Colin's a big Kindergartner!

Okay so my sweet Colin Joseph has been in Kindergarten for over a week now, and I seem to have forgotten to post pictures.

It was a momentous morning for us, and Colin was definitely excited to go.

He even happily obliged to take pictures before we left (at 6:45 am!).

He wanted his hair spiked up for the first day - so cute!

And then he insisted on getting pictures with each one of us (in front of the van that we just bought the night before!).  Yes, a minivan, and it will be the perfect vehicle to transport our growing family!

He even wanted one with Moose, who obviously just wanted to kiss Colin's face more than take a picture.  

In front of St. Therese, and right before I held Colin's hand down a long hallway.  He was so brave, while I, of course, cried the entire way out the door and while sitting in the van.  

Colin is in Mrs. Bradley's class in room KC.  Go Royals!

And we recently have taken up carpooling with his buddy Mady B that he knew from Christ Lutheran last year.  The kids always seem to have a much better day when they can walk in together (even though they are in different classrooms this year).  

We are so proud of Colin.  He is doing great!  He comes home fairly tired (and pretty grouchy at times), but he has gotten nothing but good reports from his teacher and tells me about his 'best friends' when he comes home from school.  His most favorite part of Kindergarten - getting to eat hot lunch!  He gets to pick one meal a week where he can go through the hot lunch line. It really is the little things, huh?!

"beaches" and baseball

We have been busy trying to fit in all the fun "summer" items that we haven't accomplished yet (before baby comes).   This past weekend included a trip to Smithville Lake to visit the "beach" (I know, a pathetic attempt at a beach, but it's not too bad when you're 4 and 6 years old!), and another Royals game on Saturday night.  

It sure was sunny out there on Saturday morning - the kids had so much fun!

Brian, being such a good sport - endured a mud fight and stayed in the water with the 2 of them the whole time.  As for me, well, I stayed dry on a towel being covered by an umbrella.  No icky lake water for this pregnant lady!  :)

They had so much fun!

Maggie took a little break and hung out with me for a minute eating her peanut butter crackers.

Colin played hard right up until go-time, which at the end of the morning, consisted of laying and doing sand angels in the sand.  Yeah, he had sand EVERYWHERE and we had a very crabby child when he realized he had to sit in that the whole way home.  Bathtime was quite a mess!

Then we rested for a bit at home and went out to the Royals game after church.  

It was really busy that game because Mike Sweeney was getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, but the kids still had a blast and we had lots of fun hitting up the outfield and doing some games.

Colin did awesome at the Little K!

Running the bases

We lucked out and got seats in the shade - it really wasn't all that hot out sitting in our seats

Colin called these empty cups his "armor" for the game

Maggie insisted on sitting on my lap and trying on my sunglasses (AKA - breaking my sunglasses)

But she looked so cute!

I can hear her laughing in this picture - Love this girl!

Oh, and Colin caught a T-shirt during one of the T-shirt toss giveaways!  Brian had him held up high and the Blue Crew gal made an awesome throw right up to him.  He was so proud of himself!  Maggie was proud of her brother, too!

And one last attempt at getting a good family picture with the stadium behind us.

Clearly the sun was in everyone's eyes - but I just love how both of the kids are still trying so hard to smile (unsuccessfully, of course!)

Phew! Another fun weekend in the books.

Maggie's back-to-school week and White Belts

Maggie went back to school this week.  Her 3rd and final year at Christ Lutheran as a Pre-K lady!

Hard to believe she is one of the "big" kids at school this year.

She was pretty excited to head back, mainly because ALL of her good friends are in her class (God bless Mrs. Heiss!)  

I snapped a few pics before we left for school on Monday morning.

She was so excited to wear her new shoes (Meemaw got them for her about 3 months ago and we haven't worn them until today - that was a LONG 3 months!)

Colin was such a supportive brother!  I love this picture of them standing back to back.

He doesn't officially start back to school until next week, but is doing a "non-school" day program at his new school, St. Therese.  So he also had a first day on Monday, just not technically school yet.

Maggie and Zoey hung out in Mrs. Fredde's room for a bit, and Colin wanted to join in for the picture.  They are such good friends!

I was a nervous wreck all day worrying about Colin on Monday.  He has never really gotten around St. Therese much without Brian or I there with him.  He didn't know a single person in Viking Voyager when I dropped him off, and he was acting pretty shy.  When I said goodbye, of course I cried a bit (darn pregnancy hormones on top of my already emotional state), but he gave me his crooked smile and a tiny wave of his hand, and I was off to work.  I RUSHED to get there as early as possible to pick him up, and guess what?!  He was playing dodge ball in the gym and didn't want to leave!  He told me he played with a "tall, spikey haired boy" and "another boy named Colin who's in 1st grade".  Sounds good to me!

