The First Day of School Arrives!

Will wants to be Han Solo when he grows up and
Colin wants to be a secret spy. 

Well this was a tough morning, I'm not going to lie. I am genuinely excited for the boys to both be in school together and I know how excited they are and I also realize its only three hours a day. Rationally I realize all of this but emotionally it was a little tougher. Didn't we just have these kids? How are they in school already? Luckily, Jim was there to help remind me this is a good thing and I was able to meet a couple of friends for coffee after drop off which all made it a little easier. We are so blessed to have St. Paul's in our lives. It is truly an extension of our family and has made it just a little easier to walk away from the boys knowing they are being given the best first experience with school imaginable. So thank you. 

Silly Faces!

Definitely my favorite of the first day pics! 

Huh. So after all that expelling of emotion its now time to pick up the boys. So that really wasn't much time at all. 

Playing in Mrs. Schafer's office before heading out.

As it turns out (no surprise) the first day was a big hit! Both boys had a wonderful time singing songs, reading stories, playing on the playground and Colin tells me he is starting to learn about sign language! He said that he liked all the new kids but doesn't remember any of their names and Will says he likes all the boys but doesn't really want to play with any of the girls. 

What to do after your first day of school? Why, lunch at chips and salsa of course!

I won't get too sentimental as we're off to the first First Friday of the year at St. Paul's this evening. The boys are looking forward to pizza with Mr. Parkey and I'm looking forward to catching up with friends. 

Till Next Summer, 
Mamma, Daddy, Frog & Toad

The Absolutely Very Truly Last Day of Summer

Super excited to see Mrs. Schafer!

You'd think we might do something exceptional with our last day of summer but no, it was actually pretty uneventful. We started the day off with a trip to St. Paul's to officially register the kids in school and let them get to know their new teachers, Mrs. Land and Mrs. Phippen for Will and Mrs. Smith and Mrs. McVay for Colin. They had a great time playing with their classmates and Colin impressed his teachers by writing "Chicago" down when they asked him to draw a picture about his summer. All this while mamma filled out forms, paid tuition and hugged on all the school staff we've missed seeing every day over the summer. 

Getting their first germ juice of the year from Mrs. Rodenberg.

Afterwards, it was a trip to the grocery store and some serious park time. We spent about three hours at two parks today which I was hoping would totally wear out the boys before taking them to my salon to get their school year hair cuts. Unfortunately, it didn't wear them out enough to forgo fighting about who would have their hair cut first and at one point there was a fight about who had the better chair while waiting. So there was that. 

Ragamuffins before.....

And our dapper little men after!

I think their fall cuts turned out great and we are ready for their first day of school tomorrow. And with the end of summer comes the end of Frog & Toad's summer adventure blog. Never fear, I will post some first day of school pictures but that'll be the last one. It has been such fun documenting all they did this summer. Will wasn't as interested but Colin really enjoys looking at each of the pictures posted and having me read each blog post. Hopefully *IF* we do this again next year he can write some of his own posts. I am just amazed at all he will learn in one year of Kindergarten. I swear it was just a moment ago that we brought him home from the hospital, bleary-eyed and in love. 

Till Tomorrow, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad

Labor Day, Plus Mini Golf! Cause, Why Not?

 We kicked off Labor Day weekend with a trip to Annapolis and a pirate ship adventure. I'm so glad that Jim was able to take off the day and join us because this really was the highlight of our summer. Hands down the best little pirate cruise two kids could hope for, we will be returning for sure! The kids were a little unsure about getting "tattoos" or mustaches painted on their face but when Pirate Rusty suggested a batman and superman tattoo they were on board. 

 The pirate "staff" were totally committed to their story and kept the kids engaged and active the whole time, from learning how to raise the jolly roger flag, to growling "arrrrrrgh"when they saw the dread Pirate Pete. They used a treasure map to find a clue in a bottle floating by our ship. They got to use their water canons to defeat the dread Pirate Pete, take his keys and then eventually hauled in the sunken treasure! There was pirate grog to drink and treasure to distribute. They kids were in heaven! And Will even stopped a moment while collecting his treasure to pick out a ring to give to mamma. It was sweet even if he took longer than any of the other pirates to collect his booty!

Post pirate adventure lunch!

What's the fun of having daddy home for a long weekend if there isn't wrestling involved, right? Well I'm glad he is the one to rough house with the kids because that is not exactly mamma's thing. The boys (all three of them) loved it of course and I'm just glad no one threw out their back. Yes, yes we're getting old and these are the nagging things I think about. 

A little blurry because they could hardly be still for even a second.

Some friends were sweet enough to host a little ice cream social in their back yard for the incoming St. Paul's three's class. We all had a ball catching up with friends and meeting some of the new families. Will was especially exited to see his little friend Lainey, whose family was hosting the party. 

And Monday we hit the pool for what might be our last visit of the summer and if I have my way the last time period. I'm trying to convince the kids to switch pools to one with actual bathrooms and locker rooms and a snack bar. So far we've taken two votes and I've lost twice. I'm considering a hostile coup come next summer if  our club doesn't start providing real bathrooms!

Here is Colin trying out his new "trick," holding his breath under water with out actually holding his nose. Big things going here people, big things. I will say, in the last few minutes before we left Colin tried out the back stroke and did an awesome, awesome job! Maybe a little back-stroker in our future? 

We capped off the weekend by having some great friends over for chicken bombs, smashed potatoes with bacon and super hero popsicles.  All said it was a great few days! Oh and here is the boys' favorite new joke, courtesy of one of the kids' popsicles.... What word is spelled incorrectly in the dictionary?....

... Incorrectly.  Its official, my sense of humor can be found on children's popsicles. 

