Weekend Recap

We survived our first week of Kindergarten! Lance had a great week and just loves his teacher. He is getting adjusted to his new schedule but I will be honest, we all were pooped after the week! We were not used to getting up as early as we have to now, so we had a pretty low key weekend.

After school on Friday, I took Lance to meet Matt at football practice. Lance had been wanting to go to football practice for a while and we thought that would be a nice way to end the first week of Kindergarten for the little guy. After practice, Springdale had their Football Jamboree so Matt and Lance went to that. While they were doing all of that, Grayson (who was not happy about not getting to go to furr ball - Grayson lingo - practice) and I headed to Wal-Mart and home to get dinner going. We actually got to eat dinner as a family for the first time all week!

Saturday was a pretty quiet day - we had a slow morning watching cartoons and sipping on coffee. We all just pretty much did what we wanted to and it was great. After lunch we decided to take much needed naps!

That evening I headed off to see the movie "The Help" and to have some dinner with some girlfriends. It was great to have some girl time after having such a busy week!

The movie was great and so was the company! Some of us had read the book and some had not - either way we all enjoyed the movie. I would definately recommend the book and movie!

While I was out at Girls Night, Matt took the boys to Steak n Shake and to Academy - they decided to have a Boys Night! The boys loved having an evening with their daddy!

Sunday we headed to Neosho to celebrate Matt and his brother Cory's birthday - my mother in law prepared their favorite meal for them, fried chicken and all the fixin's. It was wonderful as usual! The boys enjoyed hanging out with their cousins and swimming at Nana and Grandpa's. After visiting Nana and Grandpa, we headed over to my parents to visit for a while. My brother came over and we all just hung out and let the boys play and chatted. It was a nice little visit. I think Lance is already counting the days down until he gets to go back to Neosho!

It was a great weekend - now off to another busy week!

Lunch at School with Lance

I was really trying to make it though the first week of school without going to lunch with Lance. I really wanted him to get used to the routine at school and used to doing things on his own. I was going to wait until the second week - ha! But when he asked me to come eat with him, I couldn't resisit! So Grayson and I packed a lunch for Grayson to take and headed to lunch with Lance. (I didn't eat, they eat 10:30 - I had just got my coffee down, wasn't quite ready for lunch).

Grayson thought he was so big taking his lunch to Lance's school! He wanted to carry it all by himself and could not get in the school fast enough! We packed the same thing for Grayson as we did for Lance - it was so cute watching them eat their lunches, Grayson wanted to eat the same thing Lance was eating at the same time.

Our big Lancer! He was so excited to have us there for lunch. It was great to see him during the day and to see what his day was like.

First Day of Kindergarten

This past week has been a week full of changes and adjusting to a new routine! Lance started Kindergarten this week and it has been an adjustment for all of us.

Here is our big Kindergartener! He has done so good this week! It has been an exhausting week for all of us from getting up so early and just trying to get adjusted to our new routine. But he has been a trooper!

Grayson wasn't sure what all was going on,

he just wanted to get in on some of the picture taking :)
Me and my big boy! Cannot believe he is in K!

Daddy and Lancer starting a new school year!

He wanted a picture of the back of his backpack -

it has his intials monogrammed on the back (thanks Nana!)

Walking into his class room.

He has the sweetest teacher - we have been blessed to have her

to help us through this transition. She is wonderful!

Can you tell he was tired of me taking pictures?

(I held it together really good until we got to the car.)

They were so happy to see each other after we picked Lance up!

Grayson probably asked me a 100 times, "Where is Lancer?"

It was a long day for both of us!

Last Weekend of Summer

Last weekend was our last weekend before school started. We tried to cram as much fun into one weekend as possible before school started.

On Friday - the boys and I had a very impromtu trip to the Wilderness Drive Thru Safari in Gentry. We had such a fun day! It was just the three of us and the weather was perfect - overcast with cooler temps. We loaded up and headed to Gentry - the boys LOVED driving through the safari and looking at all the exotic animals. They had some really cool animals there! After we completed the drive thru portion, we went through the petting zoo before the rains came. Of course, my boys favorite animal was the huge, black pot-belly pig! We had to kind of rush through the petting zoo part because we could hear thunder coming closer and knew we were going to get soaked if we didn't hurry up!

