Kindergarten

Eli started his first day of Kindergarten yesterday!  He is going to an amazing Leadership Magnet school in our neighborhood.  He was so excited that it really got me excited as well.  I spent several weeks really mourning my time with him, so by the time school actually started I wasn't a mess.  Brandon took off work so he could go with me to drop him off and pick him up.  We couldn't believe how confident he was and during the morning assembly he even asked, "Aren't you guys supposed to leave?"  ha ha.  He has a friend that he already knows in his class and everyone is raving about how amazing his teacher Mrs. A is.  Seeing his smiling face after school was priceless.  He absolutely LOVED it and can't wait to go back.  His favorite parts were eating lunch with his friends, his teacher, getting to choose an animal name (Eli Elephant), and having the librarian read them a book in the library.  I am so happy he had such an amazing day and loves it!  I am one proud Mama!  Here is a link to a song I wrote for him about starting school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLEGfmUrU_M

8th Anniversary trip to Tahoe

We had the most splendid vacation to Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago!  We went and stayed at our family cabin and had a lot of fun celebrating our 8th Anniversary at the same time.  The kids were in heaven.  They love flying and traveling and at one point the pilot even let Eli come in and sit in the cockpit.  Asher did great and napped almost all the flights and loved on his Nana who came with us (his absolute favorite person).  I spent time every summer in Tahoe and it is such a treat for me to get to see my own kids love it as much as I do.  We spent time on the beach swimming, kayaking, playing pirates in the caves, catching crawdads and minnows, playing in the sand, riding on floaties, etc.  At the cabin, we loved eating out on the porch every meal, playing Jumanji board game, doing playdoh, sleeping in the bunk beds, watching the blue jays and squirrels come and eat the treats we would leave them, drinking special sodas, riding the scooter and walking along the road, and more.  We hiked to Spencer's cabin near Spooner Lake and also hiked up to the top of Cave Rock.  Every morning we took the kids hiking or to different playgrounds.  We loved picking up Starbucks and enjoying the cool fresh mornings that have our favorite scent (pine mixed with sage brush).  My mom insisted on babysitting TWICE for us to go out for our anniversary.  It was such a treat.  One day we drove to Incline and had a beautiful lunch on the beach and the other night we had dinner on top of Harvey's at Stateline looking out on beautiful views of the lake.  On our anniversary day, we took the kids to play at the awesome play place at Harrahs and then went and got ice cream in "California" and watched the gondolas at Heavenly Valley.  We stayed at my Papa Buck's house the last night in Reno.  The kids loved seeing him and talked his ear off and he taught them all about the pinball machines (which they played and LOVED).  We both agreed nothing will top this anniversary!  It was really special and so much fun!  The kids are already begging to go back!