Alabama Academics

This week was very exciting for us. Nathan started preschool on Tuesday and loved it. They have one way windows, which I took full advantage of. He put on a sad show for me while I was in the room, but as soon as I walked out of the room, he was on the floor playing.
Here he is on his first day of school. These pictures are funny because you can see the progression of nervousness. He's Mr. Funny Guy at home in the driveway.
It's becoming more real to him in the parking lot at school.
He's in the classroom with a really nervous look on his face. Luckily, everything turned out to be great and he didn't even cry. You could tell he wanted to, but he held it together like he said he would. He's such a big boy now!
When I picked him up he was building a tall tower with some peg-type blocks. He told me he didn't want to leave yet because he wasn't done playing. Shortly after he told me that, his teacher, Ms. Linda, told the class it was time to pick up toys. Nathan immediately jumped up from the table and told Ms. Linda, "Sorry Teacher. I have to go home now. My mommy is here and I have to go home." The other teacher, Ms. Katie, started cracking up at Nathan's "Sorry Teacher" comment. Can you tell he doesn't like the picking up part of playing? It's such a relief dropping him off at school when he actually enjoys it so much he doesn't want to come home.
Baby Sister is a big girl too. She started preschool this week and absolutely loves it. Here she is primping for her first day of school.

I sat her down in the middle of her classroom and she never looked back. She had a whole new room to explore and a bunch of new kids to play with. Who needs Mommy when you have all that?
I picked her up and her teachers, Nathan's teacher, and the preschool director told me she is absolutely the happiest baby ever and she smiled all day long. No surprise there. Did you expect anything other than smiles from her? Nathan's teacher said she went in Baby Sister's class for a minute and Kathryn was the only kid in the room not crying. I asked if she took a nap and Ms. Jenn responded with "No way. Not even close." Baby Sister was too busy playing to even think about sleep. She was home five minutes before she went down for a nap though. A three hour nap! Thursdays are going to be great!

As I was packing lunches, I realized how neglected Kathryn looks. Nathan has this personalized embroidered lunch bag while Kathryn carries her lunch in a Walmart bag with her name written in magic marker. I guess that's just part of being second child.

Before anyone gets upset about poor pitiful Kathryn, let me explain that I ordered her an embroidered lunch bag last week, but it didn't arrive in time for her first day of school. She'll be dining in style next week!

Minnesota Madness

We spent Labor Day weekend in Rush City, MN at Oma and Opa's house. It wasn't the best planned out trip, so the kids sort of suffered from lack of sleep. We got in close to midnight on Friday night, so after the drive to Oma and Opa's house and getting reacquainted, Nathan got to bed around 2 a.m. Then he spent the rest of the weekend with his cousins.
Eating pizza during our Dallas layover. He was already getting tired at that point.
Baby Sister saved up her energy during the layover so that she would be well-rested to be able to bounce and squirm on the second leg of our trip too. There's something about a cramped airplane that gives her a burst of energy.

I didn't really get any great cousin pictures, but it wasn't from lack of trying.
Seating six kids on a slide for a picture works out exactly how you would imagine it to work. The look on Steve's face says it all!
We gave up that idea and settled on this.
Which didn't work out any better.
This is what a Complete Cousin Connection (that's what the cousins named it) looks like!

This is actually the best cousin picture I got.
Nathan was fascinated by Karl's knowledge of dinosaurs. Maybe we'll have to start a dinosaur collection for Nathan, but first we'll have to learn about dinosaurs to make it interesting for him. Or, maybe we can borrow Karl to come down and play with him. I like the second idea.

Nathan still doesn't know how to smile for a picture. This is what you get when you ask for a smile.
Baby Sister and Karl.
Emily, Kathryn and Aunt Tanya.
Nathan and Oma.

Nathan and Opa.
We flew back home Monday afternoon. Just what everyone wants to see before a flight. A kid drinking coffee.
Nathan was his usual expert traveler. Kathryn, not so much, but at least she's cute. That makes it easy to forgive her. She's going to be such a brat if we continue with that train of thought. Nathan invited Kathryn to play in his tent.

We finally got home at 10:30 p.m. Nathan got to bed at 11:15 p.m. then headed off to school bright and early the next day. He refused to wake up. I had to wake up Baby Sister and put her on the bed to climb on him. (In case you can't tell, he likes to sleep with lots of pillows and blankets on his bed, even if that means taking them from Baby Sister. And yes, he's still a crazy sleeper, in case you couldn't tell that either.)
Kathryn didn't want to wake up either. I love sleeping pictures.

Minnesota Madness

We spent Labor Day weekend in Rush City, MN at Oma and Opa's house. It wasn't the best planned out trip, so the kids sort of suffered from lack of sleep. We got in close to midnight on Friday night, so after the drive to Oma and Opa's house and getting reacquainted, Nathan got to bed around 2 a.m. Then he spent the rest of the weekend with his cousins.
Eating pizza during our Dallas layover. He was already getting tired at that point.
Baby Sister saved up her energy during the layover so that she would be well-rested to be able to bounce and squirm on the second leg of our trip too. There's something about a cramped airplane that gives her a burst of energy.

I didn't really get any great cousin pictures, but it wasn't from lack of trying.
Seating six kids on a slide for a picture works out exactly how you would imagine it to work. The look on Steve's face says it all!
We gave up that idea and settled on this.
Which didn't work out any better.
This is what a Complete Cousin Connection (that's what the cousins named it) looks like!

This is actually the best cousin picture I got.
Nathan was fascinated by Karl's knowledge of dinosaurs. Maybe we'll have to start a dinosaur collection for Nathan, but first we'll have to learn about dinosaurs to make it interesting for him. Or, maybe we can borrow Karl to come down and play with him. I like the second idea.

Nathan still doesn't know how to smile for a picture. This is what you get when you ask for a smile.
Baby Sister and Karl.
Emily, Kathryn and Aunt Tanya.
Nathan and Oma.

Nathan and Opa.
We flew back home Monday afternoon. Just what everyone wants to see before a flight. A kid drinking coffee.
Nathan was his usual expert traveler. Kathryn, not so much, but at least she's cute. That makes it easy to forgive her. She's going to be such a brat if we continue with that train of thought. Nathan invited Kathryn to play in his tent.

We finally got home at 10:30 p.m. Nathan got to bed at 11:15 p.m. then headed off to school bright and early the next day. He refused to wake up. I had to wake up Baby Sister and put her on the bed to climb on him. (In case you can't tell, he likes to sleep with lots of pillows and blankets on his bed, even if that means taking them from Baby Sister. And yes, he's still a crazy sleeper, in case you couldn't tell that either.)
Kathryn didn't want to wake up either. I love sleeping pictures.

Sibling Giggling

After living in South Dakota for the past three years where Labor Day meant no more nice weather for a really, really long time, we're looking forward to another month of summer weather. The kids and I are taking advantage of it by taking strolls up to the playground. Nathan decided that the next time we go there we need to bring our tennis rackets so we can play tennis. Maybe you'll be seeing a tennis post in the near future.
Who needs to see the world around them when they have their big brother's silly face to stare at?

Giving rock climbing a try.

Nathan takes such good care of his baby sister.
And she loves him for it.
More brother and sister love.
I hope Nathan and Kathryn keep this relationship for the rest of their lives. I'm not saying they don't fight. They actually fight quite a bit. (And for some reason I think that's cute too.) All I'm saying is you can tell they really do love each other.
This was on the way home. Kathryn snoozed while Nathan was still going strong.