Back to School

 





















It's the end of August, and for us, that means that school started this week.  Kenley is on to 1st grade!  She was excited about going back to school, and has met even more kids in the neighborhood before and after school the first few days.  I also started teaching last week back at the community college.  I have one class, so I will just be teaching twice a week.  Next week, Charlie will start 4 year old pre-school at a next week.  He's going to a new school, and he seems to be looking forward to it.  After next week, all of the kids activities start too. Charlie is going to be in t-ball, Kenley is going to be in dance, gymnastics, and girl scouts.  So, we will be very busy once everything is in full swing!

August 2nd, Ray and I celebrated our 9th anniversary.  We went out to dinner, and the following weekend, we went to the Billy Joel concert.  I got him the tickets for his birthday, so it was kind of a celebration for his b-day and our anniversary.  It was a fun night out, and we went to the concert with his sister and her husband.  9 years have flown by, and it's crazy that next year will be our 10th!  I'm hoping we can maybe try to plan a little get-away for that one!

 

 

Charlie also officially turned 4!!  We celebrated at home with pizza and cake, and then we gave him his gift, which was an awesome motorized car.  It's actually pretty fast, and he can be a bit of a crazy driver, but he loves it!  He has been giving the whole neighborhood rides in it!  I think he's already a little bored watching all the big kids on the block get on the bus for school this week, but being forced to stay home with me.  I think he's going to have a great school year, and we just found out that one of our neighbors is in the same class as him.

Rylee took her first few steps about a week ago, but doesn't have much interest in walking too much.  She's still more comfortable crawling, but I know she will be off and running soon!  She's into everything!  It will be nice to have a little one-on-one time on the days that Kenley and Charlie are both at school. I also plan on squeezing in some errands and mostly doing a lot of house cleaning during the time that they are at school and when Rylee naps. 











We also ended the summer with a little "camping" trip with Katie, Greg, and the girls.  It was such a fun campground, and it was perfect for us and the kids.  We each rented these little cabins, and spent a few days swimming in the lake, enjoying the bonfire, and letting the kids run around and get dirty! It was a great little get-away!  

 

We've been getting closer with some of the neighbors over these last few weeks, and it has been so fun for the kids.  We met even more kids in our neighborhood in the past few weeks, and it is nice getting to know the families  I volunteered to help put together a neighborhood block party, and we are having a little get together next week.  It's also been nice now that it is Kenley's second year in school that we have gotten to know a lot of families from there.  I like that we are feeling more connected to the community, and we are getting to know more people as the kids are involved with more activities. I'm a "real" suburban mom now, participating in car-pool and all! Good thing I recently got a new car and have more space!

I'm a bit late actually posting this, so to update, Charlie started school and it went well!  It's been a bit hectic getting into the swing of things with our new schedule, but I know it will be good.  This weekend Ray and I are getting a little date night on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to that.  The weather is starting to cool off, but I want to enjoy every bit of being outside as long as we can.  I'm looking forward to all of the pumpkin patches, and it is pretty awesome that we live less than a few miles from 3 different ones!  It's going to be a great Fall!