1st Day of School

The summer went by too fast... way too fast.  Before any of us were ready, it was the 1st day of school.  I'd like to pretend that because we survived and thrived in Kindergarten, that the first day of 1st grade was a piece of cake.  But I would be lying.  1st grade.  It just sounds a little too big, a little too real.  It was just a new hallway, with new friends and new teachers.  But I wasn't ready to have a 1st grader.  Because you know what 1st grade leads to?  High school graduation. 

 

I know I know, there are a few years in between.  But that is the tricky part, those years blend together in a rush and are gone in the blink of an eye if you aren't careful.  So in my typical "logical and unemotional" gut reaction, I decided the night before school that we just were not going to go.  See, I am such an amazing grown up. 

 

Unfortunately, I had to squash those feelings.  Because KK was so excited for her first day of 1st grade.  Like she ran out of her room dressed and jumping up and down in joy before her alarm had gone off.  I did manage to corral the girl for a few pictures before walking her into her new room.

 

This last shot was a "please mom stop taking pictures and lets go already"...

Luckily for my heart  (and potentially unstable emotional state) we have a lot of blessings as we start 1st grade off today.  Our best friend from Kindergarten was in our class!  One of the sweetest and kindest friends, yea!

 

And we have an amazing teacher!  She and KK seem to be a great fit together, I think that they will have a fun year!

So this is when I left her... And by leave I mean kicked out as announcements were starting and parents had no choice but to leave.  I was a little worried that she would get a little sad as I left, as the newness was wearing and the reality was sinking in for her.  She sat down and looked around a little lost for a moment as to what to do next.  I saw the boy next to her softly crying and talking with the teacher.  I gave her a hug and told her to look around and make sure that she did some amazing acts of kindness today, that sometimes helping someone else by being a new friend will make you feel better too.  Not an easy feat for KK who is pretty shy when it comes to school and talking with others.  Then I did the brave smile face, hugged her again and walked out the door.  She didn't even watch me go - she was busy talking to the little boy next to her and getting out some crayons to color.

 

It wasn't until I picked her up that she told me more about the little boy next to her.  She said he was crying because he was scared of the new school and didn't know anyone and missed his mom.  I asked her "so what happened to him?" and she just shrugged her shoulders and said "I just asked him what he liked about school and we talked for a little bit about what was fun at school and now we are friends".  She started talking a mile a minute about all the other things that happened that day so I had to ask, "was the little boy okay?" and she just smiled and said "Yea Mom, he had a great day like me".  And that was that.  Thank you Lord for this special little girl! 

 

 

After I returned home from KK's school, it was time to take AJ to his first day of preschool.  This kid is always making me laugh.... for example, the following pictures.  Most would say "Wow, AJ was super excited about his first day of school"... Nope.  Not even close.  This kid was pumped about pictures because he wanted to show off his cool new red shoes that he picked out all by himself.  Seriously... the only reason I got him into class without incident was because he wanted to show off those shoes to "the guys in my class".  This kid is going to be trouble!

 

Yup - he thinks he is a stud. I even had to show him these pictures before we left so he could be sure his Mohawk was spiky enough.  LOL!

 

He did like holding his own sign, just like his big sister did earlier this morning.

 

So as I mentioned, AJ wasn't quite as pumped about school as KK.  I told him that this year he was going to learn letter sounds which will help him learn to read someday.  His response "why can't they just teach me to read already?  What is taking them so long?".  Yup... I feel for his teacher!

 

 

I didn't get any pictures of him in his new room the first day, so here is a few shots from the night before at Meet the Teacher. 

His basket for his bag

Posing by the month of March - his favorite month due to his birthday ha! 

 

When we walked into class, AJ was a little quieter than usual.  Before I could get down and talk to him, another little boy ran up and exclaimed "Your red shoes are soooo COOOL!  I have a Mohawk too, want to be friends and play in the tent?"... and they were off.  I could barely get a wave goodbye much less a hug.  But I left smiling at how sweet they are at that age, best friends within moments over shoes and a hairstyle.  (His teacher did report, as all of his others have in the past, that AJ is the sweetest little boy in class.  Never in trouble, always listening and obeying and being kind.  Love that boy).

 

So with two kids dropped off, baby Kins and I went home to a very quiet house.  Kins looked around as we walked through the house.  When we sat down to play in the playroom, she stretched her neck towards the bedrooms and then looked up at me confused.  That's when I realized what she was thinking, as I was thinking the same thing:  it's too quiet, where did the big kids go, I miss them. 

