First day jitters

Monday we sent our big boy three year old to preschool. I say he is a big boy because we have been working on a particular part of potty training for more time than I care to write. Well, we got it and now that he is a "big boy" he can go to school! This is the same school we sent Aidan to last year and we LOVE it. For scheduling with my new job, this school is going to work out wonderfully. We are excited for Zachary to get to learn and grow at his new school with his teacher, Ms. Erin.

Isn't he precious?!

For scheduling reasons, we requested a transfer to a different Elementary school than where Aidan was supposed to go. We waiting rather impatiently until August to find out he is going to Smith Elementary. We are all so excited. Aidan has several friends there and feels right at home. We met his teacher earlier this week and we love her. Aidan thought she was so funny!

Ready for action! Aidan later told me that he had an "awesome wicked day" at school today. He was all smiles when I picked him up! Success!

Run for the Grapes

The Marathon Mamas ran in the Run for the Grapes 5K last Saturday. It was hilly, but fun!

Jake and the boys came out to support the Mamas!

A little cool down job with the boy. He wanted to participate too!

Picking up the awards for the Marathon Mamas. We actually placed 1, 2, and 3 in our age group! The other girls did not think we won anything and went home so I took their awards home for them.

Silly boy!

God made us family

Starting this school year is like nothing our family has ever done. For years, I have wondered, with my current job at the hospital, how I was going to juggle schedules when Aidan started school. This July I still had no idea what I was going to do, and my friend and previous co-worker called me with a job possibility. She called me knowing that I was a mom of small boys and thought the job would be perfect for the flexiblity of juggling parenthood. She knew that, last she heard (one year ago), I did not know what I was going to do when school started. After lots of discussions and prayers, I took the job as the Director of Nursing at the Elizabeth Richardson Center. This is a residential facility that teaches life skills to developmentally disabled adults. I had to put in a four week resignation notice at the hospital putting my last day of work, tomorrow Aug. 16th. School starts August 17 and I will be able to bring Aidan to school and pick him up! Zachary started preschool today and did fabulous. With all of these changes this week in our family and with Aidan being anxious and hesitant about his new school, we made our "God made us family" bracelets. We all have matching bracelets that we will wear as we each go to our different places each day. We hope these bracelets will connect us together no matter how many miles and hours seperate us during each day. I cannot explain to you how many prayer requests and little details that God has smoothed out and literally handed to us. Such blessings.

Summer hiking adventure

Last week we took the kids hiking at Tanyard Creek in Bella Vista. It is a great hiking spot for kids with a waterfall, easy hiking, and signs up everywhere to tell you what kind of tree or other interesting thing you are looking at. In case you have been in a hole (which would not be so bad), it has been a record breaking summer, in terms of heat. We had to go at 8 in the morning so we were done before we melted. This is actually not hard for our family because the boys get up before seven EVERYDAY!

We splashed around at a creek. The boys looked for crawdads and threw rocks.

We finally found the waterfall. With all of the heat and no rain I was pleasantly surprised that it still had a lot of water running!

The last part was a big downhill that even the most tired boy ran down. It was very sunny on this part so it was perfect to be done and headed to McDonalds for a fruit smoothie!

Swimming lessons

The boys had swimming lessons for one hour each day for two weeks. It was nice for them to have swim lessons during the heat wave of the century! They did pretty good. This was Zachary's first time and he did OK. There were some days of not participating, not sure how much he learned, but other days of doing well. It is part of being three, I suppose. Aidan was moved up on the first day from Level one to Level two. It seemed like he should have been in between the two levels somewhere! He has more work to do, but came a long way this summer!

On the last day they open up the whole pool for play time. It is the only time kids that cannot really safely swim get to do the big slides and the diving boards because the lifeguards catch them. The kids were really looking forward to it this year. Zachary started with the safe dolphin slide.

Aidan on his way up!

Zachary with his super patient teacher, Crystal.

Crystal, Zachary's teacher, taking Zachary and another three year old down the big slide. It took some convincing, but they both did it!

If you remember from last year, Aidan was determined for months to go off of the high diving board on the last day of swimming lessons. So, when this year rolled around, I asked him if he was going to go off of the diving board (thinking the smaller one) and of course, he replied that he did the high diving board last year so he had to do it again this year. That kid just climbed right up and jumped off like it is no big deal!

Aidan and his teacher, Corrie.

The much anticipated popsicle on the last day of swim lessons.

Goggly goggles!

With the crazy heat wave we have been having, the only thing to do outside is to set up the kiddy pool and get in with the boys. On this day, I got out their goggles and they looked for treasures (or pieces of grass and bugs) on the bottom of the pool. They have no idea how funny they looked! They do not care that their eyes are squished and slanted!

July 4th fireworks!

The Harbor Church of NWA had a July 4th party at the Riner's house. It started with kiddy pool and lots and lots of good food. We had such a good time.

The fireworks had everyone's attention. Zachary did not like the fireworks show the night before so I was worried about this night. He did great and really liked them on this night!

This is my favorite picture from the night. The boys had such excitement and joy! It was the cutest thing to listen to!

Crooked Lake, last day

This paddle boat ride ended up being a little tricky...we decided the boat was not intended for four people, no matter how small some are.

The cousins playing a game of football in the lake, of course.

The boys with the neighbor, Samuel, they played with all week.

I love this picture, too!

We had an amazing family vacation! Thank you, Van Lears for the opportunity!

Day 5 of Crooked Lake pictures!

This seems like one of the only times the boys had dry clothes on!

A little morning fishing

More tubing action. This time they wanted Mom to come with them.

I love this picture of Aidan watching Aunt Cheryl Sue as they jumped in together!

Zachary's run and jump. He yells "1-2-3 jump" every time!