August 2017

August has come and gone.  We had such an amazing summer break that we were all very, very sad to see summer break come to an end, but August 2nd marked the first day of school.  The boys were excited to begin gathering school supplies over the summer-especially Carter who was so eagerly anticipating kindergarten and being at school with Dawson and his Lolly.  

We gathered supplies, and of course, if it can be labeled or monogrammed we must do it so school supplies for the year began to come together just in time...

The school posted class lists two nights before school started and we got to go meet the teachers.  Dawson is beyond excited to have Mrs. Skeenes for his teacher!  Here he is with her on meet the teacher night.  Although Dawson was disappointed that some of his friends from last year were not in his class, we are excited because there are lots of good, sweet kids in his class!

Of course, we had to do our traditional first day of school pictures on the front porch...

I was thrilled that he still requested I make him a first day of school shirt.

We talked about lots of different designs, but he loved the idea of me making one that said, "2nd Grade is Dino-mite" so that's what I made.

When he grows up he still wants to be a farmer.

Although Dawson's first day of school was August 2nd, the school does a staggered start for kindergartners, so Carter only had to go for a placement screening on the first day of school.  I'm interested to see how Nora Kate will do without having Carter at home with her this year.  These two are two peas in a pod, thick as thieves...

Being so close in age, they have such a sweet and funny relationship.

So after Dawson went to school and Carter had his kindergarten screening (which he did great on!), Carter and NK I wanted to take a few pictures of just the two of them and to meet me on the porch.  They came out looking like this with stickers all over their faces....

And these candid shots were so perfect I had to post them because it captures them perfectly, being silly and sweet together.

And then it was time for Carter's actual first day of school.  Carter was so so so excited!  I am going to miss this boy so much when he's at school.  He's always the one coming up to me giving me a kiss or hug just because he wants to.  Oh, he's so sweet!

When Carter grows up he wants to be a Golfer or Fisherman.

First day of school tradition...ice cream after school!  This year we went to Froyoz.

Dawson LOVES being at the school where his Lolly works.  Lolly visited his class on his first day of school, and his teacher sent this picture.

As excited as Carter was about the first day of school, he got serious about it when we actually arrived to school.  He wasn't sad, he just was very serious as you can see in this picture above and the next one where we stopped by Lolly's classroom to say hi on the way to Carter's class.

Nora Kate starts ballet soon, so to take our mind of of missing our big boys so much, Nora Kate and I went shopping for all of her ballet things while the boys were at school.

She absolutely loved this.

Picking up Carter after his first day of kindergarten!

He was so excited to tell me every.single.detail. of his day!

Now that I'm writing this at the end of August, I will say additionally that Carter is still LOVING kindergarten.  His teacher is Mrs. Johnson who was also Dawson's kindergarten teacher.  She is amazing, and Carter feels like he already knows her.  Carter comes home every day and reports so many details from his day!  Although he's been really tired-kindergarten is wearing him out-he is really enjoying school.

Dawson is enjoying second grade as well.  I don't mean to not say as much about the beginning of his school year, but everything is new to Carter and Dawson already knew what to expect, but is doing great and enjoying 2nd grade and lots of new friends!

John took Clayton on a walk one Saturday morning and sent me this picture of Clayton inside a "digger."  Apparently it was left unlocked at a construction site in our neighborhood, and he and Clayton couldn't resist hopping inside.  Hah!

John is so good about taking the kids on dates.  Here he and Nora Kate are on a date.  One part of their date was going to the park to look for Maryville Rocks.  She was excited they found a "girl rock" (haha) because it had a flower on it.

Nora Kate was so so excited for her very first day of ballet class!

I could just eat her up in her outfit-LOVE!

As crazy as it sounds, on the second week of school Dawson's class had a field trip to Safety City.  There were a limited number of chaperones that got to go, so I was excited that my name was drawn out of the hat to get to go.  It was a very educational and fun field trip!

Dawson is helping the Safety City instructor demonstrate a few things on the field trip.

They learned about bike safety...

...and motor vehicle safety.

A few more that got out of order before Nora Kate's first ballet class.

I remember always having a dance bag to carry my shoes in and it being special, so I made this bag for Nora Kate's ballet shoes.

She loves it!

She decided she wanted to wear my first tiara from my first ballet recital to her first ballet lesson.

Nora Kate's first day of preschool was also her 4th birthday!  So many exciting things all in one day.  I made her shirt and school bag.

