Family Time

We had heard fantastic things about the Iowa State Fair, so it was a must on our summer bucket list.  I'm not sure where we went wrong, but that was a first and last for our little family.

Yes, we had fun checking out the animals, eating fried food on a stick and people-watching, but I'm confident we will not be spending that kind of money to tell our kids "No" to every carnival booth, fair ride, exotic animal exhibit and junk food stand in sight again.

We quickly forgot about that adventure in the name of bigger and better ones, though.  On Labor Day weekend we traveled to South Dakota to meet my family at Mt. Rushmore!  We took two days to get there, and of course, the hotel was a complete hit.

 And I'm pretty sure there is a law that says you can't drive through South Dakota without stopping at the Corn Palace.

 It was a great place to stretch our legs, anyway.

We also had to check out Dinosaur Park, where the kids had a blast climbing on the life-sized dinosaurs and enjoying the views.

 But, as the saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone uses a giant mud puddle as a slip-n-slide... or something like that.

And, in true compassionate parenting form, Jason and I just laughed and laughed at him.  He was a total mess!

The real fun started once we met up with our family.  We had a big house in the Black Hills that we all shared, and had a wonderful time visiting, eating good food, and relaxing.

 We went mining in the Black Hills and panned for gold (which Jason took waaay to seriously),

then headed over to Mt. Rushmore, which was incredible.

We obviously had a whole lot of fun because I have exactly zero pictures of our whole group together- which was my whole family except for my brother, his wife and their two kids, who just moved to Seattle.  One of the best parts of the trip was gathering everyone together and listening to my parents tell their grandkids stories about their grandparents.

We're not quite sure when we'll see everyone in my family again, so this was a delightful chance to enjoy being (almost) all together one more time this year.

Back to School

Leah started first grade a few weeks ago.  We closed on our house the day before school started, but didn't move in until that weekend.  As much as Jason wanted to spend the first night in the house on the floor, we opted for a good night's sleep in our beds.  The kids and I drove over to the house in the morning, parked the car and walked from there.  And we got there in time!

Her teacher is Mrs. Burk, and she has the fanciest classroom in the whole first grade.  School starts at 7:45 here, and I will probably never stop complaining about that.  We are just not early morning risers.  

It has been very fun walking/biking/scootering to school, though.  As we get to know more of the neighborhood kids, I imagine that Leah will be walking to and from school with friends before we know it (we are two blocks from the school- I love that I can see it from our front door).

 Leah's school has lockers outside of the classrooms- I love this "please stop taking pictures of me" smile.

Leah also lost her front tooth a few weeks back.  It got a huge gap and became super snaggly in the week leading up to the loss, and now she looks so grown up!   I love that pumpkin smile.

Adam started preschool this week!

He has really been looking forward to his chance to go to school, and he had absolutely no problem going and staying at preschool for the two and a half hours.  His class is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and he told me all about his day when he got home yesterday (no surprise there- Adam is never at a loss for words).  His favorite part was the puzzles and the Lucky Charms that his teachers sent home (with a cute note- "We are so LUCKY to have you in our class!").  He got to be the weather helper on his first day and gets to be the snack helper next week.  He was politely cautious when we got to his classroom about what he could and couldn't do, and wanted to wait for direction from his teachers before touching anything.

He would probably even enjoy more preschool- many kids around here go to four- or five-day preschool- but I'm happy to have him gone a little and here a lot.  He is my energetic little buddy, and my heart was tugged constantly throughout the day yesterday as I realized that he will never be home with me all day every day again.  But I'm so proud of the sweet little boy that he continues to become, and I know that he is going to have a great time in school this year.  He isn't afraid to talk to anyone, and he makes people- especially me- smile with his sweet stories.

Preschool provides a bit of mommy-and-me time (for a few more weeks) for me and Emma.

Even though she is adamant that she should be going to preschool as well, and constantly asks about "my pee-kool? my pee-kool?", more often than not she is quite happy to sit near my side, playing with her dolls or flipping through books.  

And I think she quite enjoys the respite from her big brother and sister- it's always nice to have a chance to miss someone.  It makes them so much more delightful when they return home!

We have started going to a weekly toddler storytime at the library where she gets a nametag! and a hand stamp! 

I'm trying to soak up as much one-on-one time with her as I can before her little brother arrives and completely rocks her world.