First Day of School 2018

Today marked the first day of Kindergarten & Second Grade in our house! The girls were super excited, I was a bit teary, Brady was confused, and Derek kept us all in line!

We all walked Hadley to her class, and I helped her get unpacked. Once she got to her table, she never looked back at us. She was READY!

The house was super quiet when we got back from dropping the girls off at school. Thankfully Derek was home for a little bit, and then I talked with my mom for a while to keep me distracted. I was much more emotional this year than I have been the past two years with the start of school. I think there's something to be said for the girls' school being right across the street from us in Las Vegas. Granted the school here is only 2 miles from our house, but it just feels so different! The school day is also about an hour longer here than it is in Las Vegas, then when we add the travel time to that..it just seems like a much longer day! But I know we'll all adjust quickly. It's probably harder on me than it is them!

Here was my sweet lunch date today. The first time I've eaten lunch without a red headed girl eating a peanut butter sandwich in as long as I can remember. Bittersweet for sure.

And the picture below is how Brady and I felt when pick-up time FINALLY rolled around!!! We were so excited to get our "Sheby and Hadey" back!!

And this next picture very accurately depicts how we felt about the pick-up situation. Pick-up on the first day is always a fiasco, isn't it?! I feel like schools need a suggestion box for drop-off/pick-up procedures b/c I always have something to say on this matter! I'm sure it will get better with each passing day, but I'm also sure my suggestions would improve things! ;)

We swung through the Starbucks drive-thru on our way home to get cake pops to celebrate a great first day! I'm not sure if Brady was more excited about having his big sisters home or getting his first ever cake pop!

The girls both loved their teachers & their class, and they are ready & excited for Day #2 tomorrow!!

Last Days of Summer

Between the move & school here in San Antonio starting a full two weeks later than Las Vegas's start date, it's been a long summer for us. I actually feel like the first 2/3 of the summer flew by, but this last third has kind of dragged on with the anticipation of school looming before us. I have been eager for the girls to go back to school so they could get settled into their new routine & make friends, but I've been dreading them going back and being gone all day. {The school day is longer here than in Las Vegas, which made me nervous!} I think there is so much excitement that goes along with a PCS, so were all kind of running on adrenaline those first few weeks. We were going on fun excursions, being touristy in our new city, and getting our house set up. But then once the moving boxes were gone, Derek was back to work, and Grammy went back home, things started to feel more real. But despite my conflicted feelings about summer coming to an end, the kids & I still had a fun few last couple of weeks together!

{Shelby wanted to write a letter to her old teachers' new class of first graders}

Last week we had all of our appointments that needed to happen before school started--checkups at the dentist, hair trims, and a 2 year old well visit for Brady. The best part of doctor appointments is getting to see Dada! This was our first visit to his new office, so it was especially fun! Poor Brady had to endure a blood draw while we were there, so Derek took them down to the Shopette to get candy afterward. It was a fun morning!

We stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch on our way home from the doctor appointment, and it was a momentous occasion! The first time Brady figured out how to climb all the way up the play structure & come down the slide! Once he mastered it, he of course had to do it over & over & over again!

Shelby checked out several books on coding from the library recently & was hard at work one day creating her own website! She tasked Hadley with drawing some of the illustrations for her website.

While I won't miss the mess, this is the stuff I'll miss most about summer. In the picture below, the girls had created an elaborate set-up of a home {those empty baskets near their feet were the bathtubs} for their "babies" {aka the stuffed dolls in their laps}, and they were reading them stories before their naps.

The girls' backpacks were still in great shape, but I let them each pick out a new lunchbox. They were so excited when they arrived in the mail! They both picked patterns/colors perfectly suited for them. Hadley has of course always loved blue, but lately she has been more drawn to dark blue. And this dark blue lunch box also has glittery golden hearts, so it was a double-win in her book! And Shelby's current favorite color is sea green, and she loved the space theme of her lunch box.

Last night we went to an event to meet the teachers at the girls' new school, and it is affectionately referred to as "Helotes Howdy Night." We're clearly back in Texas! ;)  I was a ball of nerves leading up to the event, but everything went so smoothly & the girls adored their new teachers! I think it's going to be a great year for them!

Kindergarten & 2nd grade, here we come!!

Meeting Our Neighbors

We spent a Saturday afternoon a couple weeks ago baking chocolate chip cookies & the girls created little tags for our neighbors, and then we went around our neighborhood on Sunday after dinner to hand-deliver them & introduce ourselves to our new neighbors.

