2nd Grade Baby

I tend to melt down a bit as the beginning of the school year approaches.  How will my little man do?  How will his teacher respond to his quirks?  Will he keep the 35 gleams in his eyes that he has managed to keep alive thus far?  Will he smile through his struggles to fall in line in the classroom?  Will I smile through the struggles?  Will he grow as a learner, a social being, a friend and a little man of God?  That's what we want for him.  That's enough.  The short answer to all my questions is, "Yes."  He absolutely will, God helping him. We'll have our ups and downs, as most kiddos do, and we'll come through bigger, bolder, more resilient and more mature on the other side.

The gift we've been blessed with this year is Mr. Olsen, one of two men in the building.  He's Dude's 2nd grade teacher and has already proven to understand, appreciate, advocate for and love on our son.  He's oh so funny and he's a bit ADD himself and he gets quirky boys who can't sit still and can't shut up.  And that's all okay in his book.  He'll put my son's rear in the "quiet chair" and will wink at him to let him know when he's joking.  He'll advocate when Dude's making sounds he can't control and he'll also put him in line when he's not using his words or actions appropriately.  He's already been a saving grace for us and for our little and we're incredibly grateful for that. Next year is next year, but for now, we're at peace.

My girlfriend, Amy, came to town for a girl's weekend and was once again able to be here for Dude's first day of school. He's going to start expecting this tradition, so Amy better makes plans to be here again next year:)  She takes her one-of-a-kind pictures and I'm fortunate enough to keep them as memories of the first day of a new year.  I'm in LOVE with the shots she got of him waiting for the bus.  My overzealous, social son gets all tied up in knots on the first day of school and goes into his shell.  This doesn't happen often, so I treasure it when it does.  She captured that with amazing beauty.

  

 Tim was biking to work that day and this was his send off.  What else could a guy ask for?  A  sandwich of cuteness.

 

 The little one behind Dude is his bestest bud.  They're in class together, which enables them to be on the same Tiger team ALL DAY LONG.  Sorry Mr. Olsen.

 We love the community feel and support at our school.  This is the outdoor assembly we do on the first day of school.  The kids all write their names in chalk on the black top.

 Um, yeah.  I'm in love with these.  

Amy and I ditched Tim and the kids that Saturday morning to head to The Writer's Nest, a VRBO cabin in Evergreen.  We spent the day Saturday with pen to paper, which was lovely.  Then we made the trek down the less than adequate 5 mile dirt and pot hole filled road to have dinner on Evergreen Lake.  Again, lovely.

 No screaming, no whining, no car noise, no Target....just peace.  

 The "less than adequate road to the cabin."  The continual divots could swallow a medium size child.

 On a hike, we discovered these magic mushrooms,  Alice in Wonderland-esque.  Upon Google inquiry we learned they provide a hallucinating high that "often leaves people regretting the decision to partake in them."  You've been warned.

 

This ax was strategically placed directly below our patio.  We saw it as a warning from the owners that if we didn't follow their Type A, anal retentive directions, we would be chopped to bits.  We chose to follow.  

At the Small Lake

This is the 3rd summer the Kwas gang has rented a cottage on a smaller boating lake in Michigan.  We haven't quite found "the cottage" yet, but figuring there are 8.4 million options to choose from, that might take some time.  This one suited our needs just fine and provided the opportunity to make memories.  We're pretty darn good at making memories.  This post is photo heavy, so I'll keep the words to a minimum....

What did we do at what we thought was Gun Lake, but really was a smaller cottage much more remote and 20 minutes from Gun Lake?

We bonded with our awesome Nana and Papa.  Yes, that's a speak n math game.  Did you ever have one? My mom still plays it in when she's having quality alone time.

We hooped.  

We danced.  Like no one was watching.

We celebrated my bestie's 35th.  He's finally my age again.

Despite the 70 degree temps (which I ADORED), we swam and swam and swam.

We (meaning Enzo) lounged on the lawn.  The humans did NOT since it was a muddy swamp the entire week.

We played games.  Note, Dude's drawing might be better than his Nana's.  Hers is supposed to resemble a baby.  Mmmmmm.

We loved on Enzo.  We ALL loved on Enzo.  Hard not to fall in love with the fur ball.

We lost teeth.  Never fear, Donatello the tooth fairy makes visits to remote lakes in Michigan.

We visited Great Grandparents.  A priceless treat for everyone involved.  

We tried our hand at a cousin photo. We eventually admitted defeat, but we did try.

We fell in love with the cutest 1 year old in the Midwest, our little June Bug.

We visited the old Vogelzang Hardware location in Holland, which is now a restaurant.  Pretty cool they kept the sign in tact.

We dined on fabulous, authentic, meat filled bones.

The adults dined on Kyle and Becky's gourmet culinary skills.  Be very jealous.

We strolled through the charming dirt roads and breathed in farm life.  It's so peaceful.

We went on Booze Cruises.

We Lego'd.

We hid from the children in our favorite spot under the bench.  

We made mad faces.  Don't really remember why.

We fished.

We smiled, genuine smiles.

We visited with GiGi and Aunt Jan.

We played in the corn.

We sea doo'd (for 25 minutes before it clonked out)

We tubed baby!  Yes, it was behind the pontoon boat, but look at the joy and thrill on those faces.

We tried to force Enzo into becoming a water dog.  Didn't work, but he would sit on the raft in the middle of the lake.  

We got dressed in the dark.

We s'mored.

We visited our Vogel cousins in Grand Rapids and swam in their awesome backyard pool.

We loved seeing how much they're growing up and how well spunky little Pearl is adjusting to life with her forever family.

We lived it up at the small lake.  Can't wait for our next Kwas adventure.