Wednesday, August 31, 2016

New Domain Name

We had a little bit of an issue with my previous domain, so we've moved!!  Please set everything to follow us at www.mullicanfamily.com !



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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Cooper's First Day of Pre-K 3!

Cooper had his first day of pre-k 3 a little over a week after LL and I started school.  Since our school was already in, this left Daddy to handle Cooper's first day of school!  Thankfully, Matt is great at understanding my need for pictures and consistancy.  ;)  Here are Cooper's first day pictures:


I don't know what was up with the "bulldog" smile this morning, but he still looks so adorable anyway!




He looks so big!  And so stinkin' cute.


Cooper's classroom theme is "fruit of the spirit", and each kid got assigned their own fruit for the year.  Cooper is a coconut (soooo fitting - haha), so he found his mat the first day and sat down to "read" while they waited for all the kids.

Cora was in Cooper's class last year, and we're so happy they're together again this year!  (Even if she doesn't look so pumped - haha).

When Grammy picked him up from his first day, they said that he did GREAT!  What's cute is that this is the exact same craft that LL did so long ago on her first day of pre-k 3.  :)


You know I love a good comparison!  
1 year apart!

We absolutely adore Cooper's preschool, and can't wait for the great year ahead!


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Monday, August 22, 2016

Cooper's Pre-K 3 Open House

Since Cooper is in a private preschool, his schedule is always different from mine.  This year, he started school the week after LL and I did.  His open house fell on a Wednesday from 9-12 (which works perfectly with my planning time), so I met Matt and Cooper up there to meet his teacher.

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but Cooper is already 4 years old, but is in 3 year old preschool.  Since his birthday falls smack in the middle of summer, we had to choose to either make him the oldest in his class, or the absolute youngest in his class.  We started talking about this a few years ago because we knew it would effect when we needed to start him in school.  Initially, I wanted to put him in right away and make him the youngest.  We spent a lot of time talking about it, talking with people who also had to make the same choice, talking to younger grades teachers, and taking our specific child into the mix.  After doing all of those things, we decided to make him the oldest in his group.  So he's 4, but in 3 year old pre-k.  The rest of his class will turn 4 throughout the year, so after a few months, he won't be the only 4 year old anymore.  Basically, he'll start kindergarten already 6 years old and will just remain 6 for the entire school year (and other kids will turn 6 as the year goes on).  So far, I think this is the perfect choice for Cooper.


Ready for preschool!!


Open house was very low-key, and Cooper played with a friend while Matt and I filled out some forms.

Cooper's class!  His teacher is Miss Jennifer, and his class theme for the year is Fruit of the Spirit.  Every kid gets their own fruit for the year (it's on their cubby, their backpack, and their mat), and Cooper is a coconut (so perfect - haha)!

We are so excited to see how much he grows this year!  A big change for him will be that he now goes to school for 5 days a week instead of 3 like last year.  Currently, we're one week in to school and he's doing great!

You can see Cooper's open house experience from last year here:
2.5 Pre-K open house

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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

LL's First Day of 2nd Grade!

Our first day of school was on a Friday (which I actually love a whole lot).  The night before school started, I told LL she could pick anything for dinner, and she picked a favorite for everyone - spaghetti and meatballs!




LL and I were up and ready to go by 6:30!  (Yep - it's terrible.  Hence why I look so tired - haha).


How sad is this?  We've learned that we can't take LL's "back to school" pictures at home...because it's still dark out when we leave.  That's how you know you leave at a ridiculous hour!  So we've learned to take them when we get to school.

Look at my girl!



We went shopping and she picked her first day of school dress out all on her own.  It was so cute!


I always walk with her to her class on the first day of school, and I'm planning on doing it through college - haha.  So she better get used to it!

She's ready!

Matt was such a sweet man to both me and LL.  He brought us both flowers the day before school started.  These are mine...


...and these are LL's.  So sweet!

He also handled dinner that night (my favorite - Panda Express), and he brought home a new dishwasher that night (random - but soooo needed!  Our other one was 9 years old and had gotten to where we could only run it when we were leaving the house because it was so loud.  It was louder than the military planes that fly over our house!)

We survived our first day!

A look back at all of LL's first days of school pictures - from pre-k 3 until 2nd grade!  I absolutely love seeing how much she grows each year.

