Family Night Out

We closed out the first week of school with one of Nora's favorite events. After she came home from school and passed out for a bit we got ready and headed out! Kyle's work hosts a family night at the Science Center each year. After the center is closed to the public, employees and their families get the run of the place. It is something my kids look forward to and ask about it multiple times a year. Tonight we shut the place down. Nora went in with a list of things she wanted to do and I'm pretty sure she, as she tends to do, checked every box! Being there reminded me that I need to put our pass to more use in the coming months before it expires. The kids always have so much fun there and it really isn't a tough place to manage them in. Mom goal! I hope everyone has a good weekend! It'll be our first weekend at home in ooohhh 2.5 months so we're going to try our darndest to get somethings put back together.

Running with Scissors...

There are some fun updates coming soon - I'm working on getting all caught up with a lot of backed pictures and albums (like since February) but thought I would pop on to discuss today's adventures. Lincoln was pulled out of the car crying at school drop off this morning - always my favorite way to start the day! Then, back at the homestead it was just me and Otto. With the two bigs being in school I have no additional eyes on Otto in the mornings - thus actually making accomplishing ANYTHING (including cleaning up after him) even harder. So today after he swam in a bucket of vinegar & Dawn water I was using to wash the stroller he sunscreened the carpet in the game room and while I was using the carpet cleaner in attempts to clean that up he got into a baking drawer and stole a still boxed lemon extract, unboxed it and dumped it in Lincoln's room. After we picked Lincoln up from school Otto napped and Lincoln painted while I had a phone call. Turns out, Lincoln eventually abandoned the paints and Otto woke up...I'll let you guess what happened. Luckily all of the paint dumping was contained to the table - AKA I caught him JUST in time! We walked to pick Nora up from school and got caught in the giantest of rain storms - SHEETS of absolute POURING rain that started just after they released all the walkers. To say we were sopping would be a gross understatement. The afternoon is continuing with Otto repeatedly running with scissors, stealing jelly out of the fridge to drink or dump & threatening to pee everywhere. Then there's Nora trying to entertain me with her new found ability to make spit bubbles. So there ya have it. Just another Thursday in paradise!!

I'll Walk!

After we dropped Lincoln off at school - he did not want to get out of the car this morning - it was a rough one! Anyway, Otto and I stopped at Target to pick some stuff up this morning and brought my newest solo sidekick with me. He's a handful to shop with, especially since he thinks he's too cool for the cart AND has zero - z-e-r-o impulse control and I do not, do not, do not have him under voice control 70% of the time. Anyway, if there's one thing I can do to reign him back in, it's visiting the vacuum cleaners! He wanted to get them all down today...I wouldn't let him...he eventually settled for just getting picked up so he could touch them. Oh, this kid!

This afternoon we walked to get Nora and our neighbor who is in Kindergarten and equally hell-bent on independence didn't want to golf cart home with her mom & brother so she walked with us. They made quite the cute little pair chatting it up on the walk. So it begins!

How It's Gonna Be

"Help Mommy!" "Mommy Help!" I took a strong stance of you got up, you get back down, your stool is right there. He completely missed it on his drop straight to the floor but after "I fall down" came "I'm ok!" so ya know, all good. We shifted around the send off routine this morning since it was our first day with me in charge of getting everyone out the door. Nora got her wish and after some discussion I let her walk on her own - if you can call it that. She ran into no less than 3 adult neighbors on her short jaunt to school and there are lots of kids that flock that way in the mornings. She is the mayor of her village and thrives on her independence. In other news, Otto and I walked to get Lincoln today in the very hot heat, and then walked to the car place to pick up my car that has been in the shop since we left for Naples. Thank GOODNESS they recharged the A/C because let me tell you I was DRIPPING when I got there! I was happy to get that task checked off the list though!

Back to School 2019

Here we have it! First day of school! Nora is in first grade starting at a new school. She'll be leaving her Montessori school that she's been at for 3 years and heading to our neighborhood school. We missed some of the introductory events while we were in Naples but she was able to FaceTime with her teacher while we were there. Lincoln is starting preschool. He'll be at the Montessori school now, with Nora's same teachers and everything. He'll only be in half day though.

Kyle walked with Nora and I dropped Lincoln off. He told me he was feeling a little nervous but he did great and we snapped a quick picture before he got out in the drive through line. Otto was a little upset he didn't get to go to school too! I have a hunch he'll get used to his solo time in the mornings though. At the end of the day we walked up to the school to meet up with Nora for her walk home. She's already talking about doing it all herself so we'll see how this all ends up working out once I'm flying solo on the morning routine! Another year underway and new adventures ahead! Time really does fly - when looking at it objectively anyway!

Home Again

That last day in Naples is always all about cleaning and packing. BUT, today was about something else exciting too!!! This morning Kyle took Lincoln out to practice his bike riding again and what do you know, he got it!!! We have another bike rider!!! He was really proud and really excited, but was also ready to be done after a couple laps. "It's hard!" Kyle then hit the road with our crew and stopped in Port Charlotte while I stayed to clean and drop the Columbus bunch off at the airport. While Kristin and I were hard at work getting things ship shape Marty took their kids to putt putt and they played in the pool - we made sure to snap some underwater pictures too! As it turned out with their stop and my clean up, our team all got home just after 6. Just in time to eat some dinner and get the kids ready for their big Monday!!! We can't say thank you enough to my Aunt Ann & Uncle Jay for letting us use their house as a backdrop for so many fun memories! While it's always a bit stressful transitioning from Ohio to another week away and then shifting straight from vacation back to school it's a week we absolutely love every year and a great way to close out summer!

Sundown

Hard to believe the sun has gone down on the last full day of vacation! I think we all feel like we squeezed a lot into the week despite the weather working against us in the beginning. We definitely became more invested in the Little League World Series than I think any of us anticipated! It was a lazy & fun pool day, the kids did quite a bit of swimming and we made sure to get some group shots. With it being our last night of vacation we went to our best night night sun of the week. It was gorgeous and so much fun! We stayed until well after the sun dipped into the Gulf. Most of the group capped it off with a trip to Royal Scoop.