Summer Fun

A quick review of our summer:

*Memorial Weekend:  My cousin and her family came to hang out for the weekend.  The weather wasn't great but we all had fun anyway.  Luke and Hannah love playing with Emma and Mary.

*May 30-June 11:  Trip to Tybee Island, Georgia--our first trip to Mom's new house there; we had an awesome time with Grammy, PawPaw, Sarah, Dave and Barbara.  We drove which was an adventure.  Troy flew home and the kids and I stayed a few more days and then Sarah drove home with us.

First time ever on the beach and seeing the ocean!

 Trying out a little beach golf...

*We had season tickets to our local baseball team, the Redhawks.  Both kids really loved going (despite H's face below)!  The last game that we went to Luke was picked to be a junior announcer and did a fantastic job announcing #4 Matt Duffy.

*Both kids went to Vacation Bible School for the first time.  Luke absolutely loved it and asked how long it would be before he could go again.

*Both kids had private swim lessons here at home.  Ally did a great job with both of them and they learned a bunch.

*June 23-27:  Luke spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson.  They went to the Richter farm, the zoo, the park and had a fun week!

*Grandma and Grandpa J brought LJ back home and spent the weekend with us.  We had a fun trip downtown to Myriad Gardens.

*June 24:  Hannah started potty training!!!  She caught on very quickly and is still going strong.  (I have a couple of cute pics but they're probably not appropriate for the internet.)

*July 6:  I severely hurt my back and was out of commission for about 2 weeks.  It's better now but I still need to be very careful and know when I've done too much.  The ordeal was very tough on all of us but especially for Hannah.  The first couple of weeks I was pretty much confined to bed and in order to spend some time with me Hannah brought me some lunch in bed :)

*July 10-13:  Luke's 6th birthday celebration weekend!  Family dinner on the 10th for his actual birthday and a dinosaur swim party on the 12th.

*July 18:  We finally sold and closed on our other house!!!  And yes, you better believe we took a picture :)

*Luke took golf lessons.  He really had fun and improved a lot.

*July 27-August 1: LJ was in KC with Grammy and PawPaw.  They went to a train exhibit at Union Station, the park, swimming and they also went to the zoo.  On Friday, Aunt Sarah took Luke to the Schlitterbahn water park.  Apparently he had no fear of anything.  

*August 1-4:  We were all in KC for the weekend.  My mom and I took the kids to Kaleidoscope one morning.  Not quite as I remembered from being a kid but we still had fun creating all different kinds of art stuff.

*We had a summer fun list with 114 things to do.  We completed 88 of them!  And it's technically still summer so maybe we'll get a few more done before it's over.  These are pictures from our Summer Pinterest Party which checked off many of our boxes.

Hannah's first mani-pedi--also on the list.

*I finally had a fairly successful vegetable garden.  I grew corn, okra, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, sugar snap peas, carrots, zucchini, squash and green beans.  Everying produced except the last three and there are currently flowers on the green bean plants (although it's probably too hot for them now).  We've had fresh tomatoes all summer--SO GOOD!!!

*There was lots of time spent in the pool.  

*There was lots of time spent building and playing with Legos.

*There was lots of time spent making bead necklaces or other art creations.

*There was lots of time spent playing in the driveway and riding bikes.

*And there was lots of time spent laughing and cuddling and being a beautiful family of four!

Kindergarten

Luke's first day of kindergarten was last Thursday, August 14.  He was so excited but also a bit nervous.  We had talked about going to a new school and wearing a uniform and getting up earlier all summer.  And the day finally came.

There was an open house on Tuesday night so that the kids could drop off their supplies, meet the teacher, see their classroom and get a bit more familiar with what was going to happen on Thursday.  At that point, we already knew that Luke's teacher was Mrs. Cave.  (How awesome is that for two geologist parents!  We definitely won't forget LJ's kindergarten teachers' name.)  Luke didn't much care about spending time in his classroom or talking to his teacher; he wanted to go outside and play on the playground.  

I have to say that I was more emotional on Wednesday than I was Thursday morning.  I got tears in my eyes numerous times Wednesday thinking about what was about to happen.  My baby was going to be in kindergarten.  He really is growing up and it goes SO fast.  I wonder why it has to go so fast?  Only God knows.

Wednesday night we decided to have a special dinner.  Luke requested steak, corn on the cob, bread and cantaloupe.  I threw in some Caesar salad and it was an awesome dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa H came over to enjoy it with us.  We had fun talking about what Luke's first day was going to be like and everyone was wishing him a fun and happy day.  The "party" didn't last long though because after all it was a school night.  Lights out was about 7:50.

