First Day of Kindergarten!

I can't believe Caleb is already in kindergarten. It is amazing how fast time flies by. I was thrilled that I was able to go with Caleb to meet the teacher and drop off his supplies. It is hard being a teacher and missing the first day of school each year for my own kids. Caleb was so excited to find his spot at his table.
He then spent sometime checking out the classroom. His favorite spot was the grocery corner. He was never the shopper, always the cashier. Caleb did a great job sharing with the other children.
A few days later, it was the first day of school. Here is Caleb with his backpack ready to go to Michelle's house. He loved packing his lunch. With Caleb's allergies, his lunch feels like a bunch of healthy snacks. There is no main part like a sandwich. This is his normal lunch at home too, but when I put it in his lunch box and am truly able to say, you can take any one thing out for snack, it hits home that he has very limited things that he can eat.
The great news is that Caleb made it through his first day of school with smiles! After the second day, I even received a positive email from his teacher saying that he is observant and eager to learn. His favorite part of the day is recess, which he has been having two a day. He was cute last night, when I asked him if he had listening position. He thought that it was amazing that I knew about it!

After school, Caleb gets to go back to Michelle's house and play with Kendall and his best friend Christopher. Michelle took this cute photo of them with her phone. It is a little fuzzy, but too sweet to not post!

End of Summer

It is hard to believe that summer has come and went! The end of summer is full of mixed emotions in our household. Their is sadness because we will not have the opportunity to spend as much time together. But, along side that their is the excitement of going back to school and all of the new things that entails! Here are a few photos of our last summer bbq.
The kids had a blast with some huge balloons. It kept all of the kids entertained for hours. I even saw some of the adults excited about it as well!
My Mom also took both kids back to school shopping. Caleb and Kendall had a blast trying on and modeling different outfits. Kendall loved anything with sparkle and skinny jeans. I am thankful that my mom loves to spend time with them and the goodies that sometimes entails!

Happy 4th Birthday Kendall!

I can't believe Kendall is 4. Time really does fly by. This year, Kendall decided that she wanted to celebrate her birthday at the Splash Park in Geneva. I was so thankful when there was a 0% chance of rain!
Rachael helped with the party. It was so nice to have her around. She went to pick up the cake with me, and kept an eye on the kids! I really appreciate all of her help.
Kendall wanted to have pizza and cake for the party. Caleb is such a little trooper with his allergies. He happily ate a happy meal instead of pizza. He also kept showing Grandma the cake. He raved on how pretty it was and how good it was going to taste, and told Grandma that she had to try a piece. So sweet, even though he couldn't eat it himself.
The kids had a blast playing on the playground and in the sprinkler park. There was lots of laughter and fun. Kendall really enjoyed opening up her presents, and loved every single one of them!
She chose a Little Mermaid Cake this year. She originally wanted the Target Barbie Cake that Kendall has to visit each time we go into Target. I was glad that we were able to find a great alternative. We got this one at Walmart, and it was really good. I was happily surprised!

It was a great day!

