Meeting Cousin Tori Love

 The girls were so excited when I told them that Elliot and Katie were coming and they were going to meet their new cousin Tori Love. They were anxiously waiting by the window for their arrival.

 Brookie with her new baby cousin.

Brookie has always loved babies.

Aubrey with  Tori - she's such a good helper with little ones.

Aubrey's first item of business was to read Tori a story.

Then they had some fun with Uncle Elliot.

"Oh what a feeling, when you're walking on the ceiling."

More fun with their cute new cousin.

Kisses for cutie cousin.

 

The girls just loved their new baby cousin. What a cutie Tori is!

Aubrey's First Day of Kindergarten

 On August 29th, Aubrey began her first day of Kindergarten. She could not have been more excited about it. I knew she would love it and wasn't worried about her adjusting - but I was very sad to give up our flexibility and my freedom to take and do things with my girls according to my schedule. I was sad to give that up and now have the school schedule to follow. (I will even be more sad next year when she is in school all day :(.)

I told Aubrey she could pick what she wanted for breakfast. She choose chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate milkshakes (banana smoothies).

 Brookie liked Aubrey's choice!

The next thing Aubrey asked for was to have her nails done in a very predetermined pattern. She wanted pink and silver to match her first day of school outfit.

Brookie couldn't be left out of a manicure!

Then she got all ready and we went out to take some pics.

  

  

 She was really excited about this butterfly clip I crocheted for her the night before to match her outfit.

 

We had to take the traditional first day of school front porch picture!

She was trying to show off her new princess backpack.

This face shows how unbelievably excited she was. I should have counted the number of times she asked me if it was time to go to Kindergarten yet!

There's her much loved backpack.

And then we were off.

 We got to the school a little early, so we took a few more pics.!

Anxiously waiting to go into the school!

Now she's right outside her classroom door and oh so excited!

The doors open and she can finally go in. The look on her face doesn't show how excited she was. I think she was slightly annoyed that I made her stop for yet another picture!

She had an absolute blast that day and every day after. So far mommy is adjusting too! Her teacher is so sweet also. So we have had a very positive experience with our first month of public school.

Random Summer Photos

 We had so much fun at outdoor story time and craft time at one of the local libraries. This is a pic. from the last one of the Summer.

 My Dad's birthday is in July. My Sis-in-law, Karen, saw at a friends house that the kids all took pictures holding a letter of their last name. Well we happen to have 6 kids in our family and my Dad has a last name with 6 letters. So Karen had us each take a pic. with one of the letters of his last name with us in age order. I thought it was such a cute idea. I got to help with some of the photo editing and compiling the poster for him. Thanks for the great idea Karen - I think it turned out so cute!!

 Aubrey was invited to her friend Hope's birthday party. It was a ranch theme. Aubrey came home dressed as a cowgirl. Too cute!

  The day of our bake sale my girls were totally wired. The day after however I found them both crashed on the couch. (This almost never happens at our house.) I think the excitement and sitting out in the sun finally caught up with them!

During the summer, Jeff often goes out and works on the lawn and garden after dinner. The girls love to go out and play or help him. It's the perfect time to play outdoors since it has cooled off a little.

The girls were such little monkey's this year and have to climb and . . . 

 . . . hang on everything!

The girls found a grasshopper one night and made a home for it in the mailbox of their play house. They filled it with grass and hoped it would never leave, but make it's home there. It stayed in their for several hours, but when we went and checked on it in the morning, it was gone.

I took this pic. because I thought Brooke's hair looked really pretty that day and because I wanted to document her playing with her Snap 'n Style dolls. She has played with them nearly every day for months.

One night Dad and the girls were experimenting with how strong a grasshopper is. Here he is holding a block.

The girls went and grabbed lots of things for the grasshopper to hold. Here he is holding a magnet.

When Summer was here, we had a girls night and saw an outdoor showing of Fiddler on the Roof. Turns out it's Summer's favorite musical. Fun times.

We had lots of fun in the sun this summer. I'm still in denial that it's actually over. Can't wait until next Summer! Well we can have Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas first and then fast forward to the girls birthdays in the Spring!

Last Day of Summer Vacation

 .On the last day of Summer vacation we took our friend Zoe and played at a local splash pad and play center. The girls had a lot of fun! I didn't bring my camera and so only had my little tiny camera phone. But even with the terrible quality, you can see how much fun they had on their last day of Summer!

  

  

I'm still sad that our summer is over. The girls were at such a fun age to play all Summer. It flew by so fast. Time just flies by faster and faster each year. Slow down already!!