Another One Bites the Dust

(Not the greatest picture, but I keep forgetting to take one when there is good lighting and a little less goofy girl.)

Tooth number 5 is gone (and its the 3rd one that really was lost--I think she has bad statistics in that area because she won't wiggle them out, so they just fall out when we aren't expecting them).  This one was hanging by a thread for days, but Daddy-o was out of town and she really wanted to wait until he got home.  We prayed each night for the tooth to hang on a little longer.  Unfortunately, all it took was a little scuffle as we left the pool Monday night, and it was punched out (sound familiar, Uncle D?  Same story as when I lost my top two teeth.  Only hers really was ready to come out.  And the punch was intentional.)  Daddy-o missed it by 2 hours.

This feels like the big one.  Those bottom teeth grow in and you can't really see them.  Their smile doesn't change.  But when she gets this new tooth. . . Well, we'll just hope she got some throwback gene and it won't be quite as big as Daddy-o and I both got.  It is funny when you think about it--these grown-up teeth in their still not fully grown little faces.  No wonder why there are some awkward years in most kids school picture collection.

Parading Around

First school activity. . . a neighborhood parade.  Bean isn't exactly in love with the school song and wasn't too sure about participating, but we had to show a little school spirit.  And we needed something fun to fill up our Saturday.  Daddy-o headed out to CA a few days ago to welcome his youngest brother home from his church mission, but we couldn't let him have all the fun.

There's definitely plenty of spirit to go around that school.  This is Bean's teacher/school mascot.

It was fun to see Bean with some of her friends.  And Bug didn't start whining until about 2 blocks into it, so we only had about 6 blocks of that.  Luckily there was a bounce house at the end to encourage him to finish strong.

Molly was incredibly happy to be brought along.  For the last couple weeks, this poor dog has been giving me these pathetic looks, "Why are you leaving me again?  When am I ever going to get out of this house?"  It's been an adjustment, this whole school thing.  And with Daddy-o gone, there hasn't been much dog walking happening.  We'll all be happy to have him back!

New Cousin!

The kids have their first cousin from my side of the family--so exciting!  We'll call her AJ here--Welcome to the family!  We can't wait to meet you!

Fabulous Weekend

Just the two of us.

An absolutely gorgeous day at the Biltmore.

The Carpet of Flowers.

Huge puffy clouds, low humidity, a breeze.

Beautiful gardens. It was so relaxing, especially as we sat at the Arbor Grill for two hours, eating good food and listening to live music, and enjoying the fact that we could just sit with no jumping up to get extra milk or napkins that had fallen on the ground.

And then we got to sleep in, eat a late breakfast, and head for the Dupont Five Falls Hike. It's an 11 mile hike, and unfortunately it started to rain so we had to cut it short, but we got to see three of the five falls before we turned back.

They really were beautiful. They filmed parts of Last of the Mohican's around these falls.

Lot of water, but with all the rain we get here, it has to go somewhere!

I'm really starting to fall in love with the NC mountains. They may not be as high as what we were used to out west, but they are gorgeous. And spending a couple days with the man I love was fabulous. We're so grateful for good friends who make things like this possible by watching our kids and dog.

Chip Off the Old Block

When I picked Bean up today, she was quite pleased to tell me that while her teacher was going over the rules for the bathroom, she leaned over to another kid at her table and whispered, "One of the rules is no jumping in the toilet!" First grade humor. . .

I'll leave it to you to figure out who that reminds me of (although I will say that she didn't shout it out to take advantage of the whole audience she had available to her, so maybe there's a little of both of us in her.)

First Day of School

Bean is officially a 1st grader now! She couldn't go to sleep the night before because she was so excited. There were no tears (I never expected her cry, but we were all a little worried about me), just big smiles as she we left her in her classroom, sitting at her table. And by all accounts, she had a great day, even if "we didn't learn anything, just got to know each other and I can't remember anyone's names. I don't have any friends yet, I was just getting to know some of them."

And here's a picture the second day because my camera lens kept fogging up the first morning at the school. That's what happens when you live in a swamp (or at least when it feels like one--this has been one MUGGY summer).

And this would be the line of cars, 15 mintues before school even gets out. It actually went two blocks back at that point. I think tomorrow we'll just park somewhere and walk up to get her. I don't know if this is the new way of dismissing kids everywhere, but I'd been warned about these crazy car pick-up lines at the schools.

Summer Visitors

We were lucky enough to get to spend the last few days of our summer vacation with visiting friends.

Swimming, Discovery Place, Lancaster's BBQ, and a lot of playing made for a fun week. D. and I have known each other our entire lives and its always fun when we get together, which isn't nearly often enough.

The kids were ready to have them move in with us. None of them were very happy this morning when we had to say goodbye. Or maybe the tears were due to the shortage of sleep.
We obviously wore them out, when Bugaboo started sleeping until 8, which he NEVER does.

And this little munchkin. . . well, there's nothing quite like a smiley 10 month old baby.

I was surprised at how Bean was completely taken with her. She's never been too interested in babies, but she thought this one was really fun.

Back to School Shopping

New lunch box--check!

Backpack--ordered (and probably won't make it until a few days into school, but how much is a first grader really going to need to carry home that first week? Don't answer. . .)

School supplies, according to their class list--all taken care of.

New mode of transportation--sitting in the driveway, ready for carpooling.

We made it just 9 days short of 4 years as a one car family, but I am relieved that we found something on such short notice, and within our price range and with all the essentials we wanted. The thought of juggling Daddy-o's work schedule and Bean's school schedule and still having a life outside the car was starting to worry me, but now Daddy-o can drop Bean off at school on his way into the office, saving me from the 40 minute roundtrip until pick-up time.

I never thought I'd be so excited to be driving a minivan, but it really drives pretty nice and I am looking forward to roadtrips where we can just throw our bags in the back with no strategic packing.

A New Phase of Life

I haven't been in much of a blogging mood these last couple weeks. Too many TV shows on Netflix, end of summer playdates with friends, books to read, and meals to make. But things are moving on and I'm getting behind.

Big news of the week--Bean got in to our (second choice) charter school we were waiting on. I feel like that should have an exclamation mark, and when she tells it, it does. But I'm still a little sad. It sounds like a good school and I think she's going to love it, but I'd started to make tentative homeschool plans when we hit the end of July and no news. I was gearing up for science projects and art lessons and reading and writing activities, and more math games. We've actually had a pretty productive summer and I feel like Bean has made a lot of progress with her reading and spelling and math. She's getting to that place where you can start to do so many fun activities, and I was just really looking forward to being the one to get to have all that fun with her. Not to mention the field trips I wanted to do.

Luckily, the school is called the Community Charter School for a reason and they encourage a lot of parent involvement, so I won't be totally left out. And I still have my little Bug at home with me, as of now, full time, so we'll get to have some good mama and Bug time. I'll get used to only having one kid with me for our playtimes (and honestly, it will be WAY easier and much more calm).

So only one more week of summer -- it seems so wrong to start school 3 weeks before Labor Day.