After we left the safari, it was lunch time! The boys picked out McDonald's for lunch - we stopped and they both were starving and ate their lunch so well. After we left McDonalds we had to stop at the Little Debbie store, a trip to Gentry would not be complete without at a stop at the Little Debbie Store! Lance picked out some treats that he wanted for lunches and after school snacks and of course, we had to pick out a treat for the ride home!

We had such a fun day and it was the perfect way to end the summer!

On Saturday, we decided to take the boys to Fast Lanes for a fun Saturday afternoon. We bowled and had a blast! (And Momma was the winner of bowling!) After finishing up bowling we took the boys to the arcade portion and let them play a few games. They had a blast and thought it was the greatest place - they didn't even find the go carts or the laser tag, we will save that for another day!

Destin Vacation - Part 2

While we were in Destin, we enjoyed some yummy seafood - it was so fresh and good, we could not get enough of it. We found some really good local restaurants - most of them down at the harbor and they came with an amazing view which just made the experience that much better.

While we were waiting for our table, we walked around the harbor and looked at the boats, and the fish that the fisherman brought in - it was so much fun and the boys loved it!

View of the harbor and the Destin bridge

Lance took this picture of the three of us - I thought he did pretty good!

While we were waiting for our table, there was a train that would go under the balcony where we were waiting, Grayson loved watching for the train.

Our view at dinner one night

Lancer taking a break from boogie boarding

Lance learned how to jump off his Dad's shoulders into the water - he was so proud of himself for mastering this trick

And there he goes! He has turned into a little fish this summer, he loves the water!

And of course Grayson had to have a turn!

After the boys would wake up from their naps, we would head back down to the beach and enjoy a walk down the beach. We couldn't get enough beach time!

Don't worry - I still have tons more pictures to post!

Destin Beach Vacation - Part 1

Last week we loaded up the car and headed south - to Destin, Florida! This was our first family vacation of just the four of us. Usually, we travel with family, which we love, but we wanted to do something just the four of us. With Lance starting Kindergarten in the fall, we wanted to soak up some quality family time!

The boys did great in the car - we were a little concerned that with a 5 year old and 2 year old, that the long drive could have been even longer - but they did great! Thank goodness for DVD players!

Here we are all loaded up and getting ready to hit the road - we had to get a picture of all of us bright and early in the morning (notice no make-up).

Once we made it to Destin, we unloaded the car and hit the beach! The first couple of days that we were there, the water was very rough. There were actually people surfing the waves - I have never seen people surfing in Florida. You can tell from the picture below that the water was pretty rough and the waves were pretty big.

One of Grayson's favorite activities was to enjoy a snack under the umbrella on the beach. I think the water automatically makes the boys hungery, seriously, their appetite increased enormously while we were there.

My cute little beach bums!

This wagon was a life saver - Matt thought I was nuts for wanting to haul our red wagon all the way to Florida, but it was well worth it! It hauled all our stuff - beach toys, cooler, boogie boards and kids!

Will update more soon!

First Major League Baseball Game - Royals vs. Cubs

June has been a busy month for us - but we have loved it! It has been full of road trips and vacation (post to come soon). I must say, as much as I love to be on the go, it was great to get home and to ge back to our own beds!

A couple of weeks ago, we loaded up with Grandpa and Nana and headed to Kansas City to take the boys to their first major league baseball game. The Kansas City Royals were playing the Chicago Cubs. We could not have asked for more perfect weather, especially for the end of June.

The boys had a great time and did great at the game. There is a really nice kids area complete with playground, splash pad and all sorts of other things to entertain kids. Great idea!

Boys walking in with Grandpa and Nana

Watching some Cubs batting practice


Such a big boy!

Family picture :)

Lance eating the BIGGEST flavor ice I have ever seen!

It was huge!

Grayson getting in on some of the flavor ice

We had a great time in KC with Nana and Grandpa - complete with a Cubs win! (Yes, Matt and his parents are Cubs fans - I am neutral, ha!)

Next post - Summer Vacation to Destin, FL