Kindergarten

How did we get here so fast....Lennon is in kindergarten!  This whole summer, I was struggling with preparing myself for it and the few nights before his first day I had some breakdowns.  He's only doing half day, but it's still such a big step.  And, in the case of sounding super dramatic, life will never be the same--we will always be scheduling around school, holidays and breaks.  It was also difficult to let him go, knowing that he may not be 100% loved and protected in the school world...

But we got there--Lennon was talking about school some, and seemed a little excited.  The night before he picked out his outfit, which included his brand new Angry Bird converse high-tops.  On the first day of school, he was feeling excited and super cool (as, of course, he is!).

 Tesla even got in on the action:

 

 

 Don came over to watch Tesla so that Adam and I could just take Lennon to school.  Green Gables Elementary did this big thing on the front lawn where all the kids lined up according to classroom.  As soon as we got to school and found his classroom line, Lennon's excitement faded.  You could tell he was scared and he was trying hard not to cry.

 Adam and I said our goodbyes to Lennon and then moved to the parents area.  I kept telling him how proud we were of him and that he was being brave.  I was trying to keep it together.  I could hide my tears behind my sunglasses--I was trying to be brave like I was telling Lennon to do.  However, I looked over at Adam and he's wiping away tears. Somehow that made me feel better--if Adam was crying, I was completely valid in my tears!

 The school rolled out a "yellow brick road" and each classroom would walk down in while all the other classrooms and parents would clap.  It was really cute, but Lennon looked so small as he walked with his class.

Even though he was only gone 3 hours, I was really missing him that morning.  When Tesla and I went to pick him up from school, Lennon talked a tiny bit about his day.  I figured the fact that he talked about it at all was great!  The next few mornings he did great--he was excited to go to school!  But then the runny nose started--he caught a minor head cold that first week.  That first Friday, as I was saying goodbye to him in his classroom he clung on and started to cry.  But he still did great after I left and still talked about his day.

That second week began with more tears, even before we left the house.  He still wasn't feeling 100% and would cling onto me as I dropped him off--I felt awful!  I was trying to think of ways to make him feel brave about going to school and on Wednesday, as we were walking to his classroom he started crying and said that he missed me so much.  My immediate response to him was, "that's so great, thank you!"  He stopped short and was very confused.  I went on to explain that you don't miss people that you don't love, so the fact that he misses me so much and that I miss him so much means that we love each other so much....Success!!  He cried a bit as I dropped him off, but not as much.  The next day, no tears!!  As we were walking to school, he repeated what I said, saying, "Mom, I miss you so much because I love you so much, and that's good!" and that was that--he's been doing great every since!

He's doing great in school too--the other day he brought home a slip that said, "Lennon has been leading by example all day!"  We're super proud of him and he's extremely proud of himself!  He will tell us stories about how the other kids didn't listen, but that he always listens.  One day they didn't get to go to art because they were listening--he said, "I was listening, but I still didn't get to go to art." He's learning to be in a community of other kids...and the world! 

He says his favorite things to do in school are "learn...and gym!"  We're excited to see him continue to grow this year!

Wisconsin

We finally have a new car that we got in June, so when I broached the subject of me taking the kids to Wisconsin, I wasn't expecting Adam to concede so easily by saying, "of course, that's one of the reasons we bought the car."

Lennon was prepped for weeks about the long car trip and the fact that dad wasn't going to be with us.  He was a little leery about the trip until we moved him into a booster seat where he had more freedom to move around--he was then excited!  The dollar store was a life saver for me--I went before the trip, bought a bunch of things and wrapped them.  After we would stop for breakfast, lunch or dinner, they would get to pick out a "surprise."  Lennon would be occupied for hours...Tesla is a 2-year-old and would move on more quickly, but she did great!  

On the trip out we left the house at 3:30 in the morning and stopped at the hotel after about 10.5 hours of driving.  It worked out great--I only wanted to drive in the dark once, at the beginning of the trip; and I wanted the second day to be super quick.  The kids were a little more antsy on the trip home, as I expected, but they still did so great and I was really proud of them!

Our first priority in Wisconsin was to see Great-Grandma.  Lennon still talks about the cars and toys he played with at her house!

Leah and Emery came into town a couple days into our trip--Lennon was so excited to have a sleepover with Emery in Grandma's sewing room.

