Apple Orchard Field Trip

On Tuesday, Leah had her first field trip in kindergarten. They went to the apple orchard. I was able to go as a chaperon. Leah was excited that I was there and I was also excited to go. I was able to meet the kids in her class and watch her have fun at the apple orchard. She was sure to point out "handsome boy" so that I could see who she had been talking about. Ever since the first week of school Leah has had her eyes on a boy whom she first referred to as handsome boy since she didn't know his name. She now knows his name, but we still all refer to him as handsome boy!

The field trip consisted of a look into history about how they used to sort and process apples and a tour of the current plant. We also had a slide show on how the orchard is run and what all needs to be done on the orchard. We got to have some apple cider and pick a bag of apples right off the tree. I think everyone had a good time and luckily it didn't rain.

Our leader showing us the apple trees and how to pick the apples.

Leah's filling her bag with apples.

Leah's class with her teacher.

Leah eating her apple. Maddie is the girl standing next to her. This is one of her best friends at school and the girl that she knew from dance last year. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of "handsome boy". In the class picture a girl is standing in front of him so you can't see his face. Sorry!

Gymnastics

Leah and Alissa are both enjoying a gymnastic class at the YMCA. Leah's class is on Tuesday evenings and is 45 minutes long. They do a little bit of everything in the class. It's certianly not up scale training, but she gets a little taste of everything. The first day of class, she like the beam best. They didn't do the beam on this past Tuesday and they did the spring board instead. Leah loves gymnastics right now. I am not sure if we will stick with gymnastics after the 8 week program is finished or if we will go back to dance. I am leaving it up to her, but we will not do both even though that's what she wants right now.

















Alissa’s gymnastic class is a half hour and it’s a mommy and me class. The half hour flies by and Alissa really loves it. It’s good for both of us to get time, just the two of us. She spends most of the time running around and laughing. I spend most of my time chasing her. She has really been enjoying a tube that she crawls through and the mat that she does summersaults on. She loves just about any of the swashy mats and will just fall and crawl on them. It's very cute and these pictures don't do the experience justice.

My Big Boy

Caleb had is official first day of preschool today. He was excited to go and was a little unsure. However, he wasn't upset when I left him. When I picked him up he talked non-stop, nothing like Leah. I ususally have to try and pull anything out of Leah when she comes home, but Caleb was ready to tell me anything he could remember. When I first asked him what he did all day, he told me that he waited for me! He also came home with a ton of energy. Either he was still excited about school or he had a bunch of bottled up energy from having to sit and listen to the teacher, not sure which!

Here are some pictures from his first day. He doesn't exactly look very happy about his first day of school, but he really was excited!

As promise, I also have couple pictures from Caleb's first soccer practice which was last Saturday. He had a pretty good time. He was excited to go, but after about 15 minutes he had enough, luckily the whole thing only lasts 30 minutes. He was pretty good at kicking the ball and doing the different things the instructor asked. His only problem is that he gets bored.

Growing up Fast

Things are being to fall into place and we are starting to make our craziness into a routine. This Tuesday Caleb had his meet the teacher and registration for preschool. He thought that it was fun. The had doughnuts there and that's the main thing that he talked about when people asked him what he did. Next Tuesday Caleb will have his first day of school without Mom. I think he is excited to start school so he doesn't feel so left out of things. Look for a post next week with the details and pictures of his first day in preschool!

My bud is getting so big!

This week has also been the start to several other activities to make sure that our lives stay very busy! Leah started gymnastics on Tuesday evening. It is a 8 week program through the YMCA. She loved the first time and there was only 3 kids in her class. This gave the teacher a lot of time to work with each kid. It's not the highest quality instruction, but she is having a good time trying new things. She said her favorite part was the balance beam. Silly mom forgot to take her camera. I'll post some pictures later.

This morning Alissa and I started a Mommy and Me tumbling class at the Y. Alissa loved it. I wasn't sure that I wanted to add that to our schedule, but after watching her have so much fun I decided it's worth it. It's nice because her and I get some one on one time too. Again, mom didn't take her camera. Alissa loved the mats. She was jumping around on them and thought it was so funny. She also loved a tube that she could crawl through.

Don't worry, Caleb isn't left out of the classes at the Y. Can you tell that our family just joined? Caleb with start soccer this Saturday. Right now he is pretty jealous that he can't do gymnastics, but I think he'll feel better after soccer starts. I am going to try really hard to remember my camera on Saturday!

The First Bus Ride

Today was Leah's first day of school by herself and on the bus. I was very anxious about this day and yes, I did cry! Leah on the other hand was very excited and ready to see what the bus was all about. She was also excited to go to school again. She got right on the bus without any problem. The hardest part for me was when she got on and looked at the bus driver about where she should sit. I just wanted to go on there and make sure she got a good seat. She did fine though and I know that she has to figure these things out without mom.

