Leo Starts School!

So I didn't cry, but I thought about it! ;)  Leo was so excited for his first day and preschool isn't nearly as emotional as Kinder, but it was still hard to see my baby head off in his backpack with nary a word to his mother as began his day!  He goes to the same preschool as Sophia and has a great teacher.  So far we are very pleased and Leo seems to love it!  Currently he goes 2 days a week but we are considering adding a third.

The night before school we made the teachers a little treat!
These "choc" boards are cute and good to eat!  I personally love
the sprinkle chalk!

I surprised the kids by making them one too with their initials on it.

Leo got to pick his end of summer menu too which was hot dogs, carrots, and apple sauce.

getting a good breakfast before school!

Leo and Mrs. Carter

finding his name!

playing rockets with Kaylee

Happy Birthday, Aunt Cathy!

So let me start by saying that I'm a tad behind in blogging.  Things with the house are moving along but it's hectic.  I have lots of things to decide upon, we had to pretty much avoid the house for the better part of a week while some painting was done, etc. etc.  So these birthday pictures are a bit belated but hopefully I'll get back on track soon! 

We celebrated Cathy's birthday in fine Knight's Hall fashion with pizza night!  This year we were lucky enough to actually have enough salad left for us to eat, but we traded that for no dessert buffet...luckily we brought our own birthday cake and we were the envy of all the blue hairs! :)

Leo helped Aunt Cathy unwrap her new cookbook.
Who doesn't love the Barefoot Contessa?!

Luckily Aunt Cathy is very sharing because she had a little dessert troll who ate most of her cake!

A Small Remodel Update

Here is the hole for the window 

we added some better duct work and they had to expand the wall a bit

fire place is in and looking good

we finally have a deck so we can use the sliding door again

We added just a small piece to use the door and connect to the rest of the stuff

Drywall is my friend!!! :)
You can also see wood flooring has been added!  Staining comes later.

the window has been put in

It looks like a real room now!  We were sampling that green paint on the wall and although I really liked it, we decided to go with a lighter gray.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Here's Leo posing with his big Sis on her first day

Here they are in front of the school building

I was trying to get Sophia a picture where it looked "schoolish" but it was so sunny and there were so many people it was hard.

Sophia is sailing into Kinder!

Hanging up her backpack
(notice this is the point where she gets "the look"...really, Mom, you have to take a picture of this?)

at her desk next to John, who happens to have the same birthday as Sophia!

with her teacher, Mrs. Warner

one...last...shot...as I exit the classroom :(
Notice, however, that I was far from the last parent in the room

On our way back up to pick her up with Walter in tow.

Love this.
She was so excited to see us after her first day and I love how her curls are flying in the breeze

happy to be reunited and running down the hill towards home

This is the picture she drew of her and her teacher

Sophia was so very excited for her first day.  It's no secret that I've been "dreading" this day for equally as long! ;)  Of course I cried and Charlie tried to rush me out of there with as little of a scene as possible.  Sophia was perfectly fine letting us go and the next day I didn't even get to cross the threshold of the school building.  She is only half day, which means it's only 3 hours (which makes my tears a tiny bit more pathetic, but whatever) but I still feel like that is okay for now.  She'd be happy going all day but besides my own selfish reasons for keeping her in half day, I like the idea of gradually moving into this full time school business.

Originally the half day kids were to be mixed in with the full day kids and then they would leave at 11:05 while the others stayed.  I was not too thrilled with this set-up, but luckily, just a few days before school started, the principal notified us that they had enough kids for a dedicated half day class!  Wahoo!  The poor teacher however was hired 6 days before school started and threw together her room that isn't really even a K room.  But I'm happy with this set up for sure.  This way it enables her (and me) to make some friends from her class and know we are all on the same schedule.

So far she has loved every single minute and is happy to tell me about her day.  She loves having show and tell and checking out books and is very interested in music class and loves her teacher, so really I think we're doing all right for now.

And He's Back...

Our friend, Sean, returned to us again at the end of the summer.  He stayed with us for his 2 final weeks here in the States and we were really sad to see him go!  He's back in merry old England and we just hope that he'll come back and visit!  The kids loved having him around and he really was so easy going since I barely saw him the last two weeks with all of mom's surgeries, etc.  Thankfully he can take care of himself so I didn't feel too guilty about not cooking for him or entertaining him!

Sean and Sophia coming on down!

here is Soph on the high dive

now that she's perfected the "pencil" jump she enjoys the high dive so much more.  She has never been afraid of the height, just the fact that she would "splat" in the water.

low dive

after dinner Sean and Soph played some soccer

Walter played too :-/

Sophia got to choose the menu on her official last night of summer!
We had corndogs, french fries and edamame

last day before K!