 

It appears that I will never be that mommy that is jumping for joy on the first day of school, posting pictures of their joy at being home alone for days in a row.  Part of that is attributed to the fact I work part-time, so my time with them seems a little more precious to me.  And having a day where I am home with just one of my babies seemed a little off. 

 

Kins and I had fun, she rarely gets just mommy time.  But I will admit that she (and I) were both pretty excited when it was time to go pick up the big kids.  Kins started clapping in her car seat as we headed home from school that day, just thrilled that there was crazy loud noise all around her again like always.  And me too.

 

Sweet dreams y'all!

Summer Vacay #2

I will just warn you now, this is a doozy of a post... lots of pictures.  I must have been on a secret mission that I didn't even know about.  But in my defense, this was our first trip in a LONG time to see my entire family and there were cousins and oma and papa and lots of people we wanted to remember and get an updated picture with... so we (I) might have taken things to the next level of crazy.  That really wasn't a big leap for me (surprised yet?).  Okay, here goes:

 

Our first stop on our Roadtrip #2 of the summer was to our cousins house in OKKKLAAHOMA where the winds blow gently off the plains... Sorry that song happens in our car every time we cross the border into Okie land.  There was no way we could do a family trip and not see them first.  As always they welcomed us into their home and let us get comfy.  It was gorgeous weather due to all the rains they were having, so they took us to one of their hang outs along the river to have a picnic and some play time.

 

The cousins, aka our besties, aka our other brothers and sisters

Picnic by the river

Ignore the ninja turtle attire - it seems AJ's love for TMNT has spread into their home (your welcome hehe)

We were on adventures before we even got to the park - we found lady bug friends! (see the sleeve of his shirt)

After our tummies were full, we headed down river (or was it up, I am not sure) to the park to play!

Baby K was enjoying the ride for sure!

Looked ahead and saw this cute shot of the kids - so happy to be together.

It was time for some serious playing - the girls showed me their muscles while the boys just got dirty in the sand...

Caught you in a picture!!! (he was one tough cookie as he hates pictures, at least he hates looking at me on request)

Anna and me - we look so good its scary!

Thank goodness Cuz had enough energy to keep up with the kids - I took this while resting on a bench...

And who showed up to sit with me but sweet little Red :-)

The girls can pose on just about anything - trust me they tried it!

Beautiful view of the river right next to the park and paths we were walking along.  It doesn't capture the beautiful day we had but there it is. After some serious playing, we decided to follow the walking/biking path further downsteam (or was it upper upstream..) and see where this music was that we were hearing.

 

Turns out it was a one man band by a bar/restaurant on the river.  Needless to say, our kids decided that they wanted a front row seat right next to the speakers.

Baby K played it cool with her sippy cup and took in the music.

 

Serious conversations about what to drink or snack on were had here...

As well as some cute snuggle time with cuz's

All in all it was a great day outside - the kids played and got some treats and a free concert, and we got to see a little more of Okie land.

 

The next day we got some shots of the cousins together, as we were headed to Oma's house next and we wanted to make sure (okay I wanted to make sure) that we had some new pictures of these kiddos as they are growing way to fast.

 

This boy LOVES baby K... always giving her hugs and kisses.  Same for AJ, he is always hugging on AJ.  Our cuz is a lover for sure!

As I mentioned before, we started a trend at Casa Cuz... TMNT are the cool new thing.  And the only way.. I mean the only way I was going to get these two boys outside to take a picture was if I allowed all of the turtles they had to join them.  It turned out to be a great idea - I love this picture!

And dare I say, they gave me another cute shot just because they were feeling generous!

 

 

Here is a shot of our sweet awesome wonderful cousins with baby K... WE LOVE YOU GUYS!  Saying goodbye always stinks, but we knew that we were going to see them again in a few days on the return trip home, so that was a little easier.

 

 

After goodbyes we were off to Oma's house next.  Oma and Papa just moved in to their new house they built in the Ozarks... just a quick hop across the border into Missouri and we were there!

 

Here is Baby Kins and Papa getting reacquainted again... I don't think she was believing his stories he was telling her.

 

 

Refer to our story of Fun and Fear when we rode the ducks in Branson one day.  Follow this link:  Ride the Ducks

 

We also got to see our big cousin Ida at Oma and Papas - they were pretty excited to play together again, as you can see:

 

The also brought their "baby" George

 

Checking out the cool views from the screened in porch

 

Now what should we do for fun for a few hours before they had to leave?  Let's check out Bass Pro Shops and take weird pictures..

They were just glad to be together

But we made them stand by a rather large buck... because who wouldn't pose the children by the large somewhat scary deer?

