Happy 2nd Birthday, Hunter!

We enjoyed seeing the Caldwells and family to celebrate Hunter's upcoming 2nd birthday! The kids always enjoy playing together!

Owen always loves the chance to go exploring in the woods. He even found a turtle shell!

The girls enjoyed the rocket that Hunter got for his birthday. Hunter tried his best to step on it hard enough to launch it!

Touch-a-Truck

We love that there's a nearby Touch-a-Truck that has a horn-free hour at the beginning! It makes such a big difference for Owen! The weather was perfect too!

First Day of School

Somehow time flew by so fast that we now have TWO children in elementary school! Gasp!!! 

Willow has two "first day" pics because her fun shirt sequence is two different shades depending if you have them pushed up or down (hard to tell in the pics). 

I asked Owen if he was going to wear a Lego or Star Wars shirt on the first day of school and he said no. I asked if he was going to wear one of his new collared striped shirts and he said no. I asked if he was going to surprise us and he said yes. And he sure did picking out the one and only button up shirt in his whole closet! He sure looked handsome though!

Burning off some excitement by climbing the tree before we drove up to school:

Owen has Ms. Bray, as we requested, since we were so happy with her when Willow was in Kindergarten.  When we walked him into the building on the first day, he quietly asked Chris how he was going to get home at the end of the day. Somehow after being asked multiple times if he was excited about riding the bus, we never explicitly told him that he'd get home on the bus and that we lived at the first stop. Whoops!! At the end of the day when I asked him how it went riding the bus, he said that he got off when he saw another boy get off. Eek! Good thing we live at the first stop!!

He wasn't up for a picture at Open House but we got one on the first day of school when we dropped him off. 

Willow has Mrs. Washington, who is new to the school this year. 

Both kiddos reported having a good day at school. Owen said his favorite part of the day was getting on the bus to go home. He excitedly told Gramma that he didn't have any math papers for homework. 

 Some of their work from the first day:

Gramma made them a cake like she did for Willow when she was in Kindergarten.

We're looking forward to a great year!!

300 books!

Owen has gone through phases of interest and disinterest in reading on his own. He's been stuck at 75 books for multiple months but was remotivated to finish it when he realized how far away Christmas is, combined with his constant desire for more Lego sets. He read some level I and J books to finish off his chart making it 300 documented books that he's read before Kindergarten! Good job buddy!!

Summer Fun: Mother-Daughter date, icecream, saber battles, solar eclipse

This summer has flown by and suddenly we find ourselves getting used to our new school year routine! Eeek! We enjoyed the last week before I started back to school, then the reinforcements arrived (aka Gramps and Gramma). 

Owen laid down in our room to watch a show and Alli made herself comfortable on his legs. She does this with me, but has rarely done it with the kids! So sweet to see!

Willow enjoyed a friend's birthday party at the roller skating rink. They were in the "black light" room. 

We tried a new ice cream place that makes a Taiwan form of rolled ice cream. It was super yummy!

Mama's summer project got up on the wall the weekend before she went back:

Willow and I had a Mother-Daughter date and enjoyed rock climbing, getting our nails done, and trying out a new ice cream place!

Our pool noodle lightsabers from Owen's party are still holding strong and have gotten a lot of use with Gramps in town! (Not sure why this video is oriented this way)

Calming down with a bit of coloring:

Willow is figuring out that rope! She can get halfway up now (the orange tape mark)!

The kids received a pair of solar eclipse glasses in their monthly science kit that Kim and Chad get them. Thankfully the weather cooperated and the kids didn't have school, so they were able to check it out multiple times throughout the afternoon. We were in a 90% blockage zone and noticed the slightest change in light - pretty incredible!! (Thankfully it was a workday for me at school, so I was able to enjoy it with teachers at school too!)

Crazy shadows on the patio!