First Day of Kindergarten

Elyse's first day of kingergarten was bittersweet. She was so excited to go to school and ride the bus. We walked to the bus stop and I told her to go stand by the other kids and she made a spot for herself right inbetween 2 older girls. The other moms at the bus stop laughed and thought it was so cute. It's too bad that Elyse is so shy =)

She said she had a good first day at school, sat on the bus with Morgan on the way to school and sat with a new friend Rachel (who is in her class and she shares a locker with her) on the way home from school. She talked about a book they read at school and she had to tell me that she didn't get a chance to play in the kitchen at school (she was so excited about the toy kitchen in her classroom when we went to the open house!).

Still so hard to believe that she is in kindergarten!

A few pics from the first day:

Walking to the bus stop.


So excited for school and to ride the bus!!

Getting off the bus after her first day.

Lakewood Open House

Wednesday night we were all able to go to Elyse's school for the school open house. We met Elyse's teacher (who we know from when we went to Fellowship Church) and Elyse got to spend time looking around the classroom. Her favorite part of the classroom is the "playhouse" that Mrs. Kleinheksel has set up - it has a play kitchen and stuff inside - Elyse didn't want to stop playing. I hope she realizes that she doesn't get to just play all day! Here are a couple of pics of Elyse playing in the playhouse.




We found her "cubby" in her classroom and also her locker. She is actually sharing a locker with a girl who went to Tot Time with Elyse last year. Here she is by her locker.

We found out that there is another boy in her class from Tot Time and 2 of our friends have a son in Elyse's class too. So - there will be several familiar faces for Elyse - although I don't think she will have any problem making new friends! Already at the open house she went right up to a girl in the playhouse and said - "do you want to play with me"?

We have heard nothing but wonderful things about Mrs. Kleinheksel and are sure that Elyse is going to have a great year! Here is a picture of the 2 of them at the open house.

Kalahari Resort

We took a somewhat unexpected road trip last weekend. We had ordered a trailer for the boat from a place in Toledo, OH and Jeff was planning on driving there and back on Friday to pick it up. We decided to go as a family and after checking the weather forecast for our area - decided to stay overnight somewhere near Toledo. We thought about going to Cedar Point - but the weather looked a little iffy for that - so we thought an indoor waterpark would be fun. So - at 10pm Thursday night we booked a room at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH for Friday night. The kids were already asleep and so we packed our bags while they were sleeping and decided that it was going to be a surprise. Elyse was so excited when we pulled up to the resort and told her that we were staying there for the night. Here is a pic of the outside of the resort.

Andrew and Elyse waiting to cross over the bridge to the resort.

The resort had a small petting zoo area. Here we are face to face with 2 giraffes - so cool!! Although Andrew was a little scared of the giraffes.


Feeding some goats.

On Saturday we spent a short amount of time at the outdoor pool area (it was still a little chilly out!). Here we are standing next a waterfall in the kids area.

Elyse's favorite spot in the indoor kid area - next to the "kitty's".

The water park inside the resort was huge - with so much to do - we could have easily spent another night. We spent several hours in the waterpark on Friday night and then again on Saturday afternoon. There was also a huge indoor play area too. Andrew played in there for a while on Saturday. Jeff and I took turns watching the kids so we could each go on a few of the bigger water slides - although we both said it would be fun to go back when the kids are older and braver and want to go on the bigger water slides with us! It was a very spontaneous but fun getaway!