Back to School

Well, the summer is officially over for us. Jacob headed off to the 1st grade today. Daniel was very disappointed when we dropped Jacob off at his classroom and he didn't get to stay and play. Poor guy. I told him not to worry - he only has one more year and then he'll be off to preschool! Jacob didn't say much about his first day other than that it went well. He said four of the kids from his Kindergarten class last year are in his new class with him. Unfortunately, his best bud was not one of them.

I still cannot believe how quickly summer flew by! And I also cannot believe how hard it is to wake up at 7am every morning once again. Yuck! I actually went out last weekend and bought a coffee maker because I knew I was going to need some major caffeine to get through the first few weeks of school being back in session. Plus, I start school tomorrow and I have a feeling I might need it to burn the midnight oil here and there.

Today also marked the beginning of our fall soccer season. I didn't get any pictures of his first practice tonight because I was too busy being eaten alive by the bugs. But, we are very excited for this season - Dylan has signed up to be the Assistant Coach for Jacob's team. I'll be sure to get some pictures up of his next practice. In the meantime, here are the pics from today:






Showing off his new backpack.


I promised him he could do a silly pose if he gave me a few good pictures first.


I'm so happy about this picture! Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to get a good picture of the two boys together???

Oh and all of a sudden today, I started losing my voice. I'm hoping it's nothing a good night's rest won't cure. Besides, tomorrow is Daniel's 3rd birthday and I've got a long day of cake baking, decorating, present wrapping (& opening!) ahead of me. Oh yeah, and after all that, I have to go to class tomorrow night. I'm tired just thinking about it.

What We've Been Busy Doing

Potty-Training! As soon as we got back to the beach, we resumed potty-training. Daniel wasn't into it all on the first day (or at least it didn't seem like it). We had a few successes, but I began to think it wasn't going too well. Then, the next morning, he woke up dry and went potty all day with no accidents! I was absolutely amazed! It appears that he potty-trained in just one day. We've had a few mishaps here and there, but nothing big. We're back to our schedule as usual and he's doing just fine. He hasn't had an accident while we've been out and about and has even used the public potty (yuck!) Now that he has potty-trained, I am finally coming to terms that there are no more babies in my house. You know, that and the fact that he is turning three in 11 days! The crib, changing table and pack & play are all leaving this house soon. It's sad, but if you know me, you know that I love cleaning my house out so it's kind of making me happy, too!

We had a great time on our vacation this year! I don't know if it was because Daniel has become so independent or what the difference was, but I really felt like this was the first year that I felt relaxed. Next year should only get better!

Jacob, climbing through the boogie board tunnel they made.

Daniel with his water buddy, Sarah. She was the one that got him to go in the water last year and this year! She's definitely his lucky charm when it comes to the ocean.

Jacob looked like a surfer dude out in the water this year. Every time I looked, he was either boogie boarding or jumping waves that were bigger than him. And all without a swim vest!

He still spent plenty of time in the sand building lots of sand castles.

I'm already counting down to next year's vacation!

Right now, my nieces are staying with us for the week to wrap up our summer vacation. Last night, we all went and played mini golf and had soft serve ice cream afterwards. Tonight, I am taking them to see Night at the Museum 2. They are really excited and so am I! The kids are having so much fun together that I have hardly noticed that I have 3 extra kids in my house. ;)