And well, a week doesn't seem to go by with out a trip to a mini golf course and this week was no exeption. We tried a new (to us) course, Top Golf in Springfield today and brought a long a few friends with us to make it more fun. Aside from a few (too many) trips to the potty, one (accidental) club to the head and more than a few tears toward the end, a good time was had by all! Or at least I hope.

Till Next Time, 

Mamma, Toad & Frog

The Chain Gang

I have loved this summer more than any other before with the boys! With Will out of diapers and done with naps it has freed us up to do so much more than we've ever been able to do before. Which is awesome, but at this point into the summer (week 14) I'm beginning to run low on ways to entertain, educate or just wear them out. This week is a little bit of a hodge podge of activities. 

Colin and I "built" a jail a few years ago for him and he asked if we could build one again but this time one for him and one for Will. Coincidentally our new family room end table arrived this week so we had two large card board boxes just sitting around. It was great fun "designing" the jails with the kids and then letting them decorate their own cells. 

We also went bowling with friends this week, explored the Eiffel Tower, thoroughly enjoyed some unhealthy fast food, and finally saw Planes! 

Helping mommy look at new sofas.

Obviously Dusty came along with us to see Planes. 

 

Running laps! 

Oh and I also introduced the boys to a new consequence for misbehaving, i.e. yelling at your mother or brother, hitting, kicking, pushing, elbowing or generally trying to knock down your brother. Running laps! They have to run from our house to the end of the street and back four times, every single time. This is pretty ingenious if I do say so myself.

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Toad & Frog

North Carolina Bound!

We had an amazing time in North Carolina! Having grown up driving to our summer vacations and not flying to them, there is feel of returning to the "good old days" when you load up the car with bags open and strewn about haphazardly. The fact that you don't really have to organize packing for a car trip is both liberating and infuriating for someone with a certain passion for organization. We didn't quite get out the door at 7am as we'd hoped (does anyone ever?) but rolled out about 90 minutes later and 7 hours later (that includes one stop at Chick-fil-a, obviously) we pulled into the rental house that Babs and Brent had generously invited us to stay at for the weekend with them, their precious puppy Susie, Tia, darling Naya and Ms. Leisl with her two girls, Georgia and Olivia. We also had guest appearances by the sassy Ms. Karen who taught Colin how to boogie board and Ms. Sara, Brent's fabulous daughter. All in all it was a fantastic group!

But before I get started on our fun filled weekend, I thought I'd do a quick update. We took Colin to his pediatrician for a followup appointment after his trip to the ER. The doctor thought he likely had a mild concussion given his reaction but didn't find anything on the ct scan. She did suggest that we let his eye rest which meant no tv/ipad etc. Which means for the 6 hour drive we never even pulled out the ipads. I was surprised by how well the kid did. Again, a flashback to the dark days of the early 80's when we had no ipads or car seats for that matter and somehow managed to survive just fine. Here are the boys super excited to finally get to go into the ice cream door at the pediatrician's office. They've been hoping to get this room for ages! 

I found Colin in his dad's bbq bin this morning. Like father like son!

But back to the beach! The kids had a ball playing with Georgia and Olivia and the girls couldn't have been any sweeter or more of a help with the boys. They always had an eye out for the boys in the pool and when Will needed a little distraction from his whining the girls were on call. 

Dad and Bunny enjoying a little reading.

 I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that knows the boys when I tell you they were up at 5:30 in the morning our first morning. After pleading, cajoling and maybe bribing the boys to go back to bed I finally got up with them at 7am and took them down to the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous! Cool, breezy and with my giant cup of coffee in hand, just perfect. I wish I could figure out how to add videos because there is a precious one of Colin getting his feet wet in the surf the first time. He was surprise and elated and giggling like a wild thing. Here are a couple of pictures. 

We made it down to the Carolina Beach boardwalk early the next morning and although it was all closed the boys had a great time exploring and we even found an arcade, naturally we had to stop. 

Happy Campers!

Case of the grumpies!

 

The best donuts in town! Apparently there is always a line out front and Mr. Brent brought
some warm donuts to the house for breakfast our first day. They were awesome!
Way better than anything I've ever had before. 

 We stopped at a near by amusement park to burn off some energy (my daily goal) and the boys had a great time on the go-carts. And naturally we had to hit the links while we where there. Colin is still obsessed with "golf" as he calls it. And frankly he is getting really good. One of these days his dad will get him a few real clubs *side eyes Jim* and take him to hit some balls. Some where around the 16th hole we had some serious behavior issues and Colin and I returned to the car. I assume every parent has had to walk through throngs of families while their child sobs uncontrollably and everyone is just staring at you? Yes? Maybe? Just me? Cause yes, its embarrassing but its better than staying while your child misbehaves I guess. 

 We stopped on our way home for lunch at the cutest little dinner, Pop's. The kids were enamored with this "waitress" (I'm not going there people) but they also seemed to enjoy the hotdog. Will had his first corn dog and after a lot of convincing arguments about it being just like a hot dog only adding deliciously fried corn meal he decided he could try it. Sure enough he deemed it "yummy!"

 I didn't get many good pictures of the kids at the beach because I was mostly in the water with them. I will say I was a little unsure how they would react to the big waves. They LOVED them! Will was slightly more timid and preferred to play in the sand along the water's edge and only go out when an adult was holding him. But we all had to keep pulling Colin out of the big waves. He boogie boarded and if we'd let him he would still be out there "jumping" the waves and giggling. Clearly we need to take him back to the ocean. 

It was sad to say goodbye, especially to Ms. Barbara and Mr. Brent's sweet Susie. The kids loved her and Will even asked me the morning we left if we could take Susie home with us. So we may be on the path to our own puppy dog soon, or at least I can hope! 

A little snooze in the car after a trip to Cracker Barrel for lunch! 

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad