Kendall's First Day of Preschool

Kendall had her first day of preschool last Monday. She was so excited about it! This year she is going to Fox Ridge and is in their community preschool program. Caleb had been their in the early childhood blended classroom for the past two years. So, it was nice that she was able to follow his footsteps.
Kendall does not have Miss Stephanie like Caleb. She moved schools this year. Instead, she has Mrs. Waugh. I think it is hilarious, because Kendall keeps calling her Waugh. When I try to correct her, she informs me that I am wrong. Kendall has told me that Waugh sings a lot of the same songs that Miss Melissa sang last year. She loves recess and playing with the toys. However, she has told me that she does not like the table time. This week she had to practice writing her name. She did it twice even though it was set up for her to write it 5 times. Silly girl! Of course, I made her finish it at home. She was also excited because she took home an easy reader like Caleb did for kindergarten. So, they both have homework reading their books. I am thrilled that both kids are loving school and off to a great start to the school year!

Night Terrors

Caleb's night terrors are back and they have been really bad lately. He is now sleep walking/running. Tonight he woke up and ran to where I was. He was in a cold sweat, shaking, and screaming, "I saw it. I saw you. I saw it. I want it." I asked him what, and he was pointing to a wall. He then started running all over the house, room to room screaming and pointing. It is totally crazy. I finally got him to lay back down and he is now quiet. I would love to know what he is dreaming about. I would also love to know why he get these! It may sound weird, but I miss the nights of just night terrors without the sleep walking. When you add sleep walking to the equation it is scary, just from a safety stand point.

Busy and Fun Saturday!

We had a wonderful Saturday today! We started our morning going to the new session of gymnastics classes. Caleb was thrilled to see his new friend from kindergarten enrolled for the same time. We then did a quick shopping trip to Meijers. Next, we went to Gia's third birthday party. The kids had a blast playing in her new jumper. We bought Gia play makeup and hair styling kit. It was really cute! It even had a pretend straightener. Dante, Gia, and Kendall had a so much fun pretending to make each other beautiful.
Next we went to Grandma's house to see my sister Rachel and Caroline. Caroline was enthralled with Grandma's IPAD. It is really amazing how fast the kids pick up new technology. Kendall and Caleb were laughing and giggling watching Caroline play her game.
They continued playing for quite awhile. I think it is wonderful how much my kids adore their little cousin. Caleb has decided that he wants to potty train Caroline so that she will not have ballooned up diapers.
My dad took all of us out for dinner. All in all, the kids were very well behaved. Kendall put mustard on her pizza. YUCK! She ate it though and kept raving how delicious it was. Too each their own!

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!