddings, bowling, and the zoo. Daddy finally finished our playroom too!! Yay!!

And now back to real life. Back to work, early mornings, and long weeks. And my sweet baby girl is off to Kindergarten. Summer vacation is only 187 days away and counting!!

Mommy and Me Days

I cannot believe my summer is coming to an end!! We have had so much fun and I am SO sad to be going back to work. I thought I would spend a special one on one day with both Anna Caitlin and Drew before I go back.

Anna Caitlin decided that she wanted to go to Stars and Strikes. She had so much fun bowling when there was just the two of us...her attention span is alot longer when she gets every other turn. We both bowled our best games ever!! An 89 for her and a 102 for me :) We then went to Stevie B's for lunch followed by back to school shopping and a trip to Dairy Queen. Lots of fun, but a little bit sad...we have never been back to school shopping before. Cannot believe my baby is starting Kindergarten.

Drew decided that he wanted to go see Ice Age 3 for our day together. He enjoys the movies as long as he has popcorn. He is pretty easy to please...he wanted to go eat lunch at McDonald's and then ice cream at Maggie Moos. After lunch I took him to Target to pick out a toy since he would not care about buying clothes. After choosing a Superman toy, he said, "mommy, I fine. I not go to Maggie Moos. I just go home to play with my Superman."

I have loved every minute of being home with my babies. I guess next summer will be three Mommy and Me Days. Baby Joshua will be old enough to enjoy one as well!!

Tinkertoy Time

When we were getting Baby Joshua's nursery ready for his big arrival, the other two lost their playroom. Daddy and Papa Johnny have been working on the new one in the basement for about ten months and it will be ready this weekend. Yay!! In the meantime, we packed up ALOT of our toys because we just did not have room to leave them out. Anna Caitlin and Drew were bored the other day, so we got out our bucket of Tinkertoys, which have been packed up for several months. Check out the cool microphone we built and sang with!! I loved Tinkertoys when I was little and they are still just as much fun. Now for the Lincoln Logs....

Visit to the Dentist

Anna Caitlin and Drew both went to see the dentist this morning. Drew was so excited...it was his first trip for a full cleaning. He went back in January for a "quick look" where Dr. West told him she was looking for Swiper in his mouth. That really stuck with him. This morning, he asked if the dentist was going to look for "The Green Goblin, Tombstone, Rhino, and Dr. Octopus" in his mouth. He is really on a Spider-Man kick!!

Anna Caitlin feels like she is an old pro at the dentist. She took great care of her little brother. Both did great and had no cavities!! Yay!! I hope they always like the dentist as much as they do right now!

Zoo Atlanta

We had so much fun at the zoo yesterday. The kids had not been since last summer, so they were very excited when Ms. Dana and Thomas invited us. As soon as we got there, Drew wanted to see the elephants; he looked at those for about 10 seconds, and wanted to know where the monkeys were. I think he must get his attention span from his daddy! Anna Caitlin is her mommy's girl; she did not like the snake house but loved the panda bears. Baby Joshua was content to just be along for the ride in his stroller.

Another favorite was the naked mole rat tunnel and playground. Who knew naked mole rats would be such a hit?? We enjoyed a picnic lunch with Dana and Thomas before riding the train. Drew crashed in the car before we could even get home. What a fun day!