You see, my baby started preschool today.

I'm not certain how this happened. I'm pretty sure he was born, I blinked and then suddenly it was the first day of school.

He was so excited to pick out his green shorts to wear to his very first day. Green is his favorite color, after all.

I ordered him a green dinosaur backpack, too. With a green dinosaur lunchbox for his snacks. Because, you know, green is his favorite. And dinosaurs are pretty cool too.

This kid was more than ready to start school. His momma, however, was not ready. Not even a little bit. If I could bottle up my kids at each age and keep them there forever I'd be the happiest woman in the world. Will reminds me often that he's going to grow up some day and that I'm going to cry. I know, buddy. I know.

But, like I said, he was more than ready for this. And oh so excited! 

It started like any other day... get out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth and then mommy made sure we had enough time to take pictures outside with Will's special "First Day of School" sign that I made thanks to Pinterest. I was mildly stressed about getting out of the house on time but luckily my boys keep me well grounded.

Will was so brave all morning. He was so excited on the drive to school with Mommy, Daddy and John.

 Mommy stayed brave when it was time for Daddy, John and I to leave. I hugged you, said goodbye and we walked out knowing that this was a big change in your life and ours. And when daddy and I got to the car, mommy cried. A lot. 

This is just the first of many "firsts" in your life and its so hard for Mommy to watch you grow up so fast right in front of my eyes without any way to slow time down. Yet at the same time I'm filled with so much joy, love and pride as I watch you take each new step in your journey of "firsts" and see you grow up into the kind, sweet, smart little person that you are becoming.

You are only in school 3 mornings a week, yet it feels like so much more after the last (almost) 4 years you and I have spent together nearly every day.

You brought home this special picture for me and I put it right on the fridge. It's one of those pieces of artwork that I'm certain will have a place there for a very long time.

Daddy and I are so, so proud of you Will. 

Congratulations on your first day of school. We love you so much.

John found a fun little activity center to climb into. Whenever he's thinking about something he sticks his bottom lip out. Too funny!

Headed back to the pedal tractors with Will & Papa!

These little bouncy animals are always a lot of fun...

...until you topple over :)

Will pedaled the bicycle carousel. And then we went past the musical instrument bus and onto the firetruck. You can climb into the cab of the firetruck and also onto the back of it, up a ladder and down a slide. 

We went to check out the goats. John thought stepping on the poop was a really fun activity.

Will made a new friend.

Will loves animals and has little fear around them. He went right up to the cow and wanted to climb under to milk it. He had to be reminded that he had to wait for the employee to help him. He had no trouble getting a hold of the udder and milking away!

Had to go check out the fake cow to see if it was like the real one he just milked.

John was really impressed by the Alpaca. Or maybe not.

Will pretended to be each animal in the farm. If you look closely, you can see John in there too!

There is a tractor wagon ride where the kids sit in the wagons and the tractor drives you around the farm. Will's favorite part is when they make a really big circle and drive all the wagons into a big "loopty loop"

Maybe that's what inspired Will to have Mater pull Lightning at home later...

This pose reminds me of his daddy: arms tucked behind the back in his military pose.

Erik has wanted an alpine hat for a while now. He finally treated himself to one, and some festive pins, while we are at Germanfest. On a side note, it appears as though John is practicing to be a pirate.

I packed an easy dinner for the boys of peanut butter sandwiches, string cheese and applesauce. Then we treated the boys to some ice cream. John's preferred method of eating his string cheese was by dipping it in his ice cream. 

He had to try on Uncle Mark's hat, too! 

Erik wanted to buy some pins for the boys. Will picked out a violin because he loves music so much. He picked a pretzel pin for John because, well, John loves to eat. The vendor threw the Peter Pan hats in complimentary. They look adorable and we know we will get a lot of use out of them because these 2 love to wear hats!

I love everything about this picture of the 4 of us. It's especially impressive because the boys were already well past their normal bedtimes. They are troopers and give us a break on nights like these so that we can all enjoy fun time together as a family. 

Nana & Papa treated the boys each with a fun paddle ball game. And I love this picture of John because it looks like he's tipping his hat to one of the many ladies he's always flirting with.

After a very late night the night before, we left our house less than 12 hours later to head to South Milwaukee to participate in the local Heritage Days celebration and parade. Caterpillar is a big part of the community in South Milwaukee and is a part of the parade each year. They drive some of their equipment in the parade and invite employees and their families to join them. We thought it would be a lot of fun with the boys so Erik signed us up to walk in the parade, have lunch at their manufacturing facility and office cafeteria and then he volunteered his time to help at the event.

We arrived early so that we could meet up with the other parade walkers in the CAT staging area. The boys got to see the trucks up close, we put on a lot of sunscreen and then found a spot in the shade for the boys to run a little and burn off some energy.

It ended up being a much longer wait than we expected and Will and John were getting a bit restless. Right before our group was set to start walking, they boys were overly rambunctious running down the sidewalk. Will took a pretty good digger and landed on his knee and immediately started screaming. We got him calm and into the wagon and proceeded on the parade route. My first aid kit was in the car so we didn't even have bandaids to help the poor little guy. Luckily, he was a trooper and he was happy enough to throw candy to all the kids watching the parade and it mostly made him forget about having hurt himself.

John had little interest in being in the wagon at this point as he had spent a lot of time sitting around in it before the parade began. Erik and I took turns carrying him and tried (rather unsuccessfully) to get him to walk while holding one of our hands.

We were both pretty hot and exhausted by the time the parade finished!

We met up with Nana & Papa at the end and headed over to the CAT facility for our hot dog lunch and ice cream. The boys thought that was pretty cool and very much enjoyed it. 

We explored the facility a little bit and checked out the mining/Bucyrus/Caterpillar museum that they have near the cafeteria. 

Then, we loaded up the boys in the car and Erik headed to do his volunteering at the popcorn and coloring booth and the boys got home for a well deserved nap in their beds.

We finished off the weekend with a cookout with Erik's extended family at our home. This gave Nana & Papa a chance to visit with some folks they don't get to see too often. It was a great end to a very busy weekend and, from looking back, a very busy July for our family!