3rd Grade and Pre-K4 Open Houses!

I went back to work on Monday, August 7.  LL's open house for 3rd grade was on Wednesday, August 9.  LL has moved up to a new school this year and has been so excited all summer about getting a new school (right across the street from me) and a new teacher.  It was such a nice difference from the summer before her kindergarten year when she was literally terrified all summer!

Ready to meet her teacher!

We did do something different this year and we decided to bring Cooper along.  Usually we go with just LL so that we can focus all of our attention on her.  Since Cooper will be starting kindergarten next year, we thought it would be a good experience for him to get to see what "big school" is all about.  Hopefully this will help him to not be as nervous when his time comes!

We didn't take any pictures at the actual open house because LL didn't really want us to.  Now that she's getting bigger, we're really trying to respect her wishes when she does/doesn't want pictures of videos taken of her!

Here are all of LL's open houses from kinder through 3d grade!

She is so excited and ready for a great school year in 3rd grade!

Cooper's open house for preschool was on Monday, August 14.  Thankfully, I have an amazing academic coach at my school who has no problem with watching my class for a few hours so I can drive from school (in another town) to home to go to Cooper's open house.  Cooper's open house happened on only my second day at school with kids!

Cooper got a little nervous while we were in his classroom, but it wasn't bad since he's now been at PAUMC for 3 years.  He has Mrs. Tish this year, which is the same teacher that LL had for 4 year old preschool!

Cooper did not want any solo pictures, so this one group shot is all we have.  This is following with the theme of his past open houses - you can see that they don't always go so well.  ;)

With open houses behind us, we were all ready for the first days of school!

Summer - Week 11

Our very last week of summer was from July 31 - August 6.  We tried to fit in a few more fun things before getting back to school mode!  Here's what we were up to:

Monday

Monday morning Cooper went to spend the day at Grammy and Pop's house so that LL and I could have a girls day with Oma.  It's become our yearly tradition to have a girls day and let LL pick out her outfit for the first day of school.  We had lunch at Chicken Salad Chick (LL's choice!) and then spent a few hours in town shopping!

Tuesday

We decided to have a more "low key" day on Tuesday because I knew the rest of our week was pretty busy.  The kids and I spent the day at home (in our pj's!) playing, cleaning, and doing all of the laundry.

After naps we did head over to the Parker's to have one last swim date this summer!

Wednesday

Wednesday was a BIG day!  We dropped the kids off at Gigi and Poppy's house for some swim time and then Matt and I headed to the orthodontist to get his braces off!  I haven't mentioned it specifically on the blog, but Matt got braces in January of 2016.  He was such a good ortho patient and, 20 months later, it was time for them to come off!

Ready to get these bad boys off!

Last picture with braces!

My first sneak peak!

Impressions - haha.

They are so perfect and look so good!!

Our first picture together!  A sweet girl up front made Matt this cute sign.

With his sign and his goodies - they gave him a goody bag full of all of the things that he couldn't eat for the last 20 months!  It was so sweet!

 His before and after from the doctor - his smile is not only straight, but it's so much bigger!  Also, losing 70 lbs in these 20 months helped make him look a lot different, too - haha.

This is the "before and after" that shocked me so much.  I did not realize how much before that you couldn't see his bottom teeth when he smiled.  Part of what they did during his stint with braces was to move his bottom jaw forward, and now you can see his bottom teeth when he smiles.  Look at how perfect they are!

After he got his braces off, I went back to Gigi's house with the kids (and he went to work).  That night, we had date night with dinner and a movie - popcorn was one of the things he missed the most!

He was also happy to not eat ribs with a fork - haha.

I am just so proud of Matt for how diligent he was over the course of having braces.  He did everything they asked of him so that they could come off as soon as possible.  Having braces as an adult isn't the easiest thing in the world, and I know he struggled sometimes with not loving having to wear them.  But the end result is amazing and his smile is now absolutely perfect!

Thursday

Thursday I did my "day in the life" post for summer - you can read all about it HERE.

Friday

Friday I took literally zero pictures.  We spent the day at home, and that evening I worked the local kids sale.  It was a pretty calm day!

Saturday

Saturday morning we had to run to Home Depot, and we stumbled on their kid's workshop!  While I looked at pain colors, these guys had fun building and painting trucks!

This is so random, but our Home Depot has a food truck outside that literally has the best hotdogs that I've ever had.  We treated ourselves to a super yummy and super cheap lunch!

