Owen's First Day of School

Here is my little dolly!  He is all ready for his first day of school!  He is going to Transition to Kindergarten T2K.  It is a great program for kids with summer birthdays that may not quite be ready for full Kindergarten yet.  It is perfect for him!  His teachers are Miss Karin and Mr. Dave.  They are totally sweet and fun.  Owen goes to school all day like the other kids, and he gets to do lots of playing!

Here he is with his pose in front of the tree.  Love him!

Here he is cracking up!  Speaking of cracking up...Owen's first day did create a story that is funny now.  He got a tardy slip on his first day!  We got going a little late, and then on the way we got behind a tractor on the road and before we knew it Owen and I were in the school office receiving his first tardy slip!  Grandpa Bob says that will haunt him for the rest of his life.  :)  Then, to make matters worse, they would not let me walk him to his classroom because I did not have my ID with me.  I had to send him with another teacher, and I lost it.  On a happy note, it did not seem to bother Owen one bit!  He went off to his class and had a great day. 

Isaac and Ethan's First Day of School

We had almost 3 months off for Summer Break this year, but it absolutely flew by!  We had such a fun summer, and no one was looking forward to the first day of school.  Until the boys found out who their teachers were.  That was an exciting day!  They both got the teacher they were hoping for.  Isaac's teacher is Mrs. Duncan.  She is an Iowa State fan, and very organized.  Ethan's teacher is Mr. Fermoyle.  He is an ex-hockey player and passionate about teaching.  Isaac and Ethan texted their friends and found out who was in their class.  The first day of school was a cool and beautiful day.

 The annual pose in front of the evergreen tree.  Look out 5th and 3rd grade!

 Ethan is ready to go! 

 Isaac wanted to make sure he had all his brightest clothes on that day.  I think he did it!

 Riding up to the bus stop. 

 Here is most of the crew waiting for the bus.  We are missing one family that came at the last second.

It is always a race between the boys to see who can get on the bus first.

Clear Lake Weekend

Our Clear Lake Weekend is always a fun, fun weekend with lots of stories, inspiration, relaxation and play.  It is so wonderful to see my college girlfriends and their families, catch up with everyone, and enjoy time together.  This year was no exception.  We even had the BIG surprise of Kim showing up 7 months pregnant!  She does love surprises!  Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Here is all the girls on the dock.  We missed Teresa!  The rest of us all made it with about a 4 hour overlap that everyone was together.  Even with busy summer schedules we all make it a priority to get together.

 

 We made the kids do a photo shoot on the dock, too.  This was the best picture of about 20.  They are such good sports!  We had to work to convince the older kids to put their arms around each other.  It is so fun seeing them play together and have their friendships.  They are in order from oldest to youngest.  We are missing Teresa's 4 kiddos, so the group is even bigger!

 

 We all take turns preparing the meals.  This is Cari and Angie getting some snacks ready.

 Fun times relaxing on the dock.

 More party time on the dock.  We love to catch up on everyone's lives and relive old fun memories.

Abby took Scott on a Jetski ride, she likes to go FAST and tried to dump Scott off.  He hung tough though!  Ethan got to take Dave on a jetski ride.  He also likes to go fast!

I always look forward to this weekend.  We have been getting together every summer since we graduated, which was 15 years ago!

Weekend Full of Boys

We just had a FUN weekend with our nephews, Cael, Gabe and Luke staying at our house.  That made a grand total of 7 boys at our house (incl. Scott).  Luckily, I like boys stuff.  We were blessed with gorgeous weather, which made the weekend that much better.  I picked up the boys on Friday, and we spent the afternoon playing outside.  They all played so nicely all weekend.  Scott and I tried to plan a few extra fun things for us to do, too.  We also had lots of fun Iowa State basketball games to watch.

On Friday night we made our own personal pizzas for supper.  It is so fun to see how the boys load up their pizzas.  It is cute how they each made their own design.  Ethan likes to make smiley faces.  Isaac and Cael loaded theirs up with meat.  Luke put a big pile if cheese right in the middle, and then each piece only had that middle part eaten out of it.

The major event of the weekend was model rocket building and launching.  Each kiddo got a model to construct on Saturday morning and then we launched them on Sunday after church.

 Cael and Isaac worked together on their models, and were pretty independent.

 Ethan and I worked together on his model.  He had one that he got for his birthday last year that we worked on.

The bigger boys all worked in the dining room.

Scott helped the littler crew with their rockets in the kitchen.  He said they were so good and really excited to hold two pieces together while the glue set.  They were great at taking turns and listening.

 Luke is so cute!  He is such a happy little guy!

Owen is holding his shock cord so it can dry.

