First Day of First Grade

Rise and Shine!
MariCagle definitely rose and shone this morning. Oh, the look on her face when she realized today was the day. After Open House yesterday, she couldn't contain herself. "What if I can't wait until tomorrow, Mommy?" I only hope she'll get out of bed so quickly the remainder of the year.

She was up and dressed in her adorable uniform before I could get breakfast ready. We had a special first day of school breakfast. Special in that I actually cooked breakfast compared to the usual cereal and yogurt or instant oatmeal. I told her not to get used to this, and she quickly noted that she was already used to it.

Ready to go. She was all set to go 15 minutes early! Again, I hope that this enthusiasm lasts. This is her 'dress' uniform for days when they have prayer services and mass. But given MariCagle's affinity for dresses, I think she'll be wearing the jumper ensemble most days.

This is outside her building. Nate was feeling a little neglected and needed to get in on the pictures. I think he's going to miss having his sister around to play with, especially these early weeks when he doesn't have school himself yet.

At the classroom door...can you see what I mean? That boy loves his sister so much. MariCagle is excited about her new teacher and new classroom, especially after getting to meet and see them yesterday at Open House. There are several of her friends from last year in her class. That coupled with the fact that the teacher's assistant in her class is a mom of a friend from last year who went on all the field trips with them, and you can see why she felt right at home.

She walked right in and took her seat. This marks the first year she hasn't cried at drop-off the first week or two of school. She just waved goodbye, eager to start the day.

The Natester doesn't start school until after Labor Day, so he settled with 'working' on the computer when we got home. He loves the Playhouse Disney website.

So we're off and running on a new school year. I have to tell you that it is a day of mixed emotions for me. On the one hand, I'm very excited for MariCagle as she starts a new year. It really is such an exciting time for her, and we've tried to celebrate it for her. But there is such an uneasiness in the separation on the first day as I realize just how quickly she's growing up. And despite the fact that in my mind I know she's in great hands, I just can't help but worry about her out there without me! If I can make it to pick-up this afternoon, I'll be golden. In the meantime, my thoughts are all over the place! Happy first day of school!

'Sleeping' Babies

Call it imagination or a fantastic stall tactic, whatever it was, it was running rampant in Nate last night. I wish I had video of him sharing these 'stories' with me as he called me into his bedroom after bedtime every 2 minutes. With each visit, there was something new outside his window...two jolly roger flags, 'I think it's the Pirates of the Carribean - but only the good guys;' pixie dust...'hmm, I think it might be Tinkerbell and the Sleeping Beauty good fairies and Peter Pan too;' Larry and Bob (Veggietales)...'bringing me all the things I like for breakfast, cookies and cookie crisp that you eat with milk;' and I could go on and on. I was very frustrated with each call back to his room, but with each tale I found it impossible not to laugh. Then to add to the humor of the night as I went to check on him before checking in myself, this is what I found...
He was stuffed inside his pillow case. When I asked him why this morning, he had a perfectly reasonable answer...'It felt like a sleeping bag.'

I never know what I'm going to find when I go in there to check on him. This is from the other night...
I didn't have to ask him about this one. I knew right away he was trying to be like his Daddy, sleeping without his shirt on. Speaking of Brandon, everyone please keep him in your prayers. He's working crazy hours (even crazier than usual) trying to get this dissertation ready for his first conference in October. He's been up all hours for over 7 weeks now. Things are going well, but it's pretty intense. Thanks!

And lastly, I just had a then and now of my baby who starts first grade this week! Please indulge me...she has grown so much. It's overwhelming.

At two years old, not too long after our move here.

The other night, just because I am feeling pretty nostalgic this week. Sorry for the blurriness.

July Swim Lessons

Here we are in August and I've finally got a July post for you...
We actually spent most of July at home. We visited the library for books and movies, had a couple playdates, took swimming lessons and just played at home. The kids favorite games these days are Barbies/pirates (they seemed to have melded the two likes into one game), coloring and 'practicing' for school (MC has been working on addition and subtraction and Nate has been working on his letters and shapes.), nerf shooting, and the timeless classic, 'house.' The two of them have endless imaginations so I can hardly keep up.