The kids played outside for a little bit when we got home, and this sweet boy picked his Momma a flower!

That evening I had my kids sale.  Matt won "father of the weekend" by taking both kids solo to a birthday party!  I was thankful to get these pictures to feel like I was there!  I don't miss taking the kids to birthday parties often (I think this was only the second time) and I hated not being there!

Sweet Cooper giving Susanna a present, too.

Sunday

Sunday we headed to church!

That is a wrap on our summer vacation!!  Let the school year begin!!

A Day In The Life - Summer Edition

I absolutely love reading "day in the life" posts from other bloggers.  Isn't it so weird how interesting it can be to see what other people do all day?  I try to do one of these posts two times a year: once in summer and once during the school year.  The reality is, my days are very different depending on if school is in or out!  The last "day in the life" post I did was this past September when school was in.  For this "day in the life" post, I chose August 3.  This was during our last week of summer vacation.  Here's what a summer day looks like for me and the kids!

One of my favorite parts of summer break is not having to set my alarm clock.  I have to get up so early during the school year (my alarm goes off at 4:50), so unless we have something going on, we do not set an alarm during the summer.  Our kids are early risers, so for us, 6:41 can be considered sleeping in.  ;)

Cooper woke up at 6:40, came in our room, and snuggled in bed with me while Matt got in the shower.  We snuggled and watched some cartoons!

I got up to start getting ready, but someone else wasn't really feeling it - haha.

I changed up my breafast routine this summer.  I used to eat a bagel thin with cream cheese every day.  This summer, I started eating some fresh strawberries, vanilla greek yogurt, and granola.  It is so much yummier and more filling!  All of our bowls were in the dishwasher, so I had to eat out of tupperware - haha.

After breakfast, I threw in a load of laundry.

After Matt left for work, the kids had some chill time.  Cooper played with his magnatiles.

And LL played with Aspyn -haha.

I got ready while the kids played -- and I was not amused at my findings this morning!

We finally got moving and out of the house to run some errands.  First up was Cooper's chiropractor appointment.  Cooper started going to the chiropractor when he was 2 years old and dealing with both a speech delay and acid reflux.  We did some research and heard some things about the chiropractor being able to help with both of his issues.  He has been going once a month for the last 3 years!  He also no longer has acid reflux or a speech delay, so you can judge if it helped or not.  :)

I'm thankful for doctor's offices that have activities for the kids while we wait!  So thoughtful!

Blue Spiderman!

Waiting in the room isn't as much fun as in the lobby.  We took pictures and then played "Simon Says" (it's my go-to keep them quiet and entertained in public game!)

We also had haircuts scheduled for this day, and our chiropractor appointment got over much quicker than I anticipated.  We decided to go to the library to kill some time!

Thankful for activities here, too!

Time for haircuts!  Here's the before:

And here's the after:

These two are ready for school!

Whew!  So much better!

I was so proud of LL - her hair takes a beating during summer from all of the swimming we do.  It needed at least 3 inches cut off, and she decided to cut off 6!  It looks so cute and grown up!

As a reward for making in through a doctor's appointment and haircuts, we went to have a fun lunch together at Chick-Fil-A.  I'm actually really proud of us -  we typically eat lunch out quite a bit during the summer, but we didn't really do that at all this year.  Eating out one last time was a real treat for all three of us!

LL found a rock when we were leaving!

When we got home, Cooper went down for a nap and LL had some room time.  While they did that, I worked on the blog!  I got the post up for Week 9 of summer break!

After I got the post up, I took some quiet time to lay on the bed and read!  It was so nice!

So.  Rotten.

Back to reality!  Time to fold the laundry from earlier in the day.

Boom.

When Matt got home, he stayed with Cooper, and LL and I left.  Casey had just gotten home from the hospital, so LL and I took them dinner.  While Casey and I chatted, LL provided entertainment for Carter - haha.

When I left Casey's house, Matt called to say that he found termites in our garage.  What?!?  This turned out to be the first day in a long list of days to fix our house.

Since I splurged and ate Chick-Fil-A for lunch, I just ate a balanced break for dinner while the kids ate leftovers.

LL tried on this little cheer outfit for the first time - she is so adorable!!

After the kids went to bed, I got to work pricing some clothes for the kids sale.

At 10:11 I called it quits and went to bed!

That's a wrap for our "day in the life" during the summer!!  School is back in and life looks much different now.  ;)