Both of our next door neighbors on either side of our house had already come over & introduced themselves right after we moved in, but we hadn't really met anyone else in our neighborhood. The bad part about PCSing in the summer in hot climates is that no one is ever outside, so you have to be really intentional if you want to meet people! One of the sweet people we delivered cookies to on our sweet commented that she felt terrible that we were delivering her cookies when it should have been the other way around. I think we've moved enough times now that we know we have to put ourselves out there if we want to have a sense of community. Even though we were all dripping sweat by the time we got home and there were some awkward moments here & there, I'm so glad we did this together as a family.

Getting Settled

It's crazy to think we've already been here for six weeks! We're all feeling pretty settled and finding our groove here, and we're so very thankful for that! This post will be basically a hodge podge of pictures from when our HHG arrived to now! So here we go! :)

First up is when the girls found their dress-up! Shelby's old bedroom in Las Vegas was actually our bonus room & didn't have a closet, so we bought her a wardrobe closet from Ikea for her room. Since she's back in a regular bedroom with a closet now, we are repurposing her wardrobe closet from Ikea in our playroom for the girls' dressup. They have been into the dress-up so much more lately b/c of how easy it is to access.

This is a terrible picture, but I had to include it b/c I felt so accomplished! The day the moving truck arrived we stayed up late getting all of the kitchen cabinets perfectly organized, and then the next night we stayed up and got our pantry organized. Each time we were able to re-claim a space, it felt like such a huge victory.

The girls are helping Brady open birthday mail from BooBoo in the picture below. And in the background of that picture, you'll see a box overflowing with junk. Despite the fact that we purged and donated SO much before the move, we still keep making more & more piles of stuff to get rid of. I think we've already taken two hauls to the thrift shop on base, and I've got another load in the back of my car now.

 {We took advantage of Derek's last days before heading back to work & took our first trip to the Doseum since returning to SA}

The last day of our drive to SA & the first few days in our house were incredibly rainy. And by incredibly rainy, I just mean that it rained at least once every day. ;)  To five people who have been living in Las Vegas for the past two years, rain is a big deal. One day as we were driving in the rain, Shelby said: "I just don't understand how plants can survive here with all this rain." The girls kept saying: "Do we live in a rain forest?!" ;)  The highlight of all the rain was finding puddles in our neighborhood to play in!

For kids who have had a pool in their backyard for the past two years, they were THRILLED when we broke out the baby pool one evening! They had the best time!

These next pictures were one of Derek's first days back to work, and I took the kids to the Doseum by myself.

{First family trip to HEB--Hadley was just so delighted with the big double cart, so she could sit with Brady} 

I took all 3 kiddos to Sea World for the first time, and they had so much fun! The highlight was the Pet Show, which we didn't get any pictures of, but the aquarium & rides were enjoyed as well!

I also survived my first trip taking the kids to Aquatica {Sea World's water park} by myself, but I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to do that again any time soon, ha! Three kids at the water park who all have very different levels of bravery when it comes to the attractions isn't the most ideal, but we still had fun! The only picture I managed to get was this one, but it was definitely worth capturing! One of the few activities that kept all 3 happy at the same time--the sand by the wave pool! ;)

And last but not least, here are couple pictures of the kids playing in the empty house in the days before the moving truck arrived. I forgot to include these pictures in my previous posts, and I didn't want to leave them out b/c these are some of my favorite memories at each house. Moving is never fun, but I always love the memories made when we first arrive to a new house. I still remember the last time we moved to San Antonio, the girls' favorite thing to do was climb into the empty kitchen cabinets. This time around, their favorite thing was all of the "secret passage" doors. There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, and there are two rooms on one side of the stairs and two rooms on the other side. Each bedroom has its own sink/vanity area, but the toilet/bathtub is shared with its neighboring room in a Jack & Jill type bathroom. So the kids loved the fact there were different entrances/exits {"secret passages"} to each bedroom. 

{Also, please note our pile of dirty clothes in the corner of this picture. There are always lots of random piles during a PCS!}

We've got another week and a half of summer left, then Kindergarten & 2nd Grade will be underway! I'm thankful we had a few extra weeks of summer to get our feet under us before life started in full swing with school, but I think we're all eager for school to start so we can figure out our new normal here. And I have always always always loved the start of a new school year, gimme all the agendas & school supplies! ;)  There's nothing like a fresh, new school year!