Headed to School!

Miles Jay Grimmius is ready for kindergarten!  We met with his teacher, Ms. Jen, this afternoon.  It was a wonderful visit and we are so happy that she is his teacher.  Whenever he talks about Ms. Jen, he gets a little twinkle in his eye, his voice softens, and his shy smile grows big.... That makes mommy and daddy feel pretty ready for kindergarten, too :-)

Miles will be joining 14 other children in the Kindergarten A room at Kids Korner.  A handful of them have been attending Kids Korner with Miles, and the rest are children who attended daycare and preschool elsewhere.  So it will be a good mix of old and new friends.  This will be the 6th year that Kids Korner has offered kindergarten, which makes Miles among the first batch of kids who have spent their whole young lives there!  He started as an infant...only 12 weeks old...and on Tuesday he begins his final year there as a kindergartner. Needless to say, Kids Korner is a very special place for our family.  

The transition to kindergarten should be relatively smooth, as our daily routine isn't going to change very much....the boys will still get dropped off together most days by daddy, and then picked up together at the end of the day by mommy.  The only real difference is that Miles will now be in the lower level at Kids Korner -- not across the hall from Weston.  We're pretty sure Weston will be concerned about that change and (in typical Weston fashion) will likely express his disappointment.  But as Ms. Jen pointed out, Weston will still see Miles every day when he comes downstairs with his preschool class for gym time.  She assured Miles that he can wave to Weston and even sneak in some hugs.  We think Weston will agree to that plan, too. 

We are so very proud of you, Miles Jay.  Here's to an exciting year of being 5 and then 6, of learning to read, of adding and subtracting, of science experiments and cooking lessons, of writing stories, and of sharing your sweetness with new friends and teachers....  The string you have tied to mama's heart is growing a little longer despite my best attempts to keep it short.  But it's tied tight, little boy!  Have fun and enjoy all of the adventures that await you.  We love you!  All the way to Z.

Hoof Hearted

That title is for you, Uncle Charlie!  Years ago he came up with that horse name -- I think it was shared via text message while watching the Kentucky Derby.  If you say it fast enough you'll giggle.

The Grimmius Family -- all 8 of our immediate cohort -- watched some horse racing at Canterbury Downs Sunday.  What else is there to do in 95 degree heat and humidity?  All of us know next to nothing when it comes to horse racing, but we did our best to follow along.  Uncle Will even put a wager on a few horses.  I don't think he won a single penny, but at least he tried.

Here we are pretending we know what we're doing. Uncle Will was off placing his bet.  I think Auntie Anne was supervising him.  Someone had to be sure he wasn't being irresponsible with his money (CPAs only know how to manage other people's money - not their own)!

Miles' favorite part of racing was when the gates opened and the horses took off for the mile long lap around the track.

We had a good view!

Weston liked the jockeys the best.  Perhaps because he was about the same size as most of them.  Here he is in full jockey mode --

Miles finished a close second in this race. Unfortunately his horse, Bob, was running out of steam.

Among the favorite horsey names today were Intercompany Loan, Smart Masterpiece (a winner whose jockey, by the way, looked no more than 14 years old), Ifoundmy Mojo, Ghazablanca, Kissmeimdanish, and...Weston's personal favorite...Tell Em Off.

You can decide the names of these two handsome jockeys... Weston takes his job very seriously, as every good jockey does.

Canterbury Park is also known for hosting wiener dog races (we debated whether or not people actually breed and train wiener dogs for racing purposes), zebra races, ostrich races, and camel races.  When the weather cools off again we'll see what animal is being featured and probably venture back for some more entertainment.  It's a fun place!

The breakfast part!

I forgot to include this picture with the last blog post.  Of the 876 (at least) pictures we've taken this summer, this is one of my favorite.  And it proves that we really did eat breakfast at the Otown airport!