{ preschool }

It doesn't seem possible but you read the title correctly, we have preschoolers in our house! Oliver and Stella had their first day last week on Tuesday.

It is a bittersweet feeling - I've waited three years to get some hours to myself each week and now that it is here, I am going to miss them! Mainly just miss being able to have lazy mornings not following a schedule to get out the door and having the freedom to plan play dates and outings.

The most popular question about this milestone:  "what are you going to do with all of your free time?". Lets get something straight. It is three hours, three times a week. While it actually sounds like a decent amount of time, three hours goes really fast. Don't get me wrong, I will take it over nothing but it is easy to waste away the hours and feel like you are racing against the clock to get things done. I mainly plan to get a lot of the stuff done that is currently done with O and S tagging along - grocery shopping, running errands, etc. There is also a long standing list of things around the house that I would like to get done. And with hip surgery coming up in seven weeks (eck!), I have a lot of scans, appointments, PT appointments, etc. that need to be taken care of.

We started prepping O and S for the change a few weeks ago but it seemed to bring about a lot of apprehension, especially from Stella which was surprising. She had a lot of questions about her teachers - what are their names, will they be nice, do they wear glasses, what will you do mom, and on and on. It seemed to be worse the more we talked about it so we stopped.

And it's not back to school without shopping for new school kicks!

The preschool held an open house on Wednesday evening before school started and we all attended it. They quickly realized that preschool was nothing more than a room with toys, three teachers, and 18 other kids! By meeting their teachers and playing in the room, it seemed to help ease any anxiety either of them had about it. In fact, when we left and were saying good bye to the teachers, Oliver went a step beyond waving and saying goodbye and gave them each a hug!

Tuesday came and they were both fairly happy about heading off to preschool.

Oliver takes the first day of preschool very seriously.

They did great a drop off - no tears, from anyone! Oliver again surprised us by saying "Okay.....now daddy you can go to work and mommy you can go home now."

I joked that I didn't know after drop off if I should cry, celebrate or take a nap! It also hasn't quite sunk in yet that this is going to happen next week and continue every week until June. Hello, productivity (I hope)!

Oh, I almost forgot that I had them do "back to school questionarres". Kind of fun to hear their answers to the questions so I will post them below!

 Oliver:
What is your favorite memory from this summer? Riding tiger bike
What are you looking forward to this school year? The cars
What do you want to be when you grow up? Astronaut
What are you the most proud of? The cars (?)
What is your favorite color? Orange
What is your favorite thing to do? I like cars
What is your favorite book? Dinosaur books
What is your favorite T.V. show? Wreck It Ralph
What are you good at? Going to grandma and grandpa's
What do you need to work on? My tool bench (a very literal answer!)
What makes you happy? The teachers

Stella:
What is your favorite memory from this summer? Riding princess bike
What are you looking forward to this school year? The toys
What do you want to be when you grow up? Sofia Princess
What are you the most proud of? Mommy (not even making that up!)
What is your favorite color? Pink
What is your favorite thing to do? Play at park
What is your favorite book? Three Little Bears
What is your favorite T.V. show? Sofia
What are you good at? Cooking in my playroom kitchen
What do you need to work on? I don't work on anything
What makes you happy? Daddy tickling me

{ bike love }

I think Stella's new love for her bike might rival my love for my new bike! Last weekend she officially transitioned from her balance bike to a two wheel bike with PEDALS!

We weren't really sure how it would go but she was given a bike from her cousins and it has been sitting in our basement for a few months. We had kind of forgotten about it and decided after returning home from the lake on Labor Day weekend that we would pull it out and give it a try.

We brought it down to the sidewalk, guided her a little bit with hand on the back of the seat and let her go. And off she went.

She was very proud and excited of her new skills. So fun to watch so see for yourself!

A big concern we had was how Oliver would react to Stella riding a bike with pedals. He didn't use his balance bike nearly as much as Stella did over the last few months so we didn't think he was nearly as ready for a two wheel pedal bike as she was. But we let him try anyways! We started in the driveway and he did really well!

