Nolan's first day of school

Nolan started his last year of preschool the week after Karly started school.  He was very sweet and surprisingly excited to go the first day.  He is on the other side of the building now with all the "big" (pre-k) kids, and it just doesn't feel right to me!  He has the same teacher Karly had when she went to pre-k here.  Karly really liked her and I think/hope he will too, although I'm not sure anyone can replace his beloved Miss Rachel from last year. 

I'm slightly concerned about his class this year, as there are a lot more boys than girls, and it seems to be somewhat of a rambunctious bunch.  His teacher is good though and she seems to have it under control.  So far he is not loving going every day, but he is not giving me too much trouble about it either. 

Bryan's birthday

We went to Annapolis the first weekend after school started to celebrate Bryan's birthday.  We had to squeeze the trip in on Sunday in between my church nursery duties and Karly's first soccer game.  We were extremely annoyed after we rushed back for the game only to find out there had been a problem with the team's registration resulting in the game being cancelled at the last minute and somehow it was never communicated to us!  Regardless, we still had a nice, albeit brief visit with the family that afternoon. 

Their newly completed porch - so nice!  and mosquito-free!

The kiddos eating their hot dogs.

Cute cousins.

Birthday boy and his lady.

 Nolan just adores giving presents and loved being right there with the present-opening action.

New bike!

Karly's first day of school

Her first day was pretty uneventful.  Seems she's an old pro at this school thing now.  She was up early and ready to go with no problem.  I was disappointed that only one of her main friends is in her class this year (again), but she seems to be taking it in stride.  The homework routine hasn't been too painful yet either, so here's to hoping things will continue this way.

 

End of summer

After soccer camp week, we only had 2 weeks of summer left before our vacation and then back to school.

Over the weekend we celebrated my birthday with Lenyr with lunch at P.F. Changs.

 
Apparently Nolan didn't get the memo about the black/white theme.  But look how cute he is with that tie!

 
We went to a party with some vb friends that was supposed to be a pool party but had to move indoors due to thunderstorms.

 

That week Karly had her turn for a sleepover at the grandparent's house (Nolan went the previous week while she had soccer camp).  Karly's twice a week soccer practice started, and we also had the usual pool visits, Little Gym classes, and piano lesson.

 On Thursday we went to Atlantis waterpark with Liz and Jordan with the Certifikid coupon I purchased earlier in the summer.  It was a long drive to get out there and we only got to swim for about an hour before it closed due to thunderstorms.  We still had a nice time, and we got a raincheck, but I never got the chance to use it.  We all went to a yummy Mexican restaurant out that way for dinner, so at least that made it feel like the drive out there wasn't totally a waste.

The same group went to Great Waves waterpark on the following Monday (again with our Certifikid coupons).  Marco met us there and the kids had fun, but the water was pretty cold due to the cooler temps and rain we had. 

Catching up with neighbors as the summer was drawing to an end.

Love how Nolan is just a blur in the background!

As we were nearing the end of the summer session at the Little Gym, I was very excited to realized that I had accumulated a ton of "bonus points", enough for me to send both kids to 2 three-hour camp sessions that week, plus 2 three-hour parent's night-out sessions (scheduled for September).  They went Monday and Wednesday mornings the week before our vacation, and it worked out perfectly to give me a little extra packing, shopping, and prep time for the trip. 

I was up at 3 am Friday morning packing when the pre-trip stress/adrenaline finally kicked in, and I still managed to spend pretty much that entire day packing, organizing, and cleaning.  Had a couple setbacks along the way.  First I found another tick on me (on my leg) that morning and then later in the day I managed to pour boiling water over my hand trying to make a cup of noodles.  Hurt like he$$ and I spent several hours trying to pack with one hand while the other was submerged in ice water.  I was really scared it was going to ruin my vacation, but shockingly the pain receded from horrific to barely noticeable by the end of the day.  Thank you God!

The next morning (Saturday), I was up again at 3 am to shower and get ready to leave.  The kids slept in their clothes and we just carried them straight to the car and were on our way at 4 am for a long day of traveling and the start of our long-awaited vacation!

Soccer camp

The following week Karly had a soccer camp in the evenings from 5-8.  Lizzie went also and we were able to carpool with them.  Another girl from her team also ended up being there so she was happy to know some people going into it.  The camp went really well and she ended up loving it!  So much so that she ended up getting "recruited" for the travel team (same coach).  After some deliberation, we took the big plunge and decided to let her try it.  It is way more expensive than the rec soccer, but so far she is still really excited about it and seems to be loving it. 

Salisbury

We headed out of town for Salisbury on Friday afternoon after Nolan's last day of camp.  We spent a fun weekend with the cousins and grandparents, playing outside, swimming in the neighbor's pool, and eating lots of good food.  We also had big festivities for my 29th birthday.

 Looking for frogs in the pond.

Delicious summertime food.

Swinging!

Cute cousins.

Blowing out the candle.

They all love Grandpa's tractor rides.

  

Golf pro - look at that form.

The best part of golfing - riding in the cart.

Pool time.