Fist Day of Dance and Gymnastics

I got lucky this year and somehow managed to get S in dance class and C in gymnastics at the exact same time and at the exact same location!!  Woohoo!!!

The only downside is that I have to be first in car line to get them to the gym/studio on time!  And then by the time we got home it was 5:30pm and I had two very tired kiddos to cook dinner for and get through a bunch of homework with!  I'm gonna definitely be doing a crockpot dinner on Tuesday nights and somehow spread the homework out over other days so there is not quite so much on these nights!

They both did have a great time in their classes, though, and I enjoyed going between the two viewing areas for little peeks!

C in his Clemson shirt!

His teacher was holding the other kids around the waist for
this stunt, but C was adamant that he could do it by himself -
and he did!

Two of the classes were combined today and S ended up getting
lucky enough to have the studio owner as her teacher for class.  I'm
really hoping they make this permanent!:)

Sky Top Orchard

Today we finally made it to Sky Top Orchard!!

My hope had been to go last week, but with all the sickness, we had to postpone it to this week:(  And, we missed the Honey Crisp apples...

But we were there to get some galas which are still very good and some of my favorites!

We went straight from school, and since I didn't bring snacks with me, our first stop was buying some doughnuts!  Mmm!!!!! Then the kids got some of their wiggles out on the playground before we headed into the orchard!  It's so nice to have kids who can walk and pick their own apples!  I'm still waiting, though, for when they can carry their baskets back after they've finished picking, haha!

They played a bit longer on the playground after we'd paid for our loot, and then we headed back home where I discovered WAY more homework in their backpacks than I had ever imagined!  And so it begins!!

Surviving the First Week!

Other than being sick(everyone except S got it!), we've been laying low this week as we get adjusted to the routine of school!

Once this kid started feeling better, he was a bottomless pit!

They've been somewhat lazy:)

He got tired of watching TV and went out to play with his tools...
so sweet!

Once I started feeling better, I took a couple of walks around
the neighborhood!

Pick up!

It's crazy how long they will sit and play with Play Doh!

Once everyone was well and recovered, I helped out in
S's class for a couple hours!

Our kind neighbor brought us the most amazing homemade
chocolate chip cookies!

Saturday S got to go shopping with me for a good part of the day:)
We walked into Pier 1 and she said in awe "I've just discovered
a whole other world!"  Ummm... I think we have a shopper
on our hands!

Little shopper loves her some ice cream!

Playing army men with the boy!

Excited for pick up!

 M and I got a date night while the Evettes watched the kids - and even were brave
and took them to the lake!  I love having an evening away knowing my
babies are cared for and having fun:)

First Day of School - 2nd Grade and K5!!

Today was the day I had been looking forward to and dreading for a long time!

Both kids were woken up early by their alarms!  They both seemed to get going pretty quickly though:)  They were super excited!  They ate a good breakfast, we took the necessary pictures and then off we went!  M came home from work yesterday with the stomach bug so I'd been dreading all night that one, or both or I, would end up with it and miss the first day of school!  Luckily, that was not the case, but it did mean that I had to do the drop off by myself!

S and I followed C as he led us straight to his class with no problems, he walked into his room, put his folder in the right place, hung up his backpack, gave me a quick hug and he was off to kindergarten - Just.Like.That!  I teared up a bit, but luckily I had S with me who helped to take my mind off of it, and then she allowed me to walk her to her class and gave me a quick hug and she was gone too!  I left the school alone, which felt so weird!  I spent my day at the gym, Walmart and the library to avoid being around M and his cooties at home:)

Oh, but wait, it gets better!  My quiet, relaxing day that was just starting to get relaxing was cut short at about noon when I got the call from school that C had thrown up in class and I needed to go pick him up!  Poor kiddo!!!!!  What a way to start kindergarten!

At pick up time, I was excited to get to see S, and equally as excited that she made it through the day without throwing up and me have to go get her as well!  She had a great day, met new friends and was talking non-stop the whole way home!

As I've tried to make a habit of doing, here are the lists of their favorites as they begin this school year:

S - 2nd Grade:

TV Show: Frozen(yes, it's a movie, but we'll go with it!)
Food: Ice Cream
Best Friend: Shelby Kate
Candy: Twizzlers
Color: Pink
Book: Boxcar Children Series
Activity: Playing at the gym
Wants to be: Farmer


C - Kindergarten:

TV Show: Curious George
Food: Pizza
Best Friend: "I have lots":)
Candy: Candy Cane...same answer as last year but I don't think he fully understands what candy is! HA!
Color: Orange
Book: "I don't like any books" (y'all see what I'm dealing with here!!?!?  He doesn't much care for books, but I do think that he enjoys the No David books and Pete the Cat books!)
Activity: Playing outside
Wants to be: a worker, like where Daddy works

I got this little gem from S's teacher today!  LOVE that they send pictures!  She is in a multi-age class, so this is 2nd and 3rd graders.  I think there are 51 in all and are shared between two teachers.  I haven't completely figured out how the whole set up works, but I'm learning!

S is the 4th one from the right on the front row of standing kids!  With her friends Goldie and Shelby Kate:)

Meet the Teacher Day

This morning we had C's meet the teacher and then this evening we had S's!  A full day of back and forth to the school for sure, but the kids were so so so excited!  I was thankful that it worked out that I could take each kid by themselves to make it all about them and enjoy the last bit of one-on-one time with them!

I think it is going to be a great year for both of them - and of course I've already begged their teachers to let me help out with their classes quite often!:)

C scored a hoodie sweatshirt that he was very excited about getting!

S and I had a little time to kill before we needed to go, so we went
and got a small little back to school gift for her and picked one
out for C as well!

Last Week of Summer

It took me a couple of days to recuperate from the drive back from Atlanta, but then I was ready to enjoy the last week of summer with the kids!!

She was running around the yard, I was on the screened porch,
and I noticed she was had an ice pack on her head because she
was hot!!  That girl!

Crafting... this project ended up taking four days to get to
the finished product!

We are HOOKED UP with cable and internet now... woohoo!!

C loves eating breakfast outside in the morning!  Me too!!

I took them to see Minions one afternoon.

Out at 7:30am chasing geese!  HAHA!!

Last summer gymnastics classes!

And, she's over!

Got some pool visits in before school started!

We pretty much had the entire pool to ourselves each time we went!

We met some friends downtown for fountain playing and ice cream!

S was excited to find this outside!

Just a normal night eating dinner with these crazies!

This hose and bucket play went on for a few days!!

I used our last StayCation tickets and took the kids to the
water park!  I had been trying to wait for M, but we were running
out of days!  So I braved it and only lost C one time, but found him
a few minutes later at the top of the water slide line... sigh!!

They are CRAZY!!!  S's favorite part was the blue slide(mine too!)
and C's favorite was the green slide!

Oh wow!!  They waited in line all by themselves,

and then came down the WHITE, SUPER-STEEP

slide! This video is S:)

This video is C - it cracks me up when he goes down

like a starfish!  Buhahaha!

M came home from work on Friday with a bucket of crickets!

C could not keep his hands off of them!  He called them
"crickods"... so cute!

The only one to reel one in!

S and I went to celebrate Mallory's birthday!

Such sweet friends, even if they aren't neighbors anymore!

The musical entertainment for dinner;)

Gaming before bed!

 M took C to the "pet store" to get more crickets to go fishing off the kayak!

S had her first "babysitting" gig at the Weavers and then helped
cook dinner which we all came over to enjoy later!