Me & The Little Guys Again

Koen's school has a tradition of an overnight camping trip for the K-5th grade every year.  Since we are new Kindergarten parents, this was quite a surprise (and honestly, a little bit of an annoyance too).  The school has been doing this for 20 years and supposedly it's a great time for the kids and families (Kindergartners and 1st-graders have parents attend, and most parents attend with their kids even after that).  Well, anyways, Thursday/Friday this week is this special school outing.  Koen, of course, was super pumped.  Doug was, well, being a good sport.  They took off this morning and will be gone until tomorrow afternoon.  I've received some updates today.  Here's the happy Melder boys on their voyage out to "camp." 

While they were driving out to Somerset County, Tavin, Penn and I were at Tav's speech therapy.  Tavin loves his speech therapist through the Pittsburgh Public School's early intervention program.  She is a sweetheart and so good with his age group.  Every week she has an activity ready for him that engages him wile they work on his speech issues.  They also do a lot of little things week after week to build on his new skills.  I LOVE her.  I wish we got to stay with her until Tav is through this program, but we only get her a few more weeks until the school year ends.  =(  Here's Tavin being a butterfly fluttering his colorful wings after they read, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Penn loved the show (and he loved playing with my house keys), he's a pretty happy speech therapy by-stander.

The little guys and I had a great morning out and about on foot (no car and lots of errands to do plus nice weather).  We viewed a demolition project near Bakery Square and let Penn take a long nap in the stroller by just walking around for awhile and then stopping at a playground for Tav to get some energy out.  While there, we received an update from Doug.  Koen loved the exploratory creek walk.

I got the little guys home around noon and we had lunch and then got through the naptime routine.  I had a friend visit during naptime this afternoon and then it was pretty much time for the little guys to get through dinner.  I decided to feed Tav early with Penn so that we could get back outside (hoping the rain would hold off so we could get some fresh air).  Here's Tav enjoying his dinner.  I love that smile!

So, we did end up getting out before the next batch of rain and storms came.  Unfortunately, we did not get home before the storm though.  Oops!  We went to the new Aldi and loaded up on groceries and were just pulling into the playground for Tav to play diggers in the fresh new mulch (he was so excited!) and the thunder rumbled and then the big, heavy drops came and then it was an ultimate downpour and full-on thunderstorm.  Yep.  So, cue crazy urban momma running full-speed uphill with 2 kids and a stroller full of groceries.  Penn was frozen in confusion and Tav was giggling.  My heart was rushing wanting to get my babies home before lightning struck us and our steel-framed stroller!  Thankfully we made it safe and sound (and SOAKED!).  I carried everything up on the porch and then got things inside and the boys upstairs to dry off.  I didn't want to give them a bath since it was still lightning, so we just headed upstairs to air dry and play for a little while before bedtime.  Of course, photo opp!

Well, turns out it was a pretty fun night with my little guys.  We missed Koen and Daddy, but we had fun ourselves for sure.  We sent this pic to Doug to say goodnight.  Hopefully all is going OK at "camp!"