A last and two firsts

School has started.

I'm still trying to let that sink in.

School has started and the oh so busy schedule has started as well.

Sigh.

Can't we have summer for a bit longer?

Please.

Pretty please??

These two girls were SOOOOOO excited for school to start.

They both had picked out their first day of school outfits roughly five days before school started.

I think they looked pretty spiffy personally.

Last.

This girl is in her last year of elementary school.

She's one of the big kids on campus.

5th grade, I cannot believe it.

I swear she was a kindergartner yesterday.

Adison is so excited because this year they get to do band or strings.

She's really hoping to do violin, we should find out next week.

I'll keep you posted.

First.

Ainsley started kindergarten.

Again, I feel like just yesterday she was a little 9 month old going with me to take Adison to kindergarten.

She had been pretty nervous but then we found out that she was going to have Adison's kindergarten teacher as her teacher as well.

I was beyond pleased.

We also had Sneak Peek the day evening before school started and that really got her pumped.

She was so cute getting her backpack all ready and packing her lunch.

It was a riot watching her pick out her backpack and lunch bag {she picked Hello Kitty, shocker!}.

I couldn't leave Miss Abby out of the first day of school pics.

My girls are growing up!

Tears.

She held it together so well and then the tears started falling.

I knew they were coming because she had her little hands on her face.

When the dam first broke she had both hands on her little cheeks, that's a tell tale sign that Lee is going to lose it.

I held it together until she didn't, I managed to get teary but never actually cry.

It was so hard to keep it together, I knew this day would be hard for my little home-body, mama-loving girl.

She was so brave though you guys and her little excited face when school got out was priceless.

She told me in the van on the way home, "I cried because I missed you, then I forgot about you and didn't cry."

Poor Abby.

That first day that both of her sisters were gone was a tough one.

She kept telling me, "I want to stay home, I don't want to go anywhere without my sisters."
Cue the heartbreak, I felt so bad for this girl.

We met up with some friends at the library who knew that Miss Abby was having a hard time without her sisters, especially Ainsley.

I just love good friends that surround you and your children.

A week after the older two girls started school, Abby started preschool.

After the epic meltdown and shutdown that homegirl had at a preschool screening we decided to hold off on the whole preschool thing.

This shy girl wanted to stay at home which was fine by me, she's three.

She can stay by my side, no problems!

But then, one of my dear friends, Sarah, invited Abby to join her daughter in some homeschool preschool.

Let me tell ya, despite some tears the morning of before we left the house, she LOVED it!

Not a tear nor a turn of the head as I left happened.

She was a rockstar!

I feel like this is the exact right place for her to be, doing school with one of her best little friends and her mama who loves my girl so much.

It's perfection.

So, here we are, back at it.

Signing planners, looking at papers, making sure homework is done and lunches are packed.

Halloween 2012

How was your Halloween lovelies?
Ours went very well!

We started off our Halloween morning with a parade and a party at Adison's school.

The little girls love looking for Adison and shouting out what the other costumes are.

It's crazy to think that next year I will have two kiddos in school, eek.

After the parade/party we headed back to the van, which you can barely see in this picture.

I thought that this picture of Lee was so sweet, I played around with it a bit on my phone.

We had lunch, rested/napped, had dinner then went over to my Dad and step-mom, aka Morning according to Abby, house.

It was their first trick-or-treating of the day.

I even got some candy, score!

My dad {who shouldn't be doing yard work!} just can't help himself when the girls are over, he had to rake up some leaves so they could jump in them.

He's quite the kid himself, I think it's what makes him such a fun Papa.

This child, she slays me with her beauty, spunk and goofiness.

It was a gorgeous night out, I think I took five or six pictures of the sky alone.

We went out ToT-ing with some friends/small group members.

The girls were so excited because they each had a buddy to run house to house with and scream like terrified banshees.

K, who is such a kid himself, dressed up like a Jedi.

You should have heard the kids commenting on his costume/light saber when it got dark out.

Hysterical.

K and Kip had a light saber battle, luckily no limbs were lost in this epic match.

But then Abby took K on with her glow in the dark fairy wand and I think it's safe to say that she won.

