Trace's First Day of Preschool

Trace has been waiting for this day to come and when it finally arrived he wasn't disappointed. As soon as we opened the door to the school, Trace sprinted to his class, found his locker and threw his backpack inside. He was off to play when we stopped him to take some pictures, find his name card, and empty his backpack. As soon as those tasks were done it was hard to slow him down long enough to get our goodbye hugs. Trace was one excited preschooler, which made it easier for this mama to leave her baby boy behind.

The highlights of Trace's day were playing outside for recess, eating lunch, and bringing home a folder like his sisters. His teacher, Ms. Myer, reported that Trace had a good day and took a long nap. I was a little nervous about nap time since he isn't used to taking a nap with a room full of kids. He did great though. Keep up the good work Buddy. Mommy and Daddy are proud of you!!! Our baby is growing up...

Kaylee and Kianna's First Day of School

Kaylee- 2nd Grade

Kianna- Kindergarten

Kianna wondering why I was taking so many pictures.

The girls started school today and were beyond excited. They both had a great first day with lots to report. Kianna was excited to have gotten two jobs: the first one was washing tables in the cafeteria and the second one was counting how many kids were buying hot lunch. Kaylee had art class and was excited about the project they are working on. Looks like our school year is off to a good start. Little man starts tomorrow...

End of Summer Celebration

I wasn't able to take each of the kids out to lunch as a part of their school shopping experience, so instead we took the kids on a family date night in Toledo. We went to the movie "The Odd Life of Timothy Green", which was a great movie. It is a tear jerker, but I highly recommend it! After the movie, we went out for italian food. It was actually a bit of an experience in itself. Kaylee had her heart set on eating at the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Toledo, which is a bit of a drive from where we watched the movie. We drove to the distance only to discover that the restaurant had quite a wait due to the local AAA baseball team having a game that evening. The stadium is just a block away from the restaurant. Who knew? Next time we will have to check the game schedule! We then drove back to the area of town we had watched the movie in for a better selection of restaurants. Unfortunately, it was prime dinner time and all the restaurants we tried had a long wait. In the end, we settled on a nice italian restaurant and once food was in our bellies all was well again...

It was a fun night out as a family and our house guest, Alexa, joined us. Alexa is a senior at Huntington University in Indiana. She has been living with us all summer and will be with us until the beginning of December. She is here completing an internship for her degree. She spent the summer working as a camp counselor at The Centre and now is assisting the school with chapels and leading several small group bible studies. It was fun having her join us and getting to know her better. Farewell summer, school year here we come...

School Shopping with Trace

I discovered that the dislike for shopping starts at an early age for boys, at least that appears to be the case with Trace. I took Trace school shopping today and unfortunately even though it was supposed to be a special time of shopping with just the two of us my little guy was not into it. He enjoyed picking out a few things, but was ready to be done before we were actually finished. I guess I'm not sure if that is just being 3 years old or being a boy? We did manage to get all of his school supplies and some new shoes, so it was a success in the end. He is especially excited about his new Star Wars Lego backpack. We went to the school's open house tonight and upon seeing pretty much anyone he recognized, he would immediately turn around to show them his new backpack. He is one excited preschooler!

Silly Girls

The girls had a playdate with their two best friends, Callie and Cara today. Kianna and Callie cracked me up, as they switched clothes and tried to pretend they were the other person. It was pretty funny. Kianna was walking around calling me Mrs. Cook. Silly girls!

Kaylee's Fashion Show

I took Kaylee school shopping. She needed some chapel clothes, new shoes, and school supplies.  We had a nice time together. However, I think she had the most fun showing off her new clothes to Daddy. She was really into it. Here's our little fashionista... 

VBS 2012

We made it home from our camping trip with just enough time to make it to church this morning. The kids were excited to sing the songs they had learned in VBS this past week. I had to keep from crying as I watched them sing their songs and do their actions, especially Trace. He was a ham up there on stage and we couldn't believe how well he knew the songs and actions. It was precious!!!! I love to watch my kids praise God!

This year's theme was Tumbleweed Gulch and the kids had a blast. It was fun to hear them talk about it each night. Trevor and I helped out with crafts, which was much more manageable than the decorations last year. Fun times...