Starting Preschool

I know I'm a little behind on my blogs, but I'm going to try and catch up! At the beginning of September, we started a new chapter in our house.  Brooks started preschool! He was kind of excited about it, but really nervous too.  I had taken him to meet the teacher this summer while she was working at the school so he could see his classroom and play with some of the toys.  He had a great time there playing with Keely and checking everything out.  However, when it got closer to school, he started to get pretty concerned about having to stay there without mommy or daddy.  He kept asking, "what are you going to do?" And I would have to tell him I would go home with Keely and come back to pick him up later.  He wasn't too sure about that, but I tried to not dwell on it with him! At preschool orientation about a couple weeks before school started, we got to meet his teacher again and some other kids in his class.  As we were taking him up the stairs to see his room with everyone else, he got really nervous and kept asking, "What should I do?" "What should I do?"  When we said he should just go play with the other kids, he kept saying, "I don't know about that" "I don't know about that!"  Needless to say, he was in tears, and he didn't play with anyone that night.  On his first morning of preschool, I got him dressed and ready and I could tell he was nervous.  Luckily we avoided tears before we left and I was able to snap a few pictures of our school boy!

 Keely had to get in on a few pictures too!

He was ok in the van ride to preschool and waited patiently as I got Keely out of the van to walk him to his classroom.  He made it up the stairs and then the crying started.  It was really hard for me to leave my screaming boy because I knew he was just scared and not sure what was all going to happen.  So needless to say, with being pregnant, the tears started falling for me too by the time Keely and I got back to the van.  I really started doubting whether Brooks was ready to start preschool and if he was just too young yet.  Blake went with me to pick him up when his first day was done, and Brooks was at least smiling! He wasn't super excited to see us or anything, just normal.  We asked him how his first day went as we were walking out to the van, and he said, "I'm not impressed."  Blake and I could hardly hold back the laughter at that comment!  It's so typical of Brooks! We got him to tell us a little more about his day, but he didn't really say a whole lot.  Thursday was his next day of school, and he screamed when I left just as much as he did the first day.  It was a little easier to leave for me this time, but still hard to hear him cry so hard when I left! The next week my mom had to take him since Blake and I were in Orlando for the Ace Show.  She said he cried Tuesday, but then Thursday he was ok.  When I took him the following Tuesday, he didn't cry at all! It was a huge relief to me that it only took 3 times of going before the tears were done! He is now excited whenever it is a preschool day and looks forward to it.  He even plays 'preschool' at home.  I can overhear him telling the kids what to do and singing songs.  For some reason he likes to do that when he sits on the potty to poop, but hey, whatever works! We have already noticed Brooks growing up the past couple weeks with being able to play more on his own and being willing to play with other kids instead of just mommy and daddy.  He has started to learn some of the kids' names and tells us what he gets to do at preschool (if we ask him the right questions...if we just ask, 'what did you do?' he'll say, 'i don't know'.  but if we ask, "did you color' or 'did you sing songs' or 'did you play with any other kids' we get more out of him!)  His favorite thing seems to be playing outside on the playground, playing duplos, and singing songs. Needless to say, it was the right choice sending him to preschool this year.  I really think it will help his social skills and independence from Mom and Dad!

Even though these pictures are a month old now, I still wanted to put them up on the blog! In August when we had a heat wave come through it finally felt hot enough to want to go swimming.  I didn't attempt going to the pool very often with the kids this year (ok, just once and that was with Blake along) because handling 2 kids who didn't know how to swim and being pregnant at the same time did not sound fun! Luckily our friend, Danielle, offered for us to go swimming sometime at her parent's backyard pool in Lincoln.  We could never find a weekend that would work out, so we decided to go during the week without husbands along.  It worked out really well, and both Brooks and Keely had fun! Brooks was very timid as he always is around pools, but he did let me take him off the steps and work on kicking feet and floating a little.  He even let Danielle's mom (who has taught swimming lessons for years) take him out a little too.  We will get him used to it yet! Keely did good in an intertube floatie, but she liked being just held onto much better!

Brooks spent most of his time on the steps, but it was at least a good step area for him to do that!

 

Here are Brooks and Keely with Danielle's little girl, Bria.  Keely and her are about 7 months apart in age.

 Keely liked snack time...I think she was getting really tired by this point!

 

 I think Brooks had just as much fun playing with buckets of water on the side of the pool as he did in the pool!

 

 

 

The three kids all done swimming and drying off.  It was a fun afternoon and hopefully we can do it again next year!

A Fun Family Night

Blake is supposed to have Friday's off, so usually when he is able to take the whole day off, we try and do something as a family.  Whether it's just a grocery trip or out to eat for supper, or out to the farm for some fresh air, we at least try to plan something.  One Friday a couple weeks ago, we had NOTHING planned.  We finally decided that after naps we would drive to Grand Island and try our luck at miniature golfing and supper out with the kids.  We knew Brooks would LOVE it, but we were not sure how Keely would handle the situation.  She has a tendency of being a little hard to control sometimes if she sets her mind to something.  We weren't sure if she would have fun, or if she would throw the golf balls everywhere and try and run all over.  We decided we might as well give it a try anyway.

We ate supper at Ruby Tuesday since the salad bar would have some good veggies for the kids to go with their chicken strips and fries and it sounded good to us too!  We ate at about 5:00 and it was probably the most successful supper out we have had with the kids yet!  The food came out really quick and both kids ate really good with no whining! (A pretty big accomplishment for a 15 month old and a 3 year old who can get picky about chicken strips at places we don't frequently eat at!)

