Back to school

We got back from the beach Sunday, enjoyed Labor Day Monday, and then it was back to school Tuesday for Adelyn and Wednesday for James! Can I get an AMEN? We were all ready for it to start. 

 Yes, she wants to be a NICU nurse and live in Montana. 

 This is her first year that the teachers asked for a bookbag. Boy is she excited about that!

She had a terrific first day. Although, I think they gave her espresso and candy all day because she was 100% wired when she got home. I guess it was THAT good. And now all I hear is "In Kindergarten...." or "Now that I'm a Kindergartner...."

Love it. 

 And yes, James wants to be Darth Vader when he grows up. Hopefully his teachers are up to the challenge of preparing him for this career path. 

 How cute is my Jamesy-James??

James also had a great first day. His teacher is Adelyn's teacher when she was in the 3s. Mrs. Miss is also a Sunday School teacher at our church. She told me that James rubbed her face and said, "I lub you" and that she just melted. I asked James if he told Mrs. Missi he loved her and he said "Yes. And she said she was melting so I told her 'You're not gonna melt!'". Ha! Love hearing the story from both sides. 

And just for fun....here's the same poster with Adelyn starting the 3s class. 

IOP 14

Oh, what a great trip! I love a beach trip, and look forward to this week ALL YEAR LONG. We've stayed in the same condo at Isle of Palms, SC for several years now. We went with my parents and brother. The weather was fantastic- not even a drop of rain all week and it wasn't insanely hot. 

As soon as we got there, the kids wanted to see the ocean. It took about 3 minutes before they were both swimming in their clothes!

We enjoyed dinner on the deck. There's a restaurant next door and just about every evening, a man with guitar played music. Perfection. 

Hitting the beach!

They loved to dig a big hole and play for hours!

We had all been given the ALS Bucket Challenge over the past several weeks so we dumped ice water on our heads as a family. 

Monday night, we did our family photos before going out to eat. I love this picture of them. 

The girls

All of us after eating at Morgan Creek

Adelyn was amped up about building this castle! She was a little bossy :)

My dad spent a LOT of time with her all week boogie boarding

We loved playing Tidal Ball, a game one of my friends from college invented and sells. 

Seth and I had a date night in downtown Charleston! We ate at Cru and stayed at French Quarter Inn- it was seriously the nicest place I've ever stayed. We had a great night away!

My friend Heather from middle school lives at Folly Beach. She brought her son to to the beach one day. It was fun catching up and watching our kids play together. 

  

James and Zephyr

Seth could only stay for half of the week :( 

One night, we took a sunset cruise. We stopped at EarthFare and got sandwiches (for my dad and brother) and sushi (for me, my mom, and the kids). We had an amazing time! 

The boat started near Folly Beach and cruised slowly to Morris Island. My dad and Adelyn are taking in the beautiful scenery. 

I can't even tell you how many dolphins we saw! It was so cool!

Morris Island lighthouse in the distance 

Ok...anybody that knows how this summer has been with James potty training will think this is freakin' hilarious. 

We took the kids on a carriage ride in downtown Charleston (and strolled through the Market and ate at Fast and French)

This is what my dad and brother do everyday. ONE day, I WILL read a book on the beach again! 

On the last day, James begged for his own boogie board. Now they're both officially beach bums. 

We enjoyed dinner and a pretty sunset at The Boathouse on our last night

'Til next year, Isle of Palms! I think I need more than one beach trip every summer!

Random

We are wrapping up these last days of summer before school starts. Public school has been in session for a few weeks now and lots of Adelyn's friends have already begun. She's staying at Cumming First United Methodist Church for Kindergarten (and James will be in the 3s) and they don't start until the day after Labor Day.

It's been a fun summer. We've been on some great trips and spent a lot of quality time together (me not really tutoring plus NO camps equals a LOT of time together).

 That being said, it's been a long summer (James and his "terrible threes" coupled with potty training issues can make for some serious pull-your-hair-out days). 

BUT, time is fleeing. My precious two are getting older and time goes by too fast. Here are some random pictures of what we've been up too the past weeks....

Something major that happened to Adelyn is she learned to ride her bike! 

http://youtu.be/hJRVVRgLaN0

She's come a long way....(below is Adelyn 2 years ago). She used to hate riding her bike!

We *try* to do a little homework each day. Here's Ms. Adelyn working on some math.

Funniest moment EVER. We met some friends at a local trout farm (hello, random excursion). There was a little hike you could do and Adelyn and her buddy ran up ahead. Adelyn came running back, covered in green and in tears. She thought this duckweed covered (algae) pond was just more grass! She ran right into it and had to claw her way out of the pond. "I am NOT happy!" was what she kept repeating. 

Ah, a Tuesday night date at Rio Balsas! My mom came in town (Seth left the next day for a McLaren event in CA) and granted us a date night.

My mom and I took the kids to a water park in Gainesville. It's awesome when school is back in and places like this are still open. We practically had it to ourselves! My mom and also made the trek to Ikea another day. Love that store!

Practicing her crazy jumps!

Open House at CFUMC. I am so excited about what all she is going to learn this year. Mrs. Cochran will be amazing!

Hey look, I have my very own cartoon character!

Fun play date at a local park with Adelyn's upcoming kindergarten class 

I got to meet Madison Sarena Ross! The kids and I took them dinner and I got to love on this sweet baby. 

Pool fun at a friend's neighborhood pool! Again, school is back in so we had it to ourselves! There were some other preschoolers hanging out. 

Road America

Seth had a race at Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI). This is a beautiful part of the US. We stayed in Sheboygan and Blue Harbor Resort. 

This is clearly not my picture, but here's what it looks like. It overlooks Lake Michigan and has a water park, putt putt, restaurants, and shops in walking distance. It's a wonderful place to stay!

We flew in Thursday morning and hit Cedar Valley Cheese Store/Factory that afternoon. We all enjoyed some ice cream and cheese!

There are acres and acres of beautiful farmland. There's a place that sells the biggest tractors I've ever seen and the kids love to climb on them. 

James is in hog heaven. 

In the evenings, they have a story time around a bonfire. Afterwards, the kids got to roast marshmallows.

I went for a nice run around Lake Michigan Friday morning

We went to the track later that morning to see Seth practice. 

James got to sit in daddy's car....

help Q jack the car up....

 and "help" with the tires. He thought he was something else!

We spent that afternoon at the waterpark.  I've mentioned James can be hit or miss around water. On this particular day, he LOVED it! He wouldn't do the bigger slides, but he was all over the small ones and swimming in the pool. 

Adelyn and I raced each other down the big water slides.

Saturday was race day! Here we are at the Fan Walk. James made sure to get an autograph from all the Bimmerworld drivers.

During the race, Adelyn lost her other top front tooth. Looks like it's pureed foods from here on out. 

 James was SUPER DUPER cranky Saturday morning (and I was super duper annoyed). I guess he was tired, because the boy took a 2 hour nap during Seth's noisy race. That was fine with me- I got to actually pay attention to the race. And it was a good race! It'll be televised August 17th at noon on Fox Sports 1. Lots of action! 

Adelyn played with her princesses for 2 1/2 hours. 

Dan qualified 20th and they finished 8th. Not too shabby!