My BABY started Kindergarten!

Well, it's bitter-sweet! My baby is growing up, and it makes me a bit sad, but it cuts my daily drive mileage down about 30 miles!! Love that! One stop, both kids, and straight off to work! Wooo-hooo!! Tustin has been VERY excited to start kindergarten, and to be going to the same school as his big "brudder" Keegan! We made a paper chain, at 63 days out, and every night, Tustin would tear one link off the chain. The day finally came, down to the last link, and school was starting the next day! I stayed almost all day at school with Keegan, and did really well, I didn't cry until I got to the car and pulled away from the curb. Then the tears came, uncontrollably. But, when I had my "hour off" on Tustin's first day of school (I stayed all day, except for about an hour), HE started to cry, so I stayed strong for him, and didn't cry. He did great the rest of the day though, stopped crying, and participated in everything. It's hard, having to go EVERY day for him, but he's getting used to it, and likes it!

Mommy Got to Stay!

They have a great kinder, first-day program at the boys' school! Mommies and/or Daddies get to stay with their kinder ALL DAY if they want to! And, all day I did stay! I helped the class with crafts, and writing their names on their projects. I played with them out at recess. I even ate lunch with them, and helped open juice boxes and various packages, and listen to fun stories of the babbling 5-year olds who love to talk!! And I just found out the best news this weekend, of the 3-5 kids in Tustin's class who are "handfuls," we'll say, the one kid who was most disruptive to the whole class, all day long, got transferred to the other kinder class! YAY for us. Sorry for the other class, and actually for the little boy who has a terrible home life, but, Yay for us!!

Growin' Up!

There they go, walking off with their big-ole back packs, after the first day of school for the year! Grammie came with us, since she's helping us out with pick-ups every day (THANK YOU Grammie!!).

TUSTIN-- The Peace Builder!

Our Little Peace Builder!! Tustin's name was called at Peace Circle Friday Morning (in front of the whole school), as one of the kids deserving of a Peace Builder Award!! Woot-woot!! And it was only his FIRST full week of kinder. His teacher wrote "Tustin shows all the traits of a true PeaceBuilder!" (Praised other people; Sought a wise person; Righted a wrong; Gave up put downs; Noticed a hurt; and Built Peace at School each day!) That's our boy!

Finally Getting Around to it!

Okay, so I have FINALLY blogged about our wonderful family vacation. Problem is (well, not a problem for me, because, this is just me), I took over a thousand photos, and had a horrible time trying to narrow my vacation down to 200! Yes, it will take you a while to get through these. But, get there, because I already have so much more I need to blog about-- like the first day of school for the boys, and the fact that my BABY is now in kindergarten!! Key point here, because of all the photos, when you get to the bottom, you will have to click on "older posts," probably several times, to get through the whole vacation. Enjoy! We sure did.

We Made it to Mass!

We had been waiting for this vacation for MONTHS! We finally made it. The boys were SO good on the plane, it was really unbelievable. That's a long flight for two active little guys. But I was SO proud of them! Grammie & Grampy picked us up around 11pm or so, which didn't get us home to bed until midnight. We were ready for a good sleep, and ready to start two weeks of fun, family, and relaxation! Scan through the following photos of our journey- and enjoy it as much as we did!

Swimming

The day after our arrival, and a little sleeping in... we headed over to Mary Lou's pool for a dip. The kids had so much fun playing together, it was great.

Tommy the Donkey

Not only did we get to swim and play, we got to visit with Tommy, and the other donkeys.

Candlestick Bowling

We went candle-stick bowling! Tiny little pins, still 10 of them, in the same positions. But a tiny little ball too, no finger holes. You just fling it down the lane, and hope for the best! :-) The bowling alley had a game area attached to it as well. As you can see, the adults had JUST as much fun as the kids!!

Hanging out in Newburyport!

Climbed trees, walked along the harbor... perfect weather!

Steamas & Lobstah

We flew in to town on a Tuesday, and they had planned a Thursday night, family feast for us! We got to go with Grampy to pick up the lobsters and steamers, and then come back home and hang out with family for the evening. It was so great to be there, and see everyone! Uncle Tommy came, Auntie Michelle, Auntie Debbie & Uncle Dave, and the boys' cousins, Anna & David too! The family photo out back... I put my camera on auto-pilot (if ANYone smiles, in the whole bunch, it will continuously snap off photos, no matter what else is going on). There is a series of about 20 photos that are pretty funny. People in other peoples' faces, hair flying, kids' arms and legs in all directions... and we finally got it together for a couple of cute ones! BUT... since I had to narrow my vacation photos from over a thousand, to share here on my blog, I gave you one of the best ones!

Lobstah Dinnah

We all had about 2 1/2-pound lobsters, for EACH of us! Every ounce of every one was delicious!! Tustin tried a bite, but didn't care for it too much. Keegan, of course, wouldn't even try a bite, but he had fun playing with the pinchers! Anna and David were little pros, showing the boys how it's done! We all had a GREAT feast that night! (Uh, and every other night, I cannot lie; we definitely ate well on our trip!)

Heading off to "Camp"

Yay, the day came when we headed off for camp! We were all SO excited. Freedom, NH, is a magical place. People are happy, memories are made! The boys ran to the swings, and quickly to the water. Anna made beautiful necklaces for all of us, out of shells that she painted (after she painted some beautiful rocks). When you get to our Bay Haven pictures, you will see that we ALL wore our Anna-crafted jewelry to dinner that night! So, flip threw some photos and enjoy a week and a half of summer camp!