::Portie's first day of preschool::

This year, Porter is in big preschool. He goes 3 days a week! He was so excited to go! He knew what he wanted to wear, and he was SOO excited to take his new Buzz backpack!

This year there was NO hesitation! He just walked right in! He didn't even care that he let the door shut on me and that I wasn't with him!

So he got in there and just sat right down and started playing with some blocks. Then his teacher asked them to all go sit on their names. Port found his right away and sat down. I had to call his name a few times to tell him bye.

I gave him a kiss and told him bye. He just said "bye, Mom!" and didn't even care that I was leaving. It was a little weird. I felt like he should grab onto my leg or follow me out of the room or something! But that's good. He's more comfortable and excited about school this year. Hopefully it'll last all year!

He said he had a great day! They sang some songs, did the pledge, and he got a calendar, and it says he's snack friend on the 27th, so we're SO excited about that! He also said that all the girls just played with dolls the whole time. Ugh, girls!

::labor day::

There are only a handful of times during the year when I wish we ha a trailer...and Labor Day is one of them. We thought it'd be fun to go camping over Labor day weekend with Jared and Sarah. We originally planned on renting a little trailer, but the cost was outrageous for the short time we needed it, so we decided not to go at all. Then we were sad that we might be staying home Labor Day weekend, so we changed our minds an decided at the last minute to tough it out in a tent.

We had lots of campfires...

We pushed our trucks and tractors around the campsite, moved some pinecones around, dumped some dirt, went exploring, gathered lots of big sticks to poke the fire, jumped on some fallen trees...

Matt and J did most of the cooking. There's something about camping that makes men want to cook...

We went on a pretty long 4 wheeler ride. There were TONS of trails up there! Matt and J, of course, wanted to do the ones that were "extreme" and "most difficult." They were pretty fun. We had 3 on one 4 wheeler and 4 on another...it was a little crowded, and all of the kids fell asleep at different times during the ride.

We hung around the campsite a lot too. We ate, talked, poked at the fire, finger painted, played a game-yeah, just one, because of the fingerpainting mess. It was EVERYWHERE!

The kids LOVED it! They loved not having to shower, not having to fix their hair, not worrying about what to wear (Coop wore his PJ shirt all day one day). Chloe was kind of hot and cold about it. She'd have one little inconvenience, and start screaming about how this was the worst camping trip EVER, but the next minute she'd be running around and talking about how she wanted to stay all week-that's a girl for ya!! Port and Coop really loved the dirt, the runnin' around, and the John Deere boots, the hot dogs, and just everything about the whole experience. Port was sad when it was time to go home.

The whole experience for me was pretty ok. I didn't hate it as a lot of people (including me) expected. I've been camping a few times before. I couldn't keep my dad or our camping memories out of my head all weekend. We (my dad, my brother, and I) camped a lot when we were little. We camped in a tent (a little green one) on Lake Texoma on some pretty nice campgrounds. I remember bathrooms, and a water spicket at our campsite. We swam, cooked (I remember an old Coleman, green, fold-up stove, had a fire, and all that good stuff. We used to go up to my Grampa's cabin up North in Michigan a lot during the summer too. The cabin sort of had running water, it was a bathroom, and some water outside you had to pump to get it. We always went with our cousins, and it was SOO fun! We'd have so much fun just running around in the woods and walking up and down the sandy road. I saw a lot of that in my kids over the weekend. I went to girls camp every year of my teenage years, but we camped in air-conditioned cabins and had bathrooms and showers. I'm just not the roughin' it type. My kind of camping is an airconditioned cabin, or a big ol' trailer :) I did it, and it was kinda fun, and I'm glad I don't have to do it again for a long time :)

::puttin' up corn::

On Friday, we put up some corn with Matt's mom and Aunt Deanne. This is something Matt's family has done for YEARS, and is relatively new to me. So here's how it goes...

First, you shuck it...

Then, wash it...

Cook it...

Blanch it...

Then, you cut it...

You bag it...

...And you freeze it and you can have fresh corn any time you want it! We started with about 13 dozen ears of corn, we got about 70 bags out of it. We took home 25 bags ourselves. It's a bit like a chipmunk storing nuts for winter :), and it's going to be so nice to have fresh corn in December.

::Chloe's first day::

Chloe's first day of FIRST GRADE!!

(yesterday)

She was SO excited! She couldn't even sleep the night before. I went down to check on her and she was laying there wide awake. So I just sat on her floor next to her bed, and we just talked for a while. The next morning, she was ready to go! She came in the kitchen about 7:15 (I didn't even have to go wake her up). She had her outfit all picked out, and she knew exactly what she wanted in her lunch. She was just SO excited!