Fair and square.

Trust me, you do not want to duel with a fairy princess.

Speaking of Babs, she was a riot.

Homegirl would raise up both of her arms and come running to us saying, "I GOT CANDY!"

Abby the fairy princess, Adison the NCIS agent and Ainsley the Barbie princess.

Have I mentioned Abby's princess song?

If not, this is what she repeatedly sings while dressed as a princess.

It's awesome.

She up and decided to turn 10 on me

Adison's first picture as a 10 year old.

Double digits.

Yikes.

K was so kind to point out that she will be gone, at college, in 8 years.

I didn't appreciate that reminder, at all.

This girl.
Sigh.

She slays me.

She is so kind, intelligent, witty, insanely goofy, talented, artistic, athletic, creative and thoughtful.

My mom came in town this past weekend to celebrate all four girls' birthdays, my niece's plus our three girls.

She also watched my brother and I run in The Color Run, yes, I did it again.

I'll do a post about that tomorrow.

Neither one of us look very excited in this picture, but we were.

We had just finished Adison's dinner choice, Pasta Bake AKA Baked Ziti.

She's not a fan of cake so we made sundae's for dessert.

The girls loved picking their own toppings, girls love choices.

My Dad got Adison a Barnes & Noble gift card, she is an avid reader.

She perused the shelves several times, carefully choosing which books she wished to purchase.

It was funny watching her pick out books, then declaring that she was only going to get paperback because they were cheaper.

Then, we needed to tally up the prices because she wanted to have some money left on her gift card.

It was awesome.

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Just keep swimming...

and in our case: swimming and swimming and swimming.

Hey-o!

This is me after day two of marathon swimming {soon to be three and then hopefully four!} yay sunscreen.

Today {like yesterday} the girls had swimming lessons {see the picture below}.

We then have a few hours for errands, lazying around, lunch and nap time for the Babster.

We then meet up with my besties {Clara and Jennifer} to work out.

It has been fabulous, I Never Never Never would have thought that I would actually enjoy working out, but I do.

Then, we get the kids ready and skedaddle out to the pool where we spend the remainder of the day.

The older two girls are taking swim lessons this week and next week.

The super fun part is that we scheduled it so that we go with my besties and our kids are all best friends too!
{I don't know if I have mentioned before, but Jennifer and Clara are sisters-in-law, so I guess I should have said the kids are all best friends/cousins.}

Next year Abby will get to take swimming lessons as well, say what!

This sweet girl is LOVING the pool.

and the snacks

and the friends

and the jumping

and the splashing

and the, well, pretty much everything

Run Adison Run!

Adison had her Spring Fun Run for school on Monday.

She was really looking forward to it and I was really looking forward to cheering her on!

Oh the excitement I felt when she came into view.

Running running running

She finished fourth among the girls and was pleased as punch.

You could see how excited she was to get close to the finish line, to hear the whooping, the hollering, her name being yelled.

It's kinda fuzzy, but can you see that big grin on her face?

I saw it and felt it spread to my face as well.

That girl is pure sunshine.

After they had the race there was a carnival.

Abby wanted to be held the entire time and I would have loved to have been able to do it, but my arms were getting sore.

I eventually asked K is he thought she could fit between me and the backpack {diaper bag}.

She did and couldn't have been happier.

I could feel her little body relax into mine, I love having her close to me.

Ainsley was thrilled at all the bouncy houses they had.

This one had a mini-obstacle course and a big slide.

Her little best friend Kaylin went on it with her several times.

There is something about watching to little girls run hand-in-hand, with excited giggles that makes everything feel okay in the world.

She then went over to an actual bouncy house where she bounced around like a loon.

Then, without any indication, she ran headfirst into a big blow up column and went flying backwards.

It was a riot.

This is Adison and her bff, Emmy.

They were gladiators.

Teeny tiny little gladiators.

It was epic.

We had such a fun night.
Catching up with friends.

Children playing and having fun.

Can't wait for next year!

busy busy busy

This weekend was cuh-razy busy.

Seriously.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the farmers market, they didn't have too much as it's pretty early in the season but we did snag some goodies.

