FIRST day of SECOND grade

oh.my.gosh. where in the world did the summer go? i can't believe today was mia's first day of SECOND GRADE! she woke up so cheerful and excited to go back! too bad i didn't share the same sentiment. i have really enjoyed having her home for the summer. we got to the school extra early to make sure she knew where she was going. she found a few friends right away. and even though mia doesn't have many friends in her class this year, i know that she will make new ones in no time! i can't wait for her to get home and tell me all about her BIG day!

bye bye training wheels!

george has honestly been ready to ride his bike without training wheels for awhile now. sadly, it just wasn't a priority for russ and me (i know, i know..."boo!"). once those training wheels came off a few days ago, it didn't take him long to start zooming around! he has had a few spills, but he is doing awesome! we all just love watching him ride around. and i love looking at the cute faces he makes when he is concentrating on not biffing it :).

7 months

here's our little cutie at 7 months! she is sitting up and balancing great! she also is starting to rock forward onto one knee. she'll hold that position for about 5 seconds before she falls flat on her tummy. it's fun to watch her learning how to use her cute body. i'm in no real hurry for her to start crawling. when mia was a baby i wanted her to do everything quick, quick, quick! now i'm just not in a hurry for anything (except for sleeping through the night!). lately i really think that she's looking a lot like my mom's baby pictures. she just keeps evolving, and we love every minute!

6 months

olive absolutely LOVES to sit in the sink and play with running water! this is her at 6 months when she didn't quite have the balance to sit up on her own. in the sink, though, she was kind of wedged in there and just had a ball!

george's first day...

today was george's first day of preschool. he was SO excited when he woke up, but as soon as we turned onto the street of his school, his exact words were, "i'm not sure this is such a good idea." the things this kid says crack me up. he did shed some alligator tears, but only for a minute or two after i left. when i picked him up he was ALL smiles! he had a great first day! i know that he's really going to enjoy this year.

right when we arrived...

i wanted to get a picture of george holding his paper cutout of things that tell about himself, but he didn't feel like it. can you tell?

after school he was as happy as a clam!

he was wearing a necklace that said, "My first day of preschool was a piece of cake." his teacher gave each of the kids a cupcake on their way out. so cute.

two FIRSTS

yesterday was mia's FIRST day of FIRST grade! she was up bright and early to get ready for her big day! we got to school quite early so that she could find her line and have plenty of time to get to know the lay of the land...her new playground is a bazillion times bigger than the kindergarten playground. george and i stayed the whole time with her to make sure that she got into the school okay. as soon as she walked away from me i started to bawl. i didn't cry at all last year, but this year it hit me like a ton of bricks...she is growing up! george and i were quite lonesome for her all day long. it's sure going to be an adjustment not having her around. the bright side is that she absolutely LOVED her first day and got along great! she has already made some new friends, and her very best friend (in all the pictures) is in her class. here's to a great school year!

time with family is the greatest!

we recently took a 10 day vacation to utah to visit russ's family and some of our friends. it was so nice to spend a lot of time with russ's sister and her daughter, who is our kids' only cousin! it's so fun now that eliza is 2 because she can really interact with all of us, and she remembers who we all are. melinda and paul recently got a new swingset installed in their backyard, so we spent a lot of time playing back there. their yard backs on to a creek, which makes it so peaceful and cool! we really appreciate all the effort that melinda made to spend as much time with us as possible.

friends forever part one...

during our visit to utah we were lucky enough to get to spend the evening with russ's best friend and his family. they just moved into a beautiful new home, and this was our first time seeing it. it was also our first time to meet their adorable new baby boy! they have just darling kids who our kids love to play with. we had a great time hanging out and catching up. even though i had my camera the whole time, it didn't occur to me to take any pictures until we were gathering our stuff to leave. i was lucky to get one cute shot of 4 out of the 5 kiddos!

fish and flowers

one of the days during our utah visit we were able to meet up with eliza and her nanny at the aquarium. eliza knew her way all around the aquarium and even knew the names of some obscure sea animals. mia got up enough courage to touch a sting ray to which she exclaimed, "that wasn't so bad! it's kind of cool!" george on the other hand took a pass. our favorite exhibit at the aquarium was the penguin tank. they are the funniest, most entertaining birds.

grandma dolores lets mia and george pick ALL the flowers that they want when we visit. she has a beautiful yard filled with all varieties of roses and many other beautiful flowers. mia and dolores have a shared love of flowers. every day mia beautifies the house with several fresh flower arrangements.

friends forever part two...

while we were in utah we were able to visit our good friends who used to live in las vegas. mia and george had the best time playing and running around with caleb and spencer who are their exact same ages. i don't think i even saw them the first hour we were there because they were in the basement having so much fun. that was fine by me because i was snuggling their new baby, emma, who was only 6 weeks old. i also had such a great time catching up with jessica. we have always had a very easy friendship, and no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other it feels like not time at all has passed. i'm already looking forward to the next time that we get to spend time together.