Is it supposed to be cold in August?!

We headed to Highlands, NC on Friday afternoon with the kiddos! The Thorpes called and offered the cabin to us for the weekend and we didnt have any plans so we said YES!!! We were slightly skeptical about how the trip would go since the forecast showed RAIN (imagine that?! It has rained everyday in Atlanta this summer!) The kids were SUPER excited when we started heading up the big mountain! We even stopped at an overlook so they could see how high we were! They were WAY more excited than we thought! It made it so fun!
We ate dinner in town on Friday night outside. It really was chilly! I can't believe the weather! The kids got up and danced to some live music while we enjoyed dinner! Saturday morning we got up and just took it easy, drank coffee, made some breakfast and played! We took the kids to the Nature Center in Highlands and it was really great! It was small but had so many things for them to look at and touch! Both kids got to pet Shelly the turtle! Jack LOVED the microscope slides. He went through all of them multiple times. Lucy loved the puzzles and putting her hands in the holes to feel what was inside! There were lots of trails outside in the botanical gardens! Jack was our trail leader and it was so fun! The trails were a good distance for the kids to walk and had lots to look at along the way! It really felt like we were deep in the woods! Jack pretended that we had to find out way back! Lucy hung in there for the walking and had fun too!
We grabbed lunch in town and then headed back to the cabin for the evening! Jack and I snuggled on the couch and watched a show while Daddy and Lucy took a nap! When they got up we all went down to the creek to play (IT WAS COLD! The kids didnt seem to mind...but Lucy finally decided that she was shivering and needed to head back inside!) Jack and Steven skipped rocks and played in the "waterfall"! We all had snacks on the big porch outside before making dinner! It was so nice just to hang out the four of us in a beautiful setting! It was just perfect! After dinner we all watched a movie and the kiddos headed to bed! Steven and I got to just sit together and watch TV and read! No laundry... nothing to do but just be!
Sunday we cooked another big breakfast and then headed back home!
We had a SUPER special visitor for dinner on Sunday evening! ML CAME OVER!!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I was to get to catch up and spend some time with her! She is one of those people that no matter how much times passes, we always pick right back up! We were all happy to get to visit! Lucy was in full show off mode (hard to imagine huh?)

Mommy and Jack looking at the mountains!

Treats after dinner on Friday!

Intense about treats!

Excited about the Nature Center!

What do you feel inside the hole??!!

Jack LOVED the microscope! He looked at it over and over again!

The microscope displayed the object on the screen! Lucy sat so sweet while Jack showed her everything!

Running to the next trail!

Daddy and his sweet boy!

I can't take it...He just looks so grown up!

Out in nature!

Smiles from a 5 and 2 year old

Jack and Lucy meeting Shelly the turtle

So happy! Jack and Mommy all snuggled together!

Lucy in the creek!

COLD!!!!

Jack had a blast!

Look at this mommy!

Snacks on the porch!

A little update on Kindergarten! Jack is LOVING it! He is excited every morning and seems ready to go! He tells us about his day (After a lot of questions from Mommy! He is not the easiest child to get information out of!) He has been on purple for behavior 3 days!!! Purple is for an exceptional day! He is TOO excited about that! It is the first thing he tells us when we pick him up! We are so proud of him! He asked us tonight if we wanted to hear him count by 10s! It's just amazing to watch that sweet baby put on his backpack and head off to the bus every morning! Lucy is loving her new class and doing just great! She continues to keep us laughing most of the time! She is 2, but talks like she is about 15. She is very intentional about what she says and loves singing for anyone that will listen!

Jack's first morning on the bus!

And just a few more for fun.. I didnt get these uploaded in a previous post! Just a little adult fun! The Coopers came over for an adult only dinner! We opened one of our BIG bottles of Napa wine together! Too FUN! The Leonards love their wine!

It was a BIG day!

Today was Jack's first day of Kindergarten! I think it is something we have talked about for a long time! We never thought we would have a sweet boy that was old enough to go to school! Jack always makes us proud, and today was no exception!
We have talked about going to school and how big it would be to start Kindergarten! Honestly, Lucy may have been more excited than Jack! We have gotten to visit the school a couple of times over the last couple of weeks and Jack was getting more excited! We got to do the Kindergarten Round Up about a week ago with Jack. The bus came around and picked up all the Kindergarten kids and their parents (There is a much longer story to this that involves Lucy not being able to ride the bus and she and I walking away with tears to follow the bus because she was too little! Oh gracious... hurt my heart! Anyway...another time! She recovered and she got to go to the school too!) Jack really loved the bus and got to see a friend from his preschool on the bus with him! We also went to Open House on Tuesday night to meet his teacher! Jack knew more people than we did that night! A little girl called his name in the hall and they ran and hugged eachother! And then he ran around playing with 4-5 kids from his school that he saw while we looked around and met some parents! It was such a great feeling!!!
This morning the kiddos got up and got to put on their new shoes and come down for breakfast where they each had a new box of crayons and a balloon! I had bought some donuts as a breakfast treat on this special day! They were so excited! I went to get the donuts....and their were ants ALL OVER THEM! Ewwwww! We can't tell where they came from or why they were there, but so much for the treat! Reality! They got over that pretty quickly since they were so excited! We all took Lucy to school and then headed to Vickery Creek for the first day! Jack had on his backpack with his snack and lunch! He was so proud! As we waited to turn in the school he was bouncing in his seat. He kept saying, "Where is it?! I can't seen the school yet!!!" We parked and walked in together. As soon as we got out of the car, Jack saw one of his buddies! He and Connor walked in together talking like little people about their backpacks, the lunches they brought and who their teacher was going to be! We walked him in and he was happy to be in his class! He sat down to start coloring and barely looked back! We walked out so proud! Our baby was all grown up and happy confident and ready to start his day!
Jack had a great first day! Daddy picked him up and they both went to get a hair cut and a special donut treat! They picked up Lucy and came home for all of us to eat dinner together! Jack talked about new friends, a gingerbread man hunt in his class, his fun lunch, seeing friends and even getting to see Morgan at the end of the day! He said, "I love Kindergarten!" He can't wait to go back tomorrow and is really excited about riding the bus to school! Another first for us!

