Last weekend was our 6th anniversary. We got a sitter and squealed the tires as we pealed out of the driveway! I wanted to take some pictures for our anniversary since we somehow did not take any on vacation. And I can fit in my wedding dress (the short one) again, so I wanted to wear it ;) It is so nice and peaceful taking pictures without children. After pictures, we went to dinner at my most favorite new place, Social. It is a gastropub across from Levis and has the best food around! It has been open for less than a month, I have been there 3 times, and each time the food has been fantastic!
Friday evening we headed downtown for the last First Friday hosted by the Downtown Perrysburg Inc. group. We tried to go in August but it got rained out. This time, it was a beautiful night. The fire department had two big fire trucks parked for hands on experience. Nick loved the fire trucks! Ben was on the tired side after a long week of school so he stayed in the stroller. Nick was up and down and in every open door he could find on the fire trucks. He needed to buckle himself into the front seat and drive the fire truck.
Tuesday, September 3rd was Ben's first day of preschool! He was not aware of where he was going when I took these pictures. And there were gummy bear treat bribes involved. Tuesday and Wednesday were rough drop off days. Tuesday, Ben didn't figure out what was going on until we pulled into the park lot of school. He just kept saying, 'No, mommy, you are just dropping off paperwork!' (which we had done the previous Friday). Ben was very sad when I left in the mornings. But Wednesday afternoon I had to wait for him to finish playing at the workbench before we could leave. Thursday morning, Ben was tear free! Nick however, threw a fit when we left school because he wanted to stay and play trains with Ben...Just can't win sometimes. Friday was 100% tear free and daddy got to pick Ben up at school and everyone was happy!
Tuesday, after such a good school day and because Adam was out of town, I took the boys to McDonald's for dinner. I was trying to make the whole school transition thing as big of a deal as possible in order to get positive buy-in from Ben. After dinner we went to Target to get a school pillow for nap time. Ben picked out a panda pillow pet and is very excited about it.
Last Saturday we helped Little Ben celebrate this 3rd birthday. The kids played and played and played! They had fun swinging at the pinata and later swimming in the pool and hot tub. The dads all got in the pool and played volleyball while the kids hung out in the hot tub. It was a great cul de sac party, as always!
After I spent an hour putting them all together, the boys had fun playing with the Cars lego set Ben got for his last birthday. The played very well together and probably played at the table for over an hour with the cars and tower.
Last Friday Alex and Luke came down for a visit. The boys had a great time playing, riding bikes and eating lots of food. After lunch, Nick went down for a nap and the bigger boys went outside to play in the sandbox. The sandbox quickly became a bog, flooded with water. It was an impressive mud pit. And, as you would expect, it resulted in three DIRTY boys.
Last Thursday was Ben's last official day at Sharon's. He had been there for four years, since he was 12 weeks old. Sharon was very sad. Ben didn't know what was going on because we stopped talking about school after his 4 year life crisis two weeks ago (more on that later). But, not to worry, Ben and Sharon still get to see each other every day when we pick Nick up.
The soccer place has a bounce house area that was free after doing the trial class. I believe Nick liked the bounce house WAY better than the soccer class. I couldn't get him out of the obstacle course inflatable. He had a bit of fit when it was time to go.
Last Saturday, we tried an experiment. The indoor soccer center in Perrysburg was having a free trial day for their Little Kicker's classes. We figured we would try it with Ben, but weren't sure how it would go. Adam was in charge of Ben and I got the maniac. Adam went out on the field for about 5-10 minutes with Ben then said he had to go on the other side of the glass in order to take pictures. And Ben bought it! Adam was able to leave Ben on the field by himself and he finished out the rest of the hour and had a great time! Ben wants to sign up for the classes, so we'll see how it goes!
Nick went to a class, too. But he just couldn't understand why they had to do anything other than kick the ball. When it was time to run the field and play stop and go, he looked at me and asked, 'Why?' When it was circle time and we rolled the ball, he looked at me and asked, 'Why?' then pointed to the balls in the goal and said, "Ball. Kick ball.' The only non-kicking ball part he liked was the parachute. That he liked. Not too many of the other kids liked it, but Nick was all about it. But then it was time to kick the ball again, and that's all that mattered.
Adam trying to distance himself in Ben's class
A daddy-free field and having a great time! Shocking!
A few weeks ago, we headed to the zoo for one last time to see the wallabies. They are heading back to their farm soon. I think they are going to keep the two babies, Willa and RJ, but all the others will be leaving. The zoo will be keeping the crocodile, big Australian birds, and dingos.