After supper we headed over to the miniature golf course I always remember going to growing up.  It was almost the same as I remember it, but it had been updated quite a bit with different colored greens and some new paint on other fixtures.  Luckily there was just one other group golfing when we got there, and they were almost finished, so we had the first part of the course almost to ourselves! It was great since we had no idea how this was all going to work.  Brooks was a little unsure at first because he is used to 'real' golf courses, but he caught on real quick and liked the obstacles to hit through/around.  Keely surprised us and did fabulous.  After we got her her own ball (she kept stealing ours) that she could just put in the holes, she was happy, happy, happy!
Here are some fun pictures from the course....

 I tried to see if Keely wanted to hit the ball a few times, but she was much more interested in the balls and everything else around her!

 Brooks watching his ball come down the mountain

 

"Teeing off"

 We sometimes had to wait for Keely to get out of the way, but she just wanted to chase balls down the greens

 Checking out where we needed to hit the ball before starting the hole...

 Blake helped Brooks with a 'correct' form a few times but mostly we just let him swing however he wanted.

 

Keely making a face at "Little Red's" face we were supposed to hit through...I think Blake was the only one who made it through the mouth!

 Brooks liked the blue hole.  I think Keely did too.

 The rainbow hole was both kids' favorite.  I think it was the bright colors and the slant to walk up on.  It was really hard to get Keely to move on to the next hole, but we made it without too much fussing.

 A picture of me and the kids after we were all done.  Brooks did not want to leave, but we assured him we would go back again sometime!

 After miniature golf was over, we decided to top off the night by stopping at McDonald's for some ice cream for the drive home.  Let's just say it was a perfect end to the night for Brooks and us too! Keely might have been disappointed because she didn't get any ice cream since we were driving, but she's still young enough to get past it without too much fuss!

Overall it was one of those times that reminds me why we have kids.  Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and wouldn't trade them for anything, but sometimes between all the crying fits, whining, diaper changes, and messes, it's hard to remember why we continue to have more kids! :)  But in all reality, miniature golf and many other things in life would just not be as enjoyable if it were just Blake and I.  We would always feel that something was missing...and that's the joy kids bring to the picture...seeing them experience new things for the first time and the pure fun of sharing those times with them is something I'd never give up.  So bring on the tough toddler years, I will most likely remember these kinds of nights more than the tantrums :)

County Fair

Ever since Brooks saw some carnival rides in a parking lot downtown earlier this summer, he has been talking about riding some carnival rides.  He was so disappointed when we I said we couldn't go to that downtown carnival this time because it would be too expensive.  I told him to save his money so he could buy some tickets to ride the rides when the county fair came to town later in the summer.  He would help me pick up toys to 'earn' money for rides.  So a week before the fair came to town, I bought some tickets at half price and told Brooks that fair time was almost here and he would get to ride some rides soon! We ended up going Friday night and he was super excited to go.  We walked around and looked at animals first. 
Both Brooks and Keely enjoyed the petting zoo.

 Brooks' and Keely's babysitter, Paige, was helping out with the animals, so I think that helped Brooks be a little braver in touching the animals.  Otherwise, I don't think he would have touched any of them!

 Keely liked the dog that looked like Cheyenne!

 Brooks got really excited when he saw the carnival games.  We let him play a few, and of course he chose the basketball one first!

 He made his first shot and we were thinking, great! he might actually win something decent! But then he missed most of the other ones.  I think he ended up making two or three.

 He got to pick out a prize, and of course he picked dice so he could roll them at home.

 Brooks chose skeeball next.  This one was a little harder for him.

 Blake helped him roll in the first game.

 Then Blake tried a few on his own and I tried some too.  We weren't doing too great! Thankfully Blake did good enough in the last game and Brooks was able to get a small prize.  He got a green snake that is shown in another picture, and Brooks has named him Cucumber.  He actually plays with him quite a bit and uses him as a fishing pole :)

 The last game he picked was the floating duck game where you just pick a duck and look on the bottom to see what prize you have won. 

 He won a ball at the ducks, and you can see the green snake around his neck.  He was having a blast!

 Brooks could have stayed playing games all night, but after spending $12 on just 3 games, that was our limit! We decided to have him pick out a ride to ride and use the tickets I had already spent money on.  He was not as excited about the rides when he saw them close up and we had to coax him pretty hard to pick one to try.  He finally chose the car ride where it just goes around in circles in a car.  Blake got him to pick a car and climb in and Blake even walked away and Brooks was still fine.  You can see him in the car right under the lightening mcqueen sign looking at Blake.

 Before the ride started, some kids in the car behind him started honking their horn.  I think this may have scared Brooks because he just lost it! He was crying and trying to get out, so Blake went in and got him out before it started.  We were disappointed he didn't stick it out and try the ride because he was so excited to ride them.  I think just having to ride by himself and the loud noises must have been just too much for him.  Oh well, maybe when Keely is old enough to ride with him, it will be better!

 After giving away the rest of our tickets to Paige since we obviously couldn't use them with a screaming terrified kid, I bought some cotton candy and we headed home.  Brooks got to try the cotton candy at home and sort of liked it.  I think he liked the idea of it more than the actual eating of it!

So overall it wasn't a terrible fair experience, we just had no success with riding any rides! The games were much more in line with what Brooks enjoys doing!