October - Back to School

It's October 1st. We don't mess around.
Halloween shirts - check
Halloween books - check
Halloween dolls - check
Bring on the BOO!

It's been a LLOONNGG Jack-less 10 months. I was able to hold off until mid-morning for the first showing. After that, it was on a perpetual loop for about 3 weeks. AWESOME.
Nick doing his impersonation of Jack Scarecrow.
They've been BEGGING to go on a train ride - it's been so long!!

They hopped off the train in Point & met up with Mima & Pop Pop.

And of course headed over to the............ aquarium!
When they declare their major in oceanography I will NOT be surprised.
(poor Nick - apparently everyone is ignoring the fact that he's got something in his eye - look above too!)

Adrienne cracks me up in this one.

Speaking of school....
We went to a varisty football game at the high school.
Hmmmm.... guess what they're called.




To cheer on their big cousins I made them each a mini-jersey... Nick wore Nick's # (naturally) and Adrienne wore Chris's.

Nick's noggin is SO big he managed to completely conceal a 6' 6" man!!!
(ok, ok... I know it's just the angle - but still - pretty funny!)
TOO cute!
(And my apologies to the Big Red community on Adrienne's lime green fashion faux pas - I never expected her coat to be off but it was actually a nice night!!)

All the raspberries in the world didn't help with those touchdown passes....
What they DIDN'T know was that starting the very next day they were going to start attending that very same HIGH SCHOOL!
Fast Times at OT High, baby!
That's right, our little Einsteins are skipping right on over K thru 8 & going straight to the big leagues! All kidding aside, they were wait-listed for the HS's Little Red Schoolhouse program (for HS kids who want to go into early education - they need guinea pigs, aka real-life-toddlers) - and they ended up getting in!
The hard part was keeping it a secret for TWO MONTHS! As much as I wanted to tell them, Adrienne especially, I just could NOT handle 60++ days of "Mommy, when do I get to go to school?! Mommy!?!? Do I get to go to school tomorrow?? MOMMY!?!?!? Is that my school?!"
After the football game the night before we told them we had a surprise in the morning. They woke up, we brought them downstairs and we gave them each a postcard that the teacher sent, welcoming them to the program. Adrienne was THRILLED. Nick... typical. "I donWANNA go to SCHOOL." Well kid, today is orientation & you're GOIN'!!

A few hours later they started a new gymnastics class. While Adrienne knows the drill from taking it in the past it was the first time Nick got to join in - now that he's 3 so many programs are available for them to do together!
The first thing they did were somersaults...

Next up was dismounting from the mats - but all the kids were trying to somersault off! Pretty funny to watch the coaches try to re-position every kid to NOT roll right off the end.
Walking like a crab...

Doh!


The first 1/2 of the class was gymnastics. The 2nd 1/2 was 'hip-hop' dancing. Watch Nick's frustration in trying to make his hair whip around like the instructor's.





He shook it off (ba-dum-bump) and tried it again.... Head shake...
Nope. Didn't fly. Now he's yelling: "I don't HAVE any HAIR!!!"
Hmmppff. The dance routine was boycotted from that point on.
The following Friday at gymnastics they got to do a Tarzan swing on the ropes. I love when they disappear into the floor.....!!!