Preschool Days and September Fun

September has been jam-packed with fun times around Charlotte. Noah kicked off the month (after the camping disaster) with his first day of preschool. He walked right in, grabbed the school bus toy and started playing… didn’t even look back at me. His teachers tell us he loves school and does great there.

First day of pre-school. September 2, 2014.

Next up was our neighborhood’s annual Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church a couple of blocks from our house. Over the five-day festival, it seemed like all of Charotte descended on our neighborhood. There was lots of traffic, music and the smell of greek food in the neighborhood. We hit up the festival twice and Noah got his first taste of carnival rides and Greek donuts.

The fun continued with a visit from Uncle Danny and Aunt Rita. We had a blast showing them around Charlotte and Noah loved building train tracks and playing animal flash cards with them.

He loved this giant slide!

Noah acting very serious on the train with his friend Maeve. After a few times around the track, he started to realize it was fun. Then he didn’t want to get off!

 

 

Uncle Danny and Aunt Rita

Photobomb by Noah.

Family Camping

Dave and I had grand plans… our family of four enjoying the wilderness, sleeping in a tent together, roasting marshmallows, making pancakes at the campsite in the morning, making family memories. It was going to be awesome, until it wasn’t.

Looking back, maybe we should have tried sleeping in the tent in the front yard, before driving two and a half hours to the mountains. We’re not going to let this defeat us though. Yard camping or camping at a campground about 30 minutes away are next on the agenda. We WILL camp before Grace turns five!

All was great, until Noah would not go to sleep in the tent, or happily hang out by the fire/outside. He just couldn’t work it out that it was time to go to sleep, add in being over-tired from no nap, not being in his normal routine, and throw in the sugar from his first s’more and it all led to us packing up the campsite at 9 pm and driving back to Charlotte. (And having to backtrack and drive about an hour out of our way due to an accident and roadblock on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Fun. Times.) We couldn’t subject our camp neighbors to anymore of the tantrums. But, we captured some pics before it turned sour. 🙂

Noah happily played with is trucks while we set up our (new and huge!) tent. Grace did great, but with all the nonsense going on around bedtime, she had trouble getting settled down too!

 

Definitely an upgrade from our two-person backpacking tent or our four-person, which really only fits two people and a Bernese Mountain Dog. Who wouldn’t want to sleep in this palace?!

 

Roasting marshmallows in happier times.

Five Fantastic Months

 

Here’s our little lady at five months…The months seem to be flying by, especially when I always write the monthly blog late. I did take the pic on her five-month “birthday” though. Grace is doing awesome! Her sweet personality shines every day. She sleeps all night and plays, eats and sleeps all day. We are truly blessed with an easy, happy and healthy little girl.

This month Grace was promoted to the back seat of the stroller. Noah has trouble keeping his hands out of the wheels, but Grace’s little arms stay safely by her side.

Just hanging out in the kitchen while everyone else eats breakfast.