She's Off to Second Grade!!

 

 I was so sad to miss taking Savannah to school on the first day today (because I had to teach this morning) so instead of getting out of the car pictures we have getting off the bus pictures. ;)

The neighborhood bus crew (and their siblings)

A couple of the moms had special treats for the kids after they got off the bus and then we topped that off with our tradition of going to TCBY.

 

 

So far Savannah says second grade is awesome.  She loves her teacher and seems to already know the rules and routines . . . here's to a great year!

The Last Week of Summer and My New Job

This week has been crazy. Between trying to catch up and clean up from being gone to Vegas, school orientations for both kids, training for my Sunday morning job (which lasted until after 8pm Wednesday) and trying to get ready for the start of my teaching job I have almost lost my mind! I spent most of Monday and Tuesday at Carmel setting up my website, Google calendar, doing lessons and getting things ready for the beginning of school. Then yesterday I reentered the classroom for the first time in 7 years! The kids have been such troopers to deal with my insanity this week so I promised each of them one fun thing to do.  Preston chose the park so on Wednesday after taking Savannah to the dentist (which I had forgotten to do for the past entire YEAR) we took our picnic lunch to the park and enjoyed some time playing.  Savannah chose the pool so we are waiting to go with daddy tomorrow.  That will give us some much needed down time for our family. 

So anyway, back to those school orientations, I have to say that I am over the moon about the teachers for both of my kiddos.  We sort of requested Preston's teacher, Ms. Shirley, and were so excited when we got her!  She is such an incredible woman and SO organized and good at what she does.  I love her to pieces already.  When she came for her home visit she even said that she would be willing to go pick up Preston from before school care (since I'll be teaching early in the morning) and walk him to class!  This little guy is in for one great year with Ms. Shirley, Ms. Lisa, and Ms. Amy too!

Then, after teaching my class and going to Preston's orientation, we headed to PSE to meet Savannah's teacher, Mrs. Baker.  I knew who she was but only because I had seen her in passing at school.  Come to find out she has been at the school since it opened and is Nationally Board Certified too.  She was so loving, welcoming, and seemed to really have it all together. I think we're in store for a fabulous year! 

 

 

One Amazing Vegas Trip

We stayed here at the Cosmopolitian

For Dave's 40th Birthday . . and because he already had to go for work . . . we decided to take a mini vacation to Las Vegas.  I have to say that I honestly thought it'd be one of those places that I was glad I went to, but could check if off the list and not worry about going back.  But was I ever wrong!  Maybe it was the non stop sunny weather (since it's rained all summer in Charlotte) or being so far away from any sense of responsibility . . or maybe it was just the pure craziness of the city life that amazed me, but it was SO much fun. 

I arrived on Thursday after navigating the airport for the first time ever on my own.  I sat beside a guy on the plane who was headed to Vegas for a bachelor party which made the long flight a bit interesting, especially since his buddies in the back of the plane kept buying him drinks. :)  After finally getting to the hotel sometime after dinner I met Dave and we headed to the New York hotel to have a quick bit to eat before calling it a night.  Oh and of course we had ice cream too.  That's the beauty of not having kids along, we ate what we wanted, when we wanted, and didn't have to please them or share.

Friday morning I slept in while Dave got up to go to his meeting.  After a quick workout and a low key morning I headed to the pool and spent a long time people watching and reading magazines in the shade and in this super fun lounge chair that was partially in the water.  Dave texted me pretty early to say that he was finished with work and I just replied that I was at the pool and he could join me if he wanted, but I wasn't leaving. :)  We spent some time at the pool and then got ready to head out on our adventure.  We walked and walked and walked and walked some more trying to see as much as we could.  There is just so much to see and do.  I honestly feel like we barely scraped the surface of the Vegas fun.  We saw Beatles Cirque de Soile show and it was incredible.  We ate lots of great food and walked at least 45 miles that we counted.  We enjoyed watching crazy people in the casinos and even turned in the $700+ that we found on the ground.  It was a sad day when we boarded the 10:54pm red eye flight back to Charlotte on Saturday night.  But it all worked out and we went straight to church just in time to see Savannah sining with Carmel Kidz. 

This was one of the two crazy shoes in our hotel.

Vegas . . . I'll be back!

An Early Birthday Celebration

After getting home from Greenville, I was surprised to find the dishwasher empty and all of the dishes clean!  Along with that nice surprise, Dave picked up a TCBY peanut butter cup cake to celebrate my birthday early.  He has to fly out on my actual birthday Tuesday and we have dinner plans already tomorrow, so tonight we celebrated my birthday as a family.  The cake was delicious and topped off my weekend of unhealthy eating (we finished off Papa Johns for dinner).  I guess I can restart the diet tomorrow . .  or maybe after Vegas! 

A Girl's Retreat and A Boy's Weekend

This weekend Savannah and I headed to Greenville, SC to have a girls' weekend with Dave's sister, Susan, and her girls.  It was such a fun getaway and a chance to really relax on Saturday at the lake.  After getting in late Friday night we headed to Lake Hartwell early Saturday morning to meet some family members, The Nobles, for a fun-filled day.  We enjoyed riding on the boat, tubing, and the most unique part was starting a campfire on the beach of the lake and roasting our hot dogs for lunch.  I took no part in the water activities, other than getting on and off of the boat, but Susan and the girls had a blast in the water.

Tubing round one

Roasting hot dogs for lunch

Cute girls on the boat

Tubing round two . . or twelve . . .

 
Today we visited Susan's church New Spring and enjoyed a yummy lunch at Jason's Deli before heading back to Charlotte. Thanks Susan for a great weekend!

And while the girls were away, the boys had a fun weekend of their own.  Dave got tickets for the Panthers game Friday night so when we left for Greenville he and Preston headed uptown via the "submarine" as Preston called the train.  They enjoyed about an hour of the game and then headed home.


Riding the train uptown

Preston at his first Panthers Game

On Saturday the boys cleaned up Daddy's car, had pizza for dinner and then went out for ice cream.

Washing daddy's car

Enjoying his ice cream treat!

I think we all had a great weekend, but it was nice to be back together around the dinner table as a family tonight. 

Summer is winding down fast!

Well, swim lessons are finally finished and my birthday is almost here so that means summer is almost over and school will start in just a few weeks! :(  Unfortunately I didnt' take any pictures of swim lessons this year, but at least I got a few videos.  The kids made great progress and Savannah even mastered the butterfly stroke! 

After a busy beginning to the week we decided to take advantage of kids eat free at McAlister's yesterday and use my birthday coupon too.  The kids were super excited as they know it's the one time they are allowed to eat Cheetos!!  Check out their orange faces and hands in the picture below.

Then today we had a special treat as we were able to meet up with my sweet friend Lisa at Chuck E Cheese in Concord.  Of course the kids again enjoyed a delicious non-nutritious meal of pizza and lemonade.  We all had a blast catching up and playing skee ball too. 

With only a few days of summer left we have to make it a priority to get back to the pool a few times!!! 

It's Official . . .I'm Heading Back

Into the classroom!!!!  I can't believe that I said yes, but the Lord made the decision super clear as this part time position just fell into my lap at Carmel Christian School.  I will be teaching an Algebra 1 class on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings while Preston is in WEE school downstairs.  I'm a bit nervous of the commitment, but I'm excited to see what He has planned this year too!