First Day of School!!!!!

It's hard to believe that this day has actually come already--sending my firstborn off to his first day of preschool. We've been talking about it for awhile now as I tried to prepare Wyatt, my child who doesn't like change, to what lay ahead. But at 4 1/2 years old, he was definitely ready. I was SO glad I kept him home last year and we were able to work on our own things at home--one year of preschool is enough for him. And I also enjoyed that our lives didn't revolve around a school schedule. But that all came to an end last Wednesday--9.9.09!

We had gone to his open house orientation and met his teacher, Mrs. Meyers, and saw his classroom and some of the other kids and he really enjoyed that--especially since both Matt and I were there and Sadie was with a friend, so he had our undivided attention. Wednesday morning rolled around and he was quite excited. We had a special pancake breakfast to commemorate the "First Day of School", a tradition my mom always carried out.

My little chef--he loves watching cooking shows and I think he will end up being a better cook than I am--which would be great!!

So proud! He was so excited to get to wear his backpack that his Grammy got him a few years ago with his name on it. AND so excited that it was full of his 'school supplies'.

So precious, if I do say so myself!

At school, hanging his backpack up on his hook. He had tears at this point and didn't want to go, so this was the best picture I was going to get.

Picture of the three of us in his classroom, taken by his sweet teacher Mrs. Meyers. All the kids had already gone to play on the 'shape rug', as you can see in the background, but Wyatt had no interest. The only reason I think he smiled for this picture is because it meant he could hang on to me for a bit longer! And I have to say that I surprised myself when I left and tears started to flow down my cheeks--not many, but a couple. I thought I would be just fine!

The "After" picture--SO happy to see Mommy and tell me all about preschool. He LOVED it and felt like such a big boy.

Each day is getting better and better. He is always excited about going and seems to be a bit less clingy each day. No tears this morning, but he still isn't rushing in and waving goodbye to me. Someday he will, but I guess I should enjoy his desire to be with me while it lasts. Because I know someday it will be gone and I'll be reminiscing about these days.

The Weary Travellers

Our next visitors.......hailing all the way from Wellington, New Zealand!!! Yes, my sister and her boyfriend Rob (native of New Zealand, aka Kiwi) made the 13hour flight from Auckland to LA, spent 3 hours in LAX, 2 hour flight to Denver, 3 hour layover, and 2 hour flight to Madison. They left Wellington around 5pm on friday their time, travelled for 24 hours straight, but got in to Madison at midnight on friday. Great for gaining some time, but on their way home, they lost an entire Monday (left on Sunday and arrived on Tuesday!)

We hadn't seen Lindsay in a year and were elated to not only get to spend time with her but also to meet Rob, a huge part of her life. We had 'met' him over Skype and chatted often, but this was the real thing!

Lindsay and Rob came up to our place in the cities for a few days to hang out with us before Matt started work and also for Linds to get to show Rob where she used to live and work prior to making the decision to leave for New Zealand. We had SO much fun with them and Matt and Rob really hit it off! We are only sad they are so far away. But someday we'll make the trip to see them--somewhere in between having babies!

Rob teaching us Americans how to play cricket

Since Lindsay and Rob were the only ones that have actually seen a cricket match, Linds had to be the bowler (hilarious in itself) and Rob was showing us how they 'Boom' it

Matt's attempts..

..a bit flustered by the movement of the ball and also the fact that there is no strike zone, so sometimes you can hit it behind your back or in the opposite direction we would in baseball....

...now there is a real bowler! Yeah Rob!!

Now our turn to teach Rob some baseball, the All-American pasttime!

Sadie's job---ball retriever--which she actually loves!

This girl loves running and I'm hoping she'll run some races with me someday!

Chillaxin'

We loved him!

A week later, we headed to my parents for Labor Day weekend to spend time all together as a family before Linds and Rob headed back to NZ.

The boys going golfing (quite the handsome bunch, i have to say!)

And of course, we did a bit of shopping and Starbucks, what else?

Saturday night we went to the Wisconsin Badger football game

Wyatt and Rob's (obviously) first game!!

