Birthday Fun!

We had so much fun celebrating Lu the weekend of August 13th!  She dreamed up several themes for her party and was very specific with the cake details - even telling the bakery herself what she had in mind!

This sweet girl continues to make us laugh...her latest thing is that she no longer takes baths, only showers.  So, she has some independence in the shower by herself and we've already had a lesson on shampoo rationing!  

Just a few weeks after Lucy's birthday, we gathered to celebrate Kay's birthday!  This is a family that loves a celebration...and a cake!  :-)

Goodbye to Summer!

When we weren't traveling, we didn't do a lot of sitting by the pool and "hanging out" this summer.  Instead, we were focused on the house situation.  It was well-worth our effort, but tremendous effort nonetheless.  When I think about this summer, I want to remember the state of Eli's Crocs at the end of it...he got them in May and you'll see below that he had such a good time in them that his big toe now sticks through and there isn't much tread left...that's what a lot of fun and "motorcycle riding" will get you (not a real motorcycle, just his Lighting McQueen Big Wheel that he really, really loves!) 

I wasn't at my most relaxed state this summer because having your house on the market DOES NOT equal relaxation...it equals cleaning in a frenzy and more "do you want fries with that" than I want to admit.  We've been in the new house almost a month now and the transition has been great!  I think it was especially easy for Lucy and Eli because we were over here so often and they got to see the progress on the renovation.  They even picked out the paint colors for their rooms (Lucy's is purple and Eli's is blue.)

The new house was built in 1991 (and has the brass to prove it!) and we love it so much!  We are lucky enough to have deer visit our backyard almost daily...a mother and her triplets.  Our neighbors have been here for 33 years and they have pictures from when the triplets were younger...those deer just stroll through our backyards each morning and evening.  As far as feeling "settled", we still have a zillion boxes, the to-do list is scary, and there are weeds as tall as me (no lie!), but we see progress every day and know that the house will grow with us!  Many thanks to our friend Bill for the significant upgrade on our appliances...we are cooking and creating to our heart's content! 

Our weather has been a touch cooler, so that's made it more comfortable to play outside.  We left a cul-de-sac, which was wonderful for playing and bike riding, but our new driveway is very long and seems to be working well...I sit in a lawn chair at the end of it, ready to catch anyone who passes by the established boundary before the street.  We are happy to learn these new things together!  

Lucy and Eli have been studying apples and the color red this week...both had to wear red to school yesterday, one of the teachers was dressed as Johnny Appleseed, and they did a lot of adorable apple crafts!  We're so very thankful for this first Fall in our new house!  

School Days

Lucy and Eli have are back in school!  They are in the same school this year, which makes things less hectic for me.  I was afraid Eli would be disappointed that they aren't in the same class so I explained to Eli that he would see Lucy at Chapel Time, then go back to HIS classroom with HIS teachers and friends...so far, so good.

Eli has two teachers that Lucy had before and they are happy to listen to him talk about dinosaurs for 5 hours.  Lucy's teacher is wonderful, we've had our first round of homework (!), and she's started playing school at home now.  Eli is her reluctant pupil and whenever she sits in the rocking chair and says "1-2-3, Look at me!" he immediately says "I want to go to the office."  You see, the first time they were playing "school" (I don't even know if Eli realized what they were playing), he didn't do what she wanted him to do, so she sent him the "the office".  Now he chooses to come to "the office"...he'll even say "I want to go play with the Officer!"...that's me!

Watching Lucy start to play school makes me laugh because I remember the HOURS I would spend playing school...I'm wondering if my friend Stacy is reading this...we would play school together F.O.R.E.V.E.R!  I can remember teachers offering their leftover papers at the end of the school year and my hand would shoot up into the air so I could take them home...I just loved sorting and organizing, such fun!  This is Lucy's last year at her preschool - Chris calls it her Senior Year! - she'll be in kindergarten next year.  Here are some pics from their first few days...