In fact, lets get a family shot while we are at it!  Lol - we had some fun with it.

My guy :-)

The girls hanging out before asking to go "shopping"... they are definitely related

We wanted a picture by the big bear... my sweet hubby failed to notice he cut the bear's head off.  Haha!

Sister of mine: you know what you did in this picture to get us to laugh (my kids were being bears)

Baby Kins would rather stand on her stroller and do squats versus shop...

Afterwards we came home to Oma and Papas to have dinner together and unwind... we looked over to find AJ looking a little too much like a teenager.

 

My favorite shot - the cousins!

 

In our efforts not to miss them too much after they left, as well as our need to be outside enjoying the beautiful 75 degree weather in August (as Texans we knew this was amazing), we took off for a local park:

KK is all about her handlebars

While AJ would rather slide cars down the slide in races

 

We had a few other mini adventures during the week while Oma played with baby Kins at home or watched her nap.  First and most important was Lamberts. Home of the tossed rolls.  This is AJ's mothership.  His favorite place.  I mean they throw their food, at his face.. and the food is bread.  All his favorites.  Needless to say, all he ate was bread... but it was worth it to see his laughter whenever they brought another tray of rolls and started launching them.

The drinks are by no means small either....

Here is a picture of the pot roast... wow!  Too much food!  We clearly did not prepare for this moment by starving ourselves for weeks or training for it by eating for weeks... and then there were the five rolls we consumed each before the food came.  But we did attempt a few bites just to say we didn't waste it...

a boy and his bread

 

To work off the crazy big lunch, we went to the nearby Nature Trails and decided upon a quick hike to the lake and back.  The kids wanted to take the "long" way but were vetoed.

Here we are at the beginning of the trip... just pay close attention to the smiles and silly... 

Halfway down the hill and still rocking smiles and peace signs

We made it to the lake at the bottom of the "hill"... still happy, still posing and asking for peace haha.  It was beautiful here.  Lots of paths, some paved some not.  The hills and all the trees, so different from Texas so we were taking it all in and loving it.  The weather was sunny and a high of maybe 75 degrees.  We didn't see many wildlife, as it was the middle of the afternoon, but considering our city living children, a sudden deer would probably not have been nearly as exciting.  I am sure they would have screamed in fear first.. oh well!

And here is the pictures you were waiting for... see going down to the lake was fun.  Going up.. well you see where AJ ended up right?  And please look at poor KK's pathetic face.  Can swim for hours in a pool practice, run for an hour in a soccer game... cannot walk up a hill for ten minutes.  Oh well!

They were too tired to even walk across the parking lot to the car, Daddy had to drive and pick them up.  City Slackers!  LOL!  They crack me up.

That is not where any adventures end... our other cousins also came by one evening to visit and play!  AJ was in BOY HEAVEN.  Too big boy cousins to play boy stuff with?  It was too much.  And of course, they found two pool noodles and went to town beating each other into the ground, all while laughing.

 

As a girl, baby Kins knows these boys are crazy

Hmmm.. and here are the girls... playing peacefully on the floor in quiet.  Ha!

 It took some bribing but we did manage a quick picture of the cousins together!  We loved getting to see them and spend time with them. Again, AJ was in BOY HEAVEN, even in this picture.

 

We had Oma to ourselves during the days, so one day we took her out to Putt Putt.  It is our new favorite thing to do when we visit family. 

 

The place Daddy found was awesome.  It was outside of town and had water hazards a plenty.  The kids favorite hole was one in which you had to hit your ball in the water and it goes onto a water bridge and then rolls onto the hole.  Let's just say AJ and KK played that hole about ten times before and after we "officially" played it.

Here is Oma and baby Kins

It was a very fun experience (and no babies were harmed in any way by runaway strollers okay).. we had some laughs for sure.

 

We actually liked the experience so much, we decided to bring Ida and our Aunt Ines when they came back to visit us again before we left:

That right there is my fancy camera work on a table as we didn't want to interrupt all the couples on dates around us.  AJ is using his putter as a guitar, go with it.



The favorite water hole...

They really are stinkers!

AJ at the end was just all about getting it into the hole, number of strokes be darned.  So this is a picture of him literally playing like it was a hockey puck.  We couldn't count strokes as it was just one solid glide from beginning until the hole.  I think he missed the point, but he didn't care.

Me and my hubby

Seesters!

They are crazy - we are going to miss those two!  And everyone else!

 

It was a great trip home.  We got to relax a lot around the house and spend time with Oma and Papa, as well as play with our many cousins and have some mini adventures each day.  You really can't ask for more.

 

Sweet dreams!