August Photo Dump

Here is the rest of our August via snap shots....

What you don't know by looking at this picture is that it was 100 degrees outside :)

 Hydrating after an outside professional photo session in August -- what was I thinking?

 Jack came to visit

 Waiting to board our flight to Pittsburgh to see Daddy

 First visit to Bahama Bucks!

 Watching Mickey Mouse at Gigi's house

 One evening after a pre-dinner swim

 My super hero for the day -- Super Luke!

Ben's First Day of School

I have been dreaming of the day that Benji could go to school.  It's not that I want my baby to grow up, it is more that I want both of my children to be at the same place on the same day! 

We went to meet the teacher night on Monday night and found out that Ben is in the Ladybug class with Mrs. Shannon and Mrs. Elsa (Luke had Mrs. Shannon when he first started going to this school).  Both teachers already knew about Ben and were excited to have him in the class.  After talking to them for a bit I found out that, at a week shy of 21 months, he is the youngest in his class.  This made me nervous for him at first, but I quickly was relieved.  Ben can be a bit rough and tumble -- so better that he do that with older ones, right?  I would hate for him to take out an itty bitty ;)

Turns out that on the morning of the his first day Ben was running a fever and had to sit it out - BUMMER!  He didn't get to have his first day until Thursday.   Since we had a couple of extra days, we talked up school a lot and I am pretty sure he was even a little bit excited.  However, the excitement quickly wore off as soon as he realized he was being left.  He cried at drop off and off and on throughout the day.  He was even crying when I picked him up.  I know that it will take a few times before the tears go away, but until then it hurts my heart to know he is sad.

Here is what his teachers had to say about his very first day.  "Ben had a great 1st day!  He was upset off and on through the day, but we kept him busy and reminded him that you would be back after nap time.  He liked chapel and listened very well."

Way to go Ben!

After some serious pictures, Daddy gave the approval for the silly ones :)

 I love Luke's smirk in this one

 

 

For comparison, check out when Luke went to school for the first time!

Luke's First Day of School

Last week Luke started his first day as a preschooler!  We went on Monday night to meet the teacher and found out he was going to be in the Butterfly class with the same teachers he had for summer school -- Miss Karla and Miss Bethany.  Several of the kids that he has been in class with since he started there were also in the same class, however, we found out that his best buddy, Chance, was going to be in the class next door.  This made Luke a little sad, but we assured him that they would see each other on the playground.

As far as I know Luke had a great first day of school.  He didn't really give me many details :)

This is also the year that Benji started school with brother.  Bad news is that he was sick and had to miss the first day.  Stay tuned to see how it went :)

Water Park!

Last weekend Uncle Bub invited us to go to the local water park with them.  We had never taken the boys to the water park and jumped at the opportunity.  Luke really enjoyed swimming in the big pool and swimming under the rope.  Ben liked the itty bitty frog slide and playing on the steps of the big pool. The both of them liked going down the 48" and under water slides - too cute.  I took my camera with me hoping to get some good shots, but I totally forgot about it until the end of the day.

Thanks Uncle Bub for inviting us to the water park!  We hope to go back again with you next year.

One Last Park Trip

Before we caught our flight out of Pittsburgh we decided to make one more park stop to enjoy the nice PA weather.  I googled best Pittsburgh playgrounds and War Memorial Park ranked at the top of most people's lists.  After our visit I know why this park was consistently mentioned -- our boys loved it!  It had a toddler side and a big kid side.  The structures were newer and in good condition and the  ground was that soft rubbery stuff.  The best part about the park was that it had a nice variety of things to do and a ton of different slides -- all of which Luke went down. 

One quick sad story....  We were on the big kid side and Luke was going down the tallest covered slide of them all.  Naturally, Ben wanted to go next so Andy sent him down.  I was at the bottom and after he sent him down all I could hear was thump, thump, thump and skin against plastic.  Ben showed up at the bottom face first and on his belly -- face smashed against the plastic.  Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and recovered quickly.  Needless to say, he is now ruined on slides.  Poor thing :( 

Despite the slide incident this was a great way to end our family vacation!!

We All Scream for ICE CREAM!

One evening after dinner in Pittsburgh we decided to have ice cream at Dairy Queen.  While we do have DQs in Texas, they are hard to find in our area.  I grew up on the creamy taste of a DQ cone and I want my kids to have the same fond memories, too.

Both boys got their own ice cream cone.  Ben has shared many ice cream cones with myself or Andy, but this was the first one he has ever had all to himself.  He loved every single lick and I could tell he felt so big!  It brought back memories of the first time Luke had his first ice cream cone.  Luke has come a long way since that day and didn't even need my help, not once :( 

I love little boys with ice cream on their chins!  I hope to continue to incorporate a DQ cone into any vacation that I can :)

 What a little ham!

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

While we were in Pittsburgh we made a long stop at the Children's Museum.  The boys have been to several children's museums (Brownsville, Fort Worth, Minnesota) and this one definitely ranks towards the top.  This museum was 3 stories with multiple things to do throughout. On the first floor, the boys really, really liked the hands on garage exhibit. They were able to build their own "cars" and race them on a skateboard style ramp. They also made tracks to race match box cars. Luke particularly enjoyed launching parachutes to Andy below. 

Another first floor exhibit that they seemed to enjoy was Clifford the Big Red Dog.  The boys like to read the books and watch the show so it was fun for them to play in that area.  I didn't realize that Luke knew all the characters so well...

 

The second floor was the nursery area which I suppose is for the smaller kids.  This is where the train table was and for a while I didn't think we were ever going to make it out of there.  My boys REALLY love trains right now and this was a perfect spot for them!

 

 This is Benji stopping to say "cheese"

 

The third floor was the water floor.  It lots of water activities and even an area that was made for actually playing in the water.  They did have smocks to put over their clothes, but I didn't exactly think that this would stop Benji from getting completely wet.  Since I didn't bring any towels I figured we didn't need to spend much time up there.

Lastly, we headed back down to the first floor to end the day in the art area.  I think that this was my favorite part of the museum.  There were art easels for painting, a coffee filter painting activity, string art, a station for making art by cutting out shapes and a clay table.  The boys were in heaven and immediately got to painting.  After painting 2 masterpieces each, as well as a little bit of each other, we had them move on to something different.  Benjamin set up shop at the clay table and spent a long time there just tearing it into smaller and smaller pieces.  Luke hit the coffee filter art station and then also made it to the clay table.  By this time we had been there for hours and it was time to call it a day. 

 

We had such a great time at the museum and would definitely go back if we ever go back to Pittsburgh -- especially since it was free with our FW museum membership!!!!