...just the beginning...

...of a LONG road of schooling. Day 1 of Kindergarten for Elise was Aug 22nd and she's loved EVERY MINUTE of the last two weeks while in Mrs Russ' class. =)

This was 7:30 a.m. on Day 1.


...my eyes may have been a little bloodshot. shut-up...i'm fine now.


After an hour of 'resting', she couldn't wait to talk to Mimi (my mom) on the phone and tell her all about her day at school...
HILARIOUS pose...I didn't stage this shot at all. We're in trouble in about 10 years.

and she did her hair all by herself while she was resting. cute, I think!


This was Day 2 at 7:30 with Daddy. She was too excited to sit still for a second picture on Day 1, so we go this on Tuesday morning. Adam takes her in the mornings, and she loves the alone-time with him. It's sweet.

Anchors Aweigh...

After 6 years of being 'boat-less', Adam is excited to be able to sail again. He has a deep love of sailing and, for the years of his life that he HASN'T owned a boat, he has spent lots of time trying to find/restore/beg/borrow/steal one. =) It's kind of an obsession for him. Shocked? probably not...

We found this one via Craigslist mid-spring and it was a GREAT DEAL. One of those, "my brother/uncle left it here and I'm selling it just to get rid of it. I don't really know anything about it or how much it's worth, so you can have it for next to nothing."... EXACTLY what we like to deal with!

He's worked on it off and on all spring to replace some riggings, repair some stuff, re-paint the interior of the cabin, etc... and it looks great! He's so excited and the kids are, too! We leave it at a place on the lake about 45 minutes from here, so it's perfect to run out there, get it in the water, and sail around a bit.


Adam MAY have crazy plans of us selling a house in 20 years, moving onto a boat, and sailing around the world...
That's a ways off. For now, the kids all love it. Elise is the daredevil....

....ok, not too much of a daredevil. the boat was totally dead in the water. Wind was at ZERO, and we were just relaxing! YAY for SUMMER!!!!!!

Apple Ride

This post is a cute one to write. =) It's about Ainsley. She's awesome. (exhausting, challenging, unique, yet sweet Ainsley). LAST Summer, we went to the local County Fair/Festival thing. It's a pretty big deal around here and draws LOT of people (such fantastic people-watching!) from around Virginia. While there LAST summer, Elise was 4 1/2, Ainsley 2 1/2, Mitchell not quite 1. Elise rode a couple cute little rides and LOVED them (no surprise, there). Ainsley was too short to really ride anything, but we commented on how closely she was watching Elise have so much fun. We told her that maybe 'next year (as in 2011), maybe you'll be big enough to ride them'. Fair enough, right?
Fast-Forward to Fall 2010 and we say something to Ainsley about her birthday being a few months away and she launches into a whole explanation about, "well, soon, when I turn 3 ("Free"), I might be big enough to go to the Festival ("Festibull") and when I get there....I...can...ride...the APPLE RIDE.!!!" If you know Ainsley, you can picture her getting all excited, speaking slowly and quietly, building up the suspense to...the...APPLE RIDE! And she has full hand-talking going on, too. When she gets animated in storytelling, it's so great. We often have to look away because we're laughing so hard at her little mannerisms...adorable.
Anyway, so it went like that all winter/spring. ANYTIME someone would ask her how old she was, comment on how tall she is, etc... she would launch that same description about "when I get bigger, like maybe next summer, I may be big enough to ride the Apple Ride with my sister Elise". She explained it to her teacher at preschool, many neighbors, the checkout people at Kroger, Home Depot, her Pediatrician, etc... For an entire year we've been hearing about the buildup to the Apple Ride.

So, when we realized the Fair was in town, we planned a trip, kept it a secret, and laughed to ourselves about what would happen if Ainsley still wasn't tall enough for the ride, if she was too scared, or...EEEK... what if the Apple Ride wasn't even there?! ...would've been tragic...

We loaded them up one afternoon mid-July, headed to the Fairgrounds, and told them along the way where we were going. They were so excited and couldn't even sit still. It was great. We got there, walked a mile to the rides, and it was PERFECT!



Lots of smiles on that precious little face. She was ecstatic the whole time... kind of reverent, actually. =)

Elise wanted to do the huge burlap sack slide thing. She loves those kind of things. Daredevil. She was proud that she "won", too.




Mitchell was a little overwhelmed with all the sights/people/noise/etc... but was really happy overall. He was really just stoked to 'keep an eye' on all the sippy cups and snacks in the stroller!


The girls also rode the DUMBO ride, which they LOVED. Elise liked being in charge of the up/down movement... Ainsley just liked screeching the whole time.



Finally, Ainsley got to ride one thing by herself (just to prove she is a Big Girl like Elise...) and she picked this boat thing. It was so fun to see her acting a little nervous to get started, but then start chatting with the girl next to her, and then get over some fear and just LOVE it.


PURE JOY!!!!

Summer Random-ness cont...

Since it's been 100+ degrees most days lately, we've come up with a new activity to pass time a little bit. We don't really watch TV or movies in the house and Elise only gets to play games on the computer for about 15 min/week. SO, we've been finding videos of animals on YouTube to pass the time. I usually look for cute animal videos and Adam sets them up with Sailing videos when it's his turn. THEY LOVE IT. It'll take 20 minutes or so and everyone is ecstatic. (and we don't have to put on sunscreen, fill up waterbottles, find everyone's shoes, make sure everyone has gone potty, etc... just to go outside for 15 minutes before they're all overheated, grumpy, and crying to head back in. call me Lazy...