I mentioned we took swimming lessons in July and they both made tremendous progress. You can tell just how much based on these before and after video clips.

This is day one for MariCagle. She picked up the crawl stroke quickly but she was having trouble getting the timing right on the breathing.


This is MariCagle at the end of her two weeks of lessons. She's got the timing down and does the crawl with the best of them. She also began learning the back stroke. But her favorite thing she learned was to go down to the bottom of the pool to retrieve toys. Check it out...






Nate started lessons with no desire to put his face in the water at all; he was even hesitant to blow bubbles with just his mouth in the water. You can see from this first day footage that he is quite the charmer talking incessantly with his teachers and wrapping those arms around their neck. But by the end of the week he had become quite comfortable in the water. He was highly motivated thanks to the strong desire to complete his previously mentioned collection of KungFu Panda figurines. Brandon found the much coveted Po (the Panda himself) as well as the bad guy, Tai Lung, on ebay and ordered them for the kids. We told Nate he could have them as long as he listened to his teachers and tried all of the things they asked him to try. I couldn't believe how it worked. He was willing to do anything they asked and as a result overcame his fear of the water. See for yourself...


I think he made the biggest improvements. He just loves swimming now, just like his big sister. Now my biggest worry is his lack of fear in the water! I guess a mother is never satisfied! :)

They both got ribbons for completing the lessons. They were very proud swimmers!

Coming up....the start of First Grade and Pre-K and MariCagle's 6th birthday!!

June

I've fallen behind again. Several different excuses but I'll spare you and just skip to some summer fun in the month of June. I don't want to overload you, so I'll save July for another post.

We had a busy June spending a large majority of it visiting family. MariCagle and Nate spent a whole 6 sleeps at Grammy and Poppop's without the parental units. They each have attempted this before, but backed out when it was time for us to pull out of the driveway. However, this time no tears were shed at all. (It nearly broke their mama's heart, but it's a good thing I guess.) They spent their week doing all sorts of fun things including swimming at Uncle DJay and Aunt Terri's pool, McDonald's every day for lunch, Chuckie Cheese, going to the movies, playing in the sprinkler and just playing and spending time with Grammy and Poppop. I have to make special note of their trips to McDonald's. As tasty as Mickey D's food is, that was not the draw to the restaurant. During the month of June they featured Kung Fu Panda toys in their happy meals and my kids quickly became obsessed with collecting all the different toys. (This came to be a huge advantage come time for swimming lessons, more on that in my July post). Bottom line...they were spoiled rotten which I guess doesn't make that week any different than any other, but they certainly had a good time. Grammy and Poppop have pictures but I failed to get them from them at our last visit, so you'll have to take my word for all of it. :)

And as if that wasn't enough fun...towards the end of the month we spent about a week and a half going between both sides of the family's homes. We got to spend some quality time with grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles which is always very special. Picturewise, I have some awesome shots of both MariCagle and Nate tubing at Nana and Pa's house. This is was their first tubing excursion and they just love spending time with Nana and Pa on the lake. I have to say these times are especially sentimental for me since we spent a great deal of my childhood on that lake. Lots of memories then and now...check out the tubesters...

First mate Nate. Riding on Pa's boat feeds right into his current pirate fetish.

Cindy went with MariCagle the first time out. A little into the ride MC very sweetly asked what would happen if Cindy just let go and if Cindy thought her mom might let her do it all by herself. And so off she went...

Nate too had some company his first ride. Thanks Aunt Jodie. Aunt Jodie taught him a little lingo too...Cowabunga Dude. But he was also off on his own before we knew it. He was quite the daredevil for a kid who , at the time, couldn't stand the thought of putting his face in the water. When he wasn't going over bumps he tried to make them on his own bouncing up and down.

The kids also enjoyed the slip-and-slide while at Nana and Pa's. It took some warming up to, particularly on Nate's part. Again, he wasn't too fond of water in his face, but quickly got over it and enjoyed dancing up and down the slip-and-slide. Nate also took the name of the water fun literally, he would slide down and on his way back up, would purposely 'slip,' hence the name 'slip-and-slide.' :) MariCagle is always quite the princess, and that didn't change on slip-and-slide. After one slide into the grass and dirt at the end, she was very careful to stop herself short each turn so as to avoid getting dirty.

