First Day of Preschool!

After a very long Summer, the day had finally come for all 3 kids to be back in school! Well, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We made little gifts for the teachers.

At Meet the Teacher, Presley's teacher sent home this big worksheet for us to fill out.

The kids did pretty good with all of the pictures!

Bentley is big enough to carry his own backpack!

And his nap mat!

We dropped Bentley off first and he walked right into his classroom, started playing and never looked back!

Presley is starting her last year of Preschool. Next year is Kindergarten!

Presley tried soccer out, but wasn't too interested. She said she wanted to stick with dance and gymnastics and that maybe she would try it when Bentley can play.

Bentley's Big Boy Bed!

So in order to potty train Bentley, we have to put him in a big boy bed. He slept so well in his crib, so it was hard to take the next step. I wanted to do it before he started school so that he wouldn't have so many changes at once. I ordered the bedding when we were in New York and we got the mattress when we got back. His crib converts into a bed, so we just had to put it all together.

I could probably refer back to a post about Presley getting a new bed. I am pretty sure we told her to sleep in her new bed and we would come get her in the morning and that is exactly what she did. Well, Bentley's experience was a whole different story. We had to kind of do the whole sleep training thing all over again. We tried to use a piece of wood to put under the latch of his door so that he couldn't come out. Well, he figured out how to reach his little hand under the door and push that right out of the way. Next, we put a bigger piece of wood under the latch and put the bottom where it was too far for him to reach. He figured out how to pull the door lever up and the wood would fall down. While figuring all of this out, he was also tearing wood from the bottom of his door. It is now hollow. Since the door was already messed up, Mikey decided to go ahead and drill a lock in the door. I watched the monitor during bed and naps for the next few days and he actually slept in his bed!

This one is definitely questionable.

One morning I came in his room and found this setup. When I first asked what it was, he said they were all sleeping. I asked again later and he said it was a mess.

The transition has still been a process. Sometimes he sleeps in his bed and sometimes he sleeps on the floor by his door. Either way, he is safe in his room and can't get out as of now. Our next challenge is potty training. Wish us luck! For some reason, I don't think it will be as easy of a task as it was with Presley.

Kiley's 1st Day of First Grade!

Kiley had a bit of a rough Summer. She really missed the structure of school. We were all counting down until her first day back. We missed Meet the Teacher while we were in Missouri, but she has the same teacher and two new paras. She didn't do so great holding the sign for me to take a picture, but she did great getting on the bus and at school. She was so glad to be back!!

Lindsey's Bachelorette Party in NYC

When we were up in New York this Summer, I took a bus over to NYC to celebrate my other little sister, Lindsey's Bachelorette Party. Lindsey is my Sister's best friend and my best friend, Stacey's, little sister. We all grew up together and have been friends for 28ish years. The bachelorette party was 4 days, but since I was by myself with the kids, I only went for 2 days and 2 nights, but it was plenty of time to have a blast!!

I took a bus from Cornell University to the city and it was so nice. As I was getting close to the city, we passed Metlife Stadium which I had never seen in person.

When I got to Manhattan, I took my luggage up to the hotel room and then took a cab down to the Financial District for happy hour.

After we had a couple of drinks we went to the Brooklyn Bridge. This was something I had never done and was super excited! The Bride to Be!

The whole gang!

When we got up to the top, Lindsey gave us all a little gift bag. In it was a lock. Apparently, it is tradition to put a lock at the top of the bridge, so we put all of ours together and locked it to the bridge.

The views from the top.

After the bridge, we took the subway back to the hotel for the lingerie shower and to get ready for dinner. Someone took this sweet picture of Mycah and Lindsey and Stacey and Me holding hands.

After dinner, we went out to a bar that was walking distance from our hotel. There weren't a ton of people so it was perfect to hang out! Don't mind the drunk girl doing splits in front of us. We had no idea who she was.

Some "family/sister" pics.

The next morning, we got ready and took the subway to Little Italy. We were so excited about all of the food! Our first stop was a pizza place and it was delicious!

We walked around a little more and then stopped at a cute little restaurant for some appetizers and a drink.

Then we ended up at a dessert place. I am not a big fan of dessert so I volunteered to take the picture!

After experiencing all of the Tastes of Italy, we walked around Chinatown for a bit and then headed towards the Statue of Liberty! We took a roundabout way where it had us walk down the Brooklyn side of the island and we got some really pretty pictures of Brooklyn.

The Statue of Liberty.

The Ring and The Statue.

Instead of going all the way back up to Manhattan for dinner, we decided to take the Subway back to Little Italy for dinner.

It was one of Lindsey's favorite places.

After dinner, it was getting dark and the lights were so fun!

We took the Subway back up to Manhattan. We got off close to Grand Central Station and that was another thing I had not seen so we went in. It was amazing!

We walked down a ramp to the "Whispering Arches" and had so much fun talking back and forth!

We went back to the hotel and got in our black and white dresses for a few pictures.

Then we put on some comfy shoes and headed out!

The next morning, we packed up our things and checked our luggage and then headed to Central Park in our boots.

We ate lunch at The Plaza and then went back to get our bags and the party was over. It was so much fun!! I was so glad to be able to get away for a couple of days and leave the kids Upstate. Big thank you to Aunt Kare Kare, Aunt Pat, Guy, Hannah, Preston and everyone else who helped out with the kids while I was gone. Here are a few pictures that I received...

The kids waited up for me to get home on Saturday night.