Elliott's First Day of School

I think Elliott was most excited about getting to use his Buzz Lightyear backpack for school today! We didn't get much of a report from him at all - he apparently "forgot" anything that he did at school. The preschool director said he had a good day, and Elliott did say he likes his teacher and that there were more girls than boys (apparently important since that's all that he remembered!). Ethan's first day is tomorrow so we'll write more then!

Signs we're in the Midwest

I asked Ethan what he wanted to drink this afternoon, and he said "pep-uh-see" (Pepsi). Both the boys pronounce it like this, and I was wondering why and started thinking that we never drank "pep-uh-see" in Georgia, but there's a lot more of it up here. It was definitely available, but Brian and I both prefer Coke, and I really can't think of ANYONE that I know that lives in metro Atlanta and drinks Pepsi. The more I think about it, the more surprised I am that the Pepsi man even comes to the grocery stores down there. But he does, so someone in metro ATL drinks it....I've just never met them - ha!

Anyway, it made me a little homesick and also made me wonder what other influences our move to the Midwest will have on the boys. I'll never be a Pepsi drinker, though! But I do think it's funny how the boys say it.

Blown away!!

Last night we experienced our first scare with unpredictable weather here in the midwest. We haven't had rain in days, and the forecast didn't call for any until Thursday or Friday. Brian and I went outside to watch the meteor shower late last night and noticed a lot of "heat lightning" (at least that's what I call it). No thunder or anything, just lightning far away and seemingly way up in the sky, and we didn't think anything about it since we weren't supposed to get rain for days. About 30 minutes later, out of NOWHERE, we heard the wind pick up full force and it started blowing things around outside and shaking the windows...I honestly thought there was a tornado right on top of us and that we wouldn't be able to get upstairs to the boys in time (of course, I am a little paranoid about tornadoes). Anyway, I grabbed the boys out of bed and rushed them down to the basement. I expected Brian to come down and say that we were overreacting, but he said the weather man said he was a little concerned about the squall line but he hadn't seen any rotation. It all ended up okay (just wind gusts of 60 mph!), and the boys just thought we were having a little adventure.

The glass in our patio table didn't fare so well. This was the 3rd time that it has been blown out of the table since March and didn't make it back in one piece this time. You can see it shattered to pieces in the second picture. It landed in the lot next door again (there just happens to be a house there now). I'm just thankful it didn't hit their house - they just closed on it on Friday and are moving in today (that would've been a great "welcome to the neighborhood" present, huh?).

Anyway, thought I'd share our excitement of the day!

Family Vacation

Every other year, my family takes a family vacation together. This year everyone was pretty much out of vacation time (used it mostly for Erin and Ryan's wedding in April), so we decided to maximize our time and meet in St. Louis. This was great with us since it meant no long car trips with the boys! I wasn't sure if it would feel like vacation since it was literally just 15 minutes from our house, but it really did....no laundry, no making dinner, no cleaning the house, and getting to do all kinds of fun things with everyone - it was great!

We ate at the Spaghetti Factory Friday night (the boys got balloon swords which I regretted the rest of the weekend)and then spent some time on the go-karts at the Nascar Speedway Park. Saturday we went to Grant's Farm. The first thing we did was get milk bottles for the boys to feed the goats, but as soon as we got into the gate the goats started jumping on us and pulling on our clothes (one was literally eating my shorts!). This did not go over well with the boys who were crying and almost screaming to get out by this point. We decided that the other side of the fence was a much better place to feed those ravished goats!

As if that weren't enough, poor Ryan walked up to a llama that welcomed him by sneezing on his right shoulder - sorry Ryan, we had to laugh!

My sister, Erin, enjoys history so she always finds us a presidential museum, library, etc. for us to visit. This time it was the Ulysses S. Grant museum at Grant's Farm. Amber and I stayed back in the "kid-friendly" (not so much) part of the museum with the boys while everyone else watched the movie and headed out for the tour of the house. We found these cool costumes the Julia and Ulysses would have worn on their world travels, so we had some fun dressing up!

We also visited the Museum of Transportation - really cool place if your kids like trains! There are a lot of trains that you can board, tons of different ones to see, and even a trolley and a miniature train to ride. The train that Ryan is standing beside is the "Big Boy" - the largest steam engine. YOu can see that the wheels are even taller than Ryan!

Of course, we had ice cream one night (if you're with my family, you eat ice cream...it's a given), went to the pool, and some other things. It was just nice to hang out with everyone and have fun.

Fish!

Elliott and Ethan love the pool!! This is the first year I've felt comfortable taking them by myself...last year Elliott was a little timid the beginning of the season and Ethan had no fear (but also no skills!) so I couldn't handle both of them alone. But this year they're all over the pool as long as they have their water wings on. It helps that the pool is only 3 1/2 feet for the majority of the pool and that it's a rolling entry so Ethan can get in and out by himself. They both want to jump in all the time and last week told me they "didn't need me". That's always nice to hear! They take swim lessons next week so we'll see what other tricks they learn!!

Lincoln County Fair

Brian's friend, Jarod, let us know about the Lincoln County Fair in Troy - they were having a demolition derby last night so we thought the boys would be pretty excited about that. Unfortunately the demo derby got off to an hour late start and then nothing was crashing, so the boys were more than ready to get back to the rides and games. But even though the derby was a bust, we had such a good time with the rest of the fair....rode the ferris wheel and all the kiddie rides, loved the Power Rangers funhouse, played some games and won some prizes, listened to some live country music, and of course ate some cotton candy! It was so funny when we first pulled into the parking area and you could see the rides and the derby area and the boys started doing that I'm-so-excited-I-can't-control-myself laugh saying "This is going to be so much fun!!" Funny boys!

4th of July

We had a very fun 4th tonight! The boys have been watching fireworks and playing with sparklers for the past few nights with the neighbor girls - our new neighbors LOVE the 4th of July and even went out twice to buy fireworks again today! Tonight Barry, Vicki and Ben came over and we grilled ribs and the boys were their crazy selves. It was really hot and humid and then it rained a little so they couldn't play outside much - running in circles in the house and playing construction workers was just as fun for them! Then we headed down to the riverfront in Old St. Charles for fireworks. They were definitely a hit - Ethan preferred to wear Ben's "earmuffs" so that he could enjoy the fireworks in a quieter way - ha! It was really so much fun - I'd love to celebrate like that every year. Hope everyone else had a great night, too!