she's a big kid now...

Sarah started kindergarten this past week.

How did 5 years go by so fast?

Dennis and I used to talk about all the things we wanted to accomplish before we had "kids in school". It's hard to believe that time has come, and we've got 18+ years ahead of us of having kids in school! Sarah got a great teacher this year and was very excited to start her first day.
She had her backpack, brand new clothes, fast new shoes, and a giant lunch bag she picked out herself.

Happy day for our big girl!

Just us girls

Last weekend, my little ladies and I had a chance to have some serious girl time while Daddy and Andrew went on a quick road trip. Activities included (but were not limited to):
mani/pedi night, a doughnut run to the local bakery,
the girls' first ever experience at the movie theater, shopping,
a couple trips to get ice cream cones,
and a pizza and movie night at home.

When the boys are away, the girls really will play!

Little Piggies

faces only a mother could love...

Lazy Summer

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

Do you play puppy dog... and build a "dog house"

or take a short nap like a cute little mouse?

pedal 'till you're pooped!

Because of all the hills in our neighborhood, we've never taken our kids on a real "bike ride." Sure they ride the bikes around the garage and at the end of our street, but that is nothing compared to what we attempted this week.

Dennis reminded me of a nice stretch of road that is flat, so we helped the kids down there, and then enjoyed a great Family Home Evening activity.

They were complete sissies at first. Every one was crying and flipping out about how scary it was and how fast we were going. But after about 10 yards, they realized it was actually FUN.


Andrew's trike has an extension bar that can be taken off when he's tooling around the garage or put on for us to help him along on a ride like this. It was wonderful and completely necessary on this ride!

We loved our little family adventure.

Simple Summer

There is no better way to beat the summer heat than to throw on a bathing suit and turn on the garden hose.
No better way.

This little buddy wants his trunks on, but wants no part of the water action.

While this silly girl is trying to fool us into thinking she's grumpy. Look at those eyes... she's not fooling me!

So give us all the heat you've got, summer.
Do your worst.
We can take it.

Have you ever...

Heard the story of the fireman,

the cowgirl,

and the bull rider?

Well... it's a good one!