The First Grade Scholar

Well, I took Ashlyn to her first day of 1st Grade this morning. Can't believe it's already here and the summer is gone! She was extremely excited even though she only knew 2 little girls in her new class. She'll probably have new best friends by the end of the day, though! It'll be hard to get used to her being gone 8 hours a day again. And taking that next step in "letting her go". Kids don't realize how hard this is on parents!! Here she is at home with her backpack heavy laden with school supplies.

And at school at her desk! Thanks, Papa and Graney for the cute new outfit!

Summer Fun... but not for long!

Since I've been reminded that I haven't updated my blog in quite a while, I thought I'd fulfill those requests! We've had some really great memories this summer. The kids and I have spent a lot of time at the community pool - mainly to get us out of the house, get them more tired and keep them from tearing each other's hair out at home! (or to keep me from tearing out my hair which I came close to several times!)

Ashlyn took swim lessons and she went from being afraid to put her head under water to swimming like a little fish! She may grow scales pretty soon. I know she'll miss the pool until next summer. We'll have to make use of the indoor pool at the Y until then.


This is my fav picture of Josh and the kiddos taken on Father's Day. Love them!


I think my favorite day of the summer was the day we became cows. What??? You may say! Here's the story... Several weeks ago my Mom told me that Chic-fil-a was having "National Cow Appreciation Day" and if you dressed up like cows, they'd give you a free sandwich. So... on that particular Friday morning after breakfast, the kids and I colored black spots, I cut them out and safety pinned them to white t-shirts. They had headbands with black ears on them and we were all set!

After a trip to the gym, we donned on our white t-shirts and ears (yes, I participated too! my ears were on a black baseball hat) and walked in to our local Chic-fil-a. Needless to say, there were many stares and I felt quite sheepish as there were NO OTHER people dressed up like cows. We got a few snickers because they were probably wondering what in the world we were doing - obviously no one outside California knew about it!! There was not a sign in sight! As I approached the counter with my three calves beside me I said, "PLEASE tell me it's Cow Appreciation Day!!" After smiles and assurance that we got the right day, we received 4 free chicken sandwhiches and 2 free drinks!

Even though I felt silly we had a great time and giggled through it all. The kids had a blast and thought it was so fun. Worth a 1/2 hour making cow costumes?? I'd say so!! I'm sure it's a day they'll remember!

Here's the kids outside the building. Sorry, you don't get to see MY cow shirt. I know, you're missing out, but really, it's okay!

Then there's the day the "6-Pack" decided to go to King's Island (a themepark in Cincinnati for you out-of-towners).

We set off with great intentions but were quite disappointed later when we got rained out about 3:30.

Matt tried his hand at climbing the rope ladder to win a stuffed animal the size of our van. Don't know how we would have gotten that one home! Sorry it didn't work out for you, Matt! Considering we only rode about 6 rides and a couple water slides, we felt jipped. Plus, I almost died (okay, slight exaggeration!) from motion sickness coupled with heat and humidity. I almost threw up and passed out but with a little food, I felt better - good enough to go on some water slides! After running through the pouring rain, we decided take our soggy selves to dinner (we were really styling!) and a movie - The Happening. Wierd movie but I guess good in a VERY disturbing sort of way.... Overall, a day that we didn't go as planned but we made the best of the circumstances!