Charlie starts Kindergarten....

And there it is.  Charlie started Kindergarten. He has been in school for over a month now.  We are coming up on his Fall Break, and I have nothing but great things to report. His teacher, Ms. Uszenski (of course he would get the teacher that is impossible to pronounce), has been a kindergarten teacher for 19 years.  She adores Charlie and I know this b/c she has already called me twice in the last month to tell me so.  She has used the word "perfection" more times than I count.  Apparently he is the model student and she thinks he hung the moon.....again, not my opinion, straight from Ms. Uszenski's mouth.  I feel a little bad for Charlie.....he is the first child, same as his Mommy and Daddy.  He is the first grandchild in both our families, so there is a little pressure to perform well and so far, he is exceeding expectations.  Of course we think grades are important, but most importantly, we want him to be a hard-working, ethical, honest, loving, caring, sharing, sweet young man.  We couldn't be more proud, and just hope that he continues to set a great example for Hayden, as well as other kids in his class.

He started off taking his lunch, but is now buying his lunch on days that they have things he likes.  He thinks it is cool to buy his lunch, and it's one less day I have to pack one, so I am fine with that.  He has PE, art, music and weekly trips to the library. His teacher says he is usually one of the last kids done with work in the class, not because it takes him that long, but b/c he wants it to be perfect.  Ha!  Can't imagine where he got that from! He does ASP on Mondays and Fridays and I pick him up on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays, as well as drop him off in the morning.  He doesn't seem to mind ASP.  I think it involves a lot of cookies, movie-watching and playing on the playground, so what's not to like? He has a lady interest named, Chloe.  Verdict is still out on her, but he did inform Hayden early on in the month that he may not be able to marry her anymore, but she would always be his sister!  Cracked us up.  He wanted to let her down easy :)

Miss Haydini has been doing great. We have moved on from Miss Barbara in the 2's room to Miss Theresa in the 3's room .  She loves it.  She is a big girl and walks right in after hugging me and most mornings, never looks back.  She is only there on Mondays and Fridays.  We were going to do a Tuesday/Thursday pre-school class at CFUMC, but I ended up being selfish and decided to keep her with me those 2 mornings during the week.  I see how fast time goes by and I know I will never get this time back with her.  She will be in pre-K 5 days per week starting next year (it pains me to type that....where does the time go?!?!?), and I just want her all to myself for as long as humanly possible.

So, we have really started to focus on writing her uppercase letters, learning how to spell Welch, her telephone number and address. She already knows her numbers up to 20, colors, and shapes.  She's getting better at counting, sitting still and coloring....she has a little more energy than Charlie and sometimes just keeping focused for 10 minutes at a time can be a challenge! We'll practice more on printing lower-case letters and numbers next.  What else can I say about Hayden?  I enjoy my time with her so much.  She is my little side-kick.  She randomly tells us she loves us so much....which I never get tired of and she is not shy about busting out a hug or kiss at any time :) She is spunky, full of energy, strong-willed, and just plain fun to be around.

The only pictures I have from this first month of school is from the first day....

Tellus Museum

We finally made it to the Tellus Museum in Cartersville. When I was growing up and in school, we would always go on a yearly field trip to the Weinman Mineral Museum.  Tellus Museum is now a suped-up version of where we used to go. We decided we had done season passes to the Aquarium, as well as the zoo, and loved them both, so why not try somewhere closer to home where we could go even more often.  We had a blast.  There were areas that the kids loved (they dug for fossils and mined for gold/gems), but also lots of stuff for grown-ups to enjoy.  Nate and I both agreed we learned so much about fossils and rocks/mining in our area. Very interesting....we saw things that you just can't believe you're seeing in little ole C-ville :)  We are definitely looking forward to our next visit.  On a sidenote, I have pictures of the first part of the trip and then I bumped my camera on a bench while we were walking around and it was lights out after that.  But a few tears, $100, and one week later, my camera was good as new...thank goodness!

Random Summer Fun 2012

 This summer flew by.  I'm still not sure how we filled our days. We did a lot of playing inside, a lot of playing outside, a lot of trips to the pool (ours, as well as Mimi and Pop's), trips to the library, and goodness knows what else. But we had so much fun and I had lots of quality time with both kids :) We worked on Charlie's vocabulary words everyday to keep him in the groove.  Hayden continued working on her letters.  Katie stayed with them every Monday and yet, I have no pictures of her on this post.  Go figure. Anyway, we were happy to have some free time to play and enjoy each other over the summer, but we were definitely all ready to get back into our "normal" routine.

Meet Lucky.....Nanny and D's new dog!!

Beach Trip 2012

We went to Santa Rosa Beach for the first time this past July.  We wanted to try somewhere new.  We found a 4 bedroom house just a wagon ride away from the beach, and were able to bring both dogs (Lola and Molly with us). Mom and Dad came for the whole week and Katie came for a 4 day weekend.  She was smart and stayed away the first part of the week, since there was a tropical depression threatening to ruin our entire vacation.  Luckily after a full day of rain, and many tears (on mine and Charlie's part), we woke up to sunny skies and the rest is history.  The kids LOVED the beach.....Hayden loved the sand, and Charlie the water.  We put up our tent each day, along with our umbrellas and chairs and had a perfect set-up. Mom also brought a little boat with a rope attached and the kids had a blast in that.  There was also a huge sandbar most everyday, which we all enjoyed.  So, so much fun this year....didn't have to worry about naps every single day (although we did have to make a special trip up to the house for Hayden to take one mid-week b/c it caught up with her and she just needed a nap) and we were able to have lunch on the beach several days.  It was so nice and we can tell with each passing year, the trips are becoming more fun and less hassle.  Can't wait to go back next year!

This rainbow was a happy sight after all of that rain :)

She is such a ham!!  She probably posed for 5 or 6 pictures, asking me to take another one :)