Bouncing out of summer

On Saturday, we finally made it to a "new" local attraction - The Kangaroo Cave.  It is an indoor inflatable playground that is only open on Saturdays.  I think it opened about 4-5 months ago and now that we've been, we'll be regulars there.  It was not very expensive, lots of fun and both boys were easily entertained for the 2 1/2 hours we were there.  Both said they wanted to go back, so I think we will!  There are several pictures in the link below.

Of course, the big news is that Noah started back to school on Tuesday!  This means I started back to volunteering as well.  Between Michael's schedule, Noah's schedule and my inability to say "NO," Michael might not have been too far off when, on Monday night as I headed to the school Open House an hour before it started, he said, "See you in May!" Let's hope we balance things a little better than that.  The Open House was a great success - our PTS had an ice cream social that I helped with - and lots of people came to meet the teachers, drop off school supplies and have a yummy ice cream sundae.  With Noah in 4th grade and my many days of volunteering for the last few years, I know most of the teachers on a first name basis.  Michael, however, knows the teachers Noah has had and that's about it, so it's always fun to walk around with him and meet the teachers all over again.  :)  He asks good questions and in 5 minutes, can learn more about a teacher than I learned in an entire school year.  There is also a new music teacher this year, so I was glad to be with Michael & the boys to meet him.  Our last stop of the evening was a visit to the library, as Michael had not yet met Mrs. Reed, the librarian.  (YES!  Our librarian's name is Mrs. REED - love it!)  Throughout the night, as Michael met the various teachers, he would shake their hand and introduce himself.  In the library we once again were reminded just how closely Josiah watches us as, after Michael introduced himself, Josiah put out his (left) hand and said loudly and very clearly, "I'm Josiah Phillips!"  He knows the librarian and had actually talked with her earlier in the day when we dropped something off at school but we all got a good laugh out of how cute he is!  Admittedly, it also brought a tear or two to my eye seeing him behave in such a grown-up way. 

And speaking of grown-up... despite some of the goofy faces he made as I took some of those traditional first day of school pictures, Noah is definitely looking more grown-up.  My sweet little Noah-boy is in FOURTH grade.  Time flies when you're having fun!  Josiah and I also did the traditional driveway sign to welcome Noah home and Josiah was so excited to see Noah get off the bus.  We sat on the driveway waiting patiently.  :)

So, now we're finding our way back into our school year routine and looking forward to a fabulous year in 4th grade!

Enjoy the fun pictures!