1st Day of Preschool

Well just when I was getting used to the idea of having a Kindergartner, preschool starts for Ty!  We visited his classroom yesterday and he was not wanting me to come with, he wanted to go by himself.  He was very excited that today he was going to school and Mommy was only dropping him off.  Here is my preschooler.

and does anyone have any doubt about what is on Ty's backpack....if you were thinking Lightning McQueen of course you were right.

and of course if one gets their picture taken then everyone wants to join in!  Callie insisted on bringing her ackack(backpack...well bag) too.

We got to school and the drop off area is very busy so we didn't get a chance to get any pictures at school but my red head was grinning from ear to ear.  He was so excited to start school.  Callie and I spent a quiet morning running a few errands(wow so much easier with 1 child) and then coming home and getting some stuff done.  When we picked up Ty he was so excited to tell us all about what he got to do at school today.  1st thing being that he got to ride a blue scooter.  I had a few tears after I dropped him off this morning and I just can't help but think of him as my cute little red headed baby still.  Seriously he shouldn't be big enough to be going to preschool yet.  I prayed for him often this morning and was so glad when he said he had a great day.  Our red headed monster is growing up:)

Homemade Ice Cream

I do this thing called swagbucks.  Basically you do different things, search the internet, take surveys, etc and earn swagbucks.  When you get so many you can trade them in for prizes.  I had been saving up my swagbucks for awhile to get Amazon giftcards.  I had my eye on the kitchen aid ice cream maker attachment for some summer treats around here.  I finally got so close to earning enough and I just caved and used my gift cards along with a little of my money to get the ice cream maker:)  We've used it several times so far and it is super easy and a big hit with the kiddos.  This was from our chocolate ice cream with smores trail mix mixed in. 

We decided to live dangerously and let Callie have a cone all by herself.  We stripped her clothes and sent her outside with her very first solo ice cream cone.  She LOVED it!

to no ones surprise she was extremely messy when she was done.

Gabe enjoyed ice cream too but was not enjoying pictures this night so no pics of Gabe and his ice cream but he is a big fan.  We are excited to try out some more flavors soon!

1st Day of Kindergarten

I should have been prepared.  After all he went to Early Kindergarten last year and I was used to him being gone half days.  I found I wasn't really prepared though.  I found myself feeling moments of sadness that my baby was going to Kindergarten(he hates being called my baby, he is a boy not a baby, I keep explaining that he will be my baby as long as he lives, even when he's as big as daddy but he doesn't seem to think that is the case:)  I just kept thinking that this is the start of it all.  Busier evenings with activities, homework, etc. etc.  Crazy to think that my chubby cheeked little sweetheart will be gone all day all week long.  Gabe however had no sadness, no moments of reflection on his short 6 year life.  He was ready to go!  Here is my Kindergartner all ready for his first day of school.

and I tried to get him to look back at me so we could see his back pack but it didn't work out super well.

and of course little brother and sister couldn't  be left out of the picture fun so here they all are together.

We are car pooling with some friends this year.  I am taking the kids to school and she is picking them up.  It worked out well since starting next week I will have to take Ty to preschool anyway.  Here is Gabe and his friend Colin outside their school.

I was just thinking this morning that I feel like I'm going to blink and I will be teary leaving my 1st born at college.  Time really does move quickly.  I pray that God will watch over Gabe today and look forward to hearing all about his first day when he gets home!

Happy Birthday Ty!

Our little red headed bundle of energy turned 4 on Sunday!  How did that happen?  We had celebrated a little bit already with the trip to Adventureland and the annual trip to Hickory Park for the birthday sundae but today was the big day.  When Ty got up in the morning he was greeted with a Lightning McQueen balloon and his breakfast request of waffles.

After blowing out his candles we began preparations for his big birthday party at lunch time.  We got all of our stuff around and headed over to Grandma and Grandpas to get ready.  Since we had just gotten back from Minneapolis and had a big day at Adventureland Friday we decided to go less complicated on the cake this time.  We did cupcakes.

 

After we had lunch we went ahead and did cake.  Ty loved to blow out the candles again.

After cookies we had a very anxious birthday boy who was ready to open presents so we did that next.

He received so many cool toys and clothes, he was very excited with all of his presents.  After presents we decided to burn some energy and walk down the park.  Ty got a Captain America shield from Uncle Pete and Kim that he really enjoyed shooting at them!

Kim got him back though.

We had lots of fun at his party and were blessed to have our family join us to celebrate Ty's big day!  After everyone had left we gathered all of our things and took stuff home.  We decided it was such a nice night that we would get a 5$ pizza and do a pizza picnic in the park.  Gabe just learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels while we were in Minneapolis and has been wanting to take it on a bike trail since he learned.  Ty inherited Gabe's old bike and after fixing the seat and the training wheels he was anxious to try out his "new" bike too.    Here are some pictures from along our route.

and of course I had to take the opportunity to take an impormptu photo shoot of the cheesy little girl.  Oh well her shirt had cheeto stains on it from the party and her hair was a mess...it still turned out kinda cute.

and we decided on a whim to try out a family picture on the bridge with our timer.  It actually turned out pretty well!

and of course we ended the day with the traditional picture in the big chair.  We do it monthly until they kids turn 1 and then yearly until they turn 5.  Here is Ty's 4 year chair picture.

