Birthday Celebrations!

The month of September marks the beginning of a very busy couple of months for our family.  We have lots of birthdays to celebrate between now and, well March, really.  Plus throw in Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day....geez, I am tired just writing about it all!  Even though its very busy, its such a wonderful time of year and I love celebrating and creating new memories, we are so very blessed!  

The first "local" birthday we have is Abby's.  And, this year Abigail celebrated her golden birthday.  She turned 7 on the 7th!  My Dad and Jane were here visiting over Labor Day weekend so the birthday celebrations stared early with them while they were in town.  Of course, we had to mark the occasion by sending in treat bags to school and a dinner out to a place of Abby's choice (she chose Chick-fil-a), and of course some cake and presents.  And, that wasn't all we also had a nice party at a cake shop where the kids were able to decorate their own cupcakes!  We had a really fun week of celebrating with Abby!  I still can't believe she is 7 and in 1st grade, seriously how did that happen?!?!

Treat bags for school. 

Go-go squeeze, skittles and starburst.

The night before Abby's birthday I hung streamers up in her doorway.  Her birthday was on a Friday so when I went in to wake her up for school, she was tired and groggy and it was dark.  She didn't notice them till they hit her in the face, but then she turned and looked at me with the biggest grin on her face! It's the little things that make her happy, and seeing her so happy and her smile melts my heart!

Here are the beautiful, vibrant bags of icing for the cupcake decorating

On top of 6 cupcakes to decorate and take home for each kid, there was a yummy cake to eat there  after pizza!

Andrew found this hat in the shop....

Most of the kids wanted a turn to pose for a picture with it on!

The birthday girl!

It's pizza time!

The only 2 boys allowed!

Listening intently to the directions on how to decorate the cupcakes

William said heck to decorating a cupcake, they taste delicious as is!!

Abby working on her masterpieces....they were very pretty and delicious!

Jenna with her cupcakes.  I wish I had gotten a picture of her finished product.  There was about 2-3 inches of icing piled on every cupcake in every color.  I was afraid the box was going to smoosh the icing!

L to R:

Lydia, Jenna, Aubree, Abigail, Claire, Olivia and Grace

I caught her pouting!!

And here are some pictures from the celebration with Grammy and Papi!

School Days

Oh my goodness!  Where does the time go?  I just looked at my blog and realized its been months since I have posted and I have so much to post about.  It is overwhelming to think about how far behind I am and I decided that if I didn't just post something, I would keep putting it off and just get further and further behind.  And....what better to start with then the girls first day of school??  So here it is and hopefully I will play catch up on all that went on over the summer in the next few weeks!

So this year I have a first grader.  That means all day school, all week long!!!  This is a big change from the kindergarten schedule last year which was full days 2 days a week and alternating Wednesday's.  Abby has taken the adjustment wonderfully and is loving First Grade.  I absolutely love her teacher, Mrs. Mori.  She sends an email (or 3) everyday and keeps the parents up to date on what they are doing in the class room.  She gives us talking points and things to focus on so that when we ask the kids what they did at school, we don't hear "nothing" or "I can't remember."  She sends home articles and occasionally will send a picture of the class.  I love feeling involved and like I know what is going on while Abby is gone for the better part of the day.  It also amazes me all the things they learn in first grade, stuff I take for granted; like how to write a proper sentence with capitals and lower case letters, indenting paragraphs, punctuation, ect. And don't get me started on math :-)  I am so excited for this year for Abby, I know she is going to grow, blossom and learn so much!  Let the school adventure begin!

I love this picture....do you see someone peeking out in the background?!?!?

And...a little later in the morning Olivia had her first day of Pre-K1.  I spent the whole summer telling her that she would have the same teacher this year (that is the norm at her school), but about a week before school we got a letter saying that her teacher from last year will only be working part-time and she would have a new teacher.  She actually took it better than I thought, in fact it didn't seem to bother her at all.  I think it helps that she is so familiar with the school and all of the staff.  I love Olivia's preschool and feel like she is getting a very strong foundation for when she eventually starts kindergarten.  She is going 2 days a week and then on Wednesdays, starting next week, her and William will be going to Mom's morning out, so she will be gone 3 mornings a week.  It is crazy and I knew it was going to happen but my babies are growing up!  I am excited to see what the school year holds for the girls!

Zoo

Both the Columbus and Cincinnati Zoos are amazing zoos and relatively close.  The kids love going to see all the different animals and of course playing on the playgrounds.  We went a few times in March and went again May and June.  I try to scope out days that aren't going to be sweltering hot because lets face it, the zoo when its a 100 degrees is not anyone's idea of a good time (plus all the animals are asleep).  William LOVES the animals and gets so excited!!  We love the zoo!!!

Giving the manatee a kiss

On the playground

Merry go round

With Melissa and her twins!

Williams first Merry go round ride

On one of our trips the girls got ice cream before we headed home....

....William was the ice cream swiper.  Putting his hands in the cups of unsuspecting girls and helping himself!

This is from our zoo trip in the beginning of June.  We went with some good friends who just PCS'd, we will miss the Clarkes!!