School Update

A couple of weeks in and one child is thriving and one child is crying. Can you guess which one is which?

Yes, Addie is loving school and her teacher Ms. Poetzsch. She already knows the Pledge of Allegiance, the rules of the classroom, can now write her name, and has made new friends. She looks forward to going to school. Hooray! 

This cutie on the other hand...wakes up on Tuesdays and says "no school!". Then I pack him a lunch, take him to school, and the screaming begins. Then when I pick him up I hear he screamed at his sweet teachers for an hour and half. Sigh...I knew it would be a hard adjustment, but didn't expect it to be this hard!

Fingers crossed he gets it soon, otherwise we might get kicked out of preschool!

Hurricane Florence Hits

By the time Hurricane Florence made landfall in mid-September, we were all scared and bracing for the worst. That's because the whole week prior, we were led to believe it was going to be one of the biggest storms of all time to hit North Carolina.

It became hard to find bottled water, D batteries, flashlights, gas, and bags of ice. People were really freaking out and this fear was spreading. The media was predicting a category 4 or 5 storm to hit our state so the kids were out of school in preparation for the storm. The whole thing was eerie. 

We had our basket of hurricane supplies, enough food for days, and then we waited. It wasn't supposed to hit until later that night so I felt like pumpkin pancakes were necessary for breakfast... 

and these supplies were necessary for the rest of the day. 

Since they had the day off from school, the girls put all their efforts into make one gigantic fort. It was my worst nightmare because it used every pillow and blanket in our whole house, but it also impressed me because it had rooms and hallways and was kind of genius. At one point later that day, we lost Luke inside of it. :)

  

 

 

They were so worn out from fort-making that we had to relax in front of a movie before heading to bed not knowing what the night would bring.

Thank goodness when the hurricane finally made landfall, it had weakened to a category 1 storm. Raleigh, which was originally directly in the storm's path, was spared and the storm tracked farther north. We woke up to a few limbs down and that was it. We were so lucky and thankful! 

Unfortunately, Eastern NC was not so lucky. They had MAJOR flooding damage (we're talking I-40 was washed out in points) and Wilmington became a sort of island. The images coming out of that area were shocking, and the damage to our beaches was severe. It will be a long time before it's all cleaned up.

But Raleigh was spared so much so that we were able to get outside for a soggy bike ride two days after the storm. We had been cooped up inside so long we had to get out. Addie (our new bike rider) wasn't so keen on our greenway ride thanks to lots of debris and puddles, but we made it.

Goodbye Hurricane Florence.

All About the Playdate

It's all about the playdate these days! 

Addie is getting quite a few of them because of good friends she is making in her class. Harrison is a new favorite...

and so is Stewart. She also has three extra hours to schedule playdates after her school ends before we go pick up Collins. 

Which of course, Collins cannot wrap her brain around. She does not like it when Addie gets playdates and she does not! Here's an instance when they both got one at the same time, and everybody was happy (until the bigs wouldn't include the littles in their tea party). :)

 

Collins has gotten really close to Alice in her class this year...

but of course, still has the most love for Reeves- her partner in crime. This was a playdate at Sara's house which made me laugh out loud when I saw the pix. So fancy all the time! 

It's only a matter of time before Luke will start asking for playdates, and I will be juggling the friend requests for all three!

Game Day

So we are normally a tailgating-only crew (the kids and I- I mean!), but this game we actually had a ticket to get in. The question was...how long would our kids actually last? Turns out the answer was one whole quarter. :)

But we still had a great day at the stadium. We talked to wolves...

and cheerleaders...

and listened to the band.

Addie is convinced she wants to be a cheerleader someday.

We toured the RV lot...where Collins announced that she would have one someday. AND that when she did, she would not let Ward Stokes in it because he pushes too many buttons. :)

Then finally the actual game...

where the kids were wowed by the pre-game festivities...

and Collins kept score.

But by the end of 15 minutes of play, this is how we all felt. HOT. It was nearly 100 degrees that day, and it was way too steamy to sit in the hot sun and watch football. So we had to call it a day. But it was a fun one!

Movie Night

So excited that the kids are finally old enough to have movie nights! We started doing movie nights every couple of weeks in the summer, and the kids loved them. We all piled on our big sofa, ate something yummy (Brian normally would cook), and stretched out for a relaxing movie. Now the kids will watch only a handful of movies because the majority of movies scare them (Disney included!), but Toy Story this night was a big hit.

Movie night means I get to relax and snuggle my babies so I am all for it. :)

 

A fun new family activity!

Photo Redo

So Luke's first official school pictures did not happen. He had not one, but two chances to take these precious first photos, but alas Mom will never have a copy of them because someone would not cooperate. Sigh...so I made him make it up to me at home with a cute picture with his sister.

Thank goodness he delivered...

Little man is not adjusting to school well. Good thing he is as cute as he is otherwise his teachers might give up on him!

Fingers crossed that Luke will pull it together in time to be a willing participant for spring photos!

Time with Luke

Now that Addie is in school four days a week, there is more time for me and little man to spend together. Yes, there are still lots of errands to be run in that three-hour preschool period, but there are also moments like this that make me happy...

 

 We have started going to story time every week, and he loves it!

 

Monday through Thursday, Luke and I do our thing then it is a special treat when Addie is home every Friday. We both are so excited to spend time with her!