My family

My family

Monday, August 23, 2010

Kindergarten....we have arrived!

Today is the day.  Dan and I just got back from taking our sweet Isabella to her first day of kindergarten.  I can't even explain how hard it was for me to walk out of that classroom or how it's taking everything in my being to keep me from running up there to "check on her"!  I know, I know....she's fine and she certainly proved that today!  She woke up and was so excited she was talking in her squeaky high pitched voice all while getting ready!  She enjoyed blueberry muffins, banana and Orange juice for breakfast.  I had everything laid out the night before and only had to make her sandwich and pack it and a note in her lunchbox!  My dad packed our lunches most of the time while we were growing up b/c my mom was always getting ready for school like we were.  All the way from kindergarten to my senior year of high school I got notes in my lunches. When my dad traveled out of town, my mom would make sure we had them!  I thought I would continue that tradition....it made me smile remembering my dad when I packed her first one today. 

                                           Here she is with her brothers!




                                    She loves her new backpack with attached lunchbox!


We parked at the park next to the school and walked over together.
                             These boys are already missing their sister!


                         She was so distracted looking at all the other kids walking in! (And, yes, that temp is right....it was 82 degrees before 8 am today!)  So after we took some more pictures, we headed in the door.  I was doing pretty good at this point and thought this is going to be a breeze!  We saw her computer teacher and her principal and she was excited that she remembered them!  We walk into the room and she says LOUDLY, "Good morning, Mrs. XXXXX!!"   Girl could've cared less that everyone in the room looked startled because they were all so quiet. :-)  Her teacher hugged her and she sat down and started making friends. 

                  
So then came the moment I had been thinking might not be so hard, but alas, I was WRONG...leaving was tough.  I hugged her goodbye and told her to be kind and have fun (Mom, you'll be proud of me...not one tear in front of her :-)  But as I turned to walk away I had to pull the sunglasses down and walked all the way thru the building wearing them.  I was proud I waited until I got home until the "ugly cry" began...so at least no one had to see me this way! :-)   Now, I'm pulling myself together...going to play with my 2 sweet boys I have with me for another 2 years (thank God) and go work in my Mother's Day Out classroom. Life is changing.....guess we'll keep changing with it!

                                        Then there were two......

Last Days of Summer Fun!

We've tried to make the most of our last few days before kindergarten starts! Yesterday they had a snocone social at Bella's school for incoming kindergarten students!  So we went and had a great time even though it was 850 million degrees outside!! :-)

                                                                Getting our snow cones!

Bella quickly became friends with 2 other girls and took off playing with them!  She is so social and friendly!

Our church started having Saturday night service this week so we went to church last night and then today decided to go to the rec center!  Our gym has an amazing outdoor waterpark-type area that our kids love!  Since it's sooo hot here in the summer this is where we've lived the entire time we've been here...seriously we are here probably every other day, if not every day!!  They love it!

                        It's basically a huge playground in 11 inches of water with slides on both ends!!



                  Here they are climbing up to the top of the tower where the water guns are located!


                              Bella headed down the slide!!
     
                           This one isn't great, but I caught Will airborne and thought it was funny!!   
                  
We had a lot of fun together playing here and swimming in the "big pool" and floating in the lazy river (or "lazy liver" as Will calls it)!!  We have had a great relaxing summer which we needed after such a stressful, difficult year last year!  Looking forward to what God has in store for us this year!!

We also had a visit from sweet friends right before we went to bed!  They came by to drop off a "back to school" surprise for Bella...stuff to "play school" with when she gets home AND silly bands!!  Will and Carter also got cool art stuff to do while Bella is at school and boy silly bands!  Thanks McKinzie fam....you made their night!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Nashville Vacation Fun - Part 2!

So the fun continued when we got to go to Chuck E Cheese with Nana!

                                                Will loves riding rides!!


They spent an unbelievable numbers of tokens shooting gigantic bugs that were after the humans on this game!



                                     Climbed in the play area


and FINALLY decided they were brave enough to stand by the extremely scary (according to them) animatronic characters!!

               Bella, Carter and Will and their Nana!



We loved all the time with our sweet cousin Blake and aunts!!

                       Carter and Kiki


                    Late night movie for Bella and Blake



                      Jessies and Bella


                                    Will and Blake

We got to celebrate my mom's birthday with her which was so special!   We went to Cracker barrel for her breakfast with Mimi, Zia and Blake!



Lolli liked her presents and we all ate too much!  Yum...I love me some Cracker Barrel!
                           Carter and Lolli

Then we got to see Grandmother Wharton (my dad's mom) when she came by my mom's house later that morning!

Then we had a fabulous Girl's Night Out at Maggianno's with all my sisters, cousin and Terri and Ashley!  We ate delicious fried zucchini strips, spinach artichoke dip, 2 different salads, 4 Cheese ravioli w/ vodka sauce, Fettucini Alfredo, Chicken Francese, Beef Brucciole, Chocolate Cake and Cheesecake....to say we were stuffed would be a HUGE understatement!  It was so good and I loved getting to see my mom happy and enjoying herself!

