Off to the Sunshine State

Tomorrow evening we're packing up the van and heading south for some warm sunshine. Destination: Destin, Florida. We're driving there in our van with our friends Brandon, Emily and their son Charlie. It could be a long trip: 4 adults, 3 children, 1 van, 14 hours. But life is all about the journey, not the destination; right? I'm up late tonight finishing laundry, and getting snacks, goodies, and "surprises" (a.k.a. junk from the dollar store and Target's $1 spot) ready. Sara gave me some great advice for preparing for the road trip and she is the expert after their road trip to Maine over the summer. Honestly, she was so prepared for their trip, just her advice makes my efforts seem inadequate! Packing makes me feel so much anxiety that I always procrastinate. Even if it's just a weekend trip with the boys to Rockford. So here I am, blogging instead of packing, proof of that procrastination.

I better get back to it. I'll be sure to post about the long road trip there and our time at the beach once we get home!

Feels like fall

Last Friday, September 12, Henry, William and I headed to Rockford to meet Sara, Gabe, Caleb and my Mom for some festive fall apple picking. Unfortunately it was a super rainy day. The forecast called for rain in the morning and it was supposed to let up in the afternoon. It actually didn't rain much in the morning and then ended up starting to rain just as we were heading to the orchard in the afternoon.

We hoped the rain would stop so we optimistically went to get cider and donuts in the apple barn first. The boys loved the donuts, which were still warm when we got them. Henry, who still gets diluted juice, was especially fond of the super sweet apple cider. William loved sneaking tastes of the donuts along with some of Oma's apple pie.

Sara, Caleb, Gabe, Henry and WilliamI love that Gabe ate his donut with a fork. When he was done he offered it to Henry who was confused about why he would need a fork for his donut!

The rain hadn't stopped when we finished our food in the apple barn, so we decided to look around at the store inside for a little bit. We also got to see a forklift driving palettes of apples into the barn to be washed. Henry was fascinated so we stood there for awhile watching that. Finally after some pleading from the boys to pick our own apples we decided to bundle up and go for it. We drove our vans out to the orchard and let the big boys pick while Caleb and William sat in the stroller and watched.

GabeI couldn't resist a little sentimentality- this is Gabe in 2006, the first time we took the boys to the orchard together.HenryHenry in 2006 at the orchard
William and Caleb
They were so patient and sweetly munched on crackers while they watched their brothers pick apples. I just noticed that William is wearing the same sweatshirt that Henry was wearing on his first apple orchard outing.

William, Caleb and OmaHenry and me

(This picture is from Sara's post; she has lots of good pictures here.)
Gabe and Henry hugging - they were so sweet!Gabe and Henry in 2006Caleb, Gabe and Henry
(another hug!)

We had such a great afternoon together and we were able to spend some more time together on Friday night and Saturday. It was worth getting a little bit wet-the boys picked some yummy apples and we have some great memories from that day.

Back to school

Preschool that is. Henry still seems like my "baby" in so many ways. But he is growing up and getting so big. He started his second year of preschool on September 2. Last year as a two-year-old he went one morning a week for 2.5 hours. This year he is in the three's class and goes three mornings a week for 2.5 hours. He goes Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I have been a nervous-wreck/basket-case about him going back to school and being gone for three mornings a week. Patrick has felt confident that Henry would be fine and even made a chart and sat down with me to show me that he would still be home more hours than he would be gone. However, we started school with the premise that if it ended up being too much that we would only send him two mornings a week.

I bolstered all of my courage to bring him to school that first day, all while putting on a brave face so that Henry wouldn't know my fears and reservations. We visited the school the week before where Henry was able to meet his teachers and friends and play in his classroom for an hour. We'd spent the night before his first day and the morning of talking about all of the exciting things he would get to do and see at school that day. We got his backpack ready, drove to school, then stood outside of the school and then his classroom taking pictures. Finally it was time to walk through those classroom doors. Henry walked right in and I followed behind him. He hung up his backpack, looked around and quickly found some trucks to play with. His teachers kindly said goodbye (as a former preschool teacher I understood the undertone of --it's ok, he will be fine, you can leave now) and William and I left the classroom, stood outside for a few minutes waiting for Henry's tears that never came and then walked to the car and drove home. The two and a half hours actually passed really quickly. William napped nearly the entire time and I busied myself catching up on things around the house. When we went back to pick up Henry he was sitting at a table surrounded by other 3-year olds with a huge smile on his face. He was thrilled to see us, but even more excited to tell me about school.

He has done great every day since. He hasn't ever said that he doesn't want to go or had a hard time saying goodbye to me at the door. Yesterday when I picked him up his teachers told me that he had really opened up that day. They said he started out pretty quiet, but he started to perk up and was very talkative to them during the morning. As a mother it was nice to know that they care about each child and take the time to notice how mine is doing.

Today wasn't a school day and Henry almost seemed a little bit disappointed when I told him this morning that today was a stay-at-home day. He said, "ok, then tomorrow I can see my friends"!

The first day of school


On the first day they read "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. It's a sweet story about a little raccoon getting ready to start school. He talks about his worries to his mother and she comes up with a solution to help him remember that she loves him and is thinking about him, even when she isn't with him. She kisses the palm of his hand so that if he misses her or gets scared he can hold his hand to his face and feel her love. Henry made a "kissing hand" at school (you can see it in his backpack) and brought it home for me to personalize (with a sticker, heart, etc.) and then tuck back into his backpack for him to keep with him. It was a sweet idea, and now Henry always wants me to kiss his hands before he goes to bed at night.

Labor Day Parade

Parades are so much fun to see through a child's eyes. Henry loves a parade - the marching bands, the firetrucks and sirens, the Shriner's cars, the politicians (ok, maybe not the politicians) and THE CANDY!

On Labor Day we went to the annual parade in our town. It's our third year going to this parade and after two years of sitting in the hot sun gazing at the people sitting in the shade across the street, we finally caught on and got there early to get a shady across-the-street spot. It's a long parade, close to two hours, so every year we end up leaving early. This year we left early and with a bag full of candy.

William, Henry and Patrick

William slept through the first half of the parade.

Henry
Waiting for the parade to start.
Henry waving to Reggie Redbird
(the mascot of my and Patrick's Alma mater)
William
He woke up and was super interested in the candy
Our parade loot
We got tons of Laffy Taffy

Fearless. Lion Tamers?

The very, uber-talented Sandi created (hand-painted) this photo board for Henry's birthday party. It turned out adorable and as you can see the kids had lots of fun with it.

Henry stares the lion down
Henry gets stern
Sweet GabeGabe won't take any nonsenseWilliam wants to get in on it, too

And then,
It looks like fun and the grown-ups can't pass up the chance at some fearless lion taming. So the stage is set, you are a standing next to a fierce lion and are shocked, scared, frightened, maybe even angry to see him standing there...

Me

Sandi

Sara

My mom

Rachel
And the best, most dramatic reaction goes to
Holly

I would love captions for these pictures. I'm sorry if you're shocked to see your picture on here. But even after nearly two months, I couldn't resist.