First day of Pre-K and 1st grade

Today was the first day of Bobby's second year of Pre-K and Emmy's first day of 1st grade.  Emmy has a great class full of old and new friends she has made over the past year.  She has an excellent teacher - Mrs. Reim.  I actually had Mrs. Reim's daughter in the PT program a couple of years ago.  The kids were both excited to get to school.  I walked Emmy to the playground and she took off running once she saw her friends.  I had to call her back over to get her backpack and then call her over once again after she ran off so that I could get a proper good bye.  She definitely didn't notice when I left....Miss Independent.  She picked out the dress she is wearing and the bow.  I did talk her into tennis shoes since I know she will play hard outside today.  We also changed Bobby's outfit before school and after the pic since he wears most of the playground dirt home every day.  We always dump out sand from his shoes in our garage when he gets home.  He has the start of a black eye and a some scrapes on his face from tripping in front of a bike that then proceeded to run him over while at school.  He told me a "vike" hit him.  They are off to a great start at school today and I am so happy for them.

Rock stars!

Emmy and Bobby have enjoyed playing a lot of music duets at our house. They both sing and take turns drumming or playing guitar.  It is fun to watch what songs they make up or try to reproduce.

The last two weeks of summer

In the last few weeks of summer we were busy.  I taught a CI credentialing course in Minneapolis.  My mom came with to keep me company and we enjoyed some time together.  I bought Bobby a captain America shirt since he is really into super heroes these days.  We also had more friends over for pool time.  Just before I started work full time we had some appts to take care of.  Bobby was tough as can be and got a wart on his thumb frozen off.  He was very brave and didn't even cry.  The doctor said he was tougher than most adults who get warts frozen off.  He then was allowed to pick out a few prizes at the doctor's office and he wanted to choose all prizes (stickers, rings, sucker) for his sister.  I had to remind him that he was the brave boy who earned them and he should get a couple of things for himself.  What a sweet boy - he understands that it is better to give than receive.  I'm now working full time and the kids are looking forward to starting school.  Emmy got a great first grade teacher and I'm looking forward to this year in school for her.

Amusement park fun and then some swimming/pizza by the pool

Horses at the ranch

Grandma and Grandpa took Emmy to a rodeo and she told them it was "just like the real Wild West!"  She also got to ride a horse and convinced Grandpa to buy the grandkids a horse for the ranch.  She loves everything about being at the ranch.

Fun with our Chicago cousins

Our cousins from Chicago are in town.  Emmy is just in love with Kate and follows her like a shadow.  We went to their hockey game, went to the downtown street fair where the kids enjoyed pizza and sno cones.  Poor little Bob got his finger stuck in a folding chair and so that was the only bummer.  He is a tough little guy though and once I starting feeding him pizza he was much better.  The next day Bobby and I met up with everyone at the ranch after we enjoyed some Bobby and Mommy time (park visits and Orange Leaf).  We had lots of fun and roasted marshmallows and made smores later that night.  It was a fun time with our family.

Checking off our summer bucket list

We are trying to cram in all of the summer activities we can before I have to go back to work.  We went over to the Kotelnicki's house for dinner one night and the boys (Bobby and his friend Thomas) fired squirt guns at each other at close range.  They aim about 1 inch from each other's bodies, head and spray until they went through two outfits.  They loved it!  Thomas is a boy that can keep up with our rough and tough Bobby and they play hard together.  Emmy found a frozen hat with it's own braid and she played with Nora who is 2 and cute as can be.  Later that night we picked up Grandma and headed to the Sleepy Hollow Play which is Mary Poppins this year.  Emmy loved it (or did she love the treats I packed more)?  Mom and I didn't think this was a great play but Emmy snuggled in between us and really enjoyed it. 

Another day we met Mason, Grandma at the arcade inside Space Alien's and played games until we ran out of tokens.  Then the torture began as having Emmy and Bobby (mostly Emmy) choose what to buy with their tokens is really a challenge of my patience.  Later that day we visited my friend' Tracey's baby - Tori.  The kids were very excited about that baby.  They also helped me at work when I had to stop in to get some work done. 

Every week the kids ask me to go to the Science Museum.  We have been there quite a few times and they always seem to enjoy it.  This time the butterflies were out and the kids had fun watching them.  Of course they had to pet the bearded dragon again that they are now pretty familiar with.

We also went to the bookstore and the kids picked out books.  Emmy picked out a book based on a movie that came out this summer (Inside Out) and Bobby picked out a superhero book about the Flash!  We also got a book on dinosaurs.  We then got some frozen yogurt which mom enjoys as well