Fun playtime at Aunt Becky's

Brielle & John are lucky to go to their Aunt Becky's house for daycare.  Becky does such a great job with the kids, and it's a fun place to be. Most of the kids there are cousins:).  Becky also takes many photos of the kids and shares them with us so we can see what the kids are up to during their day.

Looks like Willa was planning to "catch" John :)

Dress-up time.  I think John looks very excited to be wearing camoflage :)

Brielle enjoys dressing up at Becky's too.  She gets to spend her mornings there from about 7:30 until Grandma Carol picks her up for afternoon preschool.  Then after preschool Brielle returns to Becky's for a little while until Tim is done coaching cross country practice.

As far as naps go, John is transitioning out of his afternoon naps.  He still needs to take a couple naps each week, but he doesn't need them every day.

On this day, John fell asleep in Becky's hallway!  Becky said that John kept saying, "My Dad said I do not need to take a rest"... over and over again for about 20 minutes.  He was rubbing his eyes, he sat down... and  finally the exhaustion took over and he was asleep right there! 

When I asked John if he took a nap in Becky's hall, he said, "No I was just waiting for her to finish cleaning up the kitchen."

Fridays

 Fridays are usually my day at home... and now that the school year started, Tim is back teaching on these Fridays so it's just the 3 of us.  We recently had a beautiful Friday morning, so we enjoyed a fun breakfast on our screened in porch.

You can see Brielle is still in her jammies, but not John.  One of the first things John does when he wakes up in the morning is change OUT of his jammies and into his clothes.  He has started to do this on his own right after he gets out of bed... somedays he comes out of his room fully dressed in an outfit he picked out... somedays he comes out carrying the clothes he wants to put on... and somedays he walks out just in his underwear... or naked.  :)

Brielle starts preschool!

Brielle started preschool at the end of August.  She goes to school for 3 hours each afternoon, 5 days a week.  There are 15 kids in her class... 6 girls and 9 boys.  She has loved every day of it, and it wasn't a difficult transition at all :).  She enjoys all the activities, her 2 teachers, and all the kids.  She tells us about the stories they read, the songs they sing, what she has for snack time, what activities they do, what her classmates bring for show & tell, and all about the artwork she brings home.  Grandma Carol drives Brielle to & from school on most days, and fills us in on many cute stories.

She also comes home and tell us about all the rules... such as 

"You can't dip your cookies in your milk"

"You can only have 1 milk, not 2" 

"You have to sit like this 'body basics'"

"Body basics means 'criss-cross applesauce'" (cross legged) 

"You can't climb on the playground outside if you don't have backs on your shoes"

"You don't run in the hallway because kids are working"  (Grandma Carol says she has to remind Brielle of this one because Brielle is SO excited every day, it's hard for her to NOT run down the hall to her classroom :)!

  Here is Brielle on her very first day of preschool:

 When she gets to school, she enters through Door #2.  After this door is where she often starts running :)

When she enters the room, she hangs her backpack in her assigned cubby.

Then she finds the apple with her name on it and hangs it up on a tree to show she is here.

For the first couple days, they wore name tags.  The look on her face shows how excited she was to be there :)

Her 2nd day of school fell on a Friday and I was able to take her.  After they do the above steps, then they can pick out an activity to play with until all the kids arrive.

John fit right in!  He wanted an activity also, and he stayed to play for about 15 minutes.  It was a challenge to get him to leave!  He'll be familiar with the routine & ready for next year :).

Fun at the Lake

This summer the kids were a lot more independent & stronger swimmers, so we had a lot of fun at Grandma Carol's & Grandpa Ted's house.  Realizing they are still only 3 & 4 years old, I know each summer it will be fun to see what else they learn to do. For example, Grandpa Ted is always talking about how he can't wait to see them learn to water ski :).

The kids love to put their lifejackets on, jump off the dock, swim around, climb up the ladder, and repeat the process... over and over!

"Fishing for minnows"

San Diego

We had a great week in San Diego at the end of July.  Brielle & John traveled perfectly on the airplanes, as they are at a very fun age.  They had 4 full days of fun... going to Sea World, Lego Land, the San Diego Zoo, and the Children's Museum.  Kristen & Grandpa Ted went to 3 days of meetings... and Alexia even attended a day.  We were very happy that Jenny also came down to join us for a couple of days.  The weather was gorgeous... as we learned it is most days of the year in San Diego :). 

On our first night, we walked along the San Diego Bay.  The kids enjoyed all the huge naval ships... which we could also see from our hotel, as our room overlooked the Bay.  The USS Midway is in the far background of this photo (It was amazing how many aircraft were on it!)

The next day we all went to Sea World, where the kids enjoyed the rides, dolphin show, orca show, aquariums, & other sea creatures.

The next day Tim & the kids headed to Lego Land, where they actually planned & met up with one of Tim's friends ("KC"), wife & 2 sons, who also happened to be visiting San Diego... from the Chicago area.

The 3rd day's adventures included the famous San Diego Zoo.  Grandma Carol & Alexia also went along.

 We also enjoyed some fun family dinner nights... in the Gaslamp District.

On the morning of our last full day, Tim, Kristen, Alexia & Jenny participated in a 5K fun run.  Tim actually won his age group and was 4th place overall!  Alexia & Jenny performed very well too and ran the whole race together.

The kids had a lot of fun at the Children's Museum.  There were a lot of hands-on art projects for the kids to experience. I thought these easels were a very cool set-up!  Great idea that would be fun to make for home too.

Then there was an arts & crafts are for the kids to make their own creations.  Jenny & Alexia helped John create a "Batman-like" mask, wrist bands, and bat shield.  He LOVED it :).

On the final afternoon, Kristen received her Fellowship award in the AGD.  To reach this point, she had to take 500 hours of continuing education and pass a 250-question exam.  An interesting fact... Grandpa Ted received his fellowship award when he was 31 also!

Kristen & Tim enjoyed a dinner cruise that night in the San Diego Bay area with other Fellowship & Mastership award winners.  It was a perfect ending to a great week! There were so many fun family activities... and still more places we didn't make it to, so we hope to go back & visit again some day.

Preschool Playground Time

Timber Lake 2011

We had another wonderful & fun 3 days at Timber Lake Resort.  It has become our annual getaway with the Berning Family.  We stay in cabins, fish, swim, play games, eat, have campfires and enjoy the fun family time!  We took hundreds of photos... but here are several of my favorites.

           

Grandma & Grandpa B with 19 (of 20) grandkids.

One of our new activities this year was our version of face painting... give the kids a bunch of waterproof markers and let them decorate each other.  They had a lot of fun, were very creative, and it was super easy clean up! Some of the older kids had very elaborate designs and lots of skin covered in color!

             

Grandma's kitchen helpers

            

Nature Camp

Brielle & John went to a nature camp this summer for 3 and 4 year olds.  Each day they did an activity and brought home a project they made.  One day they learned about nocturnal animals and made raccoon masks.  John loved wearing this mask, and on this day he fell asleep on the way home wearing it   :).

Neighborhood Parade

Every year, in Grandma Carol & Grandpa Ted's neighborhood, there is a neighborhood parade on the 4th of July.  This year, we decorated Grandpa's ATV so that we could participate.  John & Brielle did a great job waving to people as we drove along.  But at the end of the parade, they asked with some concern, "When are we going to get candy?"  They had watched man other kids catching candy & filling up their bags, while John & Brielle were "stuck" in a trailer :).  Fortunately, we were able to hop out in time that John & Brielle caught several pieces from the end of the parade.

John got the chance to sit in a real fire truck when the parade was over.