When we got to the school, she started to get nervous "Mom, I feel nervous in my tummy!" She got quieter and quieter the further into the school we got, and she kind of peeked around the corner into her classroom. She came in, sat down, and didn't say much. She didn't look around much either. I knew how she felt...kind of playing it cool, 'til she gets to know everybody :)

(at her desk -Cooper's head in the foreground)

After a few pictures and talking to her teacher for a minute, we left. It took a little more to get Porter out of there. He wanted to stay with her, and I had to call for him a few times for him to come with us.

So there she was...for the whole day!! I can't even believe she's in first grade, and at school all day! I missed her. I kept looking at the clock all day hoping it was almost 3:30. I was so anxious to talk to her and see how her day was going, how the kids are, how she likes her teacher, how lunch was, and all that. I told Matt I kinda wished she had a cell phone, I would just text her! He told me not to get any ideas.

Then, FINALLY, she was home! I said hi and gave her a big hug and told her I missed her, and she says "well of course you did." The little boys were glad to see her too! Bubb said "kiiisss!!" And she told me ALL about her day! She said "school was SO fun" and told me all about everything. Her teacher is really loud and funny, she's the only one in her class with a princess backpack, only 5 kids in her class brought their lunch from home, she sat next to 2 boys at lunch, she heard stories about bad kids her teacher taught last year, she learned all the rules of the classroom, AND she didn't have any homework that day!!

...and this morning, she was just as excited to go again.

::mom's mmmsrrrpryssth birthday::

Mom's birthday was Friday.

We celebrated with her at Cheesecake (mmmmmmm!!).

Papa surprised her with an iPad.

She was WAY excited!

Happy birthday, Mom!!

We love you so much!!

::back to school::

School starts tomorrow!!! So today we tried on our backpacks, walked around with our lunchboxes, picked out and tried on our clothes for the first day, looked at our school supplies, squealed a lot 'cause we're SO excited...

...and we had our 2nd annual back to school dinner, and it was so great!

chicken fettuccine alfredo

steamed veggies

french bread

Kool-Aid

homemade brownies

Yum!

Me: "What's first grade going to be like?"

Chloe: "I think it'll be a little harder than kindergarten. The homework will DEFINITELY be harder!"

Me: "What do you think you'll do in big preschool?"

Port: "I know we'll have snack!!!!"


Should be a fun year

:)

::writer's block::

I guess it's been a while! All I can say about that is that life's been a little boring around here, and I haven't been able to come up with anything fun to do or write about. We're on our last couple of weeks of summer, and we've just been kind of hangin' out! We've played outside, played in the water, played with friends, and just done a lot of nothing!

I wish I had blogged a little in the last couple of weeks, but all the posts really would've said is "Today we played outside. Again." And I just haven't felt too creative. I kind of had a writer's block of sorts. Anyway, hopefully I can get past that and get back in the swing or else I might not ever again!

We had the most boring Saturday in history yesterday. We were all ready to get out of the house and do something fun. So we got some dinner (McD's for the littles, Subway for the bigs) and took it to the park.

Our new favorite thing to do at the park is play hot and cold. This time, it was with a Matt's Sobe bottle. The kids love that game, and don't seem to ever get tired of it. Portie usually peeks, and sometimes doesn't tell you correctly if you're hot or cold :)

After the park, Matt was in the mood for a drive in the mountains. The kids (well, Chloe), hated it and thought it was more boring than being at home, and a BIG OL' grasshopper flew in our car!

::fishes::

We finished up a couple of sessions of swimming lessons yesterday...

The first session, the kids got to go with some friends...

(Cooper-20 mos., Porter-4, Chloe-6 1/2, Laney-6 1/2, Dillon-3)

Port got off to a rough start in the first session. He didn't want any part of getting his face wet, so we put him in a private lesson. Turns out, all he really needed was some goggles! After we discovered that, he did awesome!

Chloe LOVES the water! She was always the first one in and the last one out of the pool.

She did a great job, too!

What would summer be without swimming lessons? They got to swim every day for a few weeks, learned a lot, and had FUN!

Bubby, on the other hand didn't love swimming lessons. He wanted to get in too (and he did during Port's private lesson). We spent a lot of time eating snacks, crying, running away, trying to get in the pool, throwing toys in the pool, trying to run out into the parking lot, and REALLY wishing we could swim too!

He and I aren't too sad it's over :)

Now, if we only had our OWN pool........