August 2016

August 2016

We have had some big changes this month as Allison has started kindergarten!  That is the most important thing that happened this month and we capped off a very busy summer with some more road trips this month along with getting into our new routines of taking Allison to school every day and also getting Sarah to her preschool. 

We have been very busy this month with many different things going on at Allison’s new school.  We have gone to back to school business night, meet the teacher night, kindergarten night and the new family dinner.  On top of that, I volunteered to help out at the basketball clinic on Thursdays and Saturdays for the kindergarten thru 3^rd graders.  Needless to say, we have quickly met many great families and Allison is really enjoying it.  Deb and I love the fact we no longer have to argue over what she is wearing each day, as she must wear a uniform!  The structure is slightly different than her preschool one, but she seems to be doing well and enjoys doing very well on the discipline chart at school.  The only downfall so far of her starting school is how exhausted she is by the end of each day.  We put her to bed early, but by Friday of the week she is usually pretty tired (and cranky!).

We started off the month travelling to Rochester, NY to visit Kyle, Julie, Olivia and Ava.  We are fortunate enough to be the godparents of Ava and this was her Baptism weekend.  We drove 2/3rds of the way there on Friday and then arrived Saturday at 10AM.  We went straight to the pool and enjoyed a nice afternoon and evening hanging around their house and letting the girls play together.  The Baptism was the next day and the girls loved seeing us take part in the ceremony and Ava was great.  Also, we were able to enjoy celebrating Julie’s birthday.  Olivia, Allison and Sarah played well together and the girls really liked the sandbox.  We enjoyed spending time with Kyle’s family along with Aunt Wiz, Randy & Anna.  We drove home on Monday and the girls did well with the 8.5 hour drive. 

Later in the month, we traveled to Ohio to visit my sister and her family as they celebrated their 10 year anniversary!  They had a big gathering in their backyard and it was great to see all the kids play so well together.  The kids LOVED the music and danced the night away.  A little rain caused us to move the party inside, which probably only kept us up later than we needed to be!  We had the DJ playing music later than he was supposed to and the dance party was lots of fun.  Even more amazing than that, was that the kids actually slept through most of the dance party!   

Sarah’s Thing of the Month

            What can be said about Sarah?  One minute, she is cute and adorable and a joy to be around.  The next minute, she causes me to think of million dollar ideas like shirts for 3 year-olds that just say, “For Sale by Parent.”  When we were in NY Julie’s neighbors were giving away a toddler bike which just happened to fit Sarah perfectly.  She has gotten really good pedaling the bike this month and really enjoys it.  Every one she sees when we are out she makes sure to point out her “new Strawberry bike”

Allison’s Thing of the Month

            As we mentioned, Allison’s big thing this month is her starting of kindergarten at Christ the King.  Something else that has been a little concerning is that she is having some really bad reactions to bug bites that she is getting whenever she is outside.  She has some significant swelling and of course, they really itch.

A few more items from this month:

• Deb went out to a girl’s night with some of our Purdue friends in early August.
• Allison and Sarah went to the dentist and did awesome- Zero tears (and no cavities!)
• I enjoyed some beers with Naab, Norris & Gareth one night this month.
• One rainy Sunday, we went to the Children’s Museum and got to see the Doc McStuffins exhibit. 
• Beth and I went to see the Jason Bourne movie after getting some beers at BW3’s. 
• The girls went to our neighbor’s house to celebrate Henry’s birthday party.  They had Silly Safari come in and they had all kinds of fun animals for the kids to interact with. 
• I made 2 trips to Minnesota in August and I think my next trip will be in late September and my hope is for it to become “once a month” from now on. 
• We went to another neighborhood party on a rainy Saturday where the bounce house with inflatable waterslide was awesome!  No one seemed to care about the rain since the kids were already wet!
• We enjoyed a dinner at the Watkins house one evening that was attended by the Foulkes, Andersons, and Fredericks.  It was one of the first times we have literally not had to watch our kids at all during a gathering.
• Deb went to a Stella & Dot party in our neighborhood and purchased a nice purse. 
• We had some torrential rain a few times this month and had some water come into our basement through one of our window wells.  I was bailing out water and had to rebuild the window well one lovely Friday evening. 
• We enjoyed our annual trip to the State Fair and met up with the Andersons.  The girls loved playing together and enjoyed the rides.  It was quite a hot day and it was a very busy day at the fair due to all the rain we had during the month of August.