Notice she has already started slowing herself down at this point. :)

Eeeeww!! Dirt and grass!

Nate was still warming up to the idea at this point. Notice he's over to his right trying to avoid the sprinklers on the left side. You'll be amazed at the progress come July during swim lessons!! I know I am.

And there's still more for June!! Can you believe it?!?! We were lucky enough to celebrate five very special birthdays. Three whose actual birthdays are in June...Happy Birthday Pa, Quinn and Ward!! And a couple that were early celebrations for July...Happy Birthday Cindy and Ryan!!. Everyone loves birthday parties and Nate and MariCagle are no exception. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you guys!

Stay tuned for more of our summer fun! Hugs and kisses to you all!

Some progress?

Here is a clip of Nate on his guitar from a couple of weeks ago. Progress? Maybe...

Disney's Animal Kingdom

We love living in Florida!! We spent the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom with the Tyre clan. It was our first time to the park and we had a great time. Ofcourse, our fun day was largely due to the company, but the park was great too. The kids really enjoyed the animals (including elephants, giraffes, hippos, gorillas, rhinos, turtles, birds, a porcupine, to name a few of the highlights), the parade, the carnival games, the 'safari,' meeting Disney characters and the list just goes on and on. It was a hot day but no one (well maybe Brandon but only to convince us we needed ice cream treats) complained about the heat - there was just too much excitement. Here are a few snapshots from our day. Hope you like them.

We were very excited to start the day! And it was definitely a wild time.


They are a good looking bunch, but you can see right away why it was a wild time!

The kids were very excited to meet all the characters. It was surprisingly easy getting them to pose each time. As you can see, we met Mickey and Goofy, but we also got to take pictures with Rafiki, Pocahontas, Jimminy Cricket and Koda from Brother Bear.

There was a fun play area with dinosaur fossils, slides, waterfalls, footprints, and climbing nets that the kids enjoyed. I think they just loved being able to run around without waiting in line!

At Rafiki's Planet Watch, they had several 'animal encounters' where the kids got to see some of the animals up close and learn about their habitats and other characteristics. (The adults especially appreciated that the 'Conservation Station' was air conditioned.) Here you can see MariCagle petting a Gopher Sea Turtle. It was so much fun seeing how curious they were about the animals and how much they actually paid attention and learned. MariCagle was quick to correct me when I mistook the tortoise for a turtle. She and Ward also loved looking for birds and matching them to the bird watching guide. We just had a great time! Thanks Tyres!

Before I wrap it up, I wanted to list a few things I learned today that I thought were interesting and a little surprising, at least to me....

• Hippopotamuses are nocturnal!
• Tortoises (and turtles too, I assume) can feel it when you touch their shell. The shell actually grows out of their spine and has nerves in it.

So now I can call this blog educational too huh?!? :) Hope everyone has a great week!

P.S. In case you were wondering what we did with our newest member of the family while we were gone all day...Albert had a babysitter. A boy who lives here in the apartment complex checked in on our pup throughout the day. It was a little amusing (to me at least) how worried Brandon was about leaving his baby. But Albert is no worse off for the day and we did have a fabulous time!

MariCagle's Violin Recital

Just over a week ago, MariCagle had her end of the year violin recital at her teacher, Mrs. Cohen's house. She performed two pieces. The first was a special number that she performed with her friend whose practice time is just before hers. Their practices often overlap a little and they get to play together some each week. Mrs. Cohen helped them to come up with a little scheme where they each pretended to have a broken arm, and played one violin together. One held the violin and fingered the strings while the other worked the bow. Everyone got quite a kick out of it especially with their miraculous recoveries to play each of their solo pieces. MariCagle's solo piece was 'Perpetual Motion.' It's a pretty long piece for her, but she still managed to play it from memory. I was especially proud of her handling her mess up at the end. She hung in their until she and Mrs. Cohen were able to get on the same page and then finished the piece gracefully. She truly did great, but you can judge for yourself! Enjoy!

MariCagle and her friend playing 'Aunt Rhody'

MariCagle performing Perpetual Motion