The First Day Of School

The first day of school for our girls was August 20th.  They were SO excited!  The day we got home from our 6 week vacay to Seattle, the first thing they wanted to do was go school shopping.  I know that they will probably not always be excited about school starting but I sure appreciate and love their enthusiasm right now!  Kiara is officially a 3rd grader and Mckenna a 1st grader.  Having both of them gone from 8:40-4:00 made for a VERY long day for me.......

 

Can you tell by their faces how excited they were?

A new dress for Mckenna and a new shirt for Kiara.

 

We are SO big!!

 

Ava needed to get into the picture too of course :)!  She completely thought she was going to school too - poor girl!  She has her backpack on and her phone as well.  In case you were wondering about the no pants - we are still potty training.

 

Walking out to the bus.

I cannot believe how big they are getting. I hope this will be a fun and educational year for my girls!

Ohio/Michigan with the Towne's

With Tom not working, we have realized that we are really lucky to have family so close!  The past 2 weekends we have spent with Steven, Heather, Emily, Avery.  They came to Ohio and then we drove to Michigan.  It is such an easy drive and of course so much fun!  Here are a few pictures from our weekends together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't get a photo of Emily going down these huge slides but she did!!!  Thanks for the fun weekends Towne's!

 

 

 

 

 

Soccer is starting again

It kind of feels like it just ended but here we go again!!!

In the spring, around 30 girls tried out for strongsville travel soccer.  All the girls on Kiara's 8 year old team had such a great tryout, that they kept the team together.  Kiara is on the U9 - A team playing this year against U10 - B teams.  They began the season with a round robin tournament and finished 3-0-1.  It is really fun for Kiara, as well as for us to be with the same girls and parents.  It is neat to see Kiara so comfortable and silly and having such a great time!  I think the coaches are going to have some trouble keeping these girls in line because they are all so close :)!

We call Ava our little mascot because she is a PRO at coming with us to all kinds of activities and is so much fun at the same time!!

 

What better way to celebrate than with some frozen yogurt?!?!

 

Mckenna wasn't too interested in playing soccer again but we signed her up for one more season to see if she likes it better when they are not playing bunch ball.  She will still be doing gymnastics and dance (her favorites) as well.  The first camp and practice went well and she had a great time!  Her first game is on Saturday. 

 

We did it again!

Heather sent us a picture of Emily's hair straight and so Mckenna wanted to do this again as well.  Mckenna's hair is growing out of her curls.  It is hard to believe that she once had such curly hair! 

 

What a beautiful girl!

Ava is growing up

We are working on potty training and it is going pretty well.  Yesterday we tackled another big step in our house - the binky.  We took Ava with all of her binkies to Build a Bear where she picked out a bear and "turned in" her binkies.  The lady asked if we wanted to put a binky in the bear.  Ummmmm - no thank you.  Gross.  She said she has seen A LOT of weird things.  

 

 

Ava and her new bear Stripes!

 

 

Mckenna and Ava taking their bears for a walk.  We only bought Ava one yesterday but we have a lot of bears in our house!

 

Ava got to sleep in a big girl bed with her sisters last night.  We were hoping that this exciting change plus the bear would make for a smooth transition.  Well, it worked!! It was the easiest transition we have ever had.  She was asleep within a couple of minutes, stayed in her bed all night, and slept until 6:45.  Good job Ava!!

 

 

Kiara's art work

Kiara's art work has taken a turn and I am not sure what we can do to help her anymore.  She is truely an amazing artist and spends a lot of her free time sketching, painting, using pastels, colored pencils, crayons, and experimenting.  Here are two pieces of art that she drew freehand. 

 

 

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

We have a fabulous zoo only 20 minutes away from here and we had no idea.  The truth is people continued to tell us how amazing this zoo was, but being from Seattle where Woodland Park Zoo is, we just didn't believe them.  The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is huge and truly is amazing.  In June we bought season passes and have been there twice.  We will definitely get our money's worth at the zoo!

 

 

 

 

 

Camel Rides! 

 

 

 

 

Big Party

In May, Gram and Gramps flew out to Michigan to visit Steven and Heather and we all made a fun week of it!  We spend a few days in Ohio and a few days in Michigan.  It was our first time seeing Heather and Steven's house - it is beautiful and in a great neighborhood!  Here are a ton of fun pics from that week.

 

 

 

 

Snow cones and a "just because" party!

 

 

 

Smores and Brownies!!

 

 

I love that Tom had to give this a try!

 

 

 

Adult dinner out at Great Lakes Brewery

 

Tea Party!

 

Avery got the hang of walking behind things this trip - it was pretty fun to watch!

 

MICHIGAN!!!!!

 

Sprinkler fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome campus and stadium! 

 

 

Walks, treasure hunts, and maps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picnic Lunch!!

 

WE LOVE MICHIGAN!!