School's Out for the Summer!

Well, we did it.  We survived our first school year in Minnesota.  I luckily stumbled upon this preschool last January, months before we had actually moved.  It turned out to be the perfect school for us :)  We have lots of friends that also attend the program, we love the teachers and most importantly...there is absolutely no separation anxiety.  Each of the boys run happily into their classrooms and don't look back!  They have fun stories to share at the end of each school day and I enjoy 5 hours a week of ME time :)

Macallan starting attending the Mother's Day Out program on Tuesdays in February, so he didn't go the full year.   His teachers said he was  easy going and easily interacted with all of the other kids!  He napped well and ate well, and overall really enjoyed his days at school!

Maverick attended the Mother's Day Out program on Tuesdays too.  He was in an older classroom.  He did wonderful!  He never cried once when I dropped him off.  His teacher once asked me if it bothered me that he had no separation anxiety, to which I quickly answered "Nope.  I know he loves me" :)  His favorite part was showing off his art project when I picked him up.  He is SOOOOOO proud of his art projects!  He is very into pretend play right now, and loved to rope the other little kids into his play :)  He came home one day with a HUGE scrape down his face from another little boy, who was having troubles with hitting and scratching other kids.  While I was sad that Maverick was hurt, I was immediately thankful that he wasn't the one having problems with hitting/scratching.  The mom of the other child sought me out to apologize, and I told her not to worry...I've been there and done that, and honestly I would rather be in my position than hers!

Oh, Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell.  He finished his very last day in pre-school and is SOOOOO excited for Kindergarten!  His teacher had nothing but GREAT things to say about him!  He gets along so well with all of the other kids, apparently some of the kids get really excited when he chooses to sit next to them during snack time :)  He "passed" all of the pre-school criteria with flying colors and she said the only thing she's worried about for him in Kindergarten is that he might be a little bored.  She said that she just knows that she's going to be reading about his successes in the newspaper someday and she's going to be so proud to have been his pre-school teacher.  As you can tell, his parent teacher conference couldn't have gone better...it was definitely a "parental payback" day!  We sure are proud of our little guy!

What to do this summer?

Here's our summer checklist!  We didn't quite make it all of the way through our winter list. We have absolutely no excuse since winter was SO LONG!  I think we'll do better on this one :)

Exploring Minnesota

It's SPRING in Minnesota, and we're so glad to finally have nice enough weather to get out and explore a little :)  We moved here in mid-July last year, but literally spent the remainder of the summer unpacking, working on the house and getting settled.  We didn't take much time to explore, so we're really looking forward to getting out and doing some fun things with the boys this year!

Jacob has been working like a dog....for weeks, MONTHS on end.  Since Jan 1, he's probably averaged 70 hours a week.  I guess that's expected for a public accountant, but that doesn't make it any easier on him or us!  Recently we were at one of his work functions, and four of his co-workers separately mentioned that they felt bad for Jacob's workload.  SOOOOO when Jacob said he was going to take a Friday off to do something fun as a family, we jumped for joy :)

We decided to take a little trip to Taylor's Falls, Minnesota.  It was about an hour drive north to the cutest little, quaint town.  We lunched at a fun restaurant called "The Drive In Restaurant", which the boys loved!  It was an outdoor eating establishment with a 50's style.  They are only open for the summers and we literally caught them on their FIRST day open this year!


Mitchell really did like it, even though it doesn't quite look like it here!
 

The boys all enjoyed their corndogs.  Macallan was grateful that it was on a stick, so that he could explore a little while eating :)

 

Jacob had to step away to take a few calls, but Macallan wouldn't let him venture off too far without a visit :) 

 They had a really cute little pond structure that the boys enjoyed climbing around.  Not a single foot entered the water, which was a bonus. :)

Maverick is REALLY into pretend play right now, especially super heros.  His favorite line is "I'm NOT Maverick, I'm SPIDERMAN!"

 Daddy forked up a few quarters for gumballs.




 After lunch, we headed over to nearby Interstate State Park.  Mitchell wasn't too excited about the prospect of going to a park without a playground.....UNTIL he stepped foot inside and saw all of the rocks he could climb on!  He LOVED it! 



At church they talked to the kids about how God has given everyone spiritual gifts.  Since then he has been on the hunt for his gift.  After a few minutes at the park, he was CERTAIN that his gift MUST be rock climbing! :)

We hiked on the trails and climbed on the rocks for hours!  Of course, stopping for a few water breaks along the way! 

It was a GREAT little getaway!