Oh my red headed monster, you are funny, determined, fiesty and sweet all at the same time.  We love you  for your unique personality and your sweet(when you want to be) demeanor.  You have grown so much over the past year and we love that you love people and your brother and sister.  We love that you get a super high pitched squeaky voice when you get excited and we love to hear you pray and have a love of going to church and learning about Jesus.  We were blessed to have been given the honor of being your parents 4 years ago.  We love you so much!

The Straw Poll

As some of you may know there was a little thing here in town this past Saturday known as a straw poll.  Since we only live a block and half away from where it was being held we decided to walk down there and check out all the craziness.  These are many of the candidates busses and tents they had set up around the Iowa State Center.

One of the highlights was the the free food.  Bomb pops were a family favorite.

While the Bomb pops were good I still think the kids liked the inflatables the best.

There were lots of special interest groups there as well the candidates not to mention the local and national press.

Amongst all these people we did manage to find Kim(my brothers fiance) to say hi and meet her dad quick.

and after all the excitement we had to head back home so we could meet my parents for a late lunch at Hickory Park for Ty's birthday sundae!

He liked to blow out the candle!

and the ice cream tasted pretty good too!

I'll finish of this post with a few random cute pics we snapped while at the restaurant.

and just to prove he was there but not cooperating for any pictures...

Adventureland

When we got back from our little Minneapolis trip the next day we decided to take Ty to Adventureland as part of his birthday celebration.  Mom again agreed to keep Callie since she is a little bit too small to ride very much and still needs a nap in the afternoon so we figured it would be more enjoyable for everyone if she stayed with Grandma.  Our friends, the Krugers also had tickets to go and since Mike had the week off from work they were able to go with us for the day.  That worked out great since Ty loves Brady and Bree he felt like he got to take friends with him for his birthday.  When we arrived we headed right to the ferris wheel.  We found most rides only let you go with 6 people at the most so we split up with the two older kiddos with us and two younger with Mike and Heather.  It did make for some cute pictures.

After the ferris wheel Ty was just sure he wanted to ride the pirate ship, aka the galleon.  I can't ride the galleon I did when I was younger and almost lost my breakfast so I was positive age would not improve my experience so Daddy took him on.  Mike took Bree as well.

Since you could only take one kid per adult the bigger boys had to wait their turn and the Daddies had to go again:)

They even help up their hands for most of the ride but pretty soon I saw Carl talking to a increasingly more funny faced Gabe and had him put his hands down.  Once he got off though he was fine, of course he says he still thought the galleon was fun.  For those wondering Bree and Ty loved it!  No problems at all!  After a few more rides the dads were ready for a break of all the spinning so we found the ladybugs.  Gabe and Brady decided that this was a baby ride and they were not going to ride it but once Bree and Ty got in line they decided to give it a try as well.  What is funny is I remember riding the lady bugs when I was about Gabe's age, guess they've been around a while.

Soon after the ladybugs we found some lunch and then braved a few more rides.  All of us rode the log ride where Gabe and I got pretty wet since we were in the front of the log.  After the log ride we checked to see if Gabe was tall enough to ride the roller coasters this year.  He was and he said that if he was tall enough he was going to ride them.  We started with the tornado where cool and confident Gabe turned a little panicky and by a little I mean a lot.  The whole time in line he kept saying he didn't want to do it and he didn't want to go.  The line was not long so it didn't take us long to get to the platform.  Once in the cart and out of the building he wanted out but we were past the point of not return and he wanted me to hold on to him the whole time.  They take your picture at the bottom of the 1st hill and his face was priceless.  A look of sheer terror gripping onto the lap bar and my arm for dear life.  It was pretty funny but I didn't want to pay the 10$ to buy it so you'll just have to trust me on the face.  Once we pulled back in and we got off he was exclaiming how fun that was and wanted to go again...stinker.  He went on to ride the Dragon(the upside down coaster) twice and they all rode several other rides.  We ended up over by the frog hopper towards the end of the day which is one of Ty's favorites.

After a couple of rides on the frog hopper the kids were ready to go try out the bi-planes.  The park was not busy this day at all so there was no wait and no one waiting when they were done so I think they ended up riding them planes about 5 times in a row.  It was great.

While the kids were riding the bi-planes the daddies decided they were going to go try out the space shot.  Mike had never been on one before so wanted to give it a try.  He had tucked his sunglasses on the inside of his shirt but they went flying out.  While we were watching them from the ground you could see Mike fumbling around for something and then these glasses flying out into the crowd, it was pretty funny.  You can see a video of it here.  I'm sure it was more funny in person but just watching him flail around trying to catch them was a pretty good laugh.  After that craziness we headed over the carousel and train but not before I made the kids pose for a picture together.  In Ty's defense the sun was pretty bright.

On the train ride.

I think Gabe and Brady were a little confused after going on all the roller coasters and decided that they should put their hands up on the train ride as well.

While on the train ride we saw the raging river and the kids wanted to know why we hadn't gone on that yet.  We were going to leave and get some supper but our kids pleading eyes won out and we headed back to the raging river where the adults mostly, all got soaked for our ride home.  Since we were pretty wet we decided a drive-thru was our best option an ate some Burger King on the way home.  It was a fun day and I think Ty thought it was a pretty good place to start a birthday celebration weekend.
*Just wanted to add that Ty's favorite ride was the silly silo(you know the one that spins round and round and drops the floor out from under your feet, the one that makes me sick just watching it spin) yeah that one and my wonderful hubby went on it twice, once with Gabe once with Ty what a guy:)