I, of course, worried about her the whole time she was gone. When it was finally nearing her arrival time home, I had to wake up Caleb. I had promised Caleb that he could wait out there with me. This waking up business is a one time deal. I was hoping Alissa would sleep through it, but she woke up for the occasion on her own. I knew that the bus would be running behind today, but still wanted to be out there a bit early just in case. Well, we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Leah was probably fifteen minutes later than they told me that she would be.

Leah got off the bus very excited. She gave me a hug and wanted to show me what was in her backpack. She had a coloring page and a hand print page. She also had a little note from her teacher that said Leah had a good first day of kindergarten. She said that she had fun and when I asked her what part she liked the best, she told me coloring. The first thing she went to do after she walked in the house was to go and see her cats out on the deck. I asked her later if she missed me and she told me no. I told her that was ok because that just meant she had fun, but I did miss her.

Leah waiting for the school bus.

Leah posing for a picture right before getting on the school bus for the first time.

Alissa and Caleb are getting impatient waiting for Leah's school bus to bring her home!

Here the bus finally comes!

Leah made it home and made it through her first day of school!

Summer Ends - Kindergarten Begins

Sorry to anyone who read this blog post earlier before it was ready to be posted. I added lots more pictures and more info so it's worth checking out again.

It's hard to believe that today was the official first day of Kindergarten for Leah. Lucky for me it was also visit your classroom/meet the teacher day. Before I go into the first day of school, I want to talk about the week.

Since it was the last week before starting school, I want to fit in a few fun special things. One of the things that we did was a picnic at the park. The kids think it's great fun when we picnic and we hadn't done much picnicking this summer. We had a beautiful day. We ate a packed lunch on a blanket and had plenty of play time. We also went on a short bear hunt (aka hike) and went to throw rocks in the small creek running throughout the park.

Peanut Butter sandwiches and chips - doesn't get much better than that!

On the playground!

At the creek

The Bear Hunt!

I also set the pool up since the weather was hot and humid part of the week.






Today has really been a day I have been dreading all summer. Leah's first day of kindergarten. She was very excited to go and I of course tried to act very excited too. The good news is that her teacher seems very nice and approachable. I was hoping that Leah would get a sweet teacher since she does best with approachable people. The teacher had a little goodie bag waiting for each of the kids and Leah was very excited to get some special treats (stickers, erasers, suckers, fruit snacks). The teacher talked only a few moments and had us fill out some more paper work. Leah spent the rest of the time there looking around the classroom. One of her friends from dance class is in her kindergarten class. Leah knows her pretty well since she was a her birthday party and has been to our house on a play date. I was glad to see that Leah will at least have a familiar face in class. We then toured the bathroom, art/music room and gym.

Leah with her backpack full of her school supplies. It was heavy and I ended up carrying it!

We are getting ready to head out the door!

Leah in her classroom. She had to put all her school supplies away.

Leah standing at her classroom door.

After it was all said and done, Leah was most excited to leave and go back to Cora and Ava's house. We had dropped of Caleb and Alissa at their house so that Leah and I could go to kindergarten together. Leah wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to play with her friends. I'll think she'll have a good time at school on Monday!

I am also feeling much better since I have talked to another lady who has a son in first grade. She asked me who Leah's teacher for Kindergarten is when I told her she was so excited and said that's who her son had. He loved her. She also told me that before her son went to Kindergarten that she was told by several people that Leah's teacher, Ms. O'Brien was the best teacher to have. I hope Leah has a great year with her!

Camping Fun

This weekend we had our last camping trip before school starts. We went to the Hocking Hills State Park. We really like this campground and to get a good site, we planned a couple of months in advance. I am not sure what is going on with Ohio weather, but the entire month of August has been hot except for the weekend that we go camping. We have not had a hot weekend camping this entire year. Being cool is good for hanging out around the camp ground, but not so great when the kids want to go swimming. We did go swimming anyway and about froze when the sun went behind the clouds.

The kids did have a great time. Rod's parents had the campsite right next to ours. The kids spent lots of time riding bikes, going on bear hunts (what they call hiking) and playing at the play ground. Leah and Caleb were very excited to sleep in Mammaw and Pappy's camper. Alissa was into everything that she shouldn't and running off in every direction. Poor Mammaw hardly had the chance to sit down.

Bill and Alissa at the pool.

Fun at the pool.

Karen and Alissa at the pool.

At the play ground.

Riding bikes (Alissa need some help from Mammaw)

Rod and Bill playing around the camp fire.

This was our fifth camping trip of the summer. We are probably going to plan one more in the fall when the leaves are changing. We've never gone camping that late in the season, but I think it would be a fun time to go somewhere. We figure that the weather will probably be warmer for us on our next trip than it has been on most of the summer trips we've gone on!