First Day of School

Last Wednesday, August 10th the big boys started school.  Crazy early I know.  I can't believe that the day had come.  We really had a great summer together and I was a bit sad about my boys being gone all day, but we knew they would learn and have lots of fun!

How is it possible that this spunky, clever little man is going to Kindergarten!  I swear he was just a newborn.

 And then there is this giant third grader - who really wasn't into pictures.  He is officially more than halfway through elementary school.  It makes my heart hurt a bit to think like that.

I had asked the boys if they wanted to ride the bus or if they wanted me to drive them to school the first day.  They both voted for mom to drive.  We had to park in the neighborhood because of all the construction, but they didn't mind in the least.  Will was determined to get to school as quickly as possible!

 In fact Will was so fast that we had to wait outside for another ten minutes before we could enter the school!

Poor Jack missed his brothers greatly.  He kept asking when they would come home.  I'll admit to being crazy early at the bus stop.  We just couldn't wait to see them!  

 Both boys got off the bus wearing huge grins and said that they loved school.  Max's favorite part was that they have the last lunch period, which means they can have seconds on restaurant pizza  Will's favorite part was that there are Bernstein bear books in his classroom library!

Dad had a meeting for scouts after work, but Nonna came out and we all celebrated with dinner at their favorite restaurant.  The boys had perfect behavior and it was a pure joy to eat and hear all about their fabulous first day of school.  It couldn't have been a better day!

Meet the Teachers

I'm a bit behind here.  You would think that with the big boys in school all day I would have lots of time, but for some reason it doesn't feel that way.

Last Tuesday we had meet the teacher at the boys' school.  They are doing a ton of construction, and they still have no parking lot so our sweet principal arranged for a bus to serve as a shuttle from the local high school.  I don't think these three minded the change in plans at all.

We actually had to make two trips over there since kindergarten meet the teacher was at a different time.  We headed to Will's room in the morning to drop off supplies and meet his sweet teacher.  He loved checking out his room and he was super excited that they have their own bathroom.  His teacher seemed sweet and this day seemed to get him all excited about the big first day!

Max was too cool for pictures.  His teacher seemed sweet as well and he was excited that he got to pick his own desk.  It's the little things :)

Muskegon, Michigan

At the park after South Beach we talked to a family staying a bit farther north in Muskegon.  They raved about it so much that we decideed to make the drive and check it out.

Before we hit the beach we checked out the USS Silversides - a submarine from world war II.  This sub is credited with sinking more enemy ships than any other.

 Max and Will's favorite part - that the sailors only showered once every 13-15 days.  They have both since decided that they want to work on a submarine when they grow up.

After a picnic lunch we headed three minutes back down the road to Pere Marquette Beach.  I think it was even prettier than South Beach - and a whole lot less crowded.  Even after a morning on the sub we enjoyed four hours on this gorgeous beach.  Four hours of anything when you have three little boys is pretty impressive.

 I just love the grin on Will's face here.  He was having too much fun!

Max build another massive sand castle, that Jack decided to stomp on at the end of our visit. Luckily Max wasn't too upset.

Towards the end of our beach day the sky started clouding up.  We were able to gather all our stuff before the first drops fell.  Unfortunately, it went from a slight drizzle to an all out monsoon as we hauled everything to the car.  Even with the torrential rain, it was a pretty great day -and an absolutely perfect vacation.  The pictures just don't do it justice.  Michigan is a beautiful state - and the weather just adds to it's perfection!  We can't wait to head back in another year or two!

South Haven - South Beach

South Beach was our favorite beach a couple years ago on our Michigan trip and it didn't disappoint.  Gorgeous sand, clear water, and a beautiful view.  A huge perk was that the water was super shallow until about 200 feet out.  The boys were able to walk out quite a ways an they loved it!

Will practiced writing his name in the sand and thought that was pretty fun.  Jack was content to play with the beach toys for hours on end.

 Max and Brian worked on this mammoth sand castle for at least an hour.  I should have taken a picture from the back.  There was a pretty cool moat back there.

While the beach was water and sand were wonderful, I think Will's favorite part was sharing his popcorn with this little bird.  Will just laughed and laughed.  

Warren Dune State Park

Our first full day in Michigan was spent at Warren Dunes State Park.  I'll admit the monster sand dune made me crazy nervous, but the boys loved it!

 These pictures don't do the scene justice.  That is a 700 ft sand dune right there.  It was massive!  Brian and I took one look and said no way.  Max and Will took one look and said we can do it!