Put-In-Bay, Ohio

We had a fabulous vacation. We went camping at Put-In-Bay, OH. We went camping with our good friends Jackie, Ken, and Matt. It was a great time! These pictures are totally out of order, so please bare with me!
On our way home from vacation we stopped at African Safari Wildlife Park. It was a complete impulse stop, because the name sounded intriguing. This place ended up being a drive threw zoo. I am not positive why it was called an African Safari. There were very few African animals, and you really didn't get any contact with them. There were great American animals including bison, long horn cows, elk, and deer. It was a little too close for comfort for me, but a great experience for the kids. Unfortunately, a HUGE Elk stole our cup of food. It made me so nervous when the other animals would come up and beg for food...especially those that were large with horns, since I had nothing to offer them. But, we made it through. There was also a camel ride and pony ride included in the price. The kids did enjoy the rides.
We rented a six person golf cart and carted around Put-In- Bay for one day. It was really fun. We all took turns driving the cart and I think we drove on just about every street. We made a few stops and walked around when we saw something interesting. The kids loved this shop. It had some fun hats for sale. They each found one to try on.
To get to the island we had to take a ferry. This was a first for all of us. The ferry took our entire car across.
The kids were mesmerized by the ferry ride and Lake Erie. They immediately wanted to go on the ferry again. I promised we would ride the ferry home. That was an easy promise to keep. On the way home, I let each of the kids go out of the car and stand on the ferry. Kendall thought it was very exciting. On the other hand, getting out made Caleb extremely nervous. He chose to get right back into the car.
The kids loved spending the night in tents and hanging out at the camp site. They had fun eating at our picnic table and cooking s'mores over the camp fire. I was VERY thankful that Matt brought glow sticks for the kids. What an easy, yet fabulous idea. It gave the kids a nightlight for the tent. It also made it very easy to find them once it got dark!
I think another favorite moment that the kids had was swimming in Lake Erie. The water was surprisingly warm. Terry thought it was due to the nuclear power plant that was across the lake. I was also surprised how big the waves were in the lake. Some were 3 feet or larger. Kendall saw a huge water snake while she was swimming. It was about 4 feet long.

We left a day early, because the zipper on our tent broke and there was a chance of thunderstorms. The kids were pretty disappointed that we left early, but I really didn't want to deal with mud and 2 young kids.

All in all, it was a great trip! The kids want to go on vacation again. Caleb suggested California this morning. I told him that we would see!

Happy Belated Father's Day

Today we met my family at Brookfield Zoo for a VERY belated Father's Day present for my dad. We actually managed to get everyone minus Lindsey together, which is a pretty amazing feat! It was wonderful to see everyone, and the children had such a great time. Isaac and Caroline are so cute toddling around.
Kendall loved that Caroline was a girl cousin. She gave Caroline lots of kisses and helped her out throughout the day. I think she really felt like a big girl. Both girls loved petting the goats at the children's zoo.
Kendall also enjoyed the extra attention that she got from her uncles. She was always holding someone's hand, or vying for their attention!
My mom kept a good sense of humor about the pouring rain that happened for the first hour or so. We had cancelled the last trip due to rain. So, she decided that she was not going to cancel again. Almost everyone bought these lovely yellow ponchos. We were quite the fashionistas!
I love that my kids are always fascinated by the dolphins. I would guess this is their favorite exhibit. I think one of the reasons why they like they dolphin is because they are so close! They are also interesting to watch. I loved when all four cousins were watching the dolphins together.

All in all, another great day this summer! I can't believe that summer is quickly coming to an end.

I Have to See T-Rex!

Caleb woke up Saturday morning and immediately told me he had plans. He had to see T-Rex at the museum TODAY! I love that it is summer AND we live close enough to the Field Museum that I was able to make it happen. So, we invited my Dad who loves history to come along and off we went to Chicago. Caleb was so excited when we got to the steps leading up to the museum.
Our first stop was of course the dinosaur area. Caleb pretty much raced through the first few million years of the Earth to get to when the dinosaurs came along. He was fascinated! Caleb told me that his favorite was the Duck Billed Dinosaur, but I think he liked that one best because it had a spot where you could make their noise.
He sat and was memorized by triceratops as well. One of my favorite moments is when he laid down on the bench and noticed pterodactyl flying over head. He thought that was great! The Field has an amazing collection of fossils.
According to Caleb, his favorite part of the day was seeing "Waking T-Rex" at the 3-D theater. I have to say I was impressed with the movie. It was pretty neat and the film truly popped off the screen. It was very informative on how the paleontologist found Sue and some basics on how they get the fossils back to the museum and on display.
We also so the whale and horse traveling exhibits. By the time we got finished with these two exhibits, Caleb was done. It was a wonderful day!

Let's Slide!

They changed the rules at our public pool. Caleb is now allowed to go down the slide if he wears a life jacket. Well, to say he is thrilled does not even remotely describe his feelings. He has spent the last 3 times at the pool going up and down the slide over and over and over again! Super fun for a 5 year old! Kendall isn't tall enough yet. She is much happier in the baby pool where there is no risk of getting her hair wet by accident!