Wyatt definitely got into it and loved all the cheers!

Waving to Bucky!

Time at Nani and Pops'

We had such a great time as a family and miss Linds and Rob so much. But we are thankful for the time we had with them and can't wait to visit them in New Zealand. Wyatt keeps asking when we can go, but I've tried to explain how long the trip is (not to mention the cost) and he certainly doesn't get it. Matt and I are thinking a trip with no kids would be great--and during our summer, their winter--so we could do some skiing!! But that will have to wait awhile. Until then, Skype and email will have to do!

The Adventures of the Sullivans and Sorensens

The week after we got back from Stormy Lake, Matt started work and we also had our first 'non-relative' visitors come to see us. Jen Sullivan is one of my best friends from when we lived in Des Moines and we hadn't seen each other for over a year and a half. Now that we are in the cities, it's only a 3 hour trip for us to see each other and we were long overdue. Jen and Ryan and their kids Elle (6 weeks younger than Sadie) and Wheaton (4 mos. old) came to visit us for the weekend and we had quite the adventures!

Before you scan through the pictures, or in case you already have, I have to set up the story of their first night here. We had just finished dinner on Friday night and told the girls to go upstairs and play (we have a loft area set up as a play area). After sitting and talking for awhile, I asked Wyatt to go upstairs and just check on the girls to make sure they were doing ok. He came back downstairs, crying, and saying, "Mommy, they are playing with my preschool stuff." I wasn't sure exactly what they were doing, but realized that they had gotten into his backpack that we had just put all his school supplies in in preparation for him starting school. Once I calmed him down and told him we could get more school supplies, I was able to get him to tell us exactly what it was that they were into. And that is when Jen gasped and Matt walked upstairs, while I got the camera........

They had gotten out his markers and drawn all over their faces, hands, feet, and the walls. Poor Jen was mortified and immediately started saying, "I'll buy you new paint, new carpet, everything. I feel terrible" as we assumed it was Elle's idea to open the backpack since Sadie had seen it sitting there for weeks and hadn't touched it.

When I looked at Sadie and said, "You know we don't draw on walls."

She replied with, "I didn't Mommy"

To which Elle quickly piped in proudly, "I drew on the walls!"

I quickly took as many pictures as I could while Matt started cleaning. And I could see the panic setting in with him as he was scrubbing the carpet--until he went to wipe it off the walls and exclaimed, "This washable stuff is amazing!"

Exactly! The only stuff a mother buys and the reason I wasn't also panicked.

But as you can see from the pictures, they had drawn all over their feet and consequently it was all over the carpet. So it did take quite a bit of scrubbing, but it ALL came out of the floor and walls AND the girls....

We spend Saturday at the Minnesota State Fair--the weather was beautiful, the food delicious, and the company couldn't be beat.

We have decided that Elle and Sadie are destined to have a great friendship, just like their mothers.

(We are at the top of the Giant Slide--all the way on the right)

Elle had already been to the Iowa State Fair a few weeks prior, so this was old hat for her. But my kids were pretty amazed by the live animals--notice Sadie's face in response to the pig snorting!

One other quick story.......on Saturday night we put the kids to bed so we could enjoy some time talking. After about 15 minutes, Ryan went upstairs to check and make sure Elle was okay. He was up there for a bit and then came back downstairs with a half-eaten jar of children's vitamins, exclaiming, "Elle was sitting in her bed eating these. Do you know how full this was?"

To which I replied, "Well, I just bought it yesterday"

We emptied the bottle and counted how many were inside as well as the few that Ryan got out of her mouth before she ate them and determined that she probably only ended up eating about 10-15 of them. We looked over the ingredients and determined it wasn't harmful to her (despite the fact that I daily tell my kids they can only have one in the morning otherwise they'll get sick).

Jen asked if there was anything else upstairs that she could get into and I thought, "Yeah, I don't put anything up high! My kids just aren't that adventurous."

Jen made sure she couldn't get in to anything else and we spent the next hour laughing about what had just happened.

We had an amazing weekend with Jen and Ryan and their kids and can't wait for another 'adventure' when we go visit them in Des Moines.