Kimmie's first field trip

On October 15th I chaperoned Kimmie's first field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun. I was assigned Kimmie  & her friend Aurora. I was also able to meet Soren's mom, Angela, on this trip. It was nice to meet her, she is super nice and we seem to have a lot in common. I am excited to get to know their family more. It was fun picking pumpkins and watching Kimmie interact with her friends. I am so blessed to be able to stay home and be available for things like this.

 

Aurora & Kimmie on the bus to the pumpkin patch

riding the train out to the pumpkins

silly class picture...check out Kimmie & Soren only have eyes for each other:)

Mrs. Bacos AM Kindergarten class

Aurora, Kimmie & Soren riding the boat back to the buses

Friends!

The Three Musketeers

Our first camping trip

We finally decided to face our fears and take our first camping trip since having kids. Since Joshua is still so young, and it was the end of September, we decided to rent a Yurt instead of camping in a tent. Let me tell you, I may NEVER go back to camping in a tent again:) The Yurt had beds, heat & electricity. This was a huge bonus for me so I didn't have to worry about if the kids were going to get cold during the night. You just had to bring your own bedding and it was definitely $40 well spent!
Other than David getting a minor head injury (that boy can't go anywhere without getting hurt) and a baby boy who cried a lot during the night, it was a pretty successful and very fun trip!
We headed out Thursday after Kimmie got home from school. We checked in and unpacked. The first thing we did was walk to the beach to play. The kids LOVED playing in the sand. It was a little chilly and misty, but overall a very fun time.
After playing, we headed back to our site to start the fire. We cooked hot dogs over the fire and the kids were so excited to cook their own. After dinner the kids played around the site and then we made s'mores, delicious!!!
The next morning we headed to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We spent a few hours there and then my sweet husband agreed to drive us 2 more hours to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Man, it was crazy busy!!! So, we just walked around and then got some ice cream. Seth & I shared "sticky buns" ice cream and now it is all I can think about, seriously the best ice cream ever!!
It was a great night away and I can't wait to "camp" again:)

Halloween 2012

We had two Halloween celebrations this year. For the first one, Trunk or Treat, Kimmie was Tinkerbell, David was Peter Pan & Joshua was Captain Hook. I always want to do fun themed costumes, but it can be expensive, so I was super happy when I found all three costumes at Goodwill. So, I spent less than $15 for all three costumes, I had to brag:)

Kimmie invited two friends from school, and their families, to Trunk or Treat. Aurora and Soren are her best friends. They eat lunch together everyday and sit together on the bus on the way home from school. They are very sweet kids, and their families are amazing too. I have to admit, making new friends was one of the things I was worried about, but so far she has picked great!

Aurora, Kimmie & Soren

Tinkerbell, Peter Pan & Captain Hook

Tink & Peter Pan

A very sad Captain Hook

 On Halloween the kids wanted new costumes to wear, so they picked from the dress-up bin and we headed out trick-or-treating. It had rained all day, but we lucked out and the rain stopped while we were out.

SUPERMAN!!!

Princess Ballerina

Mickey Mouse (I bought this when David was little, but he never had a chance to wear it so I was excited to finally use it)

we stopped by to visit our friends, The Broberg's.

Running from house to house

This was the first year that all the kids really knew what tick or treating was. Joshua loved getting candy, he cried any time you tried to take his pumpkin away. The kids did great and we had a lot of fun! Maybe next year I can convince Seth to dress up....maybe!

Kimmie's first day of Kindergarten!

Life sure has changed for us these last few months. On September 4, 2012 Kimmie started KINDERGARTEN!!! I can't even believe our little girl is in school. I was super nervous for her to start, this is the first time I am relinquishing control and putting her in the hands of someone else (besides family) for a long period of time. Luckily, she is only in half day. 

She was super nervous too. She went to bed at 5:00pm the night before and woke up ready to go, but anxious. We made her a special pancake breakfast, but she could barely eat it. She kept saying, "my tummy hurts, I think I am going to throw up!" The whole morning she just had this nervous smile. I was nervous too, but trying my best to hide it so she would stay calm. 

She asked me to make a special lunch for her first day, so I put in everything she asked for. Only to later find out that she got a hot lunch on her first day:)

 Special breakfast

 First day pictures

 look at that nervous smile!!!!

 so grown up

 Mommy with her little kindergartner

 David is excited to run the house while she's gone:)

 Our family, minus Joshua who was still asleep

 waiting at the bus stop

 Daddy & Kimmie waiting for the bus

 hugs before she gets on the bus

 I can't seem to walk away:(

 sweet girl waving goodbye

At this point I was holding it together pretty well. We put her on the bus, and we started walking back home. As we were walking, I looked up at Seth and he was crying. That made me lose it and I let out all the emotions I had been fighting to hold in. So, there we were, two adults crying like babies as we walked home. I just can't believe how fast 5 years has flown by. She used to be our baby girl, but has suddenly (or what feels like suddenly) grown up and I just want to freeze time.

 After we put Kimmie on the bus I drove over to the school to meet her. When I got to her classroom, she wasn't in there and I started to get a little nervous. Some other kids from her bus were there, but she wasn't. I started to walk to the office to look for her, when I saw her walking down the hall with the principle. When she got off the bus, she didn't know where to go, so she asked an adult for help. They accidentally took her to the other kindergarten class. So, because of that she was a little scared to return the next day without me, so she asked me to put her on the bus and meet her at school for the entire first week. Of course I agreed, it helped both of us to transition easier.

Sitting at her desk.

 Me standing in the door taking pictures as I try to force myself to walk away.

 Sweet baby Joshua woke up after Kimmie was already gone to school.

I was anxious most of the day, and when it finally came time to go back to the bus stop, I was so excited. Kimmie came off the bus just BEAMING! She LOVED her first day of school. She told us all about her teacher and the fun stuff they did. She also told us about her new best friend, Soren (don't worry, you haven't heard the last about him. His name is used in our household multiple times each day)

Overall she had an amazing first day and is still loving school. We had our first parent-teacher conference and Mrs. Bacos had only wonderful things to say about Kimmie. She told us she is the "ideal student" who always listens, participates and is so smart. But, we already knew all those things!

 Matching pajama night was is great way to end the first day of school.