Garrett ~ Preschool Pictures

Garrett's preschool teachers send out photos that were taken during preschool once a week. I went through and downloaded the ones that had Garrett in them from the first 3 weeks of preschool, including the pictures they took of him at our house when they came to do a home-visit to meet Garrett for the first time.

Garrett's 1st Day of Preschool

Garrett had his first day of preschool a few weeks ago on September 5, 2017.  He LOVED it!  

And I love hearing him come home and tell me all about school and what he does there :)

When we first found out we would be moving to Fayetteville, I called the public school system to see if I could enroll Garrett in preschool. Well, apparently they were already totally full and was told the waiting list is so long that we wouldn't get in. Bummer. 

So I started looking and asking around and kept getting the same answer that St. Andrews Academy was the place to go for preschool. I looked more into it and found out that it was held at a local Methodist church. I went in and spoke with the director and she seemed really awesome and on top of things. They were very organized and I had a great feeling about it! So we signed Garrett up!

Part of me wondered if Garrett would be bored with preschool-- he already knows all his shapes, colors, can identify and write all the letters (upper and lowercase), can write his first and last name, he knows our phone number, address, and can count to 100 in English and can count to 50 in Spanish. He really and truly loves to learn!! 

So I debated back and forth if signing him up for preschool was the right thing to do, especially because it would be an additional big cost that wasn't exactly necessary... but in the end we decided to keep him signed up. Here in North Carolina, they have all day kindergarten. Garrett, as I'm sure with most young kids, sometimes has a hard time listening and we thought the social aspect, if nothing else, would benefit him greatly. We also thought a setting where he had to listen to a teacher and practice obeying a teacher figure would give him good preparation for kindergarten. We felt like we wanted to give him the best chance and prep we could offer for kindergarten. 

Here are his first day of preschool pictures! 

Also, I just have to say how weird it is only having Brenna home with me for 3 mornings a week. Garrett goes to preschool on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays from 9-12. So Brenna and I often get our grocery shopping and any other errands done on those mornings! It's been pretty fun to spend a little one-on-one time with Brenna :) 

The first day we did errands and then came home and ate lunch and the Raggedy Ann doll came everywhere and did everything with us. It's my really old doll from when I was little. She kept saying that "the baby needs go potty" and tried to feed the doll her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, haha. She's such a cutie! And as another side note... that dress I got on clearance for $1.50!! Walmart had all their clearance stuff marked down with an additional 50% off! So we got a few things for her and some uniform-approved shorts for Garrett next year.

Wrightsville Beach

Rick had another Saturday off! It's nice when his day off coincides with when Kimbri isn't in school so we can do stuff together as a family. Like a beach trip!!! 

We decided to try our another beach we had never been to called Wrightsville beach. I think our kids could seriously live at the beach-- they love it so much! Garrett just pretty much stays in the water doing his boogie board or jumping over waves the entire time, with an occasional break to get a drink or grab a snack. We got an awesome video of Garrett riding a wave and then started to slow up when suddenly another wave shot him eve further up the beach. His huge smile says it all on how much fun he was having in the ocean. Kimbri loves boogie boarding too, but she also has a ton of fun searching for sea shells. I love doing that with her. It's so fun to try and find different, unique shells. We also dug a big hole in the sand and then a big wave came up and filled it with water so she pretended like it was a bath. Brenna also loves filling her bucket up with shells and dipping her toes in the water. 

The waves were huge that day and made for some really fun boogie boarding! I love spending time at the beach with the fam. It is so much work to get everything ready for a beach day... packing enough food and water, driving there, getting parked, putting on sunscreen (the kids hate doing that so it is sometimes a nightmare), and lugging everything out and setting up a spot on the beach. But once that is all said and done, the kids have a blast and never seem to want to leave!! Pretty sure we may just turn into beach bums, haha. 

Headed to the beach!

There were some good boogie-boarding waves!

Kimbri catching a wave with her boogie board.

Shell searching.

Brenna collecting shells in her bucket. She ended
up filling that bucket to the rim!

His happy place.

This is the life. Drinking a yogurt on the beach..

Brenna in a sand bath.

Kimbri was sorting through her shells to see
which ones she wanted to keep.

After a long day at the beach we came home and
got the kids all cleaned and bathed for church
the next morning.

September 2017 ~ Part 1

 Here are our random pictures form the first half of September! I am finally caught up from our crazy summer and I don't want to wait until the end of the month to sort though pictures, so I'm doing it now! 

So Kimbri's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Espinal, puts pictures on an app call Class Dojo that only parents of the students can see. I love it! Because I get to see pictures of Kimbri from school every once in a while. This picture is from her all about me bag where she got to pick 3 things to take to school and show her class. She took her light up wand she got from her Toys R Us bday gift certificate, a book, and a little toy animal she bought with her own money. 

Also, I can't believe how old and grown up she looks siting in front of her class in her cute little uniform!! And one more thing, just a couple days ago we were siting on the front porch waiting for the bus (the other kids were still asleep) and I noticed her tooth looked a little crooked, like it was bent forward a little. I asked her to open her mouth so I could check her tooth and IT WAS LOOSE!! My little Kimbri has a loose tooth. How is that even possible?? You could tell by her reaction how excited she felt and it made her feel like a grown up girl to have a loose tooth :) She was so happy!

