colleen writes: The Lull of August

No teacher likes August 1st. Especially one that has been on a LOA for two years! I never really got myself totally out of the working mom mentality because I knew that my LOA had an end date. That actually helped. I tried to stay as current as possible in the teaching world, renewed my teaching certification, and pinned awesome middle school ELA lessons up the wazoo! As I mentioned in July's post, I found out I was expecting baby #3 at the end of March, so I also had to wrap my mind around the fact that I wouldn't even be back at work for a full year! Sheesh! So with all that being said, I enjoyed the final days of summer vacation as both Gabrielle and I prepped for our new fall schedule. I was pretty much off the radar to many friends and family members who may or may not have wondered if something was up!

We finished up a week of VBS at St. Mary Magdalen, continued Gabrielle's gymnastics, had a couple of play dates, finished up our play group schedule, and I even had my first OB appointment. I went to work in my new classroom for 2 days, and also had 2 official 'back to work' days as well. We still spent every weekend at our little refuge at Houghton Lake, and enjoyed all the family time we had together. The month finished up with Kindergarten Open House, which was fun, and made things very real for Gabrielle, that she was really, in fact, going to kindergarten!! We got to meet her teacher, Mrs. Beech-Nugent, and explore the classroom a bit. I think Gabrielle was excited to start kindergarten just because people had been asking if she was ready for so long! She really wanted to see what it was all about.

Little Carter Boy continued to be his little charming self and was happily oblivious to the fact that is two favorite playmates would be gone during the day next month. Good thing Grandma is a good playmate!! Carter is so funny-he is picking up on a lot of Gabrielle's mannerisms. For instance, if he finds something great or something that Gabrielle was looking for, he'll say, "I found it! Haha!" Or if there is something he doesn't like or want he'll say, "I don't think so!" He's a very chatty little guy.

How cute are they?

Fun times at Fun Land at Houghton Lake. Most of the place is outside except for all the awesome things to ride on indoors. It has a roller coaster, flying airplanes, tanks that go around in a circle, flying canoes... It's a real trip there! All rides are circa 1965 except for the ones below! Ha!