Back to School

Austin had his first day at his new preschool today!  He'll be going from 9-1 two days a week at a local church that I fell in love with over the summer.  He's in the 2 year old class since he just misses the cutoff date to advance into 3's, but from what I've been told, it's a good thing he's always going to be older because boys typically mature at a slower rate.  I just hope he's challenged enough and doesn't realize he's the big kid in class and bully all the younger kids like he does his little brother sometimes!!

Austin couldn't wait to go back to school this morning and I had virtually no trouble getting him ready to go as long as I phrased every request with, "If you ________, we can go to school today!"  He was so excited I could barely get a picture of him before he went running out the door.  At school, he immediately walked into his classroom, found his name on his cubby and then found the exact same truck he played with at open house last week.  I lingered for a few minutes just watching him and he paid me absolutely no attention whatsoever.  I told him bye and got no response back but when I told him to tell Owen bye-bye, we got a partial look and a quiet "...bye, Owen."  I just hope he's always this happy and excited to be at school!!

Splish! Splash!

We spent last Friday at the splash pad with new friends Tess, Christian and little baby Everett!  What a fun way to beat the heat!!

Soccer Star!

Last Saturday, before we took off for Ryan's birthday weekend, we went to Austin's first soccer practice!  He's playing pee-wee soccer this season on a team of 3 and 4 year olds and it's just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.  Austin chose to be lucky #7.  He's the youngest on the team this year because he just made the cut, and it's a little obvious, but I think he'll start to blend in more as the season progresses.

Austin loved the warm up and Ryan and I got a kick out of watching him try to do jumping jacks.  Then the kids kicked the ball in the goal a few times and Austin enjoyed that as well.  The dribbling drills were a little tricky as he didn't get the whole idea about not touching the ball with your hands.  Coach M had learned Austin's name by this point and was using it a lot.  The funniest thing was when the coach told the kids to dribble their balls over to the white line.  Austin took this as meaning his ball had to be directly on the white line and was not satisfied until his ball was resting exactly in place.  He kept fidgeting with the ball until it was lying directly on the line and he was so concerned about the placement of his ball that he would miss the rest of the instructions.  He sooo gets that from his daddy!

Austin pretty much tuned out the last 15 minutes of practice and did his own thing.  I guess he found soccer just about as interesting as most Americans.  That, or the fact that he's 2 and has the attention span of a fish right now.  He started watching the kids playing t-ball on an opposite field and told us he was ready to go play baseball now.  Unfortunately we have to wait until next year for t-ball...

We've got practice for a few more weeks and then they start scrimmaging other teams.  I just hope Austin learns not to touch the ball between now and then or he's going to get so many handball penalties that he'll be thrown out of every game!  Maybe we should go ahead and start positioning him for the roll of goalie....

Oh My Wordy, Look Who's 30!

Ryan turned the big 3-0 on Saturday and we had an awesome time celebrating!  It's scary leaving your 20's behind (seriously, I still have 4 months to go and I can't stop obsessing), so we made sure to make 30 a milestone to remember!

AmMa Jo Ann came in town to keep the boys so we started out Saturday with a trip to Carowinds for the 30 year old kid (aka my husband) and myself.  Not exactly how I'd opt to spend my 30th, but it was perfect for Ryan and it was great to do something fun like that without the kids (although I couldn't help but think the whole day about how much Austin would love this place).  After arriving and riding our first roller coaster at the park, the Intimidator (aka the tallest, fastest, longest coaster in the southeast), we both decided that we are, in fact, too old for roller coasters and prefer our feet a little more firmly planted on the ground.  So, we headed on over to the water park for a little less aggressive, laid back fun.

We followed Carowinds up with an early evening check-in at a "swanky" (as Ryan stated) hotel and got ready for dinner.  Our dinner was awesome and delicious and so relaxing.  Ryan mentioned ending our fun day by just going back to the hotel and turning in early, but I had a little something extra up my sleeve.  I convinced him that we should go to his favorite bar in uptown Charlotte for a few drinks to end the night and when we walked in he was completely shocked when more than15 of his friends jumped up and yelled "Surprise!"  The best line of the night was when Ryan looked at me and said, "I didn't even know this many people liked me!"

Unfortunately, this is the best group shot of the night.

Chris, Ryan & Neal 

The Birthday Bucket!

No idea what's going on here, but this is apparently the only picture I'm in...or the side of my head is in... 

It was a fun night to say the least, but we woke up the next morning realizing once again that we are also, in fact, too old to stay out partying all night.  Darn you thirties!!!!!  At least we took comfort in knowing that the boys were at home being well taken care of so we enjoyed a quiet Sunday morning of laying in bed and watching TV until noon...something we probably haven't done in almost 3 years now!  I miss that... :-)

Happy 30th Birthday, Ryan!!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend, you deserved it!!

We love you so much!

Beach Comparisons

A Look Back At The Past 5 Years

My goodness how life changes...

Summer 2011

Austin at 34 months and Owen at 15 months

Summer 2010

Austin at 23 months and a 5 month old baby Owen!

Summer 2009

Austin at 9 months

Summer 2008

6 Months Pregnant on our Babymoon

Summer 2007

Newlywed on our Honeymoon

HH '11

I took a little blogging vacation, but much to the grandparents excitement (and maybe 1 or 2 others), the Adventures finally continue....

We took our first (and possibly only) trip to the beach a couple weeks ago.  The 4 of us as well as Aunt CaCa and Uncle Nick stayed in Nick's family's 2 bedroom condo at Hilton Head.  Four adults and 2 kids in a small two bedroom place....needless to say I don't think we will be getting an invitation back anytime soon!  Ryan and I are used to the fact that our lives center around our kids right now and we've learned that sometimes we have to sacrifice our own personal comforts in order to make things better for our children.  Catherine and Nick are awesome with the boys and love them to death.... but lets face it....they're young newlyweds and probably don't look forward to vacations where they have to share a room with a 2 year old who wakes up at 7am and then never quits talking or wanting them to play with him all day.  They also sometimes underestimate the volatile nature of a child in his "terrible twos" who is sleep deprived and doesn't like to hear the word "no."  Finally, they probably didn't completely understand that you can't take your eyes off a toddling 15 months old.....ever!  Catherine and Nick, we love y'all dearly, but we understand if you never want to vacation with us again!

Other than the tight living quarters and exhaustion from keeping up with 2 wild kids in new surroundings, we had a really fun time!  Owen was a total beach baby although he definitely preferred sand to sea.  When he wasn't wondering off down the beach, eating sand, taking our room key to random strangers or chasing down birds, he was most likely carrying around his yellow shovel and splashing through tide pools.  He loved the freedom and space, especially when the tide was out and we had the entire beach to ourselves.

Austin loved the beach on the first day but could take it or leave it after that.  The ocean kind of scared him when he went in too deep and the waves started coming.  He also didn't like getting sand all over him.  He loved to make Ryan build him tons of sandcastles, however, just so he could stomp them all down.  His favorite part of the entire trip was the two rounds of putt-putt and arcade games we played.  He did have several fun moments on the beach though running around with Owen, chasing the frisbee and flying the kite.

If we thought a beach vacation with a 1 and 2 year old was crazy....I can't wait until next year!!!