Back to work tomorrow!

WOW...I can't believe 13 weeks has gone by already-yes this was our longest summer off in years. It has been a wonderful time home and Mikayla and I have had lots of fun spending time together...as much as I love being home all summer-it makes that transition of going back to work very difficult. We have been easing into it for the past few weeks. Mikayla is going to a wonderful childcare provider that I have known since before Mikayla was born. Linette is her name-I had both of her nephews in my preschool class, so she was very excited to have Mikayla as an addition to her home and Mikayla has loved going there the last few weeks. Along with the new childcare provider a few more new things in our lives are:

So as most of you know, Mikayla is going to school this year. She will be going 5 mornings a week to the ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) program in Wyoming (the district I teach and we live in.) She will recieve speech and physical therapy sessions and it will be so nice for her to be in the school setting. She loves learning and is totally ready to go. I am trying to be super excited for her but it is also hard to believe our baby is going to be in school 5 days a week. She is growing up so quickly! So I will be taking Mikayla to Linette's in the morning and then the bus will come and pick her up at Linette's, she will go to school and then get dropped off back at Linette's. So she will be starting school next Tuesday and she is very excited and looking forward to it!

I feel very blessed to have a job this year and excited that I am still teaching 1st grade. Changes for me this year are that I am at a new school with many new staff members. I am looking forward to meeting all of them and getting to know them. It is hard to be up at the school and not know anyone, but I have been slowly meeting them and everyone seems so welcoming so far. Along with the new school this fall I am also taking a graduate class. This is almost my last one-I have 1 more class after this one and then I will write my thesis and then have my Masters. I am looking forward to having this done...not only for the pay raise, but also to have it done and not have to go to classes in the evening. Thankfully my mom lives so close and is able to help with Mikayla on the nights that James has to work! THANKS MOM!

So tomorrow is the day...we are back at it-bright and early 7:30-nothing like getting us right back into it. So I am leaving you with a few new pics of our night at the Hudsonville fair and our zoo trip today! Enjoy! I hope you like the new background...thought it would get me back in the groove of school!

Hudsonville Fair-Mikayla wouldn't get her face painted, but loved getting her hand painted. She also had fun on the rides...the slide was her favorite!

At the top of the slide!At the bottom of the slide!

Driving her first truck!

Riding DUMBO!Trip to John Ball Zoo with friends-feeding the ducks!

Cowgirl Ellie and Mikayla!

Summer fun...the end is near!

Mikayla and I went on a fun weekend on the East side of the state. James had to work so we made it a girls weekend. This was kind of my last activity before getting back into the school mode. We started out our time at Ella's 3rd Birthday party. Mikayla had a blast on the car bouncer, eating cake and playing with all the kids her age. Mikayla even had her first sleep over with Ella...Mikayla was sleeping before there was any girls giggling all night long. On Sunday we went to my Aunt Tammy and Uncle John's house and had a blast swimming in the neighbors pool and then over to my cousin's house to play with their 3 girls in their pool. It was the 90 degree weekend and so the only thing enjoyable to do was play in the pool. It was a fun filled day. Then Monday it was off to the Toledo Zoo. We met our friend Jess, Ella and Brayden and then Sunshine and Jackson and my friend Andrea even drove down from Ann Arbor to join us for part of the day. The skies were looking a little dark in the morning so we weren't sure if we would be able to make it through the day without rain...but in the end we did. The kids had a blast even though it was SUPER HOT. The Toledo Zoo was a very nice zoo with some animals that we hadn't seen at our other zoo tours of the summer-the Elephants and Gorillas were our favorites. I think Mikayla liked our train ride the most! We were exhausted on our ride home, but we had a wonderful time. We were very excited to be going home to see James though-we missed him while we were away. James was working on our new addition to our garage a nice storge shed-he got most of the siding on while we were gone. So it was nice to see his accomplishments when we got home too. It was a nice to spend time with family and friends before I have to get back into the swing of school. Next Tuesday is my 1st official day back...but this week I have been at a conference at school to get 2 graduate credits-so I am pretty much back to work. We found a new childcare provider this year. She lives in our school disrict so Mikayla will ride the bus from her house to school everyday! Mikayla love it there and she is really excited to start school. I can't believe that she starts in a week and a half and my baby is going to school! But she is looking forward to it and I know it is what is best for her, she will learn so much and make many new friends. We also have been having fun getting ready for school and shopping for new "school" clothes! Sorry for the long update...but I hadn't updated in awhile so I wanted to get everyone caught up on our lives! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Ella's birthday party....

