First Day of First Grade

So I'm only a week behind now, that's not bad!

Last week the giant gradeschooler formerly known as my baby boy started first grade!

In case you've forgotten, this is him just one short year ago.  How does that even happen in a year? 

(Also when we went outside to take the pictures, he said, "at least the sun isn't in my eyes this year."  I'm actually starting to get a little scared of his crazy memory).

He made me take this one.  He was VERY excited about this. 

One more, and another flashback because HOW did he grow so much in a year?!

We headed off to first grade and I laughed at how many kids we passed would wave and say, "Hi Colin."  Big man on campus!  Just like last year, he shooed me out of his classroom immediately.  Thus far the reports are all good, except that "First grade is a lot more work than Kindergarten."  Here's to a great year :)

New Buff 2016

We were so happy to be able to escape for a few days of vacation to our happy place, New Buffalo.  I don't think Charlotte remembered the beach, but she was immediately a fan (this was day 1, when I hilariously thought we could just "stop by the beach" before checking into the hotel without putting on swimsuits).

They just love the water.

Finally even Mike had to run in fully clothed.

We spent days on the beach playing in the sand...

And literally playing, in the sand.

For once we got lucky and had beautiful weather.

We took a day to drive up to St. Joseph, where Colin remembered each and every feature at the children's museum.  Thankfully "Volcano Slide" was still there because we had been hearing about it since we left home.

And Charlotte was finally big enough to ride the carousel, to her delight.

 And, one of the highlights was spending the afternoon on a sailboat cruise on Lake Michigan.  We had an awesome Captain who taught Colin the sailing ropes (literally... here he is helping crank the sails up).
 

He even let him drive.  

Our other child was not as enamoured with the seas.  As soon as we took off, she fell completely asleep and slept through the entire cruise!

We ended up propping a hat on her to prevent sunburn and just let her crash out....

Although we missed the space of having our own house like last time, it was so great to be back at the Marina Grand, one of our favorite places.  The kids loved having the pools, hot tub and game room.  And here's Colin lounging like a pro on the rooftop deck. 

Me and my little dude. 

Hard to believe how long its been since we stayed here, and how much he's grown.

We closed out our trip with our old favorites, the stray dog and shakes at Nancy's.  Such a wonderful break and we can't wait to get back there someday!

Elephant Rocks (and Turtle Rocks too)

Colin had been asking to go hiking, so we checked something off last summer's bucket list and drove down to Elephant Rocks state park.  This was SO COOL.  The kids got to climb like monkeys and we got to see some amazing rocks and scenery.

This was only slightly panic-inducing for me.

It's hard to comprehend the size of these rocks - they make my people look so tiny!

Colin is built just right for some tight squeezes.

We even hiked out to the old rail house in the woods.  Photo op.

Girl club, hiking. I love her little face.

This is totally unrelated, but you know, we're playing catch up here.  We also did some less strenuous climbing at Turtle Park on our way to the zoo one morning.  The kids were always asking about the silly turtles and snake eating the overpass when we'd go to STL, so we parked over there and let them play on a beautiful morning. 

Glenfest!

These kids love a fair.  We've spent the summer hitting up the Bonifest, the Route 66 fest, and the Glenfest (or "Homecoming" as they call it now... but I'm OG Glen Carbon so Glenfest it is).   Despite the fact that it was 110 degrees in the shade, we had a mostly very fun day, with a special assist by G.

We started out with the homecoming parade.  We found tee-ball friends to sit with and had a blast.

After the parade we ran into Charlotte's new friend Elise, the daughter of an old friend who we seem to run into all over town.  Maybe it's the name, but she and Charlotte just loove each other :)

Colin took Charlotte and Elise for a spin.

Immediately after this we made the mistake of letting Charlotte into a bounce house with a time limit.  And when all the other compliant little children were told their time was up, guess whose kid ran to the far reaches and refused to come out?  Yep.  Cue me having to climb in and drag her out screaming.  We were ready to leave, but then G showed up.

G was thrilled to chaperone Colin on the ferris wheel ride so Charlotte could have her very first ride with Daddy.  And so I wouldn't have to ride on that death trap myself.  G is good like that.

We made it all the way into the evening and even stayed late for fireworks!  And bubbles!

4th of July 2016

We celebrated the 4th of July  in style this year, ever grateful to be back in civilization - the 4th in St. Louis is always so much fun. 

We headed downtown for the VP parade - the kids' first time. Had to stop at Citygarden so Colin could hop into this creepy sculpture...

The parade blew their minds.  We've come a long way from the Delphi, IN courthouse square parade!

They were loving all the confetti!  I'm still finding it around our house!

This guy decided Colin needed just a bit more...

Although I personally don't miss my neighborhood sounding like Baghdad every night for a month, Mike was disappointed at what "fireworks" you can legally buy in Illinois as opposed to Indiana.  The kids, however, were thoroughly entertained by sparklers and smoke bombs.

We even hit up fireworks in Troy.  I think this picture pretty much sums up their personalities.

This was one worn-out little boy on our way home, post-fireworks :)

High five, we're still alive

I am the absolute worst blogger in the world.  But rest assured the lack of action here directly corresponds with all the fun we've had this summer.  Since I'm also bad about printing or saving pictures, I decided that I had better start uploading some pictures again so I can look back someday and remember all of our fun!

If you haven't heard, the kids were ring bearer and flower girl not just once...

but twice! (well, Colin was a sign bearer the second time...)

Despite this face (and running away midway through rehearsal the night before), Charlotte did a great job :) 

The kids are getting so big and having so much fun together this summer.  They actually play by themselves!  Together!

Colin can READ now!  And last night he read Charlotte a bedtime story in  her new big girl bed!  CHANGES! 

Stay tuned while I upload a ton of summer pictures and get us all up to date!