Back to School

So we are back to school. Chase started first grade and Olivia is in PK-4. They both have great teachers and are having a fun year so far. Chase has a lot of old friends in his class and his teacher is a Gator!! He also gets to attend "specials" this year, so everyday they go to computer, art, music or PE (last year the teacher planned art and music in the classroom). He has made a new friend, Drew. They eat lunch together everyday, we have had several playdates and they get along great!

Olivia has lots of new kids in her class but she makes friends easily and has a table of very sweet little girls.

We have settled into a nice routine. William and I run errands, gym, cleaning and some special playtime while everyone is in school. Then he goes down for a nap and Olivia and I get some special time together. I am working on her reading skills. She is completely obsessed with coloring but it means she has great pencil skills too. Some days we just color together but I am trying to squeeze reading in too.
Chase is riding the bus home this year, which he loves! The bus has 2 girls who are "patrols", 5th graders who maintain order and manage the assigned seating. Chase is totally in love with these girls of authority and cannot wait til he is old enough to become a patrol.

SC or bust

We just got home from an amazing vacation to Hilton Head, SC. Some close friends of ours go every year and so we decided to join them. We stayed at the Sea Pines Resort. We rented bikes so we could get around the whole resort. We had one bike that was a tandem with a little kids bike on the back. The kids loved taking turns riding on the big kid bike. The resort was great, it has many pools a beautiful beach and activities all over the place. They have a concert for kids each night (Gregg Russell) and another night we stumbled across a lady who leads a kids dance party that included all kinds of dress up clothes. We were there over the Fourth of July holiday so we participated in the parade and stayed up late for fireworks (William fell asleep in my arms about 1 minute into the fireworks show). The resort also has a horse stable with a petting zoo. The kids took pony rides and spent some time talking to the big horses. On our last trip to the beach, the kids found a dozen little crabs crawling around so they caught a few. Olivia named hers Scurry and drew a picture of him in the sand :)
We had so much fun, we loved having our friends there to play with too! All five kids play really well together.
It was the perfect week!

Baby Boy Turns Two

William turned two last week. He is getting so big. He loves cars and driving so we threw him a small party with the car theme. My mom bought me a cricut for my birthday so I spent several week leading up to the party cutting out cars for the banner and cupcake toppers.
Saturday morning my sister took him to Target to pick out  some toys as a present and realized that that plan might have cost her a bit more than expected. He picked out about 10 toys and she didn't have the heart to say "no" to anything so he hit the Aunt Nee jackpot ;)
During the party William just ran around between all the kids and adults. He had so much fun.