Nostalgia

Kaitlyn's 1st day of preschool--2 years old

Kaitlyn's 1st day of preschool--3 years old

Kaitlyn's 1st day of preK--4 years old

Kaitlyn's 1st day of kindergarten--5 years old

Ethan's 1st day of preschool--2 years old

 

Ethan's 1st day of preschool--3 years old

Back to School!

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but somehow my baby girl is now old enough to go to Kindergarten!! Kaitlyn was beside herself with excitement as this big day got closer and closer. Several weeks before, she started counting down the days. Which of course prompted Ethan to ask, "How many more days until I go to kindergarten, Mommy?" Too many to count, buddy!

We are so blessed to have Kaitlyn at Otter Creek for kindergarten this year. Words cannot express how wonderful this place is. And I think part of Kaitlyn's excitement came from the fact that she was finally going to be one of the "big kids" that she has been watching for 3 years now at preschool. Kaitlyn got her very last "Snoopy Letter" shortly before school started and found out that her teacher was going to be Miss Melissa.  On Snoopy Day, the kids get to go "snoop" around their classrooms while the parents go to orientation with the principal and the teacher.

Then came the big day--her very first day of kindergarten!!  Can you tell she's excited?

Once we got Kaitlyn all settled in kindergarten, it was time for Ethan's preschool to start. He was pretty happy to get his Snoopy Letter and find out that his teacher was Miss Dele. She has such a gift with three-year-olds, and we are thrilled to have her this year.

Here's Ethan on his first day of school.

He looks like such a big boy in these pictures. Sniff, sniff. He only goes to preschool 3 days a week, which means that he and I have two days alone together! I'm looking forward to spending some one-on-one time with my little boy.

Adventures in Kentucky

Before school started back up, we decided to take a day trip to Kentucky to visit Dinosaur World and Mammoth Cave. For an adult, Dinosaur World is pretty cheesy and the dinosaurs were (in my opinion) not very realistic. But I don't think the kids noticed at all. They were too busy running down the trail seeing the different dino statues. They got to dig for fossils, watch a dino movie and see real dino artifacts in a museum. Since this trip was mainly to do fun stuff with the kids, I guess we accomplished our mission. I'm just glad we had buy-one-get-one-free tickets :)

The kids had the requisite cheesy picture made inside the head of the T.Rex. Ethan's just barely tall enough to get in the picture.

Here they are digging for fossils.

They next leg of our trip was much more interesting (to me, anyway). We went to Mammoth Cave! One of their tours was specifically geared for old people and young kids, and it wound up being perfect for us. Short, easy and full of spectacular views. We even saw a bat on our way in!

The kids learned all about stalagtites and stalagmites.  And the guide turned off all the lights in the cave for a brief moment so that we could experience what total darkness looked like. Pretty spooky!

It was nice and cool in the cave! A welcome respite from the August heat!

When the kids get a little older and are more capable of walking longer distances, we'd love to come back and explore more of this natural wonder! But maybe we'll skip a repeat visit to Dinosaur World :)