Again, see for yourself!

That was his best ride on it. His biggest problem? He gets so distracted by everything around him that he forgets to pedal and then tips over! The second we took him down to the street he was looking at the neighbor's sprinkler, the car driving by, the neighbor's house, etc.  Pretty much focusing on everything BUT riding the bike. Regardless, he is doing amazing considering he's only three!

Stella has since been practicing her new skill a lot and has now mastered getting the pedals in the right position to be able to start from a stop on her own.

Next up, we just wait for her first big fall!

{ lake geneva }

I keep adding to my list of blog posts to do so I figured I better get around to recapping our IU / Lake Geneva reunion weekend from back in August. The problem is that I have 367 pictures in a folder from the trip and sorting through them has seemed daunting.

But alas, here we go. And be warned it is a picture-full post!

We hit the road for the 6 hour trek on Friday morning and were well prepared for entertaining toddlers. That mainly meant a large stack of movies checked out from the library and tackleboxes full of snacks (thanks Grandma C for packing them full of goodies!).

We made it to Geneva with just one pit stop....at Culver's for shakes.

We arrived in Lake Geneva and made our way to Geneva National Golf Community where we had rented a large home. The first discovery when we opened the garage door? A bike with training wheels. Which pretty much kicked off three days of these two fighting over it.

The next best discovery for toddlers? Bunk beds. They absolutely loved them.

There were two sets of bunk beds and trundles underneath......it quickly became the hangout room for all the kids.

The house and the community it was in at Geneva National was amazing. Lots of space, beautiful kitchen, outdoor and screened porch, grass to run around and, most importantly, a pool within the community.

Before I go any further, I'll give you a rundown of the families that were there. We all converged on this Lake Geneva location because it was a reasonable driving distance for everyone: Kaisers (Columbus, OH), LaRues (Indianapolis, IN), Woelfles (Chicago, IL), our family (Minneapolis). We were sad that the Browns weren't able to join us this year as they are currently living in London for Josh's job (we missed you, Jess.....sniff, sniff).

The mandatory group photo:

And a rundown of the adorable kiddos that pretty much ruled the weekend.
Oliver

Stella

Harrison

Ryan

Kate

Tyler

Most of the kids are at an age now where they play together and interact more than they have in the past and it was so incredibly fun to watch.

And even more special was watching our friends interact with the kids.......
Learning duck duck goose (or gray duck if you're from Indiana!).

Lora's inner librarian coming out to read to the kids.

And teacher Tracy reading to Stella.

And although Brent doesn't have a job working with kids, I think he missed his calling. He was a kid favorite and looking at these photos you can probably guess why.

The majority of time during our visit there was spent at the pool. It was a beautiful weather weekend in the low 80s and lots of sunshine. So thankful for that!

We also ventured into the downtown of Lake Geneva one morning to hit the beach. We didn't spend a ton of time there but it was fun to see the area a little more. It is definitely a hustling and bustling tourist town. We avoided most of that and stuck to the water and sand!

The parents did have a little time "off" during the weekend. Dads took a golf afternoon to enjoy the Geneva National Course and the moms took a few hours to sit at the pool. Win, win!

Based on the number of pictures I have of it, the kids seemed spoiled by "treats".

It wasn't just the kids though. We all ate like kings and queens for the weekend with all of the yummy food each family contributed. The true treat.....Jim's homemade creme brulee that he whipped up!

And another bonus of having other people around who also know how to use a camera or have a nice camera? Photos that document that I do exist!

And just a few more random pics and then I promise that's it!

Whew. The post is done and the picture show is over! Although there aren't many stories of adventures from the trip, I think the pictures do a great job of showing what a good time was had by just hanging out and enjoying each others company. This is a special group of friends.......we all go a year without seeing each other and we are able to pick up right where we left off. I am already looking forward to next year's gathering and I think that can be said for everyone, kids included!

Go Hoosiers!