Our super sweet and thoughtful neighbors gave Nora Kate a gift containing this book "The night before preschool" which we had to read a couple of times the night before-she loved it!

Also, it's hard to see-but she's gotten into sleeping in these fancy gowns.  The one she slept in this particular night is very fancy and was a gift from Lolly and Pop for her birthday.

Now time for the first day of school pictures...complete with her signature pose!

Hah!

Nora Kate had a great first day of school and is loving preschool so far.  She regularly talks about 3 specific friends-Emily, Gabby, and Reagan in her class.  Her teacher is Ms. Suze who was Carter's teacher last year and we love!

She goes to school two mornings a week from 8-11 both days, so it's not very long-but it's just enough!

Dawson went to a sleepover birthday party for his friend Carson-from the pictures I got these boys had an amazing time doing nerf wars, playing Glowgolf, and camping in a tent inside!

Nora Kate has been REALLY into baking lately.  Our sweet neighbors and friends Lucy gave her this adorable apron for her birthday this month, and she loves it!

Nora Kate is loving ballet!

Here are a few more from the first day of preschool...

We try to have a picnic after school every day that the weather allows and play on the playground.  The first day of school was perfect for this.  Nora Kate said we could "chat" about her day at school-haha!

When Nora Kate grows up she wants to be a Mama and a Mermaid.

On Monday, August 21, we experienced the Total Solar Eclipse.  Since we live in the path of totality, the schools all closed.  It was a nice break to have an extra day with the kids all home.  John had to work but he tried out his eclipse glasses the night before...

haha

And then he did get to go outside and watch it at work.

We put the kids' eclipse glasses in these cut out paper plates so that no extra light got in their eyes.  It worked pretty well, but looked pretty funny!

They were so excited about the eclipse.

We went to the pool the morning before the eclipse.  When we got home I asked Nora Kate to go change out of her swim suit and get dressed so we could watch the eclipse...she came back dressed for the eclipse like this...tiara, clip on earrings, and a big bangle on her wrist. Obviously this is how you dress for an eclipse.

The eclipse was definitely amazing.  Since we were in the path of totality, we watched from our yard.  It was almost eerie how quiet and still everything got during the eclipse.  It was definitely a weird feeling being outside as it got dark and light again in a matter of a few minutes.  We saw the "shade snakes" (the shadows on the ground) which were SO SO weird.  We saw the diamond ring and all the other phases we had researched and learned about to look for it was so neat to experience this!  Possibly my favorite part of the eclipse though was that as it was starting to get dark for the eclipse, Nora Kate looked at me very serious and asked if we had eaten dinner yet.  Haha! It was only 2-something in the afternoon, but it getting dark was totally throwing her off.  Sweet girl.

Another after preschool trip to the playground.

We signed the boys up for their first race, so we have been practicing. Here we are after a practice run by the high school.

This is what my days look like now that the boys are in school.  Nora Kate, Clayton, and I in the playroom.

He loves to eat!

Carter and his teacher both were signed up to run the Rebel Run Race, and they both wore their shirts the day before the race to school.  Twinning with the teacher-Carter thought he was so cool!

RACE day!  They were so excited and did amazing in their first race-the Rebel Run.  They're already asking to do another race.

After the race was the Rebel Ready event.  Lots of fun for the kids.  Nora Kate enjoyed painting this canvas.

And learning cheers and stunting with the high school cheerleaders.

Poor Bentley has not been feeling well, and Dawson and Nora Kate decided to make her a sleeping bag out of gift wrap tissue.  Haha!

Nora Kate was excited to bring this artwork home from Sunday School.  She said she made her eyelashes and curls...looks good to me!

Bentley the fairy

We have had so many hummingbirds at our feeder this month!  It's been awesome!

Carter drew this picture of our family.  I love everything about this picture...but my favorite is probably John's beard!  I'm keeping this forever.

2nd Grade has brought a lot more homework!  Dawson was trying to make it a little more fun and requested to read his textbook story about dogs to Bentley haha.

On August 23rd, my Dad (Pop) was admitted to the hospital with aspiration pneumonia, a tear in his gut requiring emergency surgery, and then sepsis.  He has been in very serious and critical condition, so from the 23rd on through the rest of August I spent a lot of time going back and forth from the hospital. He is in the surgical ICU and on a ventilator, so the kids cannot go to see him but John and I do.  Many friends have been praying for Dad and have check on him and us, all of which we are thankful!