Caroline is 4!

It happened. Our baby finally turned four. She is just as stubborn as the day she was born.. and also still prefers to sleep in our bed. At least during in her third year of life she learned how to quietly sneak in to our bed, instead of waking me up to lift her in to bed. She LOVES princess and brioche. She is still a picky eater, which is very frustrating. Her favorite food is probably baked beans. She can easily eat a can all by herself. She also likes pasta, crunchy fish, tacos, applesauce and yogurt. She really likes smelt roe sushi and miso soup too. She definitely thinned out some and grew a lot when she was three. She is turning in to a little bean pole. And she is getting SO GOOD at smiling for pictures. I don't think we even had three year old pictures because she didn't want to do smile. We were able to snap these in less than five minutes.

She's working on her patience... but she has very little of it, especially when it comes to something she wants. I think she'll always be this way, but obviously part of it is due to age. She likes to talk a lot and make up stories about her 'kids' (dolls and stuffed animals). She is very motherly and loves taking care of her kids. She likes to boss Bennett around, but clearly finds a lot of comfort in having him around. She is definitely bossy though, that's for sure. When it comes to doing anything, her first reaction will be to tell Bennett to do it. She rarely cleans her room or can even hold on to her trash in the car. Bennett does it all. Poor guy. But Caroline should be a pretty good manager in the future.

Kindergarten!

Bennett's first day of Kindergarten was September 5th. We had an orientation the day before, so he got to meet his teacher there, and get a feel for his classroom, but Wednesday was the big day. He seems a little anxious in the morning, although he hides it so well. The nerves were making him a little moody, I think. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up, and the answer is a dirt bike riding astronaut. Let's hope he goes with the latter so we can avoid huge medical bills. I asked how he was feeling about kindergarten and he replied, "meh... I mean EXCITED!" The feigned excitement was clearly for my benefit, because he was clearly very indifferent in his initial response.

 Embarrassing him by taking some photos at school. He's too cool for that now:

 We had a friend volunteer to help with lunch, so she was able to snag a few photos. She said he seemed really happy to be there.

After school he went to Kids and Co., so it was a little after 5 pm by the time I picked him up. He was in a great mood, playing with some toys with friends.  He said the day went well. During recess, he played with some boxelder nest with Colin. He said some other friends were looking at the nest as well. I asked if he met Sagel, one of the girls from Caroline's ballet class, and he said she was looking at the boxelder nest as well. He asked her her name, but she didn't want to say, and he said, "Well, at Tanglen Tigers, we say our names so we can meet people," and he said she told him after that. He had seen her before, since he has watched Caroline's ballet class a few times, so he told her his little sister was in ballet with her. It made me really pleased to hear he was meeting people on his own. Otherwise, he said he was a little rushed for lunch, and wasn't quite done eating before they started counting down to the end of lunch.

Meanwhile, Caroline's preschool room is super small now. There used to be about twenty kids and now there are nine. We, as parents, are thrilled about this, especially because a lot of the kids that left were rowdy boys, and now her favorite Margo is in class with her. Now that it is the school year, her room does lesson plans, so she's well on her way.

State Fair 2018

We had been planning on going to the State Fair on Labor Day, since it was the only day we could go together as a family. Joel and Bennett went on opening day, since Bennett didn't have school, but Caroline and I wanted to go as well. We weren't 100% positive we were going to go however, since we got back so late Sunday night, and were all awake by 4:30 am. Being up early for the fair is great, but that also means taking overly tired kids to the fair... In the end, we let Caroline decide, since she hadn't been to the fair yet. If she wanted to stay home and play, we'd do that. If she wanted to go to New London, we'd do that. In the end, she chose the fair, so off we went. She was already tired on the bus ride:

 Finally, a great family photo at the fair! Note Caroline's new Roots hat she insisted on wearing. Also, her outfit was chosen because she wanted "to be all stars."

What better way to start off the morning than a breakfast hotdog while watching horses?

 Hoping to avoid tantrums for the kids wanting to go on allllllll the rides, we did quite a bit of walking and looking at exhibits before going to the Kidway. Once there, we told them they could each go on two rides. Caroline chose the merry go round. She was tall enough to ride it on her own but didn't want to go alone, so Joel got to ride with her:

 We tried to get them to both go on the whales but Caroline chickened out so Bennett went alone. Caroline was so tired by this point.

 However, she did decide to go on the swings. Right before the ride started, Caroline got a little anxious and wanted to get off... but then the ride took off, and she was not happy. She went on this ride last year and loved it, so I'm not sure if she was just being difficult, or too tired, or both. Anyway, things went downhill quickly.

 Luckily for us, our sweet Bennett saved the day. I don't know how he got the idea, but he grabbed her swing so they could go together, and she calmed down immediately. Honestly, Bennett is just so sweet and in touch with other's emotions. In Toronto, he gave great grandma a hug every time she saw her, and every time he had to say goodbye. I don't know if a person has been hugged as much as she was on the trip. And considering how close they are in age, he is so kind to Caroline, usually letting her have what she wants, so they can avoid conflict. We both gave him a big hug and kiss when they got off the swings, telling him he saved the day.

 After the horrible swings, Caroline was done riding rides, so Bennett got to do a few solo:

 Both of the kids got headband/scarf things from the fair, and were wearing them all day. We arrived at the fair around 9 am and left around 4 pm. The rain was starting, and we were all EXHAUSTED. Back at home, Caroline was very content to play with her babies:

Nova Scotia Day #8

Our last day in Nova Scotia. We had to return our rental car at 2:30 pm, so we had a bit of time to wander around. The night before Sammi gave the kids gifts. Caroline's came in a box as big as our suitcase. Luckily we were able to give some things to grandma and grandpa to carry back for us.

 We decided to go to the Pier 21 Immigration Museum. It definitely wasn't a child friend museum, because the subject matter is pretty heavy, but it was beautifully done. I think Bennett got something out of it, but Caroline was too young. There was a book asking people to answer the question "Where do you feel safe?" Bennett's answer was 'home.'

 We grabbed some lunch at the farmers market next door. One last lobster roll for the road.

 Then stopped at Roots for some shopping, before heading to the airport.

 Our flight leaving Halifax was delayed by about 20 minutes. This gave us a little over an hour in Toronto, where we needed to go through customs. Our flight started boarding at 6:55 pm in Toronto, and at 7:10 pm we were still waiting in line to talk to the customs official. We made it to the gate around 7:15-7:20 and our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:25. Thankfully, there were other passengers in our same situation, so they were holding the flight to get as many of us on as they could. This gave us enough time to go to the restroom on the plane before it took off, however, no time to stop at the lounge for dinner. The kids watched videos on the plane. Caroline was definitely super tired as they were used to going to bed around 7:30 CST. By the time we got off the plane in MSP, it was 9:00 pm. We were all exhausted, and all the lounges were closed so we couldn't eat dinner. I don't think the kids cared though. They both fell asleep on the drive home and we carried them to bed.

Nova Scotia Day #7

This was our last full day in Nova Scotia. We spent our time visiting the water front. We took the ferry over from Dartmouth:

 Then did a little souvenir shopping:

 We stopped for lunch at a good Korean restaurant. The kids were fighting over the khalbi:

 Caroline was, once again, not in a photo mood:

 We had an amazing dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The two families with kids sat at one table, while the other table had eight adults. Needless to say, our four adult, four kid table didn't make as much progress on the food as the other table.