Sa'Coma Beach, Mallorca, Spain

As one might imagine, I have a ton of photos from our trip to Mallorca last month. We had an incredible family vacation that involved a lot of time in pools and at the beach.

Where do I start with posting pictures?

Well, I 'm just posting some of my favorites from our time spent on the actual beach.

Our resort was just a short walk to the Sa'Coma beach front.

The island itself is quite large and we chose to stay away from the big city and on the more quiet family friendly end of the island. It was definitely the right choice for our family as we found that we didn't leave the resort much... besides heading down to the beach.

All three of the kids enjoyed playing in the sand and building sandcastles and splashing in the water.

Grace made several attempts to eat the sand and I'm not sure she ever figured out that it's not that tasty.

Benjamin enjoyed riding the waves in and spent more time actually in the water than anyone in our family. While Samuel and Grace both enjoyed time in the water,

I think they enjoyed the endless amounts of sand to play in more than anything else at the beach.

Benjamin's First Day of American Kindergarten

Benjamin started school right after Labor Day. He was excited about starting American Kindergarten but a little reluctant to riding the bus. Unfortunately, it was a dreary rainy and windy morning on September 7 here and we were running a little late. I seriously didn't think he was going to catch his 7:38 a.m. bus but somehow we made it out the door and he made it and I even managed to get in a few pictures.

So, here's our big kindergartener, Benjamin on his first day at Patrick Henry Village Elementary School.

The first couple of pics are from the lobby of our building before he geared up with his rain jacket and umbrella.

He looked so big and so ready for his big adventure but shortly before the bus came so did the realization that he was getting on a big bus... WITHOUT Mommy!

He teared up and fought back the tears as I explained to him that someone would be on the bus to help him know what to do, where to sit and what to do when he arrived at school. And his buddy, Edward, would be with him.... they could sit together and all would be good.

So, off he went onto the bus and out of the wind and rain. He came home tired and VERY hungry (apparently their lunch is at 10:40 a.m.)

He said the kid from his class that sat next to him on the bus ride home actually fell asleep. But overall his day was "SUPER AWESOME!" and the bus ride was "Awesome!" as well.

They learned about raccoons the first week of school and he shared interesting facts about the nocturnal creatures with us nightly at the dinner table. He is such a sponge and just soaks up everything they're learning about. I love hearing about every little thing he learns. It's all so new and such an adventure.

However, he is not so fond of rest time at school and doesn't particularly like getting up before the sun to get ready for school.

Week two of school they learned about coconuts and he is now a wealth of information about coconuts as well!

Samuel's First Day of German Kindergarten

I am soooo backlogged on photos that I had hoped to post... but in effort to catch up with some of life's recent happenings in our world I will try to make some more posts...

On September 1, Samuel started German

Kindergarten at Markushaus, the nearby kindergarten that Benjamin attended last year. His best buddy in the neighborhood, Eli, also started there this year. The two of them are very eager and excited to be following in their big brothers footsteps.

We were actually just returning from our week in Spain when I realized the following day was September first and the beginning of the school year for our little man. I hadn't been mentally prepared for this big step or been preparing Samuel for this event either.

So, I was a little nervous to spring this on him. But he was excited and ready to go on his big day. He couldn't wait to take his backpack and lunch box (for morning snack), find his cubbie, wear his house shoes at school and play with the marble run he had longed to stay and play with last year daily as we dropped his brother off.

So, off we went on September 1 and he was grinning from ear to ear. He was happy to find that he has the same cubbie that his brother had last year and he seemed to know exactly what to do when we arrived. He took off his backpack, hung up his jacket and lunch box, then sat down to change into his house shoes.

Then he and his buddy were off to explore the marble run.

Overall, these first couple of weeks for him have gone great! He generally reports that his school days are "Super Awesome!" and he has been learning a "Guten Morgen" (Good Morning) song and "Elefant" game. The teacher reports that he doesn't say too much but participates... claps, sings, dances, colors, etc. His favorite part of the day is going outside on the playground (which, with the amount of rainy days here isn't always a daily happening). He was so excited the first time he colored a picture and couldn't wait to bring it home; however, they don't generally bring their pictures home right away.

They hang them and put them on display. So, we took a picture of it with my iPhone so he could show Daddy and Benjamin his big accomplishment. He was good with that.

Most days he comes home hungry and tired. There have been quite a few days that he has fallen asleep on the couch shortly after lunch. It's a lot for a lil guy but he seems to be loving it and is constantly asking "How do you say [something] in German?"

Life Lately

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind for the Chapman family lately...

Don took two plus weeks of leave during the month of August and we enjoyed a ton of activities and day trips with the kiddos then we spend a week on the island of Mallorca, Spain and now returned to school and soccer starting up.

So, I have a ton of photos to post but thought I'd just drop in quickly and post my favorite picture from our trip to Mallorca.

The majority of our vacation we spent at the resort we stayed at or the beach which was a short walk away from the resort. On our last day there, we took one boat excursion on a glass bottom boat to another part of the island. It was great and the kids really enjoyed the boat and we enjoyed seeing other parts of the island and the view from the sea.

When we stopped for a little bit over an hour at a port area of the island. We did a little shopping and Samuel fell in love with this little guitar. He had to have it so before we boarded the boat again we stopped in and bought it for him. He strums it quite nicely but breaks out into a rowdy song and dance on occasion. It's just so Samuel! And I just love this picture of our boy and his little guitar on the boat.