The Toledo Zoo-

I tried a new program to have more pics altogether-not sure I like it, but you can see that we had a fun time at the zoo!

End of summer fun...picking tomatoes out of the garden-trying out bikes at Toy's R' Us we are getting Christmas ideas already and then acting funny while waiting at Olive Garden for dinner!

Day at the beach...

We had a wonderful time at Holland State Park beach today. It was really windy and we did spend lots of time in the water, but the waves were large and it took both of us to hold onto Mikayla as she jumped in the waves and played-we didn't want her to get swept out. So we didn't get any pictures of our time in the water. Mikayla had a great time flying a kite-she has been talking about flying a kite since the last trip we had at the beach and there was several people flying kites. So James brought our kite to fly today-she loved it. The whole view they are small in the bottom right corner and then the kite is the left above the roof.

Eating a snack and lunch while laying on the blanket with daddy!

Getting buried in the sand. This is the first time she has done this-she loved it. She would get out of it and then say, bury me again.

This time daddy made Mikayla into "Ariel" the Little Mermaid. One of her favorite princess!
Buring daddy-Kayla thought it was fun to try and chop daddy's toes off with the shovel-she thought she was tickling them-not so much!

Playing with dolls!

Mikayla has recently began to do a lot of imaginary play. She loves to dress up and she loves to take care of her babies. This is a few shots I got last night when she made a bed for her and her baby to sleep in! She was also singing her baby a lullabye while they were laying in bed...so cute!

Jumping in puddles!

Mikayla and I ran errands on Saturday during the down pours. We dodged lots of rain, but in the end when we got home, Kayla found a puddle in the drive way. She enjoyed jumping in the puddle and then she let her new mini beanie baby tiger jump in the puddle too! It was nice of her to allow her tiger to join in the fun too! The muddy tiger!

Splashpad and Lake Michigan Wednesday FUN!!

We had a wonderful and busy day! Mikayla has had a cold for a few days and is finally get back to her normal self.....since it was James' last day off before he headed back to work-we decided to have a fun day that started out at the splashpad at Lamar Park...here is a few cute shots of Mikayla-she loves going there!

After the splash pad we went back home and Mikayla took a 3 hour nap!!! I think we wore her out! After her nap we headed out to Holland State Park beach for pizza dinner and fun at the beach with my mom and Brian. Mikayla had fun playing in the sand and water!

Playing jump the waves with Grandpa!Being so brave with Daddy...out in the "so deep" water.

Driving the car all over the beach...this kept her entertained for a while-she loved to see the tracks the car would make and then she thought it was so funny when the waves would wash the tracks away!I love this picture with her footprints in the sand!

Mom and I watching all the fun! It was a little too chilly for us to go swimming-well the water wasn't too bad, but the air was breezy!

At the end-Mikayla was freezing-but she wouldn't admit it. Her lips and teeth were chattering and her lips even looked a little blue---but she kept saying I want to play in the water-so we convinced her to warm up in a towel and play in the sand for a little bit. It only lasted a couple minutes and she was back in.
It was a great evening and are planning on doing this again a few more times this summer!

A fun night at the ballpark!

James was able to get some free tickets to a Whitecaps game! We had a wonderful time. The tickets were in the Lack's suite-it was so nice. There was other children for Mikayla to play with and she could run around! The Whitecaps lost unfortunately but it was a fun family night out!

There was complimentary food and drinks...Mikayla enjoyed sharing her first Elephant Ear with Daddy!

Fun with Mommy and Daddy!

At the end of the night Mikayla got to pick out something in the gift shop and she chose a Monkey that has velcro on its hands and feet-she had it hanging around her neck the rest of the night!