First Day of PreK 4 & More

School starts late this year and today is (finally) Oliver's first day of Preschool for 4-year-olds! He will be going three mornings a week -- he went two mornings last year. I am so excited for him to have the opportunity to spend time with other kids, be instructed by other adults, and have the chance to learn, explore and play in a way that is hard for just the two of us to do. He grew so much last year during the school year and we can't wait to see how much he grows and changes this year.

I asked Oliver a few questions this morning and here are his answers, word-for-word:
What is your favorite color? "Rainbow Color" and then "Red"
What is one of your favorite things to do? "Play dragons"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A Daddy"  {so sweet!}

Today is orientation, so Oliver and I will be attending class for just one hour. He will miss his first full morning on Friday as we are flying to St. Louis tomorrow, making Monday morning his first official day in school.

In addition to beginning school today, he will also begin the Little Joyful Singers choir and AWANA program tonight. He has already memorized his first Bible verse for the year, along with the reference:

1 John 4:10
...God...loved us and sent His son

He has been asking to return to AWANA since it ended last year and I think he will have a great time tonight. Oliver has been more interested in singing and music this past month or so and we are hoping he enjoys the 30 minutes of singing as well. 

Let the school year commence!

A Long, Fun Labor Day Weekend

We have had a great long weekend together! Lots of family time and fun things to do as we kick off a very (very) busy September.

On Saturday Oliver had the chance to show Dad around the Eastman Nature Center. When Oliver and I have gone there we have spent far more time in the nature center than I ever plan on. It's not that big of a place, so it isn't too overwhelming for him. He loves to bounce between the snakes and animals, the bee hive and the fun play things. He was proud to show Dad around and it was a pleasure watching them both!

Showing Dad his butterfly moves

He wore the bee outfit for about 20 minutes...loved it!

The weekend was rather warm and humid...heat index into the upper 90's. Tony has been wanting to take Oliver backyard camping for a while now, and he decided that he wouldn't let a little heat and the threat of rain keep him from it this weekend. Oliver was a big helper, setting up the tent and assembling the fire pit. They were two peas in a pod!

Teamwork!

All done (well, the rain fly was added later)

We lit a fire, even though it was already So.Hot.Out. Dinner was roasted hot dogs and chips, with a traditional campfire dessert: S'mores. Yum! 

Note the still green grass underneath...now it's just a burnt patch!

I think his face says it all!

The rain, thunder and lightening came at 4:00 am. The storm was pretty strong, unrelenting. I was wide awake, pacing between the window (watching for their flashlight) and the phone (checking for any tornado warnings). It is very possible that I was more worried about it than they were, as they stuck it out and didn't come inside until almost 8:00! I am so glad they had fun.

On Sunday we made the trek to one of Tony and Oliver's favorite places to eat: World Street Kitchen. Oliver and I also got our flu shots and did a little shopping while Dad picked up our neighbors from the airport. We ended Sunday by watching a movie of Oliver's choice: Rudolph. Crazy! He's currently obsessed with Halloween and asking for Christmas movies. I don't know what we are going to do come January!

Today we were so happy to host our small group for a BBQ. Tony smoked about 16 pounds of pork so we had yummy pulled pork sandwiches (along with a lot of pulled pork in the freezer for the fall/winter). It was fun catching up with everyone and planning our study for the fall. The fall!! It's hard to believe.

On Wednesday Oliver will start Pre-K 4, the little kid's choir at church and his second year of AWANA. A big day! I can't wait.

State Fair Day!

Each year Tony and I look forward to the Minnesota State Fair. He has been going since he was a baby and it didn't take too long for him to introduce me to the whole shebang. We both love going...and Oliver does too! 

We planned to go on Friday but the weather was supposed to be cool and rainy. Tony headed off to work, but at 11:00 the rain still hadn't come and the day was beautiful. He took the rest of the day off, his parents came over and we made it a family event.

The trip to the fair got off to a rocky start thanks to the lack of parking (even at the park & rides), but once we were inside all of that melted away. Yummy food, fun things to do, not overly crowded and the coolest, nicest day we've ever had at the fair led to a fantastic time. Oliver was absolutely amazing! He was having such a great time, only had one meltdown and managed to stay awake and alert the entire time. 

Since Friday he's been asking every day if we can go back today or tomorrow. He wants to visit the Little Farm Hands again more than anything! While we did go last year, this was the first time we were able to really DO -- visit the interactive Little Farm Hands, watch births in the Miracle of Birth barn, learn about bee hives in the Horticulture building and more.

I can't wait to take him next year!

He was so excited to take the "school" bus to the fair!

Checking out the Toro equipment.

Working on the farm!

Planting his corn on the farm.

Posing with Opa on the farm.

This piglet was born just one day before.
Fitting since we are reading Charlotte's Web.

Bumper boats!

What a goofball!

I'm not even sure which big piece of equipment this is, but he's having fun!

He fell asleep on the way, but sadly didn't stay asleep.
 It ended up being a late night for this little guy.

Weird Mixtures

This summer Oliver and I have been working our way through a few different activity books. One of them focuses on science and nature. In today's experiment we got to see a "Weird Mixture" -- colored water mixed with cornstarch. What a cool experiment!

It's a solid! It's a liquid!

He played with the solid/liquid/thick/sticky mix for more than half an hour (did you know a penny sinks in it?) and loved every minute of it. It's fun seeing him enjoy science and I hope this interest continues. He of course wants to do it again sometime soon! Luckily it cleaned up easier than I expected.

On another "Weird Mixture" topic -- Tony and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last night...nine years! We are a bit of a weird mixture. Different personalities, interests. Yet I wouldn't want to be with anyone else. I love him and our family and am excited to be coming up on ten years as husband and wife soon (and about 18 years of knowing each other).

First kiss as husband and wife. Yeah!

We celebrated family style with homemade french bread pizzas and one of Tony's favorite desserts: a DQ ice cream cake! We planned to watch our wedding video (we thought someone took a video of it, casually not a hired professional). Turns out that what I thought was a DVD was actually just a CD recording of the audio portion. We played it anyway and Oliver enjoyed hearing our names announced and dancing to some of the music. I'm bummed we don't have a video recording (I really regret not spending the money to record the ceremony), but it was fun to hear it and look through pictures with Oliver. He enjoyed seeing everyone looking so much younger, too.

Thank you, Tony, for the past nine years and the many more ahead of us. I love you.