pre-school’s eve and a fun-filled weekend

Tomorrow, Theo starts pre-school. Up until 2 months ago, I hadn’t really planned on sending him. Our long-time babysitter decided to close so we were forced to come up with an alternative. Nothing felt perfect until we stepped foot inside the Montessori school just down the street. We feel so lucky because it’s only a few minutes away and there are parents that drive a long way there so that their children can attend. We loved it, we signed up, then almost 2 months went by. That feeling that I had when we were there the first time faded over time.

Friday it came back. Hard. We attended a New Student Open House and let me tell you. Theo is obsessed. He had never been there until Friday night. He was excited to go because we’d been telling him all about it – how there’s a huge sandbox and how he gets to take turns setting the table for lunch and so on. Well the open house was from 6-8 and we pretty much spent that entire time there. He didn’t want to leave. When we did finally pry him away, he ran up to his teacher and declared that he would see her next week when mommy and daddy were going to drop him off “for a loooooong day!”

Monday night was the Parent Orientation. Wellllll. Maybe Theo thought that was the LOOONG day, but it turned out to be a short hour. He was not happy when we told him it was time to go. So he did what any ballistic threenager would do and threw the most embarrassing fit in all history of fits. “YOU SAID I COULD STAY FOR A LOONG DAY AND YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE ME HERE! I’M STILL PLAYING. LEAVE MOMMY!!!”

Cooool.

In front of all the other parents and classmates and, oh yeah, the teachers. One smiled encouragingly and said, “well at least he’s not crying because he doesn’t want to come.” Heh heh, yeah. In the meantime, my face was probably 56.8 million shades of red. Needless to say, he’s very excited to go to school tomorrow. The first week is half days so he doesn’t have to take his lunch – that may be a problem because he’s already insisting on taking edamame, grapes, and chicken. Okay, kid. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to have every last thing we need to make his first full day perfect.

Saturday we went to the state fair for some fun and Sunday we had Ryan’s work summer picnic at the Colts’ practice facility. Lots of fun for the boys (and just as much or more for this mommy and daddy too!).

Here’s what it looked like:

Mapping out our route.

My posed pictures are terrible. Like every time. But this is obligatory! We’ve done some version of this pic since Theo was a baby.

Do all boys love tractors? Or is that just an Indiana boy thing?

That moment when your 3 year old realizes he didn’t get his own 20 oz. milkshake.
I DON’T WANNA SHARE! I WANT MY OWN!!!

There’s a really cool animation exhibit this year.

My favorite – the chicks and bunnies barn. Also known as the Poultry Barn.

The best of many failed attempts…

Watching the Monster Truck Rally from afar. I’m still mad at myself for not making sure we made it to the show. They loved it from 10 miles away so I’m sure they would’ve had a blast in the stands.