First Day of Kindergarten

Finn started kindergarten this Fall.  He was very excited to go to the big kid school and I am excited for these new experiences that is going through.  However, I was not excited for him to be gone all day everyday.  I miss having him home, I miss his little face in the back of the car, I miss my little buddy.  I knew I would miss having him home, but I didn't realize that I would still miss him 6 months later.  I do enjoy the time I have with Lucie that is one on one, we had never had that before.  Finn loves school and for that I am so grateful.  He is excited to go every morning, well most mornings.  He has a wonderful teacher and a very nice class.  I get to volunteer in his classroom several times a month and I enjoy working with the students and seeing him with his friends. 

Last Days of Summer

At the end of our vacation we decided to stop in Dollywood.  Finn's favorite ride was of course the one where you are soaking wet for the rest of the day.  Brian and I took turns taking him on it, while the other tried to keep Lucie happy with lemonade, which she loved.  Both kids loved driving the race cars and panning for gold. 

When we got home we had to go see a preview of the Hawkeyes by visiting Kinnick for Kids Day.  We packed picnics, park visits, walk, pool days and splash pads into the those last couple days as we said goodbye to summer and got ready for school.

Smoky Mountains

On our way home from Georgia we stopped in the Smoky Mountains for a couple nights.  Everything was gorgeous.  Finn loves waterfalls and he was so excited to be able to play in the streams.  We did a little hiking and driving tours, even seeing a bear for awhile. 

Tybee Island

We did do other things besides the beach while in Tybee.  Finn was very determined to climb to the top of the lighthouse and he did it in record time.

Ate at the Pirate House.

Visited the crab shack.

Fed some baby alligators.



Dolphin Cruise

A Stormy Night

There was a pretty good sized storm one night when we were at the beach.  During our walk that night, we were able to see the storms roll in.  While we were walking a dolphin family was playing near the shore.  Finn said they were taking their walk just like we were taking ours. 

Building Sand Castles

The Beach

Our children had never been to the beach before.  I was excited to capture their expressions of seeing the beach for the first time.  Finn loved it as soon as he could smell the salt water.  He ran down the beach (burning his little feet) and straight into the water.  Lucie was a little more hesitant.  By the end of the vacation, she loved it just as much as her brother.

Finn spent hours running and jumping in waves.  Lucie finally ventured into the water and a wave knocked her down, which meant retreating back to her towel for a juice box and raisins. 

Road Trip!!!!





We decided that we wanted to take our first long road trip as a family.  We were very nervous about driving across the country with a 5 year old and 17 month old.  We left Iowa in the middle of the night so the kids would sleep for the first part.  We stopped in Asheville the next night and woke to gorgeous mountain views the next morning.  We then drove on to Savannah where we spent the next night.  Savannah was such an amazing city with deep history.  We really enjoyed the time we had there, but it was also so hot.  So very, very hot.

Our hotel room in Savannah had a great view of the big bridge.  We sat out on the balcony watching the boats dock. 

Downtown Savannah before eating at Sister and Sons.

Absolutely love the trees and moss.

I am very happy to say that our time in the car went great.  Finn watched his DVR, played his games and slept.  Lucie was a little trickier, but she played with toys, ate lots of snacks and read books.  It actually went much better than I expected and I really enjoyed being with my little family with no distractions.  We stopped a lot so it took us quite awhile to get there, but it worked great for us.  I hope we can do this again soon.

My Little Strawberry Girl

Finn's Dinosaur Dig!

Happy 6th Birthday Finn!

Finn wanted a dinosaur party at the park for his birthday.  He knew that he wanted to have a party at this paticular park, the "natural" park as he calls it.  It has a playground that is made out of rocks, tunnels, trees, tires, etc.  The lack of primary colored plastic equipment is what I believe lead him to the name of natural park.  He debated for awhile on whether to have a dinosaur or pirate birthday party, but decided on dinosaur.  We dressed his friends as palentologists complete with hat, brush, compass and binoculars.  We buried bones, eggs and dinosaurs around the park and set them loose.   Finn loved his cake with a real roaring dinosaur.  Keeping the cake, ice cream and popsicles cold was quite a challenge since it was one of the hottest days of the year.  It was a fun party and Finn had a great time! 

Ice Cold Lemonade

Finn has been wanting to have a lemonade stand for a very long time.  We had some friends over and decided that it was the perfect day for a lemonade stand.  Actually, I did not feel it was the perfect day as it was  really hot and we had a lot of little people to watch, but since I had promised the day before I had to carry though.  First, they all made a sign for their lemonade stand.  Then we dragged the table and chairs out to the curb along with tons of toys, ice, cups and a million other things I did not know were necessary for a lemonade stand.  Then we waited and waited and waited a little longer until some poor woman driving by took pity on them and received the largest lemonade I have ever seen at a lemonade stand.  It was a lot of work and they got bored pretty quick, but I think they also had a lot of fun.  Next summer we will have to spread the word about our lemonade stand and maybe we can get a few more visitors.  

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It is so much fun now that Lucie is getting old enough to actually play with Finn.  He is so happy to have her join him, I do hope that lasts.  Here they were playing with one of the large rubbermaids we used when we moved.  It makes an "awesome big jet", according to Finn.  Lucille enjoyed a snack on her flight.  Finn made a great pilot complete with a light on his head so he could see through the clouds.

Park hopping

Every Spring and Summer I make this plan that we are going to visit all the parks in our area.  We do make it to some and this year we did rather well trying to find new places to explore and visit.  Still we tend to end back at our favorites.