Hello Kindergarten

I was unable to finish my vacation posts - life has been so crazy and hectic around here getting everything ready for Kindergarten. We are whizzing through the days..here we are - Week 2. 

I attempted a Dear Lyla letter here for her first day of kindergarten, but decided it just wasn’t something I could do. This subject is so emotional for me that for once in my life, I just don’t have words. 

Lyla loves kindergarten. She loves riding the bus in the mornings, she loves her teacher, and she loves play time with her brother in the afternoon. I’m so proud of how well she’s adjusting - there have been a few tears here and there, probably because of fatigue and because, well, I think we miss each other just a little bit. 

But, we’re adjusting, and she’s doing so well at school. Her memory is amazing, she’s reading phonetically and she loves her new friends. Getting up so early every day is a bit of an adjustment for all of us, but the sweet awake time in the afternoons is worth every blurry morning eye.

Here are a few sweet moments from the last few very important, life changing weeks of our lives: 

Lance & I did one last stay-up-late night with Lyla about a week before school started. She got to make egg-laden cupcakes, and stay up late watching whatever she wanted on TV, with us. We watched several episodes of Sophia before we called it a night and, by tradition, she got to sleep with us in our bed. Lance took this photo that night with our new camera: 

Cade has also experienced a huge adjustment in all of this. He really misses his best friend. We’re working through it by trying to create some new experiences of our own. Here, we took all of his "fix-it tools” to the park and played for hours one morning last week: 

Afternoon play has become so important here. I pick Lyla up at 2:20 and we come home as soon as we can. I try to have dinner pre-planned so we can spend as much time outside as possible. Lyla comes home voracious for play. She really seems to miss this component of her day at school, which also makes me very sad. But, we try to make the most of every moment of daylight we have before we have to go inside and work on our (strict) bedtime routine to ensure she’s tucked in by 8 p.m. These are the sweetest of cell-phone free afternoons for me: 

We’ve been very excited to meet the neighbor’s 2 cats, Crazy & Lazy, last week. We love going on adventures through the woods with them. Lyla says she’s “training” them. Obviously, we’re not cat experts around here. 

A good friend reminded me this morning that the goal of parenthood is to teach our children to be independent people, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s bittersweet, but mostly sweet that she’s spreading her little fairy wings. 

I’m so proud. 

Chess & Wild Rides

Today we started our day with chess & checkers, poolside. Lyla killed me in a game of checkers, one of her new favorite games. She was really proud:

Meanwhile, we like to call this photo Cade v. The Chess Board:

He celebrated his victory with a very messy superman Popsicle.

It was a difficult day for me. I slept with Cade last night and ended up with a terrible neck cramp, which lasted over the next 48 hours. It made for a long, hot afternoon.

We trudged onward, though, and visited the family amusement park. It was full of cheesy rides, which were met with mixed reviews from Cade. He's decided he doesn't like "fast" rides, and we actually had to ask the ride operator to stop this  one of the rides midway through.

He does like riding with his sister, though, and doesn't hesitate to tell ride operators that he needs to sit next to her:

Cade did ultimately ride his first coaster tonight:

Cade was also really happy to find a worm near the carousel...he ultimately decided to return it to its crack so it could "find its mom and dad".

 

We ended the evening with huge slushees...they were so happy about these:

Another great day!

Bean Boozled & Cousin Love

Our day started with swimming and Popsicles. Cade insisted on playing with the outdoor chess set, and it took him approximately 2 minutes to ask for a Popsicle when he spotted the ice cream cart: "Mommy, can I have a Popsicle to cool me off?" Lyla had to have one too:

We went over to a different pool today, an outdoor pool and got to play duck races with the rest of the kids. Our kids won the race, but I don't think they quite realized the significance of this:

Candy for the winners - gum for Lyla and a fist full of tootsie rolls for Cade:

Keeping up with these 2 is taking a little extra caffeine for Lance & I...we got a boost before tie-dye t-shirts:

We can't wait to see how their t-shirts turn out:

Cade likes playing games by the pool - he can be pretty lethal with the sticks, however, and they sometimes morph into weed eaters mid-game:

This afternoon, we played a few rounds of "Bean Boozled", a game the kids discovered in which there are 2 identical jellybeans - one may taste good and the other disgusting...barf versus tootie fruity; skunk spray vs. licorice. It's crazy and crazy fun...and really gross, potentially:

This evening we headed down to Myrtle  Beach's Boardwalk, one of my favorite places here. We did the Ferris wheel again - great fun and awesome views:

Lyla noted a couple of people making out in the car behind ours, "Wow, they really love each other..." 

We finished the afternoon with another candy store. Cade didn't hit his head this time, but he came close:

Lyla taught him to chew gum today, an accomplishment they're both really proud of. I'm just hoping there will be no tangled hair messes in our future. We're going to have to pry it from his mouth before bed.

It was another amazing Myrtle Beach day. Our day ended with a video from Tevan of Reace, begging to watch a video we sent earlier in the week of "Lyla & Ca". After making another video for Reace this evening, Cade said, "We'll have to bring Reace to Myrtle Beach next time, Mommy."

Love. I just love all this cousin love.