HOWEVER, their MOST FAVORITE thing on the computer (BY FAR!!!!!!) is when we check my brother's blog and they get to see pics/video of their baby cousin Evan. I mean, the girls JUMP UP AND DOWN when there's a new video of the boy. it's cute.

This shot looks posed, but it absolutely was not! Their smiles were THAT BIG watching a little video of Evan last week. REally! It's that adorable.

You can see a slight reflection of Evan in this one so you know I'm not lying...


Then they just started being cute, so I took a few more pics. Summer is FLYING by and we're having lots and lots of fun!

summer-ness

Sometimes even I wonder WHAT we've been doing all summer...and it's my life! We've been busy, but relaxed. Lots of smiles, lots of time at the pool, weekends playing at a local lake, etc... plenty of time with neighbors and friends...loving' it. =)

Elise tried a new thing in late-June! SOCCER! I wasn't sure if she would like it or not, so we signed her up for a little 'for beginners' camp. SHE LOVED IT! She came home EXHAUSTED every day, but totally enjoying it, too. She was especially excited about the PINK soccer socks and shinguards (THANKS, Fetzers!). I am aware that the socks should go on the top, but she said they were itchy that way. =)

We did a 4th of July party with neighbors. It was fun and simple. we loved it.


I know I say it all the time, but COME ON, Could Mitchell be any sweeter?!
p.s.-It's not drool on his shirt, I promise! He was playing with a cup of ice water...

They had (unheard of in our house!) two or three desserts each! JOY at the moment, UGLY when the sugar-high wore off...


Ainsley pouting over something worthless... I just love the posture and the belly sticking out. It was a GREAT little "I'm so pitiful" act. only lasted 15 seconds then she was fine again.


I'll put more of summer randomness up soon...

VA-CAY....

We took our first ever "family vacation" (defined as all 5 of us, for FUN, relaxation, etc...) up to my extended-family's Lake House in Michigan. We were up there for 6 days and it was WONDERFUL...so great.


There's the house. Love that place. we spent many, many weeks there as kids and it was my first trip back to the place in 17 years. yikes. Fortunately, nothing ever changes there. Really, it's like a time warp. Ok, there was one GREAT change- the place now has Central A/C. The house is somewhere around 80 years old, so it never had A/C as we vacationed there as kids. That was fine with us then. Not so fine now. I've turned total sissy. It's fine, I admit it. I love A/C.

This place is very special to our family. loved it.


the greatest part, outside of just seeing/spending time with our extended family, was that our kids got to really experience "the Lake House" that i grew up loving. This is where i learned to ski, this is where we have tons of memories swimming, playing with cousins, eating tacos... not sure why I always associate The Lake=Tacos, but I do. =)

Cocktail Hour on the patio... and, this is the ONLY picture I have of my wonderful-sweet-love-her sister-in-law Jen...

our nephew Evan's first experience with the Lake. I think he loved it. you can tell.

Awesome Mitchell in his "SK8R" shirt he wore in honor of SuperUncleKelly.

Ainsley loved this ride WAY more than she liked tubing behind the ski boat.
THIS is where she spent most of her time while the boat was out... tucked under the dashboard-area. "hiding from the wind" she told us... she was happy, though!


THIS is, for sure, where Elise was happiest!! no surprise there. She's our fearless one.

She was a fan of the jet-ski, too...even after she and Adam ran out of gas on the far side of the Lake and floated for 45 minutes before SUK rescued them.
Uncle Paul took Ainsley out for a spin. She liked the dock better, but she was ok with the jetski.


Also, we WORE THEM OUT! All three kids slept between 13 and 14 hours each night. LOVED IT!

Mitchell was happy as long as he was JUMPING somewhere...into the water, off the patio, off a piece of furniture...my boy.
SUK on the tube. His back was in spasm for days afterwards... I guess we're not 29 anymore, eh, Kelly? The tube+skiing+really old crappy mattresses= many sore backs.

Ainsley, once again, was OK with this activity. She was jabbering the whole time, according to SUK, but she didn't like the water getting in her eyes.

Melanie was a trooper once again, being so patient and sweet with our kids!

It was a relaxing, refreshing, and memorable week. We love our family and are so thankful that we got some quality time with them!!!

Father's Day

On Sunday, June 19th, we spent about 11 hours in the car driving to our first-ever 'family vacation'... (cue Chevy Chase and the Wally-wagon), so the kids and I celebrated Adam on Friday the 17th when he got home from work. It was cute and sweet. He is a wonderful father to our kids and I'm amazed sometimes at how blessed I am to have married him. And he's fun. That helps, too.
The girls colored pictures. Mitchell drooled on stuff and ripped it up. We got him a cool outdoor firepit thing. I think he likes it. we'll see once it's not 100 degrees outside daily.
We had it all set up on the back deck when he got home and the kids loved hiding and yelling "SURPRISE!" since it was 2 days before the actual Father's Day.


I'm sure it wasn't actually a surprise, though. I made a deliciously yummy cake.
We ate dinner, then cake (or maybe we just ate cake...) .

The evening for kids ended (as most evenings do around here!) with all three of them tackling Adam/wrestling together in the living room until several got hurt, started crying, and we called it a night.


HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! If our kids could type or communicate clearly, I'm sure they would express their gratitude to him!