Sophie's First Day of School...Ever!

Greg worked from home on Tuesday so he could join us for Sophie's first day of school ever. We started the day off with a donut breakfast. Donuts are better than Wheaties on the first day of school, you know.

Of course, Owen got one too...even though it wasn't his first day of school.

What a good way to start the day!

Ummm...let's try that again.

That's more like it. Almost.

Owen wasn't quite ready to go yet, but we took this picture while Sophie was compliant. And she was only compliant because we wouldn't turn a cartoon on until she let us take some pictures. Yes, we are excellent parents.

The backpack (which is about as big as she is). Strawberry Shortcake!

Owen can now say "backpack" and insisted on wearing his to school also. His is Spider Man. And significantly smaller.

When we arrived at school, Sophie's good friend Lily was also just arriving. From then on, we adults might as well have returned to our cars and just driven away for all they cared. They held hands and traipsed into school without a backward glance. (I was secretly kind of glad that it went this way instead of the way I was imagining, which was of me wrenching Sophie's arms from my neck while she and I both sobbed.)

We found her coathook with her name on a yellow butterfly.

Then she marched into the room and immediately started to play in the sand exploration area. We did get a few quick hugs and kisses in before leaving, though it did feel a bit like a "don't let the door hit you on the way out" kind of good-bye.

I can't believe my kid is in school!

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day Weekend, we headed back to Yellow Grandma's again, this time without every other person we're related to...except for Great Grandma T. She was there before we got there, and we were glad our visits overlapped. And except for Cassie, too. She surprised us and showed up unexpectedly. So, nevermind. I guess other relations were there. Just not so many this time.

One of the days we got to go to Grandpa's work and see some really cool marine life (a.k.a. unique/unusual corral and some super expensive fish). It was really fascinating! I could have stayed longer to look around.

The kids liked it too and even got to touch a few critters. This one was a little too spidery for me, but the kids loved it.
We spent time playing outside, and we had a campfire so we could roast hotdogs and marshmallows.

We also went down to the lake to catch some fish off the dock. We had brought the kids' fishing poles just in case of such an adventure.

Owen was very enthusiastic about casting his (rubber tire) line in the hopes of catching a fish. He was so excited that at one point the whole pole went in the lake. Greg nearly had to leap in after it.

Grandpa helped Sophie put some bait (hotdogs) on her hook. Trial and error led us to the conclusion that fish love hotdogs, and that the tiniest of pieces works best.

We let Owen take some turns with Sophie's rod too, as hers was the only one set up for real bait and a hook. He was a very determined reeler-inner.

There's a fish on there, Owen! Keep reeling!

He did it!

He was so excited!

Sophie caught a couple too.

It's hard to say what the highlight of the weekend was...seeing and touching really exotic fish, watching "Finding Nemo" with the grandparents (Owen now says "Meemo" all the time and wants to watch the movie daily...not that we let him), or catching our own fish with hotdog leftovers. I guess it was all our favorite!

Pre-School Open House

Last week, we went to visit Sophie's new preschool. This was the only picture she let us take. I tried to get one by the coat hook with her name on it, but she would not comply.

While at the open house, we ran into my friend Kari, my crazy-good-deal finder friend Kari. She gave us a tip about some free ice cream at a local ice cream shop...the only hitch was we had to wear our pajamas there. All of us. If we wanted free ice cream, that is. And we did want free ice cream, so we did it. The kids thought it was so funny. (Those are Sophie's new ballerina pajamas, complete with tutu. Owen's have drum-playing bears on them. How appropriate).

This little horse was at the ice cream place, and all the little girls took turns "riding" it.