Asparagus, green onions and some yummy spinach & feta whole wheat bread.

After that we headed home and surprise the girls because K's Mom and Dad came down for a visit.

They wanted to see Miss Adison play at her soccer game.

Guess what happened?!?!

She scored a goal!

She was so excited and we, her massive cheering section, were so happy for her.

My dad, brother, sister-in-law, niece, K's mom and dad as well as the five of us were there.

Talk about fun!

Lee and her two besties, Kailyn and Cameron.

After that we went out to lunch, came back to our house and chilled, then it was off to church.

I love church.

Love love love it.

K took this picture of these beautiful, viney flowers.

I have no idea what they are called, but I do know that they grow on a vine and are very pretty.

 This morning, we went out to Lowe's to tackle some projects.

K is working on our front porch, specifically the hand-rails.

Yippee!

Me, well, I didn't really need anything from Lowe's but love to go there.

My obsession current project is eradicating the vines from our backyard.

They were starting to take over and I just couldn't handle it anymore.

Plus, we have been extremely a little lax about doing yard work and there were some major things that needed to get done. 

I lifted up a rock in the backyard on Sunday and found this GIGANTIC earthworm.

It was seriously disgusting and was as large as my pinky.

Horrifying.

I screamed then ran to get K and the kiddos so they could take a look as well.

Last but not least, I found this antique fireplace tool holder thing under our front porch.

Yes, under the front porch.

I pulled it out and decided that it would be fun to paint and put it outside as a decoration in one of the flower beds.

I painted it today and can't wait to show you how good it looks!

How was your weekend?

Branson~ How I adore thee

Okay, so, yesterday I mentioned that we went to our yearly stomping grounds of Branson, MO.

I have been going with K's family since before we were married and they have been going even longer than that.

It's something that we all look forward to.

We have our must-visit places and we made sure to visit them.

The Track.

Every year we head to ride go-karts.

{Well, I think every year, weather permitting.}

Poor Abby, we thought she would be big enough to maybe ride something, anything.

Nope.

She was big enough to ride the quarter machines, despite a few smiles, she was ANGRY.

Like, screaming on and off for about 2+ hours angry.

Adison, she loved every. single. second. of it.

She was big enough that she could ride on everything and was even able to drive a go-kart by herself.

She rocked at the bumper boats.

Ainsley was a rock star at shooting the water guns on the bumper boats.

She wasn't big enough to drive so Grandma took her.

{Thanks Grandma!}

They had a mini go-kart track for the littles like Lee to drive.

She surprised me with how well she did.

 

We managed to squeeze in some shopping, I got some new running shoes.

Thanks Nike outlet store!

As I mentioned yesterday, we checked out the Disney store.

The littles freaked out in the best way possible.

Squealing, dashing from place to place and "Oh! Look at this!" abounded.

 

Poor Babs, despite our attempts to get her to bed on time and whatnot, homegirl was exhausted.

She actually slept in the car for a decent nap.

Okay, so I'm going to embarrass myself for a moment.

On the way home we stopped by the Osceola Cheese Factory.

It's another of our must-stop locations.

Normally we stop on the way to Branson and the way home.

It is so incredibly delicious, yum.

Ainsley needed new flip flops, girl's feet had a major growth spurt.

While at the Walmarts she and I both saw these gems and knew that we had to have them.

So stinkin' cute!

 

I mentioned yesterday the tornado that struck Branson a few weeks back.

This was one of the first effected buildings that we saw and let me tell you, it was shocking.

It was so sad to see how bad some of the buildings were hit yet such a sense of relief that it wasn't worse.

I'll share some more pics tomorrow!

Data entry and spring cleaning

Today, while Abby slept I worked on some data entry.

Did I tell you that I am on a subcommittee for the PTO?
Well, for that committee I am on another subcommittee, awesome sauce.

For the second subcommittee we are working on a study topic trying to find out about communication among other things between schools and parents.

We were expecting to get maybe a couple hundred responses and were thrilled to get close to 900.

Such a great number!

We have a couple hundred paper copies of the survey that need to be entered so we can tally results and whatnot.

