3rd and 4th Grade!

August 25th was the first day of 3rd grade for Cade and 4th grade for Maddison! Emalyn was along for the ride. Both kids were very excited to start school.
It was a beautiful day and it seemed like the whole neighborhood walked to school. A lot of people hadn't seen Emalyn since June and they couldn't believe how big she was and that she already had her license to drive a car!

Hard to believe that last year Emalyn was not even born when school started.

Both kids woke up in plenty of time and were ready to go with time to spare. I was hopeful that's how every day would go this year, but no such luck. By day 2, Maddi had slept through her alarm and said she was too tired to go to school.

I couldn't wait to hear how their days went and Cade said it was great. His favorite thing was the gears they can play with in their class and he got to read in the comfy chair. He also liked that they have specials at the end of the day so they actually pack up around 2:00 and then take their backpacks to specials and go home from there.

Maddi also had a great day. She really liked her teacher and her favorite thing was learning about the different jobs they can have. They got to pick 4 that they want and then they were interviewed by their teacher to see which job is a good fit.

Brett was in a golf tournament for work that day, so he was able to stay home till mid morning and walked with us to school.

Maddi is growing up, but she still loves to hold hands. She'll reach out and hold mine or Brett's hand when we walk. I hope she's never too old to hold her Daddy's hand!

We went to Maddi's class first. She didn't cry, but my eyes might have teared up. She was happy to be back at school. I really can't believe she's in 4th grade! Time goes by way too fast.

My precious girls.

Cade was somewhat annoyed that we wanted to take a picture because he wanted to get his things put away and get on with his day. Such a big 3rd grader!

Brett couldn't believe how quick the goodbye was. He said it was anti-climatic. Emalyn was asleep when the kids got out of school so they walked home together. It broke my heart that I wasn't there to meet them at the doors, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They took turns telling me all about their classes. Maddi of course had more to share than Cade, but that's a girl for you! I pray they both have an awesome school year.

Meet the Teacher

Monday night the kids got to meet their teachers and say hello to all their former teachers. This is Cade with his teacher, Mr. Struck. He has taught 1st grade until this year. Cade was very happy to get him for a teacher because he's wanted to know what it's like to have a male teacher. Everyone who's had Mr. Struck really likes him. He has a lazy eye or glass eye or something and it's kind of hard for me to talk to him for too long because that eye is distracting. Cade isn't the least bit nervous which is a great thing because usually he's very excited for school to start but pretty nervous. He has 32 kids in his class! Ridiculous, if you ask me. It's because they had to lose a teacher because of budget cuts. We got a message from the principal that they will take 6 kids from each class to be taught by another teacher for reading, so that will help cut down on the class size. Cade will go to AT for reading, so he won't have the extra reading teacher. I'm sure he'll have a great year. He has several good friends in his class.

This is Maddi with her teacher, Mrs. Von Kaenel. Maddi was in tears when she found out who her teacher was and saw that the girls she was hoping to be in her class were not with her. However, she is now very happy with her teacher. She talked to a friend who had her and really liked her and she read about her online on the school website. I think she'll be a great teacher for Maddi. She's younger and doesn't have kids and has her degree in psychology and sociology with her teacher certification after the fact. She's taught 4th grade for 7 years. Maddi was very happy to find she knows 5 of the 6 kids sitting at her table and the girl next to her is a good friend from first grade. They also have the largest classroom in the whole school. They have 29 kids in her class, which is large compared to the 22 she usually has. However, 4 of them are special needs and I think are only in there for parts of the day. Maddi's really looking forward to having some special needs kids in her class. She looked up all the kids in the yearbook, that's how she knows who they are. She already wrote a sweet note and made a gift for her teacher that she took to her last night, so she's already earning some brownie points. Ha ha. She is so excited about starting school and I really hope that lasts all year!

Meeting the teachers made us all hungry, so we let the kids pick dinner. They picked IHOP. Emalyn liked it!

We keep having to push her highchair away from the table to keep her little hands out of our stuff! We've nick named her the little monster.

My 3rd and 4th graders!

Fun in the City

The day after Cade's birthday we went to the city for the night. Emalyn was caught getting into the diaper bag in the hotel room!

Cade had some birthday money to spend so we went to the Lego store. Maddi entertained Emalyn while Cade shopped.

She even got to play with some of the bigger Legos.

Then Cade entertained Emalyn while Maddi shopped at American Girl. I actually think Emalyn entertained the bigger kids while the other ones were shopping too. It worked out well because it gave each of them something to do to pass the time and it kept Emalyn happy. That, of course, made me happy because nobody was complaining/whining/crying!

Then we stopped at the Hershey store and they gave us each a Hershey kiss as we walked in, even one for Emalyn. I wasn't going to give it to her, but the kids wanted to see her eat her first Hershey kiss. I was curious to see if she'd like it because I did not want chocolate at all when I was pregnant with her. I went to let her get a bite of it and she sucked that whole thing in her mouth!

She was smiling with a mouth full of chocolate!

And the verdict is....she LOVED it!

Me and my little munchkins by the water tower after Brett met us from work. We took about 5 pictures and in every one of them Cade or Emalyn had a weird face or their eyes shut. Silly kids. So, that day when Emalyn had her headband on, we got so many comments about how cute she is, love the bow, she's adorable, blah, blah, blah. However, without the bow, she was called a boy 3 times! Twice with Brett. Brett actually asked for the headband to put it on her so she would look like a girl. I know she was wearing a blue shirt, but it was puffy on top, and there was an alligator, but there were also flowers. Anyway, Brett says she needs to wear all pink now. Ha ha. My little boyish looking girl. Looks just like her daddy!

