Logan Starts Preschool!

On September 2nd Logan started preschool. He turned 5 on September 19th but the cutoff for kindergarten entrance in Utah is September 1st. (We look at it as a bonus year to maybe catch up in size to the other children his age:) Conveniently, as with Dagan's former preschool, Logan's is also just a couple of streets over from us out of a neighbor's home. His teacher, Miss Jodi, taught in a public school until she had four children of her own. Grapevine Preschool had an Open House for the families to attend prior to school starting. Here are a few photos we took at the Open House. The third one has Morgan in it as well, having some refreshments with Logan.

Here is Logan on his first day of preschool:
Below are Dagan and Logan in front of our house. This is the first day ever that they are both going to school. Logan has anxiously awaited this moment for a very long time.
Dagan telling Logan what school will be like:
Logan so grown up on the front porch at his preschool:
I had to share something that Logan did the other day that made me laugh. He has been asking me since the beginning of last year when he would start kindergarten. My all-too-assuming response was "when you're five". I failed to explain to him "the academic year that starts after you turn five". He attends preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays but Monday morning as I'm getting Dagan ready for school, Logan is scurrying around asking me to help him get a "show-and-tell" for kindergarten. (???) I asked him why he thought he was going to kindergarten and he said because he turned five on Friday. Poor boy was so disappointed when I explained he has to wait another 11 months. (My children measure distant future events by how many birthdays and holidays have to pass first.) However, once I pointed out that if he went to kindergarten Miss Jodi would not be his teacher, he was relieved to still be in preschool.

Family Night at Liberty Land

One of my obsessions is doing tasks in chronological order. (This could explain why I'm stuck at Logan as a newborn in my scrapbooking endeavors.) So we've had an eventful couple of weeks but I want to go back to a month ago, August 2oth. It was two days after school started and we decided to have an end-of-summer/back-to-school celebration at Liberty Land in nearby Lehi, UT. We all had so much fun and a lot of laughs. I got some of the cutest pictures I have ever captured of my kids enjoying themselves. It was great that there was a variety of entertainment there with appeal to all ages. I loved this picture below of the three of them. If you click on the photo you can see up close their cute smiles. Morgan had such a good time on this ride.
The first thing we did there was go on the bumper boats. We laughed so hard! The guide put Alan in a boat with Morgan and then Dagan in one by himself. Then she put Logan and I in one with a water squirter on the front. (Alan and Dagan's boats didn't have them.) Logan and I had so much fun squirting at Alan. Poor Morgan was the innocent one who got soaked from being trapped with Alan, though we did try to avoid hitting him. What we didn't count on was Alan's skillful maneuvering capabilities. After about ten minutes of getting shot at, he gained composure and was unapologetic in bumping Logan and I under a waterfall. We ended up getting more wet than Alan by far and lacked the ability to steer ourselves out. Logan went nuts thinking I wasn't trying hard enough to get us out. But we seriously had the hardest laughs we possibly ever have had as a family. Here are Morgan and Alan unsuspectingly smiling before our strategic surprise attack.
We spent a lot of time on the race cars. With it being a school night, there weren't any lines in the almost four hours we spent there. We had our own personal guide and it was like we were movie stars that they closed the park special for (what an imagaination I have!). Our kids had immediate gratification as soon as they pointed to their next ride. The cars were a favorite we kept returning to. Dagan drove his own car (and did really well) and Alan and Logan were together in a car while I drove with Morgan.

The picture of Morgan below is one of the cutest I have of him ever! I love his "laughing smile"! He was smiling and happy the entire time we were at Liberty Land. (His standard for amusement/entertainment always has been fairly high.)
Morgan spotted the "choo-choo" right away. They all wanted to ride in the engine.
I love it when we find things they enjoy doing together as brothers. Look at all those adorable smiling faces!
Dagan always has been pretty fearless and I think Morgan will be the same way. Dagan climbed the rock wall below with ease (despite not having the appropriate footwear for the occasion) and rang the bell at the top. That's him in the green shirt at the top.
I had to zoom in and take a picture of him at the top then hurry up and view it to make sure he really was OK all the way up there. Sure seems to be! I can't believe how old he is sometimes. I think back to his tireless efforts to climb up on the furniture only six years ago!

It's OK Mom. I'm fine!
And then there was Logan's attempt. This actually was as high as Logan made it. He didn't even want to try so we told him we were so proud that he put the gear on and made it up two sets of grips (not sure what they are called). He likes his feet on firm ground like his Mom.
Logan asked us all night if we could play miniature golf. I thought for sure with all the rides he would lose interest after only a couple holes. He didn't !?! We played all 18 holes and both he and Dagan were enthusiastic the entire time. Alan and I had our own little competition with a prize. I won...a massage, which he's always been generous with anyways. Dagan and Logan talked about Liberty Land for a while after. It was definitely a favorite that we will return to next summer!