                       Part of our group at the table!



                                 Me and two of my sisters, Jessie and Nadine


                           Mom and all 7 of us girls!


                                   Our whole group!!  (Margaret - we missed you!! :-)


                                           Birthday girl!

Happy birthday, Mom!  Having you as my mother is one of the greatest gifts God could've ever blessed me with!  You are an amazing, strong and beautiful lady and I love you so much!!  I'm thankful you are one of my best friends and miss you every day we are apart!


There are so many things I don't have pictures of....but all in all....it was a GREAT trip!!  But we were so ready to get home to daddy!!  He missed us while we were gone! :-)

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Nash-vegas or Bust!!

I realized I haven't blogged about our trips this year so I am going to try to get that done before things with school and church get too busy!  We moved back to TX the thrid week of May and by June I was VERY homesick!  So, after spending many days figuring out how the kids and I could get back without having a vehicle to drive, we finally headed back in two groups.  Bella actually went a week earlier with a close friend and spent a week with my mom and sisters.  Then the boys and I headed down with another close friend.  (Thank God for wonderful friends! )  We had such a great visit!  Since we were there for 2 full weeks (Bella for 3 weeks) we got to spend time with so many of our family members and it was REAL quality time.....not that "hey we're here for 3 days and gone" stuff!

Our first excitement was getting to celebrate 4th of July with our Wharton family at Mimi's!  Fireworks and yummy desserts!
                                      Cousins!!  (minus Grant)


Bella and her cousin Ryan!  Born 6 weeks apart...He called her "Boola"  and she called him "Rylie" when they were little!


Then we got to see where Zia and Uncle Adam are building their new house!
                                     Bella hanging out in what will be Zia's foyer...maybe??


                                 Uncle Adam and all the boys down by their pond

                                   Lolli and her Will


 While we were there Zia and i took all the boys to the Discovery Center!

Carter, Will and Blake in front of the Wetlands

Getting creative in the Art Room

Our Construction Workers!

Climbing the treehouse

                     And singing karaoke!!


Extra bonus...I got to be with my sweet nephew, Blake so much!!


Later that week, we got to go play legos at Nana and PaPaw's house!

 One of our favorite things to do!

And Nana took us to see Toy Story 3!  (Papaw couldn't come because he was getting the air conditioner fixed so we would all sleep good that night!)

At the theater!  (Bella looks a bit  drunk on popcorn butter! :-)


We also loved doing puppet shows at Nana's!
(Sorry it's a little dark!)

We got to go to Chick- Fil A and see Mrs. Linda who inspired Bella's dream of being a Chick-Fil-A helper when she grows up!!
Braden, Blake, Will, Carter, Bella and Mrs. Linda!

As an added bonus, when we got to Chick-Fil-A we got to see two awesome ladies I taught with at TGBC last year, Kelley and Dorothy AND we got to see sweet Kennedy who was in my class last year and her mom, Michelle, who became a great friend of mine!  We miss them all!

One of our highlights of the trip was getting to take swim lessons with Mrs. Terri at her new house!  Terri is one of my mom's best friends and our families have "lived life" together for years and years!  She used to teach swim lessons in the summer but quit a few years ago.  She wanted to make sure she got to teach all our sweet kids though!  The kids did GREAT!!  After only 3 or 4 days they were jumping in the deep end and treading water and swimming across the pool and we haven't looked back.  We left all our floaties there for the younger kids to use and the kids have improved every week since then.  Now they are diving for things at the bottom of the pool!

Carter swimming to Zia!

Terri working with Will

You are amazing, Terri!  We love you and miss you!


We did so much I'll have to break this into 2 posts and finish later!! :-)



Meet the Teacher Night!

I was really nervous about this night!  I have been praying and praying that Bella would have a teacher that is "just right" for her!  And I was really nervous about meeting whoever this person is!  Because I have so many family members/close family friends who are teachers I've heard all the stories...you know about the crazy parents, the annoying parents, the "helicopter" parents...I just wanted to NOT be one of those stories at the end of her night! :-)    So, we left the boys with Kennedy so we could just be with Bella and headed up to the school with all our supples!  Bella's teacher is so sweet!  Mrs. Thomas is her name and she was so kind to Bella!  My heart was so happy!  Maybe Monday morning won't be as emotional for me as I thought?? 


                                                              Bella and Mrs. Thomas

                                                 Bella checking out centers in her new class!

(Note her "Twinkle Toes" shoes!  A friend passed them down to us b/c her daughter outgrew them so fast.  The day she gave them to her she looked at me and said "My heart is so happy!  I've been wishing and wishing for these shoes and now my wish came true!"  apparently, she is paying attention to the commercials more than I thought! :-) She has been wearing them to bed she loves them so much!!)

                                                     View of her classroom facing the board


....so we are ready for Monday! 
 

On another note, I found these tshirts on Target's clearance rack....love them!
                                          These boys wearing them are super cute too!!  :-)

                                                                   Sweet brothers!