She loves to chew on straws.

She also loves to chew on her toes and was just chewing them before the picture. She never sits like a normal child. She's always got her leg pulled up if she's sitting in her high chair or stroller or car seat. Lots of baby flex in that little girl.

Saturday we ate breakfast and then headed over to the beach for the Chicago Air and Water show. Luckily little one fell asleep and napped while we were waiting for the show to start.

The little dots in the sky and smoke are parachuters who just jumped out of the plane. That's how the show started. I am so skydiving one day!

Gotta love the USA!

It was a hot one but the kids stayed cool in the sand and water. Maddi made some friends and they were digging a big hole.

Emalyn loved the sand, but did not love the cold water. She was screaming with excitement at all the kids/people in this picture.

The cool trick planes. Love to watch them, but they make me nervous too!

Not sure what plane this was but it was really loud!

Cade and Maddi started digging a hole in the sand.

We put Emalyn in to see what she'd think of it. She clearly did not enjoy it! Look at her thighs! Can you tell she's never missed a meal?

Now Cade's in the hole to show how deep it was. They kept digging and digging....

....until Cade could stand almost all the way in the hole!

Maddi and some random boys starting covering Cade with sand until only his head was out.

He couldn't get out of the sand so we told him we'd leave him the umbrella for shade and come back for him one day.

Looks kind of like a crab here. These are Maddi's legs!

Then random boy wanted to be covered in sand and asked us to take his picture.

Then it was Maddi's turn to be covered in sand. She's come a long way from the first time we took her to the beach as a baby and screamed bloody murder when her feet touched the sand!

Daddy with is baby girl.

I love Chicago and love how the lake is right among all the tall skyscrapers.

Daddy was playing chin chomper with Emalyn. Luckily we brought an umbrella to keep Emalyn out of the sun and heat. I was happy to hold her and keep her and I shaded and the kids were happy to play in the lake and sand and we were all happy to watch the air show. It was a lot of fun.

The next day Cade was building his new Legos and Maddi wanted to build too so Brett helped her make an RV type thing. Maddi had fun and was very proud. She is such an odd girl, she is either naked except underwear or wearing footy pjs in our house. There is no in between with normal pjs, even in the summer.

8 is Great!

Other than the fact that Cade dropped my lap top and shattered the screen and now it will be gone for a few weeks.....8 has been great for Cade! He seemed to have a lucky year at 7 as many great things happened to him/for him the past year. I can hardly believe he's already 8 years old, but at the same time, he's looked like he's at least 8 for a long time now.

August 12th, the day Cade looks forward to every year, the day of Cade. He woke up bright and early (although not nearly as early in some years past) and was ready to start celebrating his birthday.

We always start birthdays with present from the family in the morning before school/work. Cade was checking out the Nano Bug Habitat that Omie sent to him.

He liked the card I made him with our 8 favorite things about Cade!

Then he opened presents from his sisters and here he is giving hugs to them to say thanks for his gifts.

Even Maddi got a hug from Cade and she commented that it was the first time he's ever hugged her. A bit of an exageration, but it is rare that those two hug.

Then it was time to check out the toys. Emalyn really liked the nano bugs and their habitat! Cade and Maddi thought it was so fun to watch her get so excited about them.

A little later that morning we headed to Chuck E Cheese. Cade laughed at the thought of having his party there but he was sure excited to go there. They'll probably outgrow it soon, but they'll still get to go there because of their little sister, which I think will be a good excuse to get to do such a "little kid thing."

I love the look on the girls faces! They were riding a horse and it was actually too rough for Emalyn and I pulled her off the ride right after this picture.

This little firetruck ride was more her speed.

The big balloon was very interesting to Emalyn.

Later that evening it was time for the big birthday bash! I knew it could be hot having a party in the middle of August, but it happened to be the hottest day of our whole summer and maybe even the hottest day since we've lived here. Oh well, the kids were good sports about it and they had water activities. It did cool off after the first hour or so. The party started at 5:00 with slip and slides and jumping on the trampoline. Then it was time for Water Balloon Fights!!!!

It was kind of like water balloon dodge ball. Brett and Cade made about 40 water ballons a few days before and they left them outside in a bucket and they all popped the next day. So then they made about 150 the next night and put them in a cooler in the laundry room. The next day Maddi, Cade, Grace, Jack and Andrew made about 100 more all by themselves. They did so great making the balloons and all the kids had a blast playing with them.

A few kids got nailed, even in the face, but none of them were made, hurt, cried, etc.

Little Emalyn had to sit on the sidelines and watch, but she enjoyed watching all those crazy kids.

Next, it was time for pizza and birthday cake!

Closing his eyes, making his wish...

and now blowing...

Candles are out and now it's time to act like the crazy 8 year old boy that he is!

It was an ice cream cake and I'd say the kids enjoyed it!

After cake we went on a scavenger hunt. My team won, but we all had fun! Then it was pinata time. I cracked up when a kid said, "Mrs. McDonald, I thought they had pinatas at Mexican celebrations!" After pinata, Cade opened presents and then the party was over. Cade has been wanting his party at home for several years and it was fun, but I think from now on, we'll have it at a place. I like showing up for the party, having fun, and heading home. Cade had a blast and was very thankful for his party and had a great day and that makes it all worth it. We love you so much Bugaboo!!!