Back to School!!!

Oh we have waited all summer for the day Ryder could go back to school!  He absolutely loves being there and boy do him & his sister need that break from each other during the day!  The countdown started in the beginning of August when everyone started asking Ryder “are you ready for school???”  He would wake up and say “is it time???”  So the day it finally came was super exciting for all of us!  Well, except for one little girl who realized on the final day that she was actually going to miss her brother during the day!

Ryder’s girls went to Wal-Mart the day before to get him lots of yummy food to pack in his lunches:

(sorry, I needed an excuse to post this picture, little miss independent!)

And then it was the first day of school!  Before we left the house, Ryder had to say goodbye to Spike, his box turtle.

Then we waited patiently anxiously at the bus stop with Nana, Cameron, Maisy and myself! 

Maisy kept repeating over and over “I go with you brother!  K???  I go with you!  I go to school too!  Okay brother???”  She so badly wanted him to say SURE, come with me! 

She had to go potty, so her & Nana ran inside then of course we saw the bus coming.  Ryder started to get nervous and said “Mom, Maisy isn’t going to get to say goodbye and see me get on the bus” but no sooner did he say that she came busting out the door, running his way, like she wouldn’t miss it for the world!

Kisses from Mommy!

Hugs from baby sister!  He whispered to her “I’ll miss you today Maze!”  Ugh melt my heart!

And just like that he was loading himself onto the bus with no problems!!

They went back and forth about putting him on the handicapped bus this year because the railing on the normal bus is on the left side, plus with him being so small they worried about him not being in a seat belt.  BUT I asked them to give him a try and my instinct was right!  He has been getting on and off just fine :)

And just for fun, here is our handsome boy on day 2:

   

And day 3!  I just can’t stop taking pictures of him each morning!  I changed my hours at work so that I could get him on the bus every day, I love seeing him off!

 

Lastnight was Back to School night so we got to go see his classroom and meet his teacher again.  Of course I’ve already done both at Orientation night and at his IEP meeting before school started BUT I still feel like I can’t miss out on anything!

He also had his first homework assignment last night, sorting the letters A, B, and C into piles and then picking out the upper case and lower case!

       

He really is doing great so far this year.  He absolutely loves his teacher, his classroom, and all things about school.  She told us about how she gives strikes for discipline at Orientation so he has stressed every day about getting strikes.  Luckily none so far!!  His teacher sent a note home saying that he is fitting in very well with the other kids, which of course was my concern since he’s in REGULAR classes this year and not special ed.  I mean I know he’s smart enough but keeping up at gym and art and with things like writing and self help during the day will probably always be a concern of mine.  But, like always, he’s proving to be getting along just fine!  The only little issue is he has been complaining of knee pain in his left leg.  He has an appointment coming up with his Rehab doctor so I’m anxious to bring this up to him and see what is going on. 

Love this little guy and looking forward to a wonderful and successful year of Pre-K! 

Fun Fridays!

I guess the title of this post should really be “Furlough Fridays” but something that seemed like it was going to be so horrible actually ended up being pretty awesome!  In fact, I almost cried when they cancelled the furlough.  Lets just say that yes while the pay cut was NOT fun, I thoroughly enjoyed having every Friday off for 6 weeks.

And here’s the proof:

One Friday Alan took off with me so we could have a date day!  This was totally his idea and he even planned (gasp!) on where he would take me.

 

 

We got on the motorcycle and had a lunch date at Vera’s in Solomon’s Island.  It was the perfect little outing, got some sun on my arms, and got back in time to pick our kids up!

Another Friday Yaya got us tickets to go see the Disney Junior Live show!  It was the Jake & the Neverland Pirates and Sofia the First Pirate & Princess Summer Show, and we had 2 VERY excited kids!  Me & Yaya loaded them up and had a blast spending that Friday doing something so special to them!

  

   

The kids got to have their fun outing and next it was Mommy’s turn!  On my very last ever furlough Friday I left for the Women of Faith conference with some of my best girl friends and had an awesome inspirational weekend! 

It’s so nice being with friends doing something so positive and experiencing that together.

Some highlights of the conference were hearing Cece Winans sing!

Watching Third Day play!!

And of course, our best moment was meeting Angie Smith!  We have read her blog for  years now, her books too, so hearing her speak at the conference and then meeting her in person was SO COOL!

So now it’s back to work on Friday’s for me and here I am on my first one back sitting at my desk blogging, reminiscing, oh how I miss you furlough friday’s!  My next paycheck will surely be thankful that it is over though!  Shew.

Happy All the Time!

Yes, we are happy ALL the time…EXCEPT when my brother/sister looks at me, touches me, or tries to steal the show! Other than that, we are happy ALL the time! ;-)

Big Girl Bed

I love this milestone!  I don’t know what it is about moving the baby out of their crib and into a big bed that makes me so excited!  We moved Ryder when he turned 2 so we followed suit with Maisy.  It’s always a little nerve wracking because you just don’t know if they’re ready until you actually do it, but we went for it and all went well!

We had to take the crib apart to get that out of her room before we could put the bed together!  I say WE as if I had anything to do with it, have I mentioned how much I love my husband?!  Oh wait, he did have one little helper! 

 

Okay so maybe it would have gone a little faster if the “helper” did a little less “helping” but…after hours of taking things apart and putting things together, he couldn’t wait to be the first to lay on the bed!

It wasn’t long before the crazies came in ready to test out the bed…and by that I mean jump on it!

And then it was officially time to spend her first night ever in her first big girl bed.  She wasn’t scared, until brother said “Don’t be scared Maisy!”.  Then she realized that yeah, this is a little scary.  She wanted me to stay and lay with her, and got upset when I left.  So I sent Daddy, aka the Maisy Whisperer, in to talk to his girl and after a few minutes I heard “okay daddy, night night, I love you so much” over the monitor, her bedroom door shut, and that was that!

     

Night 1 was a success.  Night 2 brother wanted to sleep with her, so I found them like this when I went in to wake them up!

Little cuties!  So glad our big girl loves her big girl bed :)

Camp Out!

So I don’t know if you remember our camping trip from LAST YEAR but a huge storm came that prevented us from actually camping after our float trip down the river.  This year, another big storm came!  This one flooded the river, so we couldn’t do our float trip, but the rain stopped and we were able to spend the weekend camping as planned.  One of these years we’re going to be able to do both!

We had a great time hanging out at the campsite.  It was a good reminder that we don’t always have to have something planned.  We can actually have fun doing nothing!  The kids played and played and played!

 

 

                

There was hair brading!

Watermelon Eating!

Homemade Swinging!

Slipping & Sliding!

Sparklers!

Campfire & S’mores!

Stories about bigfoot!

And lots of hanging out with family and good friends!  We had a great camping trip and can’t wait to go again.  I love that Ryder is able to enjoy this with us, soon we’ll be bringing Maisy along too!  (Don’t feel sad for her that she didn’t get to join in on the fun, she went to Kings Dominion with Aunt Jess & Sydney, so girlfriend had a weekend full of action as well!)