It goes so quickly!

Not only do we have a kindergartener in our house now, but our little one is sleeping in a big girl bed! The crib is taken apart in the basement along with other baby stuff...it feels crazy because I remember the day that Chris put the crib together before Ali was born! And now we can pass it on to the next family...Pete and Sheila???!!!!

Being crazy on her new bed!

We put the mattress on the floor just in case she falls off of it. Soon we'll put the frame together and put the mattresses up higher.

Happy to be Home

The bus was a bit late on the first day....so here is Lizzie waiting patiently for her sister!! :)

Here comes the bus!

Ali said,"It was REALLY fun!" She said they sang songs, went to an assembly, had snack, recess...sounds like a good day!

Our Kindergartener

Ali was a bit timid in the morning but happy and just fine when we left her in her classroom.

Neighbor friends who are also kindergarteners...they were so excited to ride the bus together.

First day of School!! We are so excited for you, Ali!!

End of Summer

I can't believe SUMMER is almost over! It's so hot here still that it's not really the end of the summer but just the end of our summer playing! And that thought makes me kind of sad...we've had so many fun things...I felt quite spoiled because the girls and I just got to go from one fun thing to the next all summer long!

The Highlights from our SUMMER with a 5 year old and a 2 and a half year old:

• Colorado Wedding and Hawaii...of course
• Swimming at Grandma Debbie's pool (not our Grandma but our neighbor's Grandma who generously let us come over to swim and escape the heat!)
• Library activities...the public library had lots of fun events...a magician, the yo-yo kid, a ventriloquist, a juggler
• Playing with Hannah (for Ali) and playing with Ty (for Lizzie)
• Going to Rainbow Recreation, Botanical Gardens, 4 birthday parties, Water park RiverChase, watching "Toy Story 3" at the theatre
• Family trip to Branson, Missouri (I forgot my camera that weekend but it was SO fun to go on a family trip and so close to home too!)
• Back to school shopping (I love this more than I should but how can you not love new clothes, new shoes, and new school supplies??)
• Neighborhood Back to School Brunch and Kindergarten Ice Cream Social (mainly those events were just excuses for Moms to get together and chat and have the kids play!)
  
  

Here is our SOON TO BE KINDERGARTENER!! We are so excited for her and I know she'll do really well. She is happy that we are going to take her to school that first morning but then she really wants to ride the bus every time after that! I don't know if I'll be a bit sad or not...I know Lizzie and I will miss her during the days...but at least she's only in half day kindergarten. Next year will be even worse! :)

Lizzie reading to Raggedy Ann and Andy. She was reading that book "Scat Scat" that was mine when I was little. She knows the story really well and uses a lot of the same language when she was reading it to her dolls!

Extra Curricular Activities BEGIN

We have not paid for any outside activities or sports for our girls...but that is about to change! Ali wants to try out dance...so we said since we weren't paying for preschool anymore, we could start dance lessons and she is so excited! She will be going to a ballet and tap combo class once a week and a couple other little girls from our neighborhood are going to the same class too.

I've mentioned before that she loves to stay home and she is hard to motivate to get out of the house. But when I said we were going shopping for dance clothes and shoes, she got ready in seconds flat! It was SO fun...the dance clothes are so cute!

Lizzie was so good about getting things for Ali. She picked out 2 dance outfits for herself but I said she couldn't get them because she wasn't starting dance until she is in kindergarten. So she put them back and said, "When I'm big I get these tutu's." What a good girl...so we bought her a little toy instead.

I'm TWO and a HALF!

She loves her Ty-Ty! See how she is LAYING on top of our kitty?? He actually seems to truly like Lizzie even through all of her antics with him! :) He is her favorite activity now...anytime he is around she is picking him up and rolling around with him!

Elizabeth is Two and a Half today!! Our little Lizzie is so sweet...she has asserted her personality and likes/dislikes more strongly recently so there is more negotiating in our house now...but she still is a little love. She cuddles everyone and likes talking about taking turns. She likes telling stories and everything that happened in the past she says, "yast night...." We love you so much!

A Swimmer Emerges!

Here is Ali (with her huge goggles on) ready to jump off the diving board ALL by herself with NO floaties on and NO adult in the DEEP end!

JUMP!!

And SWIM to the ladder!

Arrive at the LADDER and do it all over again!! I was so proud of her! We brought our 10 year old neighbor, Hannah, with us when we went swimming with our neighbor friends at Grandma Debbie's pool and I think Hannah inspired Ali to go for it! So, I had Ali practice swimming all by herself across the deep end and if she could do it, I told her then I didn't need to be right by her side. And she did it! She was so happy!

First haircut

I was so sad to cut off Lizzie's beautiful blond curls...but Chris and I thought she had kind of a mullet shape with it being so long in the back...so I evened it out with the sides. It looks cute and I know it will grow! I cut hers and Ali's the same day...but Ali has more hair and you could tell it was NOT professional...so I took her to Fantastic Sams and they helped even HER hair out! :)

The BEFORE picture...

She was watching TV so that I could have a compliant customer! :)

Happy Birthday Nora

The girls' only cousin Nora just turned TWO! For her gift, my neighbor made the shirt and I added ribbon to the capri's...I thought it turned out so cute that I wanted to show it off! Wish we could have been in AZ to help celebrate! We miss you!