NeedToBreathe

For the past 3 years or so, Big Sister has been a huge fan of the band NeedToBreathe.  We listened to their music so much while I was pregnant with Little Bud that listening to it was one of the only things that calmed him down when he was upset as an infant.  From birth until he was 4 months old, he would scream every time he was in the car (those were some tough days!), unless he listened to the NeedToBreathe song, "Slumber".  So, we've listened to that particular song (and all the other songs on that CD), countless times.  We heard that they were coming to town, and when we saw the concert was scheduled to be at the Alabama Theater (such a cool venue!), we knew we wanted to surprise Big Sister with tickets.  The only problem was, the good seats were snatched up in a few milliseconds of going on sale!  Stupid scalpers!  The entire show was sold out in less than a day.  Since this was Big Sister's first concert experience, we didn't want to go unless we were able to get good seats (I was online when the sale went live, but by the time I chose what kind of seats we wanted, the good ones were GONE).  We were so disappointed we couldn't surprise her.  Then the heavens opened up and they scheduled a second concert!  We didn't want to miss out again, so I signed up with their fan club in order to buy pre-sale tickets.  We decided to pay the extra to get VIP tickets, because they got us seats in the center of the 3rd row!  With the VIP tickets we were able to meet the band before the concert.  Big Sister was super excited about it, but we had to be there super early to meet them.  In hindsight, we should have skipped that part, since it required so much waiting (which is not one of Big Sister's strong suites!).  The concert was amazing though.  I'm not a big concert can, but NeedToBreathe put on a great show, and it was cool to hear some of the back stories on some of their music.  Big Sister fell asleep before they played her favorite song (two 10 year old girls in front of us were also asleep by then too), but I recorded it for her :)

Little Bud is 2 1/2!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Little Bud's half birthday.  We had pancakes (with a candle!) for breakfast and the kids swam and played the day away.  That afternoon we went to Chipotle for an early dinner and stopped by Steel City Pops on our way home.  Little Bud loves their buttermilk pop (it takes just like cheesecake - he actually calls it a "cheese pop").  We love celebrating the kids half birthdays.  Birthdays are SO far apart when you're little, and it's fun to have extra family celebrations to look forward to.  We usually just enjoy a special meal and dessert together.  I do like to give the kids a small gift, but we make the focus about having fun together.  This year I found Little Bud 2 George Pig t-shirts (they are SUPER difficult to find, but I lucked up on some cute ones on AlliExpress - best website EVER!).  Almost every night Little Bud asks for John to read him a Peppa Pig book before bed.  He's adopted Big Sister's George Pig and sleeps with him every night.  He was so excited about his shirts and has worn them both several times.

Little Bud has turned a new leaf.  He no longer struggles with aggression (hallelujah!).  We went to the park the other day and he had the best time playing with his friends and didn't try to pull hair or push anyone down.  He is communicating SO much more, and I think he less frustrated with life now that he can explain himself.  He is increasingly independent though, which has introduced a whole new set of challenges, but we can usually talk things out, which is wonderful.

The other day Big Sister gave 2 of her favorite friends Elsa and Anna shirts for their birthdays.  I decided to go ahead and buy Big Sister one as well, so they would all have the same shirt.  Little Bud started crying when he saw her shirt and he asked, "Where my Elsa Anna shirt?"  That boy loves Frozen!  Thankfully Aunt Jamie found both of the kids Olaf shirts, which helped to soften the blow of finding out that there are no Elsa and Anna shirts ; )

Dance Class!

Big Sister went to her first dance class at the end of August.  We were able to enroll her in the same class that 2 of her great friends are also in, which is a definite bonus!  Big Sister has enjoyed learning more about ballet, and she was beyond excited when her new tap shoes came in!

Kindergarten

I'm not sure how it's possible, but Big Sister is officially in kindergarten.  She had her first day at Classical Conversations the week after our trip.  Her tutor is wonderful, and we've enjoyed getting to know some new families (we switched to a new campus this year that's closer to us).  We're about 2 weeks in, and so far things are going much smoother this year than they did at this time last year (other than the fact that Little Bud likes to interrupt us every 3 seconds while we're working!).  Big Sister is learning so much through our Classical Conversations curriculum, and we've been reading a mountain of library books to learn more about the topics that we're covering each week (we're studying U.S. History and Anatomy this year).  We went to visit Aunt Jamie's class last week, and Big Sister thought it was pretty cool that they were also learning about the Mayflower in class!

Little Bud was feeling left out on Big Sister's first day at Classical Conversations.

He likes to do EVERYTHING that his big sister does, so once he realized he wasn't 

coming with us, he told us he was going to "Grammie School". 

He also insisted that his new lunch box was his "pack pack"

Big Sister's first day of Kindergarten 

(she wanted me to take a good picture of her princess backpack)

Camping in the White Mountains

We spent about a week in the White Mountains at a campground in Franchonia, New Hampshire.  John's cousin and her daughter joined us for part of the time, and the kids had so much fun together!  I think Big Sister and her cousin will remember our trip for years to come :)

While we were in the mountains we went on several hikes and John even braved the frigid water a few times to swim (Big Sister and Little's Bud's cousin also took the plunge; she's not afraid of a little cold water like us southerners!).  We also went to an amusement park called StoryLand that John and his cousin visited as kids.  It rained at least half of the time we were there, and on one of the rainy days, we visited Clark's Trading Post, where we went on a train ride and were able to see a bear show.

We decided not to drive on to Acadia, so when we left the mountains, we headed back south and spent one more night with Papa Dean and Gigi.  Big Sister and her cousin even had a sleepover in Gigi's spare room on our last night in New Hampshire.  They were SO sad to tell each other good bye.  It broke my heart.  I'm so thankful that the girls have such a strong bond even though they live so far apart.

We made it home in 2 days!  We were so happy drive back in to town and pull into our driveway.  There truly is no place like home (especially when you have a little guy who NEEDS a fenced in back yard to keep him happy!).

hiking in Crawford Notch

StoryLand

Clark's Trading Post

Bald Mountain hike

hiking on the Kangamagus 

North Conway

Papa Dean, Gigi and the great grands!

fast asleep on the way home :)