School starts at 8:05.  I've been worried about that all summer.  We started about a month ago getting up earlier and earlier.  The few days prior to school starting LJ was getting up about 7:15.  I wasn't too sure what to expect time wise on that first day.  I wanted to have plenty of time for pictures at home and also at school.  So I set LJ's alarm for 6:20 fully expecting to have to go up and bug him to get up and ready.  Well, I was way wrong.  At 6:23 Luke walks into my bathroom cheery as can be, dressed and ready to go.  He even told me to hurry up so that he could eat breakfast before school.

I ate breakfast with Luke.  I had a few moments where I was very quiet thinking about the day ahead of both of us.  I was proud of myself for not showing Luke how emotional this all was for me.  I didn't want to worry him which my very considerate boy would have done.  I asked Luke how he was feeling.  As I mentioned above, he said he was excited but a bit nervous.  He also kept asking how long it was until we had to leave.  

I opted to let Hannah sleep rather than get up and eat breakfast with us (she ate when we got back home).  I got her up about 7:10.  We all headed outside for pictures about 7:20 and then we got in the car to head to school.  

Quick side story: In the shower the night before school, Luke grabbed my razor.  It cut his finger pretty good.  It was very difficult to get it to stop bleeding.  We didn't want it to start up again at school so he had this big gauze bandage on his finger for his first day.  Thankfully it was on his left hand.

We weren't the only ones who were there early.  There is a drop off line for everyone but I wanted to walk Luke into school that first day.  I wasn't the only mom with that idea.  After some outside pictures, we went to the cafeteria where the kids have "walk and talk" before going to their classrooms at 8:05.  A teacher asked Luke what class he was going to be in and told him where he could put his backpack.  After he put his backpack down she asked Luke if he wanted to tell me bye.  Okay, so that's when I teared up (and am doing so again right now thinking about it).  I gave him a big sqeeze which he returned equally and then he gave me a kiss.  My sweet boy!  Oh that was a bittersweet moment.  

Then the teacher asked a random girl who was a few years older if she would walk with Luke.  Luke kind of looked at me and then off they went holding hands as they walked around the cafeteria.  Luke told me after school that he didn't think that was too cool.  I stuck around to watch him go to his classroom.  That was another hard moment but I didn't tear up then.  He looked so grown up with his backpack on walking in a line with his classmates.  And then he was gone.

I was back to pick LJ up by 2:45.  School gets out at 3.  There is also a pick up line and it just couldn't move fast enough for me.  I was so happy to see Luke's smiling face as he climbed in the car.  

The first words he said, "This school is fun!"  

A big internal sigh of relief on my part.  I asked him tons of questions.  I didn't get as many answers.  Here's what I gathered since then about his first day.

--They had chapel first and introduced themselves.  Luke didn't really enjoy that part.

--There are lots and lots of rules.

--Lunch went pretty well and he sat with Kensie (a friend from his class last year).  I packed his lunch; he ate about half of it. (They have 25 min to eat.)

--Recess was fun.

--Luke's favorite part of the day: nap time.  And yep, he took a nap.  That really shouldn't be surprising if you know LJ.  He did tell me that he needed a small pillow so he could be more comfortable during nap time.

So, now Luke has been to school for 7 days.  He is really and truly loving it!  Some observations/thoughts/events from these first few days:

  --There has been only one morning he hasn't gotten up with his alarm.  The poor guy is quite worn out when he gets home and bedtime has been creeping earlier and earlier as this week has gone on.  

  --Luke has music class on M, W, F and PE on T, TH.  He also has library on TH.

 --We found a lunch that is easier and fastest to eat than a peanut butter sandwich and he's been finishing all of it on the days he takes his lunch.

  --We signed LJ up for some school lunches a while back.  He had school lunch two days this week--french toast sticks with scrambled eggs and bacon and a hamburger with fries and veggies.  He said he enjoyed them but I wasn't thrilled with how little he actually told me he ate of them.  We'll see how this continues to go.

  --Luke brings home a blue folder each night with his daily work and any homework if he has it.  So far we've only had one homework assignment and we've had all week to complete it.

  --His favorite parts of the days:

        Last Friday: art

        Monday: recess

        Tuesday: "Mom, you can't ask me that every day!"

  --Luke told me this morning he still doesn't really like "walk and talk."

  --Each student is allowed to have a water bottle with them in class.  Luke has really enjoyed this and I think it's a great idea!

  --In chapel this week they learned about the Creation Story.  Luke has come home every day singing part of a song they have for helping them remember it.  We were reading tonight before bed and there was a picture of the ocean and sky with the sun.  Luke pointed out each thing and told me the day that God created them :)

  --This week they have also been studying vowels.  Luke has been pointing them out a bunch.

  --I'm so glad that is enjoying school so much.  It obviously makes things easier when you like what you're doing.