Monday, September 1, 2014

Noah's First Day of Second Grade

Noah was so excited for school to begin this year!  

He was so excited to be with his friends again and meet his new teacher.

Can't you tell?  He's bursting with happiness!

Now that's an awesome way to start the school year. 


End of Summer Beach Fun

We had a great trip to Wild Dunes, a resort on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina.  We rented a house with our good friends and had a blast!  Noah and Isaac loved having days of unlimited playtime with their best friend Ryan.  

They had great fun digging in the sand and searching for sea shells.









The boys also had a great time riding the waves on their boogey boards.







The boardwalk at Wild Dunes



The boys also flew their kites and posed for a few "brother" pictures on the beach.





It was a great trip!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

This Week in Pictures

This week was our "official" last week of summer vacation.  However, we've extended summer into next week for our family.  Noah starts second grade (he's so excited!!) tomorrow, and on Wednesday we head to the beach for a long weekend.  

We've had an awesome summer.  Maybe the best ever!  I wanted to post pictures from our week so you can get a glimpse into our activities:
Noah opened his first bank account.  He's been eagerly anticipating this for weeks!  He decided on his own that he needed to wear a dress shirt and tie to the bank.  He's holding a sandwich bag of coins and his wallet, ready to go.
Waiting outside the bank for it to open

Waiting at the bank.  He chose to get a University of Michigan logo on his debit card.  He also purchased his own stock this week.  That's a whole 'nother story!


Exploring construction equipment around our neighborhood

One of our favorite evening activities


The boys and I went on one of our favorite summer activities - riding the Lynx light rail train to uptown Charlotte.

The boys always look forward to riding the train

Soccer season has begun!  Isaac is in the blue shirt in front of the goal


Noah made a deposit in his account.  He's a saver.

Returning a bucket of books to the library.  Going to the library is a highlight of our week.  We check out so many books I can barely carry them all.

Isaac worked very hard doing jobs around the house so he could earn enough money to buy pretend handcuffs.  He was so proud of his accomplishment!  He checked himself out at the U-Scan completely independently and paid his own cash.  That's awesome.


Noah has started drum lessons.  He is so ready to learn!  This is the music he's practicing after only his second week.  He has also learned some awesome rhythms.  He eagerly practices every day!

Noah's soccer season has also started.  He's in the blue shirt kicking the ball.

Whew!  Those were only the things I remembered to take pictures of!  
Life is good.  
We are blessed.
Thank you God!


Sunday, August 3, 2014

"I'm out of control!"

Isaac had a blast in his first triathlon yesterday.  It was a preschool triathlon and a parent could stay right by the child's side while they did the course.  Isaac has been looking forward to this for months!  Noah and I had fun cheering Isaac on.  Noah even wore his shirt from when he competed in the preschool triathlon in 2012!
Isaac is in the middle lane.  The entire time he was swimming, he was shouting, "I'm out of control!" at the top of his lungs with pure delight!  He wasn't out of control, he swam between the markers just fine.  Somehow it was just fun to scream and swim at the same time!

Matt helped with the transition to the bike, then Isaac was off on his own

Isaac is in the blue shirt

Then he was off to the races!  He's in the blue shirt behind the picnic tables.  There were cones set up to help the kids see where to run.  Isaac created his own course by weaving in and out of the cones as he ran.  Isaac always has his own unique approach to life, and that even came out during the triathlon!

Mr. Triathlon!  
He can't wait to do it again next year.
We're so proud of you, Isaac!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Cub Scout Day Camp

Noah had quite an adventure going to Cub Scout Day Camp!  He was immersed in all things boy and he loved every minute of it.  Isaac got to go to the day camp also - he spent a few days with the Pixies (a day camp for non-scouting siblings) and a few days with Noah's den.  I was also immersed in all things boy because I was an assistant den leader for Noah's den.  To make the week even more exciting, we carpooled with Ryan, one of the boy's very best friends.  It was quite the extravaganza to start off the summer!

Noah, Isaac and Ryan share a group hug before climbing in the car for camp

Because I was with Noah's den all week, I was able to get a lot of pictures of the activities, like shooting BB guns

Listening to a Boy Scout talk about Scouting skills - how to pack a backpack for a hike

Identifying poison ivy, oak and sumac

Playing baseball

Catching a bass in Lake Norman

And another bass!

Cooling off with water gun games

My happy camper

Archery

Noah got a bullseye!

Crafts - making a journal

More fishing - Noah caught a giant catfish!!

Isaac kept up with the Cub Scouts for two entire days and never complained about it once.  The days we were at camp were scorching hot with a heat index of 100 degrees.  The day camp staff did a good job of keeping everyone hydrated, but the heat was extreme because most of our activities were outside.  

In this picture, Isaac is beet red from the heat on Lake Norman.  But, he was so happy!   Isaac went fishing too but didn't catch any fish.  That didn't matter to him, though.  We were using live minnows for bait so Isaac had a great time pretending that he caught "little fish."