First Day of Kindergarten . . . a lot of pictures

As I type, Avery is at his first day of Kindergarten. It feels strange. I wonder what he is doing right now.
We had a great morning. I made a big breakfast to celebrate his first day of school. AJ even got us donuts to go with it which was as much a gift for me as it was Avery! Both of the boys were excited from the moment they got up. I had everything ready from the night before. I even had my coffee pot ready to go! So our morning went pretty smoothly . . . even with the 30 pictures I insited on taking before we left. AJ took the morning off so we could take Avery together. I am so thankful for him and his desire to put our family first.

Avery loves his new backpack & lunch box. . .

Finley wanted to carry Avery's lunch box for him once we got to the school . . .
My big boy ready to go in . . . by the way, he was really into smiling with his mouth shut this morning for some reason. . .
He was happy to see a coloring sheet at his desk when he went in . . .
Avery and Mrs. Keylor . ..
Finley gave Avery lots of hugs. . .

Avery got right to work coloring his paper. If you've read my blog for very long, you know Avery LOVES to color and anything art really, so this was a perfect first activity for him.
AJ had to basically pull me away from the door b/c I kept looking in to see what he was doing. He just looked so darn cute sitting there in his uniform, coloring away. I can't wait to hear all about school this afternoon! Pin It

The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives . . .

So tomorrow is the big day. My baby boy's first day of Kindergarten. It feels so very strange. We are so thrilled with the school he is going to. He is going to Providence Classical Christian Academy. It is a university model school where he goes to school 2 days a week and I teach him at home 3 days a week. It really has the best of both worlds...he gets the benefit of a Christian School education as well as the benefit of one on one instruction from me and more family time. It took us a long time to come to the decision of sending him to Providence. I had pretty much intended on sending him to some sort of 5 day a week school. But slowly over this last year, God has changed my heart. We now realize this is a great fit for our family. University Model schools are becoming more and more popular and are popping up all over the country. You can check out the website for the National Association of University Model Schools at www.naums.net . Another really great thing about Providence is all the support they give you. They have a Providence Moms group and they assign you a mentor mom. They also provide training sessions to help you along the way. We've already had a few get togethers this summer and I'm getting to know other Providence parents. This has helped to build our excitement for the school year.

Avery loves to learn. He is very bright and I think this school will challenge him well. He also has the opportunity to move up or down in math or reading based on his ability. I love that option. He has a good friend Titus from church that will be in his class, so he's really excited about that. Although, I'm pretty sure he believes he'll be playing Power Rangers and Star Wars all day with Titus instead of learning....but oh well, he'll soon find out! :)

You want to know how big a dork I am?? I got so giddy about his school supply list! Or is that the elementary teacher coming out in me? It was so fun to shop for his first ever school supplies. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it more than he did! FYI: I've had them all ready to go for a month now. yep...big dork.
Here is our calendar for our at-home school days. We just went to the education store this morning and got all the parts laminated. It's right by our kitchen table which is where we'll do most of his school work.
I really didn't think Avery starting kindergarten would affect me that much since he's only going 2 days a week. However last night, it hit me that my sweet baby boy is starting kindergarten. That is monumental. Our lives are about to CHANGE! Pin It

It. Was. Awesome.

Last weekend our dear friends, Zach & Erin came home from Africa with their sweet baby, Addis. All their friends and family were at the airport waiting for them. It was a moment we had talked about and dreamed about for months. It really was amazing. The first picture is the big crowd waiting at the bottom of the escalator.

Here are the boys with our sign. Avery drew pictures of Addis and superheros on it. :)
Here we are cheering when they came to the top of the escalator!
It was so exciting!


Zach and Erin with their arms full of childrens.
Everyone was clamoring to get to him! Isn't he a DOLL?!

Congrats, Friends. . . we are thrilled for you. Pin It

Our Vacation

So I am finally posting pictures from our Vacation. We had a
blast with AJ's family. We stayed the first half of the week at
Big Cedar Lodge near Branson. It was amazingly beautiful.
We stayed in a beautiful 3 bedroom cabin with AJ's sisters &
their husbands & kids. AJ's parents stayed in their own cabin
next door. We were overlooking the lake and it was
breathtaking. Big Cedar was the coolest resort we have ever
stayed at. We definitely want to go back. You have to look at
their website to see all the awesome stuff they have. We spent
every day swimming. They have 4-5 pools & a lazy river. My
favorite was sitting in the pool while the boys went down the
rock slide over and over again! We had a full kitchen in our
cabin so we made meals and ate together for each one. The
girls and I were in charge of breakfast and AJ's mom made
the other meals. One day we took a tram ride through
Dogwood Canyon. This was also just breathtaking. It was
about 10
degrees cooler
there which was nice. It was a 2 hour ride. We brought
lunches
and ate on the tram. We saw bison, elk, 200 year old trees,
covered bridges, waterfalls, longhorns, fish and just more of
God's nature than you could hardly take in. I am the most
happy when I'm outside enjoying God's creation...plus
enjoying
it with family....it was perfect.

After Big Cedar we stayed right in the heart of Branson. It
was
kind of abrupt...going from one extreme to the next. But
we
had a good time. One of the most fun things was going to
Dixie Stampede. The boys LOVED it. They serve you a meal
during the show that you eat entirely with your hands. How
fun
is that? Fun. Seriously...nothing a pregnant girl likes more
than some food during her entertainment. ;) The last couple
of days
were just with our little family and AJ's sister Tonya & her
little family. We did a lot of outlet mall shopping which was
great. I
really do not enjoy shopping that much so I was so happy to get
a lot of our fall shopping for the boys (well mostly Avery) over
with. We also ate at some fun restaurants and enjoyed playing games
after
the boys went to sleep. One really cool place we ate
at had singing waiters/waitresses. Two of them had been contestants
last year on American Idol. It was so fun.
It was such a great week and I'm so very thankful to have such
great in-laws. They are a blessing to my life.

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6 Months . . .

and gettin' bigger by the minute. Pin It

Home & Happy

So we got home from vacation on saturday and life is in full swing.  I will post all about our vacation soon, I'm waiting for pictures from my dad-in-law.  I am busy busy with my 2 Blonde Boys business.  It has gotten pretty busy the last two years during back to school time.  It's really fun and I enjoy it.  Also Avery starts Kindergarten in 3 weeks!!!  I will also blog about that soon.  So life is busy, but happy.  

Also, what is happy is coming home and finding 15 red tomatoes ready to be picked off my plants. Yum.  There is nothing better than a tomato, warm from the vine with some salt & pepper.  My strawberry plants are doing okay...not producing a ton but they do make the perfect sweetness for my bowl of cereal in the morning.  Also Yum.

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