Love!

Lego mania--they would spend hours with all the legos.  I love that Lennon (and Emery too) is full immersed in the Lego phase--I have a feeling he will be in it for a long time!

Playing with Jenny:

Tesla was super clingy towards me, as was expected, but still difficult to deal with.  It was always a fight to hand her off to someone to get a break.  So it was a little piece of heaven when Tesla left my lap and crawled right into Jenny's.  Jenny looked over at me and said, "is this normal?"  We all gave a collective, "no!"

Wisconsin State Fair:

The day we went to the state fair, Lennon and I were having a bad day.  Lennon was missing Dad a lot.  I was extremely tired without having Adam to help with the kids--needless to say, our trip did not include some of my best parenting days, and the State Fair was one of them....

First stop (at 10am) was cream puffs!!

Lennon wanted to do the big slide--he didn't love it after the first time (neither did I since my stomach kept jumping with each bump) However, he wanted to go again and loved it after that.

Tesla looked like she was going to throw up after her time...she didn't do it again.

The Discovery Barn was geared towards kids and it was awesome!

Watching a baby chick hatch!

Tractor riding!

We were given a mission by Great Grandma to get a good picture of the three kids...so I did what any good mom would do--I told them we would go get ice cream if they took a good picture....

 ...it worked!

Love!

Even though Tesla had a tiny trim at Christmas, we're considering this her "first haircut," even though we only have about a half inch of hair to show for it!

Having fun on Aunt Diane's phone:

Cousin love!

The boys had so much fun together.  They would take their breaks from each other with no problem and then come back together for fun!

Hotel stay on the way home--getting "surprises:" Angry Bird Go cars...

...and Princess Sophia rings.

A few weeks after we had been home, I was in my room cleaning up and I heard the kids in their room playing "Going to Wisconsin." They were in there for a good hour or more.  They would climb on their bed and "be in the car." Then they would get out and go to their kitchen to "stop for something to eat." There were also many "surprises" on their trip.  It was so fun to hear and watch them...Even now, a couple months later, they still play their game, which I take 100% as a successful trip!

Camping

The summer felt so short this year, but we managed to fit in a couple camping trips.  The first was Grandma and Papa's back yard, like we did last year.  Lennon was very excited!

 

Tesla was very confused about the whole thing.  As it was getting late, she came up to us saying, "ready for nigh-night" and then proceeded to go to the front door.  She got extremely upset when I took her out back into the tent.  She kept crying, "ready for nigh-night, ready for nigh-night." Though she quickly calmed down when we all cuddled in together.

Our early riser:

 Happy (with a bit of sass thrown in there, as always) after a good night's rest.

 You can see that Adam and I didn't get quite as much rest!

Just a few weeks later we headed up to the mountains to camp in Rocky Mountain National Park with Grandma and Papa.  I called like four weeks in advance to reserve the campsite and we got the very last campsite in all of the RMNP!

Roasting marshmallows and avoiding the smoke:

Lennon loved playing with his angry birds on the rocks.  Tesla's toys of choice weren't necessary conducive to camping: stuffed dog, babydoll and my little pony...I'm still picking sticks from that pony's mane!

 

Starting out on our hike:

Tesla loved the hike.  We would point out the view to her and say how cool it was and she always responded, "yeah, it's cool like purple!" Can you guess what her favorite color is?!

Loving his new binoculars:

Taking a quick nap:

Adam has been taking Lennon to the climbing gym each week, which they both love, so Lennon was thrilled to put his climbing skills to the test in the wild!

Lennon was having the time of his life--he kept saying, "this is more than super duper fun!"

Enjoying the campsite.  Lennon loved walking with Papa to get the firewood and he loved walking around to see all the campsite numbers.

Before we left to come home we drove halfway up Trail Ridge road and enjoyed the view.

Getting in one more climb!

RMNP is right outside Estes Park so we naturally had to stop and get some mini golfing in!

Lennon takes his mini golfing very seriously!

Tesla would usually hit the ball and then go get it and throw it toward the hole.  Sometimes she would try to tap it in, other times she would just drop it in the hole.

 

 We haven't had much time (or a decent car) to get up the mountains much the past few years, but seeing how much fun we all had, we'll definitely be taking advantage of where we live more!