First Day of School 2012

Just a quick post to update on the girls first day of school. If I said I wasn't nervous about their first day at a new school, I'd be lying. Although they had both made friends and were super excited, momma was a little nervous about it. As a child, I never had to switch schools. My parents have lived in the same house since I was 1 year old, so I never had to go through what so many kids have. I know kids are adaptable and usually handle change better than adults though, and thank goodness that has been true for my girls, too.

They both had a great first day of school. They were all smiles coming out to meet me and went on and on about their teachers and classmates. God has been so good through this whole entire transition. From finding and buying the new house, making new friends in our neighborhood and now with the transition to a new school. His hand has been in all of it. We KNOW we are right where He wants us!

Here's Macie on her first day of 4th Grade

And Maddie on her first day of 1st Grade

And not to be left out of the whole "first day" stuff - here's Mabrie on her very first day of Mother's Day Out! She was just as excited as the other two. But mainly because she loves her backpack. :)

Praying for a wonderful school year! I love you, girls!

Last week of Summer 2012

I guess it's just about official. Our summer has come to a close and this last week of sleeping in and spending the days playing with friends, running around town and just enjoying time at home is over and it's back to the routine. I always look forward to that, but I sure have enjoyed this summer break so much.

I knew that I wanted to try and do as much with the girls as possible this week and we really made the most of our days. We shopped, went to lunch together (several times), made crafts, played with friends, got ice cream, had sleepovers and had a great week together. Here's a little bit of our week in picture form!

On Monday, I ran to Hobby Lobby and got some things for Macie's wall. We spray painted these signs and I made her a cute chalkboard out of an old picture. She loves all of it!

We headed to the mall on Tuesday for some school clothes shopping and lunch

Tuesday afternoon I went to workout and it was "Tank Top Tuesday". This is a joke and if you aren't familiar with Crossfit, the trainers set the workout for the day and if you do it as "prescribed" then you Rx the workout. Well, I NEVER Rx a workout because I just can't lift some of the heavier weights - but I jokingly said the other day that I "Rx Burpees every time" and my friend Annie said that I HAD to get that on a shirt. So, here's what we came up with and it was a great time. All in good fun!

Wednesday, we had lunch at The Java House - a great little sandwich shop here in Greenwood.

Today, the girls and I went shopping again, this time for tennis shoes and then we ran over to Target to look around and grab a few things - lunch included! Sometimes it's nice to just grab a pretzel with cheese, isn't it?!

We have one last thing planned for tomorrow. We are meeting a new friend at the nail salon for a girly day! Maddie and Olivia are in the same class this year and we thought it would be fun for them to meet so that Maddie would know someone before Monday! We are all excited about it and looking forward to getting our toes painted together!

So thankful for the time with my kids! Have a great weekend - here's to a great school year and lots of memories!!

July 2012

Another month of summer just flew by and now we are 2 weeks away from the start of a new school year. The school supplies are bought and we are getting geared up for another year, but this year will be at a brand new school! The girls have already made several great friends and for that, I'm very thankful.

The month of July was busy but fun! It began with some of our very best friends coming in town for a 2 week long visit. We enjoyed having them over for dinner, spending the 4th of July with them (and several other great friends) and going swimming at Lake Fort Smith before they had to leave and head back to Pennsylvania. Travis, Sarah and girls - we had a great time and look forward to seeing you again soon!

The first weekend of July was also a big deal for Macie as she was able to go to Church Camp for the very first time! They can go after they complete 3rd grade and it was her first time away from us and home for that many days. She was super excited and had a wonderful time. She's already looking forward to next summer and has been making plans for all the fun stuff she wants to do!

The girls have enjoyed having friends over to play and they've spent lots of time outside on the water slide and in our neighbor's pool. We've done lunch dates with new friends, spent the night with the neighbor kids and gone on ice cream dates with them and have just had a great time! We are SO blessed to live by such great people!

Toward the end of July, the girls and I headed to St. Louis for a few days and then over to Illinois from there to visit our family. We were gone a week and enjoyed every minute of our time with family! We celebrated my nephew's 16th birthday, celebrated my parent's 45th Wedding Anniversary and had so much fun in Illinois with Mike's family - swimming, playing outside, eating yummy dinners, watching movies and just hanging out. Mike didn't get to go on that trip with us because he was out of town at a meeting and we missed him lots!

We finished up the last few days of the month just spending time together as a family. After being away from daddy for a week, the girls were excited to get back and see him. (And so was I!)

We packed as much fun into July as possible! It's hard to believe that we are into August and going to have to start getting back into the old routine. Part of me is ready for it, and part of me wishes we had a little more time to just be home and enjoy the lazy, but fun days of summer. Time just keeps on ticking away and we are trying to make the most of it - here's to the last 2 weeks of summer and packing in as much fun as we can!