First Day of School- 2013

The first day of school!  We were ALL ready for this day!  Summer was beyond wonderful- we soaked up the low-key-ness of it, basked in the time together, played our hearts out- but we were all ready to get back into a routine, be apart a little, and kick-up the learning!  Both kids have excellent teachers and I have a promising group of 7th graders!  It's kinda special to realize that this is the last time I will only have 2 kids to take pictures of!  Next year will be the twins first day of kindergarten!!  Until then, I'm ready to enjoy and appreciate how easy my life is now!

Beautiful 2nd grader!  Her shirt says I love school!

Her snazzy backpack that my friend embroidered!

SO excited!

Loving his embroidered backpack!

Me and my munchkins!  I love that Al can work from home and prove that I was there!

Al, the ever-amazing Dad, not only wrote the kids letters- that made me cry, again- but he took them to Goddard that morning so he could get pictures of them getting on the bus- and so Addie could wear her sandals that went with her outfit (toes must be covered at Goddard and we can't have her fashion messed up on the first day).

These 3 are the best of pals!

Lainey and Alden- they love each other- really they do!

Addie and 2 of her BFF's- Ava and Jayda (she is convinced that she and Jayda are REALLY twins)

Only 30min late- here's the bus!

Al assures me he was happy!  He looks so serious here!

 Thankfully my school lets out an hour before theirs- so I was able to meet them as they got OFF the bus!  We did decide to have them ride the bus to and from Goddard this year.  Last year I picked them up.  We decided to make this change for our new kids' sake.  They need to see that we drop off Adeline and Alden AND pick them up- all from the same place.  Plus, they will attend Goddard, so they need to see it's a safe place from the get-go!

SO happy!

He is trying his best to be tough...

The kids all had a fantastic first day- and the next have been equally as wonderful!  Alden assured me that it was easy, kinda hard, but mostly easy.  Adeline loved getting to meet new friends and read some new books!  It's going to be a GREAT year!

End of Summer Cook Out

Our cul-de-sac is a wonderful place.  Simply wonderful!  We have amazing friends and families that want their children to be good, kind and productive citizens!

Last year we were part of the yearly traditional End of Summer Cookout.  Everyone cooks out and eats in the cul-de-sac.  The kids have lots of fun.  The best part?  The hightlight?  The s'mores!  This year I was busy eating and totally forgot to snap pics of the food!  But I DID get pics of the s'mores!  What a sweet way to end the summer!

This is too divine for words.... You must try it!

Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon

Al, together with his friend Mike, signed-up for and then dutifully trained, for a 1/2 marathon.  The whole point?  To raise money to put towards our adoption.  How awesome is that?  The race was on Sunday, but since I did not have to work on Friday, we used Al's hotel rewards and left Friday morning- we left Al at the hotel to work- and the kids and I drove 10min to the beach where we played for over 4 hours!  It was glorious and we all had a spectacular time!  

We picked-up Al, grabbed some dinner, and then headed to the Convention Center to get his race packet, check out all the goodies, and then hit The Boardwalk.  There we enjoyed a ride on the Ferris Wheel- something we have always wanted to do- and it was worth it!

Everyone slept great that night!

Both kids LOVED boogie boarding and got rather good at it!

The Convention Center!

Boardwalk Fun!

Saturday morning, we packed up at our hotel and headed back to the beach and to our next hotel.  We would be staying in this hotel with our good friends the Ws!

Our room was the tippy top left!

What a view!

 We were so excited when the W's joined us!

The men enjoyed some boogie boarding- it was all to prepare them for their Big Run in the morning...

The men left at 5.45am, and Karen and I, together with the kiddos, met them at the 1 mile marker, which was only a few blocks walk from the hotel.

Cutest cheering section ever!

High Fives and moving on

We walked back to the hotel, ate a yummy breakfast, and then hauled it from 33rd St to 13th street to see them run across the finish line!

Stopping to see Ariel's Dad

Addie LOVED the huge hermit crab

Al!!  He finished with an official time of 1.55.35

SO proud of them!

Cooling off with a dip in the ocean

Proud of her Daddy

SO proud!

We promised the kids we could enjoy one other special treat- Kohr Brothers!  We did just that on our way home- yum!

Alden also added to our family, Moonshine, his hermit crab.  He had been working very hard to show us he was big and mature enough to handle the responsibility.  Moonshine is one feisty hermit crab, and thankfully he seems to get along with Sunshine just fine- they did come from the same store....

This was a really spectacular way to end our summer!  We just may need to make this some sort of tradition....

Meeting Teachers

Thursday the kids got to meet their teachers!  We have known since the last day of school who they would get- and have been super excited all summer about this!  I have been praying for these ladies all summer- they will be such an influence in my kids' lives!  I really feel blessed to have such wonderful and caring ladies helping guide Adeline and Alden!  It's going to be a great year- one that stretches us all, but will have a good outcome.

Alden got Mrs. Mountcasel.  She is simply wonderful!  I really think she will be good for Alden.  The theme in her room is baseball- how much more perfect can that be for my baseball-loving boy?!  She also has lots of experience of working with reluctant readers- that's Alden again!  He is excited to be in her class- and we are excited for this journey we will all take together!

Adeline has Mrs. Blevins this year!  The Perreca and Blevins' families will be incredibly close this year.  Mr. Blevins teachers across the hall from me (Lisa) and I have their middle daughter in my math class!  Good thing we think highly of each other!  Adeline was excited to see a few friends in her class- her main bff, who she has been class with since Goddard, is not in her class.  While she was sad about this, it has been an excellent life-lesson- which is one of the key reasons why we send our kids to school.  Already Adeline is busy working on The Scorpion Challenge (90 questions that must be researched and then recorded in a notebook), and her poster about herself.  I love that she is already motivated to work so hard and the school year hasn't even started yet!

Teacher Work Week

Teacher Work Week- I try to make it fun for the kids!  This year was no exception!  They were excited to go back to Goddard- they missed their friends.  And there were lots of fun things for them to do once we got home, too!

Our pool throws a Back to School Party for the kids- and Monday night was K-2nd!  Our friends Gray and Aubrey joined us for dinner and so did The Boys!  After dinner, we all headed to the pool where we swam, at free snow cones, played some games and ended the evening with Candy Bingo!  How awesome!

It isn't terribly exciting- but the kids are really into games- and we tried to end many evenings playing one of their choosing.  This pic just cracks me up!

Tuesday we picked up our friends Gray and Aubrey so their mom could work in her classroom.  We hit up the local McD's- they have $1.69 Happy Meals on Tuesdays!!  So for super cheap I could earn some mega Cool Mom points- done!

What do you do when it rains and you wanted to play at the pool?  You puddle jump all the way home!  Please forgive that these pics are fuzzy- the kids did not stop jumping!!

We had fun getting back into the groove of the whole school routine!