Big man on campus

by Heather | 0 comments

Ben started Kindergarten and he couldn’t be more excited! The first day our district does a half day for kindergartners, their parents get to ride the bus with them, explore the classroom and meet their teacher. Ben has a wonderful woman named Mrs. Parkes who was highly praised by friends of ours with older kids. He was most excited to do the bus, meet new friends and see the school library (and find Lego books). They have yet to do the library but he’s enjoying gym, art, music and lunch. They’re on a rotating schedule with A (gym), B (art), C (gym) and D (music) as their special days.

I’m SO glad we waited an extra year for kindergarten! Yes, he would have been fine last year, but he has so much more confidence in himself and what he can do. He’s always been social, but now I really think he’s set up to be a leader too. When the bus came the first day you should have seen him strut right up to it and strike up a conversation with the bus driver :)

I may have had a few mommy tears as the bus pulled away. It was that all of a sudden feeling like oh my gosh there he goes! I was fine the rest of the day though and Cassidy and I kept busy. She cracks me up too, I thought for sure she’d be so sad about Ben leaving and miss him terribly (they’re buddies!). She did say she missed him but you’d never believe it the way she skipped through the house, playing with all the toys. No big brother to dictate how or what they played and she had mommy all to herself!

THIS really wasn’t that long ago!

This one cracks me up. Nervous smiles :)

We are SO done with pictures now.

VBS

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The kids both went to VBS (Vacation Bible School) last week! It was held at the church Ben did school at last year, so they were excited to go back and see some friends and teachers. I was excited to have both kids out of the house for 3 hours together :)

The theme was Ocean Commotion and they learned about Noah’s Ark and how we can care for the planet and animals God has given us.

Cassidy *technically* wasn’t old enough but since the teachers all knew us they said we could try it an see how she did. She did great :) They both had fun and told me all the games and projects they got to do during the week. The last day the kids sang some songs up front and I was surprised that both Ben and Cassidy burst into tears and wanted to come sit with me. I think there were just SO many kids up there and they were SO overwhelmed that they kind of just lost it. We enjoyed watching their friends sing and then did some activities afterwards and they were fine.

Some photos during the week from their facebook page:

First tooth

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Ben lost his first tooth! It had been wiggly for a few weeks and one morning he came into the livingroom and said it really hurt. I told him he could have daddy pull it out and I’m SO surprised he actually agreed. I’ve got a great video of Dr. Andy down in his electronics lair trying to get it out. It’s 20 minutes long and probably the most boring video you’ve ever seen, but we’ll get a kick out of it some day. On a side note, it’s going to take forever to upload to youtube so it may not be available for a while.

Cassidy said her tooth was wiggly too ;-)

Hiding it for the tooth fairy.

Daddy played the part of tooth fairy and left Ben two Olympic coins. I hope you don’t think our tooth fairy was stingy! We’ve been watching the Olympics and Ben thought they were pretty cool. The coins are from a cereal box from when Andy was a kid (he saves the most random stuff).

Before all this wiggly tooth, growing up too fast business started, Andy and I agreed we’d treat the tooth fairy like we treat Santa. It’s fun to pretend! Although to his credit, Mr. Claus has a real backstory where Daddy the tooth fairy is just hysterical!

Roadtrip!

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A few weeks ago I took the kids on a roadtrip with my friend Jill and her kids Maggie and Will. We headed to Pennsylvania to visit Sue who had recently moved down there.

We borrowed Jill’s mom’s Tahoe to drive down together. The kids lucked out with the onboard DVD player and movies!

It only took a couple hours to get there and they were pretty good.

The first place we visited (after lunch at Sue’s house) was Penn’s Cave. We did the underground boat ride and animal safari tour there.

The cave stays a constant 50 degrees year round and it felt good as a break from the summer heat. Wouldn’t want to fall in the water though it was SO cold!

Inside the cave was beautiful, we got to see all the neat formations. There were some lights in places and other parts were pitch black.

Coming out of the other side of the cave.

The kids did REALLY well, I wasn’t sure if they’d be scared but they did great.

Next we set out on a safari bus to see the animals in the preserve.

Deer came up for some treats from our bus driver.

“MOO COWS!” Cassidy shouted.

Some of the wolves even came out to get treats too.

Ben said the wolves were his favorite part. He also said we were in Jurassic Park because the gates to each section opened and closed behind us like they do in the movie. Ominous!

After Penn’s Cave we relaxed for the evening at Sue’s house.

It happened to be Cassidy’s birthday while we were gone. We had her party the weekend before but wanted to celebrate that night too. She got a birthday cookie with three candles.

The next day we headed to Penn State for the Kids’ Festival. Sue is BIG into Penn State! I giggled when I saw her garbage cans and grill propane tank boasted team spirit too.

The festival was really neat, there were tons of art, technology and science themed activities for kids to play with.

Grumpy Cassidy. (She had fun, but she was just done here).

Figuring out where to go next.

Will enjoyed the sprinklers and dumping water buckets. He was the first one to go in, I loved that his boldness encouraged the other kids to try it too.

Lots of vendor booths and fun things to see too.

Sue! I realized I have this whole post about our trip to visit her and this is one of the only pictures I took of her. Also, sporting Penn State colors ;-)

The kids exploring the squishy cornstarch flubber stuff.

Ben saying goodbye to Sue’s neighbor’s cat. He was super friendly and wanted to come home with us.

It was a short trip but we had such a fun time! I think one of the highlights for me was when the kids were catching fireflies in Sue’s backyard (no pictures, I actually just enjoyed the moment!) Jill you’re an awesome roadtrip buddy :) And Sue, we missed you, thanks for letting us come visit!

Crazy bag lady

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And there’s no other way we’d rather have her :)

Cassidy is 3!

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We celebrated Cassidy’s third birthday with a dinosaur princess theme (she loves both of them!) It was SO hot that day we stayed inside for presents and cupcakes, but did take the party outside for a little bit at the end. The kids enjoyed the 3 (yes 3!) power wheels Andy has found and fixed from the dump. We had so much fun with friends and family and Cassidy felt very special.

Cassidy also had her 3yr checkup last week. Height is 36.61″ (40%) and weight is 31lb (54%). She is very much three, one minute she’ll be the sweetest little girl giving you a kiss and bringing a book to read in your lap. A split second later she’s whining and screaming that Ben is sitting on HER side of the couch. My head spins! She’s very smart, counts to 10 and can count to 20 with help. Counting is her favorite (next to reading). She also enjoys “Lego girlfriends” (haha, the Lego Friends geared towards little girls), rubber duckies, sparkly shoes when she’s not barefoot and wooey dresses. She’s WAY more girly that I am, I need to learn how to do more with her hair than just a pony tail. Still adores her big brother (most of the time) and the two of them are good buddies, playing together and making up adventures.

She had been sitting in a booster/highchair we strapped to the regular kitchen chairs and I took it down to wash. I never put it back in so she’s been at the kitchen table like a big girl for a week or two. She’s a pretty good eater but is very slow so I just have to plan on giving her extra time to get through things. Her favorites are blueberries, cheese, waffles with whipped cream and cheese burgers.

She’s perfectly herself, Cassidy Joy!