Can it be???

Can it really be that my little Nathan is already going to preschool??? It seems he was born just yesterday! Time has certainly flown by. . .and every single day with this amazing little boy has been a blessing - granted a loud blessing at times - but a gift from God into our precious family all the same!
So Nathan is beginning in a 2 year old class that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 1/2 day. He will eat lunch there too! His teacher, Mrs. Daphne, sent him a postcard last week just saying that she was excited he was coming to be in her class. . .Nathan was so happy, he made us read it a million times and even insisted on sleeping with the postcard that night!!

So we had Open House on Thursday this week so Nate could see his room and meet his teacher! How exciting!

Nathan (with a little guidance) went to his cubbie and got his folder, then headed back to his seat to do some work. Daddy and Katie watch.

Nathan decorates his school folder with farm animal stickers while daddy watches. This is Nathan's seat in his classroom labeled with his name and picture - so cute! In fact, there were pictures of Nathan all over the room. . .on his cubbie, on the bulletin board, even in frames on the window sill! His teacher is so very thoughtful to incorporate little things that make the kids feel comfortable right away in their new surroundings.

Nate built a tower of blocks while Katie ran by the "cubbies" where Nathan's bookback will stay.

This is Nathan showing his teacher his tower of blocks. Standing with them is one of the other students in Nate's class, Cooper, holding on to his mommy.
Oh my goodness! Preschool already for my "baby"??!!!
. . . . . . . .Sigh. . . . . . . .

Katie girl has been BUSY!!!

Who knew that ending 1st grade was so crazy busy??!!!
Let me just give you a sense of what we've been doing in just the past 2 weeks!!
First on our list is our big end-of-the-year campout with the Brownie Troop!

There were 6 girls (and 1 brother) + the 2 troop leaders (me being one) all in one big tent!! One of the best parts of the campout is that it was right in our leader's back yard - perfect!

The next event was FIELD DAY!!!


Oh my goodness - it was LOUD!! Katie absolutely loved it and did such a great job in her events!




Katie was so excited about the running relay - so precious!! Isn't she just awesome??!
Everyone got gold medals - so exciting!!


And finally we had First Grade Awards Day.


I was just so nervous for her!! I wanted her to get enough awards so she would just be so proud of herself and all of her hard work this year. The teacher would call out what the award was - and then call the students' names who received that award so that they could step out in front of the class and be recognized.

As they began, Katie was called for almost every award!! Then they kept going - and she kept being called to step up to be recognized!! I was just so proud of her - and just constantly amazed at what this little girl can accomplish - just never sensing her limitations at all!!


Finally the teachers announced the PE award given to only one boy and one girl in the class. . .and Katie was the winner!! Of the PE award!!! Ya know the coaches are constantly telling me how hard Katie works in PE. . .even though they tell her that she can slow down if she gets tired, she runs and runs her little heart out!


Oh my goodness, I am just so exhausted with the close of first grade!! But it was so wonderful!

We are off on our trip to Dollywood for Memorial Day Weekend!! Our little ones quickly fell into there little routines of traveling -- Nathan playing with his cars (of course!) and Katie reading her "chapter books" (wow!)!!

We made it to our hotel and the huge hit was the bed - in the sofa!! I had not thought about it, but Nathan was just so intrigued by his bed that came out of a sofa!! (so precious!!)

We decided to visit the HUGE Bass Pro Shop just across the street from our hotel -- just for something to do. Now this was not just a store - it was crazy!! It was 2 stories made to look like the outdoors inside, complete with all these stuffed bears, deer, fish, turkeys, etc. all over the place (Katie not to fond of that!) and a stream right through the middle of the store!!

Sweet little girl with a sweet little deer. . .time to head back to the hotel and get ready for a big day at Dollywood!

Wake up kids!!

Here we are at Dollywood!! We are some of the first ones in the park at 9am!!

We headed immediately for the "Children's Corner"of the park, and these kids had so much fun - (these kiddie rides definitely "warmed them up" for the other rides later in the day)
The very first ride was my brave little Nathan and me on this "bouncing" ride - he laughed and laughed!





UGH! Those teacups!! The kids laughed so hard - they loved it!


(below is the last I saw of the teacups before I closed my eyes for the rest of the ride!)


Okay, so this is a "not so kiddie ride" amidst the others that we watched Daddy ride!

The choo-choo train was a hit with Nate, of course!

Dollywood is full of absolutely wonderful shows. . .we saw many of them but were not allowed to take pictures in them, so the only "show" where I could snap a picture was the "50's" diner kinda "singin' the oldies" show.

And just the whole park is full of this wonderful ambiance with great attention to detail. The park is shady with trees all around and just about everyone who works there is retired and just kind and caring and ready to help!

One of the favorite "kid" areas of the park was the water playground!! With water guns and little geysers of water popping up out of the ground, this area was just the thing for my two little guys! Look at Katie beside all of the "big boys" with her water gun - and certainly holding her own, I have to say!

Katie Greer had the most fun, dripping from head to toe!!

One of our favorite rides was driving the cars!! The kids loved it. . .I had to drag Nathan out of his car crying because he wanted to "do it again!"

One huge area of Dollywood is a refuge for Eagles who have been injured and can no longer be released into the wild. They have a "Birds of Prey" show where they teach about Eagles and other birds. It was awesome to be able to see these magnificent birds up close!

There were neat little places all over the park to cool off and play in the water for the kids (and me too!) Katie is dunking her head under the water stream in the picture below - and loved it!

My little chickadees!!
(Just those middle ones!)


This was our last ride of the day at 7pm!! It was the River Rampage which got us very WET!!

On our way back home we made a plan to stop at this beautiful place that we had passed on our way. It is actually the place where the Olympic Kayak races were held in 1996. There is a huge, amazing bridge over this gorgeous river with unbelievable rapids -- and there were hundreds of rafters and kayakers in the beautiful sunshine braving those rapids with all kinds of spectators watching the show. . .
As we drove up to the bridge, it was a very different scene to say the least!

Apparently they release water through a series of dams at different times and days - and we were on an "off" day, I guess!! We still had a good time. There were lots of people around climbing and biking, wading and sunning themselves.










Nathan and his many faces of silliness!




Danny explored and climbed while we cooled our toes in the water. Look at the beautiful shades of green in the trees!


Sweet little girl :)