Back to school!

It's back to school time! Wyatt is finally in "big boy" school and Maddy is loving 2nd grade. They're both doing very well. We're getting adjusted to their schedules (along with mine.) I'm always thankful when this time of year comes back. I love having them home during the summer, but I feel that life "goes back to normal" once school is back in session.

First day of 2nd grade

First day of Kindergarten

This week they've had (are having) a 5 day weekend. They were off Thursday and Friday, because of the intense heat and no AC at school, and have the regular weekend off and have Monday off because of Labor day. Lucky ducks. :P

My 2nd semester is going well. Unfortunately I have to go to school 5 days a week, but I'm adjusting. I'm liking my classes and I think I'm going to do well in them.

Maddy had her 7th birthday last week and lost her 3rd tooth! She was really excited to get another visit from the tooth fairy.

My beautiful 7 year old. And you can see her missing tooth!

We had a pretty good summer. We also went to Adventureland as a family. It was really fun. I hope we can go next year also.

I'm so beyond excited that fall is almost here. My absolute FAVORITE time of year. The smells, the leaves, the slight chill in the air, hoodies, bon fires, football, going to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin spice lattes, Halloween--all of the above.

Hope you all had a great summer, and are ready for school to start and fall to begin! :)

Trip to the zoo

Week in Review

I haven't decided if I'm going to do a week in review every Saturday, or a weekend in review. I guess it just depends on how I feel and what people want to see.

Well we all had Monday off for Memorial Day. We cooked out even though it was unseasonably cold. It's been so chilly and it's been raining all the time. And yes our basement floods. Yuck. We had a good day though.

They LOVE watermelon

Tuesday was Madison's last day of 1st grade! She said she had a good time and is already anxious to start 2nd grade in the fall. Slow down girl we have all summer to enjoy! :P

First & Last day

Wyatt had his last day of preschool a few weeks ago.

First & Last day

We also got her first chapter book on Tuesday. We had a little mommy-daughter time and I picked out one and she immediately wanted to read it. I looked for a few books myself and she just sat in the children's area and read.

Then they had a summer reading program and we signed up for it. We had to do a little scavenger hunt about all the continents. We had to find each continent and then answer the question about what you should pack if you were to visit there. We found them all and then she got a little temporary tattoo. I felt bad Wyatt wasn't with us, but I didn't know this was going on until we got there.

I signed them both up for the program. For every 100 minutes they read they get a prize from the library and if they read 40 days from May 28-July 20 they get their name put in a drawing for a "surprise." Not sure what that is, but that would be really neat if one of them were to be chosen. Maddy already has 200 minutes of reading so far. Honestly! I keep track and she had read that much already. Wyatt can't read, but he knows Goodnight Moon almost by heart so he "reads" that, or I tell him to look at a book and think about what he's "reading" or Madison, Greg or I read to him. I can tell he can't wait to learn how to read himself.

Thursday we happened to catch the ice cream man AND I had cash! So they got to get some ice cream. They were so excited.

Yummy!

The past few days haven't been too eventful. I've just been cleaning the house, doing laundry, and doing a few Pinterest ideas. It's been really fun.

Including doing Maddy's hair. I found a few sites about doing little girl's hair and even though I'm definitely not a pro and I definitely need more practice she enjoyed it.

I also did some more gardening. I planted my irises and a lamb's ear plant. Pictures to follow soon.
I definitely haven't worked out as much as I should've but I plan to do it as much as I can. (And I did just get done working out a little bit ago. A short workout is better than none at all!) :)

Today the kids and I went to a donut shop we have here. I haven't been there in YEARS. They liked the donuts and juice. It's nice to treat them to breakfast since we usually don't go out to eat too often (and especially not in the mornings.)

Best picture I could get of them semi-looking at me. They were just enjoying their donuts too much! :P

They're at my mom's now spending time with her and their cousins.

Well that's about it. I hope you all have a great weekend--enjoy your *almost* summer!

Wordless Wednesday

My muffin with her first chapter book. :)

Life

Well school has come and gone. I made it. I finished my first semester back with all A's and B's. I'm pretty happy. I have 2 semesters left then my internship. I'm hoping within 12-18 months I'll have a "real" FT job. I'm very much looking forward to that.

Madison has one day left (Tuesday) then she will be done with 1st grade. She's done pretty well. She is still struggling, but she's doing her best which is all I can ever ask for.

Wyatt graduated preschool! He's sad to leave, but I know he'll have fun in Kindergarten. He keeps saying he's not going to have fun there and wants to stay at preschool. I'm sure it's just the jitters though. I'm sure once he and Maddy have their first recess together he will be more relaxed.

My big girl has lost 2 teeth already! And her adult teeth are already starting to grow in!


Tooth #1


Tooth #2

She's still reading like a champ and we're going to get her into chapter books. My plan is Tuesday  I will pick her up from school then we will have some girl time together and go to the library for her first chapter book. I saw a website for the 100 Best Children's Chapter Books (thanks Pinterest!) and thought I'd start her out with one of those. She loves her current books, but I can tell she's getting a little bored with them. Hopefully this will help her reading comprehension too.

We're hoping to get her into swimming next month. We will probably do one at a time, so we'll probably have Wyatt take his lessons in the fall. We're probably going to do it at Blackhawk. That's where I took swimming lessons--all those years ago. :P

Wyatt turned 5 last month! It's so hard to believe my baby is so old. I keep telling him: "Even when you're 30 you'll still be my baby!" He probably doesn't understand, but I'll probably keep telling him that even when he's a teenager. I can picture him saying "oh mom" and rolling his eyes already.



I'm very much looking forward to the summer. I want to go the the museum, go swimming, go to the sprinklers at Schweibert park, go to the zoo, have ice cream for supper, [just one night though ;)] go camping in the backyard, go on picnics, go to different parks, go fishing, and we might possibly go to Adventure Land. (Which is an amusement park we have here.) And everything else we can come up with.


The kids in our little pool we got. (Only $25 at K-Mart--score!)

I'm looking forward to the fall too, but summer is here and I want to enjoy that to the fullest!

I also saw a website about DIY Summer School for Kids. (Again, thank you Pinterest!) I read all about it and it sounds really great. I know Maddy for sure would definitely benefit from this. I'm going to work with Wyatt of course too. He knows pretty much all he needs for Kindergarten, but our main goal this summer is for him to write his name. He can write his T's pretty well, so that's a start.

I've started gardening. My grandma has helped me with my front and backyards. Here's a few pictures. They have grown a lot more over these past few weeks. I'll post a updated picture of them soon.


Front yard


Backyard (Purple and yellow flowers for my loves. <3)

It's been updated, and I'm anxious to share the pictures....soon. :)

Greg also wants to start a vegetable garden. We have a cherry tomato plant started. They're still green, but I'm anxious to taste one once they're done growing. YUM. We also have some wild strawberry plants. They were there when we bought the house, we just never noticed. We're taking care of them now. They're starting to bud, and I'm anxious to see how they turn out. I've read that they either taste really sweet or don't taste at all. So hopefully they're the sweet ones.

Well it's almost time for everyone to rise and shine so I'd better get to it. But first...I need some coffee! ;)

P&L -- Have a great weekend and Memorial Day. Take a minute to remember those who served our wonderful country for us.