Start of School!

We have had a couple of eventful weeks around here trying to settle into school!  Cooper is in Kindergarten- I can't believe it!  He is loving every second of it and doing very well with the structure.  It helped him a lot by starting Jr. Kindergarten last year.  He has jumped right back into reading and is soaking up all of the new experiences that come along with Kindergarten!

We decided to go ahead and send Reese Ann to the three-year-old program at USJ (called Cubs) this year.  She is the baby in the class since she is still not quite three, but she has risen to the occasion!  She loves going to school everyday with her brother and has had so much fun with her friends and sweet teachers!

Sweet siblings smiling for their mom on the first day of school!

The uniforms about killed me with this little girl although the red shoes helped it not be so painful!  Continuing with the summer of dresses, RA refuses to wear any uniform that is not a dress!

Cooper and Dan walking in with all of his supplies!  Cooper was very happy to be there!

Coop and his favorite buddy, George, who wound up in the same class again along with several other of their little friends!  Their teacher, Miss Jennifer, has handled the boys very well at the start of school!

RA getting acquainted with her classroom and one of her teachers, Miss Amanda!

What almost 3-year-old girl doesn't love a kitchen?!

Our Summer...

Our summer included lots of fun and relaxation, and we are in denial that it is over!  We spent many a weekend at the river with family, and enjoyed lots of sun and water fun!

We've had lots of play-time in pajamas including lots and lots of legos!

Our little river rat on one of the last weekends she had her "pa-pa's!"

Edie is so much fun on the wave runner with Coop and RA!

Reese Ann decided that she was ready for the "pa-pa" fairy to come because she was such a big girl.  The bag in this picture was full of her precious pacifiers that she left outside for the fairy to take to babies who need them!

The next morning, Reese Ann found a princess baby bed and a Snow White night-light from the Pa-pa fairy!

Baseball!

Cooper played 5 & 6 year old coach-pitch baseball this spring.  He wound up on a team of boys that was mostly comprised of 6-year-olds, and he didn't have any friends on the team (they have a draft starting this young).  It wound up being a great situation for him and for us.  We got to know some other families that we were only acquaintances with before the season began, Cooper made some new friends (most of which will be a grade ahead of him in school at USJ), and he had lots of fun playing baseball! 

The season included lots of father-son time since Dan wound up helping coach!

Reese Ann loved being at the baseball field cheering on her brother!  We went through many a bag of popcorn and sucker trying to get this busy girl to sit still!

 

Cooper had a slow start to his hitting, but by the end of the season and with lots of batting practice, he figured it out!

We had lots of fun this season and look forward to returning to the same team with the same great head coach next year!

End of School

Now that a month has passed since summer began, I decided that I needed to get caught up with our end of the school year festivities!  Cooper had a fabulous first year at USJ.  His Jr-K teachers and class were so great, and he truly enjoyed every minute of it!  They had an end of the school year party, and I was able to snap a few pictures from the morning.

Here is Cooper with his main teacher, Miss Cindy Wyatt.  He adored her, and she was a wonderful dose of structure for this little boy!

This is Cooper with Miss Kellie.  She was so sweet and loving with the kids all year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Cooper with his buddy, Sam, from his class.

Reese Ann had a great ending to her year at First Pres with her Spring program.  We were so sad to finish out the year there, because she will be going onto USJ for Cubs in August.  We have a LONG history at First Pres Playschool, but the director, Miss Penny, who was a teacher when I was there 30 years ago, is retiring this year, so we went out with her!

singing her songs!

Such a good picture of all of the sweet teachers!  Now RA- much more typical pose these days!  What wonderful ladies that we will miss tremendously this next school year!

Our little performer

Cooper had his debut performance at USJ with their JrK performance of Nuts!

He is very comfortable on the stage!  He had a speaking part and a solo and did great on both!

He couldn't see his adoring fans with his sunglasses on!

Easter celebrations!

Easter weekend around here and the couple of weeks leading up to it were both wonderful!  The kids had several egg hunts, and we enjoyed lots of time celebrating with family!

Cooper at his Easter party at school

 

From our Good Friday trip to the Memphis Zoo

RA checking out her favorite animal- the snakes!

Didn't they have great rides?!

Celebrating at Edie & G-Chip's house

Before church on Easter- Reese Ann sure looked pretty, but the dress and bonnet did not last long!

Playing with her spider on the way to church!

Recent Camping Adventures

Dan planned a boys only adventure trip to Middle Tennessee over Cooper's spring break. He and Cooper took off to Cookeville with not many plans but lots of outdoor adventures on the brain! They did some hiking at one of Dan and his college buddies' favorite hiking spots- Cummings Falls.



They spent the night in a hotel that night, and the next morning they headed to Big South Fork State Park where they backpacked and camped for the night.













They had so much fun! Cooper was such a great camper and enjoyed the experience almost as much as his dad did! The next weekend, Dan and two friends with boys around Cooper's age had another camping trip planned, but the weather did not cooperate. The following night with the chance of thunderstorms slim, Dan, his buddy, Tim, Tim's son, Tucker, and Cooper made a last minute trip to camp out in Edie & G-Chip's backyard! This camping adventure was a lot more comfortable & less intense, but they had a wonderful time nonetheless.





I do believe that there are many more camping trips in this father-son duo's future! Reese Ann and I had some fun girl time while they were gone which included some shopping that I bribed her to do by promising to take her to Yolos to get frozen yogurt!


You can see how happy she was to be there- messy dress & all! The only thing that made her any happier was when she did this...