It's been such a happy and busy summer for us! We are so blessed and so proud of our little family!

First Day of Kindergarten at Vickery Creek! 

Big Boy Bookbag!

Lucy can't miss out on anything!

Proud Mommy and Daddy!

Super happy boy ready for class!

Mommy and Daddy have a date night!

Little Lucy 

You can't make this up!

Aunt Mimi sent me new bows!

Kindergarten Round up! This is our bus stop!!!

Lucy with Elvis the Safety Owl!

Camp Meeting! Jack's 6th one!!! He hasn't missed one! They always have fun!

Lucy swinging at Camp Meeting!

It was going to be a little crazy....

We knew that June was going to be a really tough month for us and it WAS! Crazy times and lots going on for our little family! We fit in lots of fun around the crazy!
I dont mention work too much on here, but there have been some big things going on worth documenting! I went back to work full time about 6 weeks ago and accepted a promotion about 2 weeks ago.  It has been an adjustment for us to get use to our new schedules and having less time at home with the kiddos. I think what made it a little tougher adjustment was that I had some pretty big deliverables for work due at the same time. This type of thing requires a lot more hours for me at work and several late nights.  It is not the norm, but comes from time to time. It also required me to be out of town for a full week in June! We were very fortunate that Mimi and Poppa helped out during that week!
We made it to July and will definitely settle down into our new schedule a little better! We have been kind of just hanging on for the ride this past month! The weeks have been crazy and we have lived for the weekends to spend some good family time together! Hopefully the kiddos didnt notice our crazy too much!
Now on to the fun things we squeezed in!!! We had our family over last Sunday for a late Father's Day celebration and Nunno's birthday! It was so much fun! The kids swam together and played in the pool! Caitlin got some good floating time too! Steven grilled lots of hamburgers and hotdogs for the group and we had a YUMMY cookie cake for a treat! It was a really fun time together and we will have to do it all together again really soon!
We continue to have lots of good time by the pool! We eat most of our meals on the weekends out there and Jack and Lucy love getting to swim! Jack has become a little fish! He swims wherever he wants to go and dives to the bottom to get all the toys! It is so fun to watch! Lucy likes to follow right along behind him! She has gotten pretty quick with her puddle jumper on! We are also starting to get some fun stuff our of the garden we planted in the backyard! We have had lots of squash and tomatoes! Our zuchinni is coming in and looks like we are going to have some cucumbers too! We had asparagus and some berries come up that were planted by the previous owner! We also have basil and rosemary! Jack has never really liked squash but we found out that he does like it raw! Who knew!? He gets very excited about going to see what is ready to pick!
We met up with the Coopers and the Stephens for the Laser Show last Saturday night! We had been wanting to take the kids and actually drove over last September to find out that all the attractions were closed and there was no laser show! Ha! Definitely a Griswold moment for us! BUT this time we were successful! Both kids sat right in our laps the whole show and enjoyed it! They hung in there for the whole thing. Lucy LOVED the fireworks and Jack loved the "Soldiers on horses" riding on the mountain! They were both asleep about 10 minutes into the drive home! It was almost 11:30 by the time we got home!

We took Lucy for her very first haircut! I am sure it was WAY overdue but I had such a hard time cutting that sweet little hair that we waited so long to grow! She was SOOOO excited about going to get her hair cut! We talked about it a lot and she felt like such a princess! She smiled at herself in the mirror a lot and sat so still and perfect! She told everyone about her hair cut! It really does look super cute!!!!

We had a VERY VERY wet 4th of July weekend but had a lot of good time together (feel free to read between the lines that our kids DESPERATELY need to play outside more!) We went to a neighborhood party, played with the Reilly's, had a fun night outside (under the deck while it poured!!) eating pizza and visiting with Aunt Jenn and Uncle John, ran the Peacthree Road Race AND worked on a home project!!! With Poppa's help, we are making a pool room off the patio downstairs! I should have taken more before pictures! Tomorrow it is back to reality! AND........................... Jack starts Kindergarten ONE MONTH from tomorrow! There is no way that is real! It's going way too fast!

Lucy's first haircut!

SUCH a big girl!

Sweet baby hair!

So proud!!!

She looks like such a big girl now!

Poppa and Jack playing in the pool!

Little Lulu

Jack swimming like a shark!

Big jumps!

Super tall!

Caitlin getting to float around and relax!

Poppa and Nunno 

Playing dress up by the pool!

Princess Lucy!

Lucy's first pedicure! She has talked about it non-stop!

Aunt Jenn painting toes and fingers!

Poppa and Nunno and their babies!

 

Everyone helping Nunno blow out the candles!

Craft Beer Festival 5K in Alpharetta!

Stone Mountain Laser Show!

So thankful for my running girls! We had a great time at the Peacthree Road Race! 

Another race for the sisters! It was our first Peacthree!