August

 (Back to school pics in a post below.)

Just some random pics from August - mostly from before school started. 

Maggie being a helper/taste-tester.

Carlos and I working through the best way to handle canned salmon with all sorts of bones and skin. Gross.

Bee and I took the kiddos to the children's museum. They could have stayed in this one area all day.

Maggie completely passed out - naked, on a stool, in the middle of dinner.

We got to spend a lot of time with our friends the Schwarz's towards the end of summer. Sally and I were given the fun task of furnishing the West Ministry Center (mid-week meeting place / office space for our campus of Austin Stone - our church). We did a lot of it with the kids in tow, and after a final big day of getting everything set up we had dinner and let the kids play (we continue to be shocked that this can actually happen with little-to-no parental involvement)!

Owen before his much-needed back to school haircut.

We went to our standard cut place which can barely handle the girls' curls...but we got the job done.

Rebeca is an old pro at this.

Maggie wasn't quite sure...

Owen's finished faux-hoc.

Rebecca making one of her mystery cakes.

The kids enjoying another little dessert concoction of Rebecca's.

Carlos came to stay for a couple of weeks - always fun to have him around!

A pic a mom-friend sent me of Owen at a birthday party - love this kid's goofy side.

Maggie spending some one-on-one time with Marisela. I think they were watching Maggie videos - a favorite past-time.

Sometime mid August was Marisela's two year "anniversary" of working for our family. We are sooooooooooooo lucky to have her. We celebrated with a little surprise "National Marisela Day" - we asked her to come babysit one Friday night but instead took her to dinner to our favorite "fancy pizza" place. Gave her some little sussies the kids helped with including a framed pic of the kids expressing our love. :)

Hard to believe we're well into September and the school year. I actually started a Christmas list the other day - yes, I'm crazy. Come on fall!!!

The last to go...

While the bigs were at their first day of school...what were Maggie and I to do except make Minion cupcakes!?!?

Full disclosure: these are store-bought cupcakes with the (wrong-color) icing scraped off, store-bought icing turned blue put on, twinkies cut in half, some black icing from a tube and eye candies...nothing homemade or natural. Super easy. All fun.

A few days later Maggie got to have some special one-on-one time with Ms. Melissa before preschool gets back up and going. She feels like (and is) such a big girl!

So, two weeks after Owen and Rebecca started Maggie finally go tot go to school. (Weird to only be taking her to WPDS - we've been there 7 years!)

Mommy and Maggie BOTH excited!

Go Knights!

Rebecca's entrance into her RSA school community was made complete by her participation in the Lil' Cheer clinic - fun little after school class one day where all the junior high and high school cheerleaders teach all the littles how to properly cheer for the Knights. :) After the clinic the girls got to go out on the field right before the first game to show us their stuff. 

Rebecca before the performance.

The kinder girls getting lined up on the field.

We were watching a friend's baby that night so all the camera I could handle was a phone - so this is as close as I could get.

I did get a video of the cheer...the cheer Rebecca and the sweet little girl next to her talked all the way through. ;)

The entire group. I know this is the only the beginning for Rebecca - but I can already see how fun its going to be for her to have all of these older girls to look up to. What a sweet community.

Two down...

We've been in full school mode for two weeks now and its been a busy but great start to the year. Second grade and kindergarten!

Here we are morning #1. Kids got up better than I would have expected. I think we were all just really excited.

 

The night before when we were getting all our stuff ready I surprised Rebecca with a tiny new uniform...one that would only fit Rosalon (her American Girl doll).

A couple of pics before we head out the door.

Outside of school - all straight and serious.

Out in front - silly faces!

Easy to drop them off when they're so excited - they make my job easy.

So, three days a week Rebecca gets out earlier than Owen - so I get some time with her (and Maggie). So, before Owen got home we took a few more photos. Here is how Rebecca felt about it...

The mood improved...

...and fluctuated.

Later that afternoon Owen obliged me with a few as well.

This pic makes him look SO OLD!

A few more pics from the first week. 

Rebecca showing off her big purple backpack. And alternate uniform.

Waiting for carpool one morning.

I had the first center-time helping parent spot of the year - I couldn't wait to see Rebecca in her environment. She has the same teacher (the wonderful Mrs. Adams) that Owen had for kindergarten so it makes the transition that much smoother for us all.

One afternoon between R's pick up time and Owen's we ran some errands - I think Maggie missed Rebecca. :)