And they did.  That tiny tiny little thing up at the top?  Yeah, that's Max.  Will made it all the way too.  Brian and I were amazed.  I was also worried when I didn't see them come right back down. 

We had heard a couple horror stories about sand dunes swallowing children whole when they were right next to their parents.  Here I was at the bottom while my boys were at the top.  I decided to go get them.  Luckily they reappeared and met me halfway up.

 After the climb we headed across the parking lot to the beach.  It was beautiful!  The water just goes on and on.  Will just wanted to hang out and float int he water.  

The beach was beautiful, but it was also pretty rocky where the water met the beach.  Once you got past the  five feet of rocks, it was smooth.  Jack found the rocks fascinating.  He just loved finding all different colors and telling me all about them.

Max cracked me up with his beach dares.  "Dare me to dump this water on my head?"

"Yep, we dare you!"

Max wins - with a huge grin on his face.

Rocks and all we had a fabulous first vacation day!

Blueberries of Indiana

After a fun filled weekend with the cousins we loaded up once again and headed to Michigan for some relaxing family time.  It was exactly what we needed!  Brian hadn't been feeling well, so a few days at the beach was just what the doctor ordered.

Before we even made it to Michigan we stopped to pick some blueberries.  Brian and I don't really even like blueberries that much, but we often talk about how delicious they were on our last trip to Michigan!   They were just as amazing as we remember!

We headed out toward the yellow balloon to find our perfect berries.  Jack was super excited when we made it to the yellow balloon. He just kept jumping up and down and yelling that we made it, we made it!

Will was a pretty good picker.  He was slow because he wanted to check out every blueberry to make sure it was just right.  It also didn't help that he ate at least two for every one that went into his bucket.

Max doesn't even like blueberries, but as always he took his role very seriously and wanted to do the best job possible.

 Then we had this guy wandering around.  I don't think he picked a single blueberry.  I do know that he ate more than the rest of us combined.  I didn't have a bucket, so I would put all my berries in his bucket as I picked.  At one point Jack told me that his bucket was empty and he needed more berries - he was eating them faster than I could pick them.

But he looked so darn cute doing it, that I couldn't be mad :)

 Brian may not have been feeling his best, but he was excited for some blueberries any way.  He is such a ham.  I sometimes wonder where William gets his sense of humor - I really don't need to wonder much.

After an hour of fun in the orchard, we had only 1.8 lbs of blueberries to show for it - although I think there was probably another pound in Jack's tummy.

Chicago

 What an amazing end to July!  It was so wonderful that it has taken me a week to get around to blogging about it.  A good vacation usually leads to lots of catch up afterwards.

We packed up the van and headed to Chicago almost two weeks ago.  The play was to spend Friday through Monday with the cousins before moving along to our rental house up in Michigan.  Our first Chicago outing was pretty spectacular - Maggie Daley Park in downtown.

It was the most amazing park I have ever seen - having the Chicago skyline as the backdrop didn't hurt matters. The kids didn't want to stop running around and I have to admit I was a bit worried about heat stroke!

 One of the play structures had a rope ladder.  Will struggled with it at first, but his look of pride when he made it to the top all on his own was priceless.

 Jack's physical therapist would have loved this place.  I think he got about 12 sessions of PT into the 90 minutes we were at the park.  He scaled this crazy steep hill like a little bear, made his way through the tower maze and then down the three story slide 100 times.

 Max and the cousins had a blast playing hide and seek and running all over the place.  I will admit that there were moments of panic when we couldn't find one of them, but everyone made it home in one piece.

Did I mention it was hot?  This water fountain structures were exactly what these five needed after all that play time.

 Another Chicago favorite is hte Museum of Science and Industry - Brian was all excvtied because our local science center membership worked there as well.  We saved over $100 by just showing our card.

The kids area was a big hit.  Jack squealed with excitement every time he stuck a ball in this air tube and watched it fly away.  Will and Paisley enjoyed learning a bit about air pressure together - she was a great teacher :)

 Of course we had to check out the trains.  Will cracks me up in his engineer hat.  It was a party favor at a birthday party years ago and it is by far his favorite hat in the whole wide world.

 We checked out a new area this visit that was all about weather.  This tsunami display was pretty amazing.  The kids were able to program the strength, speed, and frequency of the waves to see how they impacted different land formations.

We wrapped up our last full day with one more trek over to Maggie Daley Park - yes it really was that great!   We didn't even scratch the surface of all the cool stuff they had to see, so I'm sure another Chicago trip will be in our future.  After all, our science center pass also works at The Field Museum!