Family Photos... just a bunch of goofballs!

Here are some pics of our family. The first one is "nice" and the rest of them are a little silly....which is a little more in character for our family!

Teeth and Sprinklers

We were in Wichita last weekend for a wedding. We got to spend a day with my family before moving on to Travis' family. Right before we left home, Sophie asked me to pull out her other loose tooth. The tooth fairy was able to find gramma and pappa's house even though we didn't get there until midnight and little Miss Sophie "just couldn't sleep." The tooth fairy wasn't able to visit until well after 1 am...he was very sleepy!

The kids got to enjoy some time playing in Gramma and Papa's sprinklers!

Sophie's First Day of Kindergarten

I know you've all been waiting patiently for updates. So here is the first of many for today! Sophie's first day of Kindergarten was July 16. She has been waiting for this for quite a long time now! These are some pictures of her with her Cardinals backpack that she picked out. Daddy was so proud!!!

She also picked a Hello Kitty lunch box to go with her backpack. I think it's so cute... she's 100% girl and 100% Cardinals fan. I love it!!!

We all walked her in to her classroom even though the teacher told us not to. Apparently, they don't want parents walking their kids in because they think they will cry more and cause a problem. I didn't care. I wasn't going to miss this for anything!!!

Here are some of the other things that happened that day that I'll want to remember:
1. Halfway to school, Sophie told us she had a tummy ache. Poor girl. She gets her nerves from her momma and gramma!
2. Aiden asked me nearly 10 times "We go get Sissy now?"
3. Aiden won the award for most tears when we dropped Sophie off. Mommy and Daddy did better than expected. Sophie had a couple of tears, but overall did great!

Shopping for School

As you all know, this is a big year for us. Sophie is starting Kindergarten this year and since our school system is on a weird, year-round schedule, that means school starts a week from tomorrow! That's right! July 16 is the big day. The day we have been talking about for the last year is finally around the corner.

Sophie picked out a new pair of sneakers (Skechers Twinkle Toes.) They are only sort of cute, but she loved them enough to agree to do laundry to get them. At $40, they are the most expensive pair of shoes I have ever bought one of my kids. Heck, I rarely spend that kind of money on shoes for myself. This is a special occasion, though. Right?

We also got our school supply list and headed out in search of the perfect supplies. Not a tough job, or so you would think. We're still short 4 bottles of glue and 1 pack of markers. I can't believe how difficult is is to find exactly what's on the list. I heard one of the schools around here gives an option to send $50 to school with your kid and they will get the supplies for them. That sounds like a great deal!

I have spent the last several days explaining to Sophie why she won't be riding the bus. I'm going to take her and pick her up. The school is only about a mile down the road. She would rather ride the bus and I guess that would be ok, but I have found out that you learn everything you need to know in kindergarten and you learn everything your parents don't want you to know on the school bus. Therefore, I have chosen to deliver her safely to school by means of her booster seat in the back seat of my influence-free Toyota.

Pictures of our first day will be coming soon. I'll keep you all updated on how she (and her parents) are doing with this big change. We have all-day kindergarten, so I think the biggest adjustment is just going to be so much more time away from home. I can't say that I'm ready for that yet. It's one of the reasons I only work 3 days a week. I'm just not ready to give my baby up yet!

Whitewater Rafting

Here's the pic of us whitewater rafting. This was Aiden's favorite part of vacation and I have to say it was one of my favorites too! Shortly after this picture was taken, a thunderstorm moved in. The wind picked up and it started to pour. Thunder and lightning made us all a little nervous, but the guide said it would only last for 5 minutes and we were glad that he was right! We were soaked through, but it was still a blast.

Family Vacation Pics

Here is the story of our first family vacation. We drove to Nashville Tuesday night and then got up early the next day and finished the trip to Gatlinburg, TN. Our first stop was the Ripley's Aquarium there. It was by far the best aquarium I have ever been to. Absolutely incredible. We all had a great time! This is a pic of the kids looking at the big tank they had there.

The sawtooth shark was one of our favorite things that we saw. It was so big!

This is a fun pic I took of the sawtooth shark's "nose." The sharks were swimming above us. I took this pic when the shark was directly above me! So cool!

Sophie's favorite part of the whole trip was petting the horseshoe crabs. Aiden and I were too scared to touch them!

This is a pic I took of the jellyfish. They were awesome to watch!

Sophie learned what the word "souvenir" means on this trip. Aiden got "Sharky" and Sophie got a rubber worm. The had so much fun!

We spent the second morning there driving through the Smoky Mountain National Park. It was absolutely breathtaking. This is a pic of the kids on our way up the mountains.

When we got to the state line, there was a bunch of people gathered looking at something. We soon found out that it was a bear! Sophie was impressed because "it wasn't even in a cage!" Aiden cried when we left because he wanted to take the bear home! No Way!

This is the state line sign. I was so excited to say I've been in North Carolina. We hit six states on our trip: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina!

One of the kids' favorite things to do was swimming at the hotel.

Sophie became a very brave little swimmer on this trip and had a blast going down the waterslide by herself! She also started swimming without clinging to mom or dad. Aiden is a completely different story!

We spent the third day at Dollywood. We had a great time, but I didn't bring my camera so here's a pic of the souvenirs. Aiden got a blue snake and a piece of coal and Sophie got a pink Jewel. Aiden saw that snake when we walked in and asked about it all day. He kept saying, " I get snake mommy? Say yes." It was so cute.

The hotel we stayed at was really nice. We had a big thunderstorm one night that knocked out the electricity for a couple of hours and an hour long incident with the fire alarms being set off. We really didn't mind.

The bear statue in front of our hotel.

We stopped in Louisville on our way home and went to the Louisville Slugger Museum to see them making bats. This is the giant bat at the enterance.

Travis swinging Mickey Mantle's Bat. They made everyone wear gloves!

Travis and Babe trying to see where the ball went.

We had so much fun on our trip. We also went Whitewater Rafting on this trip which was Aiden's favorite part. I'm still looking for the CD with our picture from that trip on it. I'll post it as soon as I find it!

Our Little Graduate

We got to celebrate Sophie's preschool graduation on Friday night at a local park. Her daycare threw a fantastic little ceremony and served burgers and hot dogs. The kids had a great time playing with each other in a non-school environment! The kids sang a few songs... don't worry grandparents, we got it all on video!

Sophie had a great time with her little friends. She is such a social butterfly. She had to talk to everyone! The kids got to keep their cap and gown, so we have another dress up outfit. This picture bears some resemblance to a pic of me graduating from high school...same haircut just a different color! We'll have to see if papa can find that picture!

This is Sophie's class. She is in the middle row, second from the right. Her little BFF is on the front row, second from the left.