Awesome

Mac has a new favorite word....

First Day of School!

James started PreK today! This year he is going to go to school 5 mornings a week. After Labor Day, he will start back at BellaVita on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also decided to enroll him in our neighborhood school's preschool program for Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. This will give James (and us) a chance to get used to Central Elementary before he starts Kindergarten there next year (assuming we are still in Longmont). James looks SO old to me in these pictures. Especially when you compare them to his previous two "First Day of School," photos here and particularly here. I am sure I will be saying the same about this year's photo next year when he starts Kindergarten!

Central is the oldest school in Longmont and right in the middle of our neighborhood, so we can walk there. Mac rode in the stroller and James rode his Strider bike this morning.

If James continues at Central, I am sure there will be many more photos like this one to look forward to.

I was a little worried about how Mac would do leaving James at school. They hugged each other about 12 times, and Mac only had a minor tantrum when he realized we were leaving James there. All in all, a success!

 The teacher comes outside to get the kids, so they all line up by the door and wait for her.

He turned around and gave us a quick wave and was off to his first day!

The school day is QUICK! I have been spoiled by BellaVita's 4 1/2 hour half days, and Central's half day is just a little over 2 1/2 hours. James had a great day, he said he made a lot of new friends, ate a good snack, had nice teachers and read The Kissing Hand. We are all looking forward to this school year!

Another Cabin Trip

We spent the weekend at the cabin with Anne, Sean, George and Gus. It was perfect weather up there and the boys had an absolute blast together. George and James get along awesome, and Mac and Gus are happy to just try to keep up with their big brothers. James was happy to show George all the fun things the cabin has to offer like ATVing and garage hot tubbing.

George and Gus were just as entertained by throwing rocks into Dillon Lake as our boys. We had happy hour at the Tiki Bar at the marina both days which gave the boys plenty of rock throwing time.

Saturday morning we went on a "hike." George proved to be a much better outdoorsman than James, who just complained and wanted to turn around the entire time.

 We had lunch in Breckenridge and let the boys wade in the river.

 I was not the planner that Anne was and did not have clothes for James to change into, so he had to be carried to the car in his underwear. Contrary to what he looks like with his shirt off, I do indeed feed James. A lot.

Anne and I were even able to enjoy some time sans kids and husbands-probably the highlight of the weekend for me :) We always have a great time at the cabin, and it is just made even better when best friends are with us!

Summer Fun

I have really enjoyed having James home with us everyday this summer (with the exception of a few weeks of different summer camps). He starts preschool 5 days a week in just a few weeks, so we have been soaking up as much summer fun as we possibly can before then. We have had lots and lots of pool fun.

Lots of napping and snuggling-these boys love each other SO much.

Enjoyed every single concert in the park that Longmont had with the Haley and Hines Families while our 6 little boys ate, scootered, danced and wrestled their little hearts out.

James finished up his T-Ball season with his very first gold medal and an ice cream party with all his teammates.

 I took the boys to the Boulder County Fair where both boys played fair games and rode rides. James is a literal carnie game savant. He had 3 tries to pop 1 balloon and he popped all 3, and then he chose 1 of only 3 ducks in the duck pond that won him a large prize.

 Mac is now obsessed with carnie rides. I couldn't pry him out of this car, so he had to ride a few more time.

 We boated on Horsetooth with Thomas, Dave and Katie.

James got reunited with one of his best buddies Alec as they came back from Chicago to visit for a few weeks.

We had a playdate with girls I have known since Elementary school. Here are all our kiddos-Erin's Alec and Charlie, Christy's Teddy and Lily, Tonia's Kellen, Holland's Riley and Piper and Lacey's Drina and Auggie.

We took the boys to a Rockies game with Erin and Alec.

We still have a few more weeks before school starts, so I am sure we will manage to pack in a lot more fun!