Summer Recap and The Return of Routine

I put this picture at the top so it will show up in the thumbnail on facebook. Also, a tiny frog on a tiny car is the best thing ever.

We are back in the saddle of school and "normal" life.  Our school district is on a balanced calendar, meaning school starts early but is punctuated quarterly with longer breaks.  Nora is in her fourth full week of 1st grade, and doing wonderfully.   She insisted on riding the bus both ways this year and is excited to have her best friend in her class again, for the third year in a row.

She scooters to the bus stop. I scooter home. I bet the neighbors love it.

Rather than playing soccer again this fall, she chose to give dance another whirl. (See what I did there?)  She started lessons a couple of weeks ago, and also had her first Girl Scouts meeting of the year this evening.  She's especially excited two of her friends have joined the troop, and I'm especially excited that their meetings are at a place with an indoor playground in the next room.

Joseph started PRESCHOOL (!!!) last week.  He only goes two mornings a week, for two and a half hours a piece.  Excluding driving time, this allots me four and one half hours per week kid-free. Not that I'm counting. I go to the grocery store and do things like ponder hand soap scents and make sure I have the Buy 5, Save 5 items in multiples of 5.  I do projects around the house in entirety (clean all the bathrooms at once, for example). I fold laundry while catching up on Call the Midwife.

Let's discuss preschool.  When Joseph was newly 1, I had this fantastic thought in my head that I would sign him up to go to Parent's Day Out at the same school where Nora was in preschool one morning a week.  Huzzah, I thought, they'll be so happy and I'll run errands or take a nap! I hadn't slept in a year and the prospect of this was thrilling. So ta-da, I did it. Paid a $100 registration fee and signed his little tushy up. But he cried and cried and cried and they would call me and say that I didn't have to come pick him up, but, bless his little heart, he just wouldn't settle down.  So of course I would go get him, because how selfish am I, I thought, going grocery shopping without him.  After several weeks of this, I gave up, and told Ryan I was spending that $70 a month on margaritas.

Then when he turned 2, I thought, well hey! He's practically a grown-up compared to last year. He can walk and talk and sing songs and do all sorts of great things.  But, nope. He cried all day, and I gave up, again.

So we were a little nervous about preschool.  But, by the grace of God, we saw his preschool teacher (who had also been Nora's teacher) at lunch one day over the summer, and so he got to meet her.  After that, we talked about her everyday.  Mrs. Messmer is the best. She is so fun. She sings songs, and has toys, and she's a grandma. (Because grandmas are always great.)  I don't know if Mrs. "Mess-a-mer" knows what a celebrity she is at our house, but by golly, we love her.  And, by some magical miracle, he strutted into the first day of preschool with his dinosaur "pack-back," spelled his name for the teacher, and sat down on the rug and never looked back.  Now every morning he asks if it's a preschool day, and it makes me so proud and happy, my head might start spinning. 

Of  course his Lightning McQueen cars had to come out for pictures.

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We had a great summer.  The kids had lots of time to run and play, explore the outdoors, visit family, enjoy the lake, and spend time with friends. Both kids took swim lessons; Nora is swimming like a fish.

The biggest highlight of summer was Joseph's third birthday. This guy was so excited! After celebrating my, Ryan's, and Nora's birthdays all over the winter months, he had been telling people for months, "my birt-day is coming up!"  He only asked for ice cream, so we got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and decorated it with - wait for it - dinosaurs.  Over the next week, we actually celebrated his birthday three times - once at home, once at my parents' at the lake, once at Ryan's parents'.  This was perfect because when you sing happy birthday to Joseph, he gets this sweet smile on his face and it melts my heart.

A part of Joseph's birthday gift was his big boy room. His nursery, though a perfect size for a baby and extra nice because it was 3 steps away from our room, was a bit small for a "big boy" room with a regular bed, dresser, and toys.  His new room is decorated in airplanes and dinosaurs, of course.

Nora BEGGED to help paint. She did this, then dunked her whole foot in the paint. All things considered, though, a successful first attempt.

An actual bed is forthcoming (because Ryan started building it and then broke his arm), but for now he thinks this is pretty awesome.

It stayed this organized for 3.7 seconds.

This is the third time I've sat down to finish this blog, so here is the rest of summer, in pictures(and in no particular order):

Finished up another soccer season. This year they were the Thunder.

Me: "Ok, you can play, but let's try not to get totally soaked."
Kids: "Does this count as soaked?"

Sibling Negotiations (Translation: I will give you the fairy egg to you, Joseph, if you give me some money. Will you give me some money? I hope you say yes! Then I will let you play with my toys for two months. The end."

VBS fun

The old hose in the sandbox trick = hours of fun. I took this picture from my shaded chair where I read a book while they built sand cities and rivers.

Nora and one of her besties at Annie. They loved it!

Looking for shells and crayfish at the park. This was totally worth the soaking wet & smelly tennis shoes.

Walk/scooter/bike in the park

Zoo day

The glass is really thick. Right?

Our tennis coach friend gave Nora and a friend lessons this summer. Joseph joined in for some volley practice.

Sometimes Aunt Michelle buys giant inflatable birthday presents.

Tuesday morning swim crew!  These kiddies are all little ones of some of my Avon teacher friends. Believe it or not, we're missing at least three babies and one pair of brothers in this picture.

Hey, look! 10 years with this guy! I feel like this deserves a blog post all by itself. We enjoyed a night away (thanks, Mimi!).

A hallway and half bath paint project. I took the mirror off the wall and discovered a giant hole. Home ownership is fun.

Visited GG and Papa's to see the massive tomato plants! Yes, that is the roof they are touching.

A trip to the Dunes and then a famous burger joint whose name I cannot currently remember.

We made it to the top! Nora was the first one up, and Joseph climbed the whole thing all by himself!

#puremichigan

Nora's last-day-before-school-starts request was a trip to the Children's Museum.

Rainy day activities.

Baby bunnies in the garden. I had to rescue one of these little dudes when he got caught in the fence trying to get away from Joseph, who has not mastered the concept of quiet yet.

Making car jumps

Nora's hand for scale

This is my favorite picture of the summer. Tiny frog on a tiny car.

Naptime

Joseph was really hungry for a hard boiled egg one day, but we didn't have any. Then he built this house and called it The Hard Boiled Egg house.  (It worked and I made some.)