So that has been my mission, get my portion of the written surveys entered.

You know what I've discovered?
I really enjoy data entry.

Yep, that's right.


This morning around 11 o'clock I got a call from Adison's school, she puked.
I was worried about her, my poor baby.
But then, I get there, she's laying down on the cot/bed thing and she says, Mommy, I feel fine.
Oh, okay.
 We are 99% sure it was from her donuts, sugar overload.
Now she's home for two days, score!
We of course had to stop by Sonic to pick up a Sprite for her and treat her sisters to Sprites too.

Abby has been galloping around the house singing
Bate bate, chocolate

She's a big Dora fan.

Spring Cleaning.

The kids DE-MOL-ISH-ED the house on Saturday.
I had been putting off doing a big cleaning but K took one look at it and declared it time.
For a while the house was even messier but then, at long last, it was clean.
Less than 24 hours later it was trashed again.
But at least it was a clean trashed???

Ainsley starts ballet tonight.
She is beyond excited and told me earlier that she wanted to go right then and wait outside there until is started.
Too bad it was like 5 hours before then.

I minimized the toys and clutter.
I was seriously feeling overwhelmed by all the stuff in our house.

We celebrated my Dad's birthday this weekend.
It was a lot of fun, good food, wonderful company.
Such a nice celebration!

How was your day/weekend? 

We went on a walk and found a dog

Yesterday afternoon, after naps {two naps in two days for me, score!}, while K was helping a friend hang some sheet rock, the girls and I went for a walk.

Nothing big, just a walk around the neighborhood and down to the neighborhood park.

They played on the swings, then the monkey bars, the carousel, the teeter totter and back again.

Adison worked on her skateboarding.
She is determined to get it figured out.

Ainsley, well, bless her heart, poor girl has caught a cold.

She really wanted to go on the walk though, so I brought the double stroller.

She had moments of perkiness, especially while at the park.

Abby, well, homegirl is full of vim and vigor with a heaping side of sass.

Momma, we can leave in three minutes!

I had told them two.

Momma, I do it by myself, you stand here.

When we were about to head home a cute little beagle was running around the park.
It had obviously gotten out of someone's yard and was having a great time running around sniffing all the new smells.

One thing to know about my girls is that they are all animal lovers.
Dogs though, they LOVE dogs.
So seeing this cute little pup run around was beyond exciting.
Abby could hardly contain her excitement and was adamant about her need to pet the dog.
The dog however had different ideas.

Those ideas being: run around sniffing everything
staying just out of reach of the kids wanting to pet it
stay close enough to us that the girls thought that they were going to get to pet it
rinse
lather
repeat

At one point Abby was so worked up about the dog that she plopped down on the middle of the sidewalk refusing to go one step further.
Fortunately for me, I can still pick her up and buckle her in the stroller.

We get home, Abby crying most of the way for the dog, when guess who shows up on our back porch?

Yep, the pup.
Sigh.

Happy Valentine's Day my loves!

Happy Valentine's Day my sweets!

How has your day been so far?

Ours has been filled with a lot of little girl excitement!

The girls a few moments ago.

The littles had just gotten out of the tub :)

Ainsley got some new sunglasses today at her V-Day party.

She was ex-ci-ted!

How darn stinkin' cute is this!?!

Lee made it for me.

My mom and step-dad sent me these today!
I LOVE getting flowers!
We got some more goodies in the mail today but are waiting until K gets home to open them.

This morning I watched my niece for a couple of hours.
She and Abby made these.

Aren't they fun!

My sister-in-law, Betsy, made these cute crayon hearts for the girls.
Betsy is so creative and thoughtful!

I made muffins for Adison and Ainsley to take for school today.

Of course, they are PINK!
You're not surprise are you, ha ha!

Ainsley is now writing her name by herself.

Seriously.

How, when, what, how did she grow up so fast?

Yes, she made a card for herself to take to school ;)

Last but certainly not least, this is the V-Day card box that Adison made.

She is so creative I can't get over it.

It looked SO good!

How has your Valentine's Day been?
Are you super into Valentine's day or not?

xoxo my loves!