Here's hoping to a great year in 2nd grade!!  You can take a look back at her other first days of school here:
Pre-K 3
Pre-K 4
Kindergarten
1st Grade


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Monday, August 15, 2016

LL's 2nd Grade Open House

Thankfully, this year LL's open house did not fall on the same day as mine!  Her open house was on the Wednesday of pre-planning from 3-5.  I worked a full day getting everything ready for my class, and Matt brought her out at 3 for us to all ride over together.

Look at my big girl ready for 2nd grade!

I love her silly side!

With our first baby - our SECOND GRADER!  How is the world is this happening?  She is just starting to look so grown up.  And TALL!  She's almost to my shoulders!


LL and her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Bryan.

We are all looking forward to this year, but there are definitely some hurdles that we're having to jump over.  This is LL's first year in public school without her best friend, Maddie.  She has handled it so very well so far, but I know she misses her.  She also had only a few friends from 1st grade roll over to her 2nd grade class with her (and they're all boys - haha).  So having to start all over and form some solid girl friendships is not an easy thing to do.  Thankfully, her teacher seems very nice, and we have only heard fantastic things about her, and the boys that we do know in her class are great kids.  It also seems like 2nd grade is going to be very challenging academically on her.  I won't lie - I'm nervous about that!  But I just keep reminding LL that she is so very smart, and that hard work isn't a bad thing!

Here's to a great second grade year!

You can see LL's past open houses here:
Pre-K 3
Pre-K 4
Kindergarten
1st Grade

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Summer - Week 10

Our last week of summer!  Ugh!  It went by too fast!  We literally tried to cram in as much fun the last week that we could.  Here's what we were up to:


Monday

On Monday, we took a big crew to the water park for one last time.  It was me, Cooper, LL, Ben, Gigi, Maddie, and Brittany (her mom).  Then, we ran into several friends while we were there.  It was a blast!

Too bright - haha.

This boy is a trooper!  He kept right up with the big kids this summer and didn't let anything slow him down!  I am so proud of him!

These two sweet girls - I just love them.  They had so much fun being together at the water park!


I spy a Meghan in the background.  ;)



The kids in our crew!

I had been wanting to try a Pink Drink from Starbucks all summer, but never got around to it.  On the way back from the water park, we made it happen.  Better late than never, right?  It was delicious!

When we got home that afternoon, we found Lovie inside of LL's doll tent - haha.  Crazy, cross-eyed cat.

Tuesday

I had to use Tuesday as a kind of "catch up" day because we were going out of town at the end of the week.  First up, we dropped our last round of summer library books off at the library.  Then, the kids went to play with Oma, Opa, and Ben, while I met Laura at the gym.  We worked out hard!  After our workout, I recognized this handwriting on the "goals" board.  :)

The rest of the day was spent cleaning and doing laundry in preparation for our trip!  Matt took the kids outside for a little while that afternoon and Cooper came in with a flower for me.  :)

Wednesday

Wednesday we invited Meghan and Luke over for swimming at Gigi's!  The age gap between Lorelai, Luke (yes - Meghan and I love Gilmore Girls), and Cooper just doesn't seem as big as it used to, and they all play together so well.  Luke is smack in the middle of my two (age wise).  We had some cannonball competitions and the pictures didn't disappoint - haha.

Lorelai is doing an awkward wave, Luke is...??  I actually don't know.  Diving?  Haha.  And Cooper is about 30 seconds behind the other two.

Cooper's version of a cannonball.  Made me laugh so hard!  #frogjump

Thursday

Thursday we left for the beach!  You can read all about it here!

Friday

Friday was a packed day!  Beach time, Ben's birthday, and mini-golf!  You can read all about it here.

Saturday and Sunday

The last two days of our trip and of summer.  You can read about it here.

That's a wrap for our summer vacation!  Man do I hate saying that!  I feel like I say this every year, but this really was the best summer ever!  Now that Cooper is bigger (and potty trained - hallelujah!), we were just able to go and do so much more.  We drained every last sunny, fun drop of summer, and I don't have a single regret!  Now the countdown to next summer is on, amiright?  ;) 

If you missed any other recaps, you can see what we were up to all summer long here:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9 


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