In the hallway after dodge ball - looking so grown up.

We celebrated with some ice cream after dinner on Monday.  

Besides being super tired, they were happy to start back on their new routine!

Meanwhile, the kids earned their white belt in karate on Thursday.

We LOVED their instructor, Courtney, who does such a great job with the kids.

Here is Maggie getting fitted for her "size 0" white belt

Bowing to her instructor

Colin getting fitted with his "size 1" white belt

Getting a round of applause from the parents and instructors

They were so proud of themselves.

We decided not to sign up for karate (the smallest commitment time was 6 months long, with 1 year being the "cheapest" option).  We figured that with the new baby coming along, we had better not stretch ourselves too thin before we know how our family will adjust.  It was a really hard decision because we loved the self-confidence, strength, and respect the class teaches, as well as how to stand still without any wiggles.  I'm sure we'll be back sometime soon! 

The final few weeks of summer push

Once again, I'm going through some pictures I have on my phone of our last few weeks - some of which I totally forgot were on there!  Tiff sent me some super cute pictures of her time with the kids, which I also forgot to put on here earlier!

Gonna be a lot of pictures on here...

We signed up for a 2 week karate class promotion - and we are halfway done.  The kids are having  a lot of fun and it's super cute hearing them say "yes, maam" and "yes sir" to their instructors

They also got their names put on a white belt for them to receive next week.  The kids have to fill out 2 weeks of a "good report card" and they can get their white belts.

They are pretty excited!!

We took Maggie in for 'Meet the Teacher' night last week.  She is so ready to be back in school, she really misses her friends!

Colin also wanted his picture taken, as a reminder for 'what a fun place it was' to go to school.

Can't believe he's off for Kindergarten soon!

Tiff and Chad and Meemaw came up to celebrate a combo birthday for Colin and I.  We all made it to the pool for a bit and had so much fun!

Maggie just loved hanging out with Gordon in the shallow area

And Colin just loved using my belly as a pillow :)

Everyone just hanging out

Gordon had fun crawling around in the shallow area.  He was so proud of himself that he could get around without any help!

I love this one of Tiff and I

And Meemaw and Tiff spent some time with the kids (again) this past week when they came up to help watch them while Brian and I were working.  We also tackled the huge project of going through all of the baby boy clothes and sorting them by size (again, after lending them to multiple people, they were really out of order!) and season.  It was a task, but we were successful!

Doing some swinging

Maybe snack time?!  Hanging out in the driveway

Pool time...again!

Cousin bath time.  Colin went fishing with Chad and Brian while Maggie and Gordon hung out with us at the house.  Maggie did great being super helpful with Gordon and making sure he had fun!

More summer updates

We're wrapping up the summer and I thought I'd share a few more pictures I found on my phone.

Maggie had her last day of t-ball (FINALLY) and got a little medal at the end of the game.

She ran over to say hello to me at one point, and was acting really silly instead!

Playing the outfield (her least favorite thing to do!)

Her coach, Oren, giving her the medal

She was pretty proud of it for a minute - now it's in a drawer somewhere...

My birthday was a couple weekends ago.

It was a wonderful day filled with a little extra sleep, breakfast I didn't have to make, a beautiful heart necklace from Brian and the kids, some thoughtful homemade cards, a whoopee cushion (that was from the kids, of course!), a pretty cardigan and scarf from Meemaw, an invite to a wine and painting party from Tiff and Chad, a wonderful gift card from Grammie and Grandad, plus some yummy smelling lotion from the Wells' crew,  and a few bags of my favorite candy!

We also went to see the Royals play on Saturday night with a super fun tailgate before the game.

Unfortunately, as it has been all summer, it was about 100 degrees and super hot!  Thankfully we had a little cloud cover which helped some!

Maggie and I waiting for the food to be ready - this is our "ugh, we're hot" face

Now for our "we're so happy to be at the Royals game" face

The boys played tailgate toss for a minute - then they were too hot!

Once inside the stadium, Colin wanted to play a little mini-golf (so Brian went with him) and Maggie wanted to ride the carousel with me.  Can't you just see the sweat all over her hair and face?!

Grabbed a couple cute pics in front of the "hall of fame"

In other news - we now have 2 really awesome swimmers in our family.

Maggie decided a couple weeks ago that she was going to swim her heart out...and she did!

It took a bit to master the breathing, but she got it and now we can't stop her!

Looks like we'll have both kiddos on the swim team next summer :)