Summer Videos

I have edited the Summer post and hopefully the videos are now working!  Enjoy!

First Day of School

First Day Of School August 2014

 

 Another great first day of school.  I'm not sure how long kids stay this excited to get back to school, but I'll take it for as long as I can!  Cooper was very excited to be a big brother to Isabel at school this year.  He promised to take good care of her, but I'm sure he forgot once he got around his friends again and the silliness resumed.  He has been walking her to her class room before he goes to his every morning which just warms my heart!  Isabel was also quite excited for school, but a little more nervous.  She had been having bad dreams frequently towards the end of the summer, which I'm sure where attributed to the looming first day of Kindergarten.  But she was very brave and showed no hesitation to get on or off the bus as she made her way to her class room.  She has the same teacher that Cooper had for Kindergarten which helps to settle some nerves (for her and her parents)!  And then there's Emma.  I'm quite sure she has no idea what's going on around her most of the time, but she sure is excited about it!

 

 

 

The bus stop! 

 

See, told you Cooper was going to "take care of his sister!"  Ha! 

 

Off they go!  They are pretty lucky kids as their cousin Alice was waiting on the bus for them!  So lucky that she is a fairly close neighbor to us now and she gets on the bus just 2 minutes before them!

 

 

Arriving at school.  The backpack slung over one shoulder.  The true sign of a cool kid!

 

Here comes Alice!

 

But she was a little too slow, so Isabel had to pass her!  

 

Emma and Daddy heading to her first day of preschool! She is very excited, but again, not sure she knew what she was in for.  This is a different preschool than the one that Cooper and Isabel went to, so she wasn't as familiar with the building and the teachers.  

 

So far so good!

 

Emma's class room, The Narians!  

This was the last smile I saw from her this morning.  After walking into the classroom and reading a book with Mommy and Daddy, she was not excited about us leaving.  That's an understatement really.  She BAWLED!!!!  Totally freaked out screaming for me not to leave her.  Ugh, my heart.  Thank goodness for her wonderful teachers who took her in their arms and comforted her as I had to dash out of the building to do some bawling of my own!  Ha!  You'd think I'd be a pro at this by now.  She was quite sad the second day I left her as well, though by the 3rd day she was being very strong and brave.  She even said to me "I'm not going to cry when you leave Mommy."  And she's kept her promise ever since!  She continues to love school, and her vocabulary and enthusiasm for life continue to grow each day!

Summer 2014

What a great summer we had.  It was sort of an experimental summer as we had our regular babysitter nanny for us.  She had the 3 kids for 3 days during the week.  It think it was a little more work than she expected!  It was a challenge to find activities that keep all 3 kids interested, specifically keeping Cooper busy so that he stayed out of trouble!  The girls both took a week of gymnastics early in the summer.  Isabel always looks forward to her gymnastics classes and Emma enjoyed her first round!  Talk about cute!  Oh my gosh, little girls doing gymnastics is the best!

 They don't look too excited here, but I promise, they were! 

Isabel's been doing gymnastics for a couple of years now, and it's been really fun to see her grow stronger and more confident.  This summer they worked on some new tricks which was really fun.  

Gumma and Gogo were so nice to treat the Quinn and Livesay kids to a trip to Burlington for Circus Smirkus!  What a great show. A circus put on by kids.  They were SO talented and the kids had a great time watching all the talent and tricks.  Emma and Dana had a little bit of a hard time paying attention the whole time (it was quite a long show), but a great time was had by all!

Cooper was on the swim team which was SO great for him.  He had practice every morning and swim meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  I didn't think he would want to do any of the meets, but apparently that was his favorite part (I think it was mostly just the play time in between his swims)!   Ultimately, his swimming improved drastically and he had a great time!  

And the end of the summer was wrapped up with a special family trip to The Great Escape.  It was one of the best family days we've ever had!  The kids were all so well behaved. We had great weather, it wasn't too hot, but hot enough for Splash Water Kingdom to be a big hit (unfortunately we didn't have a waterproof camera, so no pictures from that).  I think it was a great time to go as all 3 kids were entertained by the rides in "Timbertown" which is geared towards little kids.  Pretty soon Cooper will be bored with those and I imagine we may have to split up in the future.  Trying to enjoy every last minute as these kids are growing like weeds! 

Our first ride, everyone's favorite, the carousel!

The kids loved this village with the miniature houses.  Even Cooper loved going inside and checking them all out. 

Teacher Isabel in the school house

This was the area with all of the little kiddie rides.  It was great because they could ride most of the rides by themselves.  

A roller coaster!  Even Emma went on this thriller!

This was everyone's favorite ride, and we went back 4 or 5 times.  Fortunately the lines were minimal.