One morning I found these two like this. Kimbri had lifted Brenna out of her crib and sat her on the bed and was reading her a book. I love they sisterly bond :) 

Having some water play while Kimbri is at school.

Brenna loooooves to color. And I'm not
exaggerating. She LOVE it!

Garrett making a cereal necklace. This kept him
entertained for so long because he was determined
to fill up the entire string with Cheerios.

Kimbri made a bead necklace but then
wanted to make a Cherrio one too.

Rick brought home flowers for me the day before
our anniversary since he was scheduled to work
late on the actual day of our anniversary. Kimbri
took them from me as soon as he gave them to me
and wanted her picture with them, HA! Silly girl.

New outfit my mom sent for Brenn'as birthday
(along with coloring books and markers).

Garrett drew this picture. He said it was of me and him and the
hearts mean we love each other a lot. I am on the right and all
those dots on my face, he said, are my freckles, hahaha :)

Brenna in a dress I wore when I was little.

Then Garrett wanted his picture taken too, and
Brenna wanted her sippy cup...

Kimbri set up a little camp in the corner of our room.

My friend Kelsey and I went to Linden Park with the kids and
let them play while we walked on the path around the playground.
It was so beautiful! The cotton fields were so pretty and starting to
produce balls of cotton!

I was making crepes one night fro dinner and I
gave one to Garrett and he stuffed the WHOLE
THING in his mouth and asked for another one.
Bahahaha! I guess he didn't want to wait...

This sweet girl is going to do amazing things! I love
her so much and it's crazy to me that she is in 1st
grade. She loves asking me to take her picture
before school.

Kind of a gory pic... but Garrett was playing on
the back patio, bent down to pick up a ball, and
hit the corner of his eye on the metal patio chair.
It was so sad! I asked him what would make him
feel better and he said, "Watching the baby Jesus
movie". So I put on the church movie we have
of Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus, and he was
as happy as can be after that!

She polished off her broccoli cheese soup!
This girl loves that stuff!

Kimbri wanted wavy hair for school one morning.

Garrett asked me to take a picture of him making
a silly face... and this is what he did, haha.

Her first trip to the library at school. She read
this book like a champ!

On our walk one morning. It was super humid and
cloudy but it made for a really pretty view!

So, Hurricane Irma.... as it got closer to the US, we kept watching which way it was going to go. One morning I woke up and went to Sam's Club with my friend Kelsey. The day before the projected path had been to hit right into Florida. I didn't check the update that morning and when we were at Sam's Club, people were piling cases and cases of water into their carts. Some even had those big flatbed-looking carts, filling them up with water! We were like, woah, people are being serious about the hurricane prep.  So I grabbed one case just because...

Then I got home and checked the updates and most of the spaghetti projections had it headed toward the Carolinas!! I was like, ooooohhhhhhh, THAT is why everyone was going into panic mode! And then I was like, crud, I should've got more water while I was at Sam's. Then I checked our neighborhood FB group and people were saying that Walmart was out of water and the local grocery store had upped their prices to $9 per case!! Oh man. So then I had a brilliant idea to check the dollar store and they had a TON of water left. So I bought 12 gallons. My friend posted a picture of her trip to Walmart and there was one, ONE loaf of bread left on the shelves. Isn't that so crazy?! So then, I was like, hmmmm, guess I should make some rolls, just in case.

Anyway, it was weird to experience such a frenzy and everyone was in panic mode. Last year this area got hit pretty hard by a hurricane so people were just trying to be extra cautious and prepared, I guess. The hurricane obviously changed paths again and didn't end up hitting us. We got a little rain but that was it. No major wind or anything. So now we have some water in our food storage!

Everything has been pretty wet lately, and mushrooms have been growing in our yard. Gross. I took a picture of these in our front yard when we were waiting for the bus one morning. Just later that SAME day they had already started to spread out and get way bigger. In just the time Kimbri was at school. So, so gross! We have them in parts of our backyard too. I guess this is just one of those things you don't realize about a totally new kind of climate till you live here.

One morning, after dropping Garrett off to preschool. Me and Brenna went to the park and met up with some friends. We went to Clark Park. It was SO weird to just have Brenna with me for those few hours. She loved sitting on this random panda bear chair and didn't want to leave, haha. They also had a nature center at this park and she loved looking at all the different animals. They had live turtles, salamanders, lizards, fish, a mini alligator, insects and all sorts of animals that had been stuffed too. It is such a neat little place!

I found Brenna like this one day... eating peanut
butter out of the jar!!! She loves that stuff.

Brenna watching for the bus.

Brenna is about to outgrow the baby doll stroller,
but Kimbri loves pushing her around in it.

We went to the store one day while the other kids
were in school and I looked back and she had
propped the sunglasses up on her head, haha!
She is such a fun little girl and it has been great
to spend some one on one time with her.

Garrett practicing writing out the days of the week.
He has such a strong desire to learn and is
constantly asking me questions about everything.

At an activity at the preschool for lunch one day.

Sister hugs before Kimbri getting on the bus.

The sunrise while waiting for the bus. I still can't
believe how early these little kids have to get up and
get going to school!

Garrett begged me to buy blackberries at the store
and they were HUGE ones!

Garrett always runs out to greet Kimbri home
when she gets off the bus. I think a little separation
for these two have been really good for their
sibling relationship. They are so happy to see
each other every day when K gets home from school!