BIG First Day

No nerves at all going into kindergarten today! Daddy went into work late so he could come along to school and Nana even came over early this morning with donuts to start Nate's morning on the right foot.

Nate was happy to see some familiar faces from preschool

He was even more thrilled to see some good friends after school!

At first he didn't want to divulge much about his day, but after we went out to dinner to celebrate his first day he wanted to "practice being in kindergarten" (I'm going to guess his day wasn't that bad, then!) When he practiced being "the teacher", I got an idea of what they did today. Only little hiccup to the day was that he forgot his lunch bag at school...I think I might print up a paper with pictures of his lunch bag and water bottle and stick it to his backpack in hopes it will help him remember to collect those things :)


Aaron and I had a more peaceful, relaxing day at home. I hope the rest of the week continues to go just as well!

That's A Wrap!

The month isn't over yet but summer break is! Here are some July happenings...

We weren't too busy the holiday week. We did go to a BBQ/swim party one evening, but we actually spent the July 4th holiday at home. We watched fireworks on TV, however I think I'd be interested in taking the kids out next year. They really seemed to like watching them...they stayed up just as late as if they were out ;)

Spirited!

The second week Nate was in a camp all week, three hours each morning. Awesome! It was mostly a "play" focused camp at a local recreation center that offers swim, gymnastics, dance,etc. Nate had a lot of fun out on the gymnastics floor. One day they rented a water slide for the kids to play on and the last day of camp they had a few bounce houses.

Nate has had a lot of fun at Lowe's this month - they offer free, "build a project" classes for kids. It's great for something to do with daddy when he's home on the weekends.

This last week our great friends from Australia were in town. We had them over for a playdate with other friends at our house and went out to lunch a few times. Nate was super excited to see his friend Lauren (I think the feeling was mutual!)

Lauren and her brother Jackson's birthdays are coming up soon so we decided to sing Happy Birthday a little early. I couldn't find birthday candles so  a scented one had to substitute.

Today and yesterday we had some playing fun. Nate enjoyed going to a few Great Play camps and today we had a date with some of Nate's closest friends.

That about sums it up! We just had Meet The Teacher last night...T-minus three days until school starts! It went well, though I think you could sense looks of concern on the children's faces :) It has helped to know that Nate has a few friends from his preschool class in his room, and other friends are in classes in the same building as his.  He's overall excited, but there's some nervousness a bit on not knowing what to expect (and I expect a tired, overwhelmed little boy next week when he gets used to being at school all day and all the homework he's about to get! Yikes! There's no naptime anymore...)

Fingers crossed for both of us on Monday!

Growing Boyz

This past week both boys had their well check visits (Nate's always gets postponed, as past a certain age the dr prefers for us to wait to allow for more sick children to be seen, since it's during the high sick season). I totally just forgot all about it in May for Aaron, so I finally remembered this past month and got them both seen. All is well! I could go get their papers for all their stats, but for their history of growth and weight, they're doing great.

I thought I'd take a moment to talk about each of them and their growth.

Even since Aaron's 2nd birthday, there's been more changes!

I love my big bed!

For almost the last month, we switched Aaron to a bigger bed. Not thinking it would help in the area of getting him to stay in it (we knew he wouldn't), but he was ready...and we were also gathering a pile of baby belongings to give to my best friend who is pregnant with her first child, also a boy, so we wanted to give them the crib (nope, no more babies for us!) As expected, he has not slept in his bed all that much. Most of the time he falls asleep on the floor...

A little horrifyingly, two weeks ago after falling asleep on the floor, Aaron woke up one morning screaming because he got devoured by ants!! :( He got chewed up good....as in just about two dozen bites. I called the pediatrician just to be safe (though he was showing no reaction, thankfully!) With some Calamine and Benadryl he started doing better...bless his little heart. I couldn't look at him that day without tearing up. Needless to say, we always put him back in his bed now!

Along with a bigger bed, we also decided to kick the pacifier habit. Normally I wouldn't have made all those changes at once, but since Aaron was starting to detach it himself and sleep without it off/on, we thought we might as well. Things were iffy for a bit, but I think he's doing great now. Figured it was also better to get him off before he became too attached. I just pitched all we had in the trash, we didn't do any special send off. He actually got weaned before Nate did :) Yay us!

Nate is very excited to be starting kindergarten in two weeks! I'm sure I've mentioned that a million times already. To get him prepared, we bought and got together his own desk for his room. Big boy is going to have homework now, ya know ;)

We worked on some cool wall art over the weekend for their rooms - I really liked the melted crayon look.

I also got a "new" desk/chair! Not really new, but hubby re-painted my desk and got new fabric for the chair. I picked up some new accessories for it, including a jar with some sand and seashells from our trip to Australia. I love the colors!

Always projects around here !

June Summer Fun

Besides our play projects, we were busy this past month with many other activities! You know, though some days seemed long, the weeks have really gone by fast.

We began June (first full week) with Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our local church. Each weekday for three hours (for one week) Nate went to our church for a little Christian camp. Aaron wasn't old enough yet to do it, but next year they'll both get to go! Nate enjoys it and I think it has helped that he's had the same teacher the last few years.

Kingdom Rocks theme. He loved their "castle" and getting to play with crowns and shields! 

The 3rd week of June we spent doing activities with our Moms' Club, and fun stuff at home (like a play project plus what's down below and getting ready for Father's Day!)

Ice boats going down a tin foil river, frozen/colored shaved cream to paint

This last, past week we did another play project and Nate was in an art camp four mornings for a few hours. He loved it!

They did a lot of July 4th crafts. Sweet! Less for me :)

To end the weekend, I took Nate to a painting studio (its been a very artsy week!) We were the only ones there. How cool to have the instructor all to ourselves!

We're heading into a just as busy month in July! Trying to stay cool at the same time...

Dramatic Play

Over the last two months, we have had a few "dramatic play" projects, I guess as they're called on Pinterest, anyway. I like to call them "creative and imaginative play" projects. In May we had two and this past month we had two. I'm going to apologize, for those who are friends with me on Facebook there will probably be some repetitive pictures, but I realized I never did post them on here. I think we're done with our "play projects" for the summer now as we wind down towards the start of school - almost three weeks left! Though many of these projects I got from Pinterest, I've still added my own touch to them and spent a lot of time getting them all ready to do. I'm a little mentally exhausted! I have more luck getting Nate to use his imagination and play than I do getting him to do academics at home with me, so I've really just been concentrating on that aspect since the academics are going to come soon enough.

Enough babbling...here are our May projects !

Project 1 - "Cupcake making"/ Runny, slimy play

Made 'cupcakes' with paper, then mixed shaving cream and food coloring for 'frosting'

Added 'sprinkles' with paper

Slimy! Two Elmer's white glue and some liquid starch

Then some cornstarch and shaving cream - way cool texture

Poor Aaron always gets messy

Project 2 - Doctor Day Play

Waiting room

My prescription

Prepping Goofy for surgery

Checking on his patients in recovery

And now for June projects!

Project 1- Mr Flower Shop

We had flowers to order and you could even add on teddy bears or chocolate

Occasion cards

Project 2 - Indoor Camping

Picnic

Park hours and Beware of Bears!

S'mores bar by the fire! Chocolate, crackers, marshmellows, strawberries, bananas. Yum!

Fishing! I used a broken hanger and tape...

Putting our catch over the fire to cook

Bear!

...but the park ranger saved the day

Aaron is  too young to really grasp some of the activities, but Nate sure enjoyed all of it!