 We literally went straight from making rockets to building a fire to roast hot dogs.  The original plan was to do this for supper, but we had to be ready to watch the Cyclones play at 5:00.  We did our cookout for lunch.  It was super fun.  We had hot dogs, chips and bbq beans.

You did not see these two separate much over the weekend.  They have fun together.

 Everyone is enjoying their lunch.

Scott and I actually did get to sit down and enjoy our hot dogs.  After lunch, everyone played outside and inside.  We had a nice relaxing afternoon at home.  Until the Cyclone game at 5.  Then we were all excited!

I just have to mention how awesome it was to walk into church on Sunday morning with all these cuties.  I think we turned a few heads.  They were so good during church.  I had to remind them to be good a few times, and it reminded me of going to church with my cousins when I was little.  My Grandma Korte had a special way of bending her index finger, and she would give you a little poke.  That meant you needed to behave.

After church we went to the soccer fields to launch the rockets.  Everybody go to launch theirs at least once.  Some need repair work before the next flight.  We all had a blast!

 Ethan is setting up his Firebolt.  It was a super cool one.  Unfortunately, half of it got stuck in a tall tree.  Well, that's how it goes.

 We all counted down before the launch.  Owen is launching his rocket.  It was a little windy, so we had to search for the rockets after they flew.  The kids were great about helping each other.

Everyone is watching the next launch.  It was a fun weekend, and I hope we made some memories to last a lifetime!

Owen's Swimming Lessons

Owen started swimming lessons this month, and he loves it.  Every Friday morning he is excited to learn that he has swimming lessons that day.  He has really improved already.  After the first class, he decided to try swimming under water (while holding his nose).  Before that he only put his face in the water on accident or for just a short little time.

 Here he is cheesing for me.  He was ready for me to take some pictures.

 His instructor is cute.  She likes to color her hair very bright colors.  Right now it is purple.

 Owen always raises his hand to go first.  It is so cute!

 Getting ready for a dive!

They always get to play a little at the end of the lesson.  This time they got to go down the slide all by themselves.  Owen thought this was so cool because usually he has to ride down with me.  Then after the lesson I hop in the pool and we swim for another 45 minutes or so.  We have always swam on Fridays and usually played with toys.  Now, all he wants to do is practice swimming.

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Korte

We left Brooklyn and headed Southeast to Keokuk.  We feel so blessed to have our families to spend Christmas with.

 Here we go!  They got some really cool fact type books.  They love that stuff.

 Even Libbi got some presents!  We have to keep her hooked up with Cyclone gear!

 The Under Armour sweatshirts were a big hit.  I got my Skinnytaste cookbook, which I have used a TON already.  We love those recipes.

Ethan is already wearing his new presents!

 There were many Legos to be constructed, and that is what Owen wanted too do first.  Mom has a funny story about Owen and Legos.  We all went shopping together one day in Iowa City.  Mom and Dad were looking at Legos in Target with Owen.  Mom showed him a set that was designed for his age, 4.  He looked up at her with a little exasperated look and said, "Really?"  Then he picked up a set designed for a 9-12 year old and told her that was the type of Lego he liked.  Mom settled on one for 5-7 year olds and everyone was happy.

 We all like to use Mom and Dad's assorted collection of mugs in the morning.  The adults drink coffee while the kids fill theirs with sugary cereal that I do not normally buy at home.  Mom got the Angel Grandma mug for a present.

 Kyle is helping Ethan build his lego set.  The boys love playing with him.

The ladies are in the kitchen making breakfast!  I think we had biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and bacon.

 Let the games begin!  Kyle got a game called Las Vegas.  It was really fun, a nice combo of luck and strategy.  We played that a ton.

 Ethan got the game Bounce Off, which was really fun, too.  Owen liked that game a lot.

 Everyone (except Mom) got a new sweatshirt.  We had to get a picture of us all together.

And a crazy one!  The men need to work on their crazy.

Mom was not too broken up about not getting a sweatshirt.  She liked her presents!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Wilcox

We always have a fun time celebrating Christmas with our families.  Karen always has her house decorated so beautifully for Christmas, and we have a cozy, fun, family time.  Grandma Karen also makes sure everyone feels very loved with lots of thoughtful presents.

 Ethan is always ready for a present!

 We tried to hand out/open the presents one at a time.  It worked for the most part.  We went in order of birthdays.

 Cute picture of Craig and Luke.  There must be something good in that envelope.

 We played many games together, Family Challenge and Spoons.  Here we are playing Uno, which is always a favorite.

Owen and Luke are playing with their new Automoblox.  They are SO CUTE together.  I just love 'em!