Lilly's First Day of School

By the time we get back from dropping Sophia off at the bus stop in the morning we have about 35 minutes before Lilly and I need to leave to get to her school on time. She starts at 9:30. Monday through Thursday I pick her up at 2:20 in the afternoon. On Fridays I pick her up at 12:30. 

 She got a new backpack which lights up whenever it moves or something touches it. She thinks it's so cool. 

As we were waiting the 35 minutes she wanted to know when the bus was coming to pick her up. I felt kind of bad for a minute, but then I realized she will be in a much better school, at least for Kindergarten. 

Finally we arrived at school. She practically skipped the entire was into the building. When we got to her door she was completely shy and had to be pulled out of my arms.  So of course I was in tears when I left - feeling guilty.  Her first day started out a little rough but it by the look of the smiles on her face in the pictures below...she must have had a great day!  I'm sooooo proud of her. 

Sophia and Lilly - in the AM.  They both look tired, don't they?

 

 Another picture of Lilly ready to walk out the door.

Her teacher, Mrs. LaSalle, took this photo.  Totally cute.

 

Here she is sitting at the computer in her classroom.

Sophia's First Day of 2nd Grade

Sophia started second grade today. She was up early and dressed before 7am.  School starts 10 minutes later this year so we weren't rushing to get out the door or at least it seemed like that this morning. The bus comes at 8:08 now.  This morning it was about 20 minutes late, but we expected that for the first day. Luckily we have the same bus driver as last year. Ms. Cindy is really cool and on several occasions dropped Sophia off at the front door. 

Sophia couldn't wait to get out the door and to the bus stop. A neighbor, Kaitlyn, is in Sophia's class and there are also four kids from her class last year in Mrs. Burke's class this year.  From everything I've heard Mrs. Burke is really, really nice. When we walked into the open house Mrs. Burke approached Lilly thinking that was her 2nd grade student. I pointed out that Sophia was in her class. I don't remember is she gasped or not, but she might have 2 inches on Sophia. They are practically the same height!

Lilly didn't come downstairs this morning until 7:25 and we had plenty of time to convince her to get dressed and put shoes on to walk to the bus stop.  Right before we walked out the door I asked them to turn around so I could take a picture. Lilly started waving at the camera and said GOODBYE SUMMER. Sophia joined in and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes because we had such an amazing summer and now it's over. They are going to grow up so much this year. I can just tell.

Lilly doesn't start school until tomorrow. She is equally excited. This morning we went to meet her teacher, Mrs. LaSalle. Lilly was totally shy and didn't really talk at all at the meet and greet, but as soon as we left she was her normal self again. 

Here they are together.  My second-grader and my Kindergartner. 

 

Lilly has been dreaming, talking about, and begging for long hair.  She doesn't quite understand why her hair looks so long when it's wet and then when it dries it's short again. It's so precious to watch her comb her hair after every bath.  

This morning I was finally able to pull her hair back into a ponytail. I had to use a ton of bobby pins just to get it to stay in place, but darned if she didn't keep it in all day. She thought it was so beautiful.

 This is my new favorite picture of the girls.

 

At the bus stop Sophia and Riley were chit chatting away about how excited they 

were about the first day of school.  

 Line up everyone.  Here comes the bus.

 Bye Sophia!  Have a great day at school!!

Found this photo on my phone

Lilly went to a princess tea birthday party earlier this summer.  Here she is with some of her school friends from last year. She was really shy for the whole party until they served cake and other goodies. 

She's got another cowgirl birthday party to go to this coming Saturday. It's for Lia...the 4th girl from the left. 

I thought Mia forgot about me

Mia is/was Sophia's friend from Kindergarden. Mia was in our Girl Scout troop for the first year of Daisies and then her family moved to New Jersey. Her dad is in the CIA or the FBI or something very top secret. Mia's mom is a speech pathologist.  Mia has a younger sister named Lillie.

Mia and Sophia were pen pals for a while after she moved away, but then one time Mia didn't write back and Sophia didn't bother to write to her anymore either. Then Mia's mom called me up and said they were going to be in Va Beach for the week and mentioned that Mia really wanted to get together with Sophia. Needless to say, Sophia was very happy that her friend wanted to play with her.

We went to the beach with them this afternoon. We also had Riley, our neighbor, with us. Mia brought and old neighbor of hers and all together we watched 6 kids all afternoon. It was fun, but very tiring. Luckily Sophia and Lilly were invited to spend the night at Riley's house tonight.

I thought I took alot more pictures, but this was the only one on my SD card. 

A Seek 'n Reach the Beach Field Trip

This past Wednesday the girls and I went on a field trip with our church. We signed up to get a tour of the Fort Story lighthouse.

There are 117 steps to get to the top It was a bit scary for Lilly going up the open-back spiral staircase.  Plus, imagine about 20-25 people going up at the same time. The thermometer registered over 100 degrees at the very top.

 

This was another lighthouse beside the one we climbed.

 

 This was looking up at the lighthouse we climbed.

After we climbed down and got out their we headed down the street for a photo opportunity of the cross monument stands which represents the cross the settlers would have established. Lilly and a few other kids didn't feel like having their picture taken.

When the group was done all the kids were invited to swim at a church member's apartment complex pool which she owns. She provided a humungous watermelon for everyone too.  Here are two tired girls.

Our Summer Trip to Pennsylvania

Last Monday the girls and I left Virginia Beach at 1pm and arrived in Mars around 8:40. The girls were really excited to see Nana and Poppy and stayed up late the first night. On Tuesday some of my mom's family came to visit and have lunch with us.

It's always a really fun time when we get together, but that day was especially fun because of all the "races" my mom, her two sisters, the girls and four of their second cousins. I was the volunteer camerawoman and Lilly the cheerleader. 

Then we all played a mean game of kickball. Sophia scored twice and was really proud. 

Here's my aunt and Sophia.

 

Here's a few pictures of the girls with their second cousins.

From left to right: 
Kale (4), Cole (9), Sophia (7), Rylee (6), Morgan (6), Lilly (5) and Micah (1)

 

We spent Wednesday at Idlewild Amusement Park. Nana and Poppy have taken us there for the last two years and the girls had fun so we figured we would take them again. Th

is time Sophia was so brave. She went on some twisty waters slides all by herself, she tackled the wave pool, she enjoyed the roller coaster so much she asked to do it again. It was a great day. She and I go to spend some alone time while Nana and Poppy were in Kiddie Land with Lilly.

Her face was priceless when we went down the water log that we just had to buy a keychain of the photo. You could tell she was terrified and thrilled both at the same time.

On Thursday we went to swim at my Aunt Carole's house. The girls basically had the community pool all to themselves and they loved it. Both of them are really strong swimmers and could spend hours in the pool. We were forced out by the threat of rain. So, we decided to find something fun indoors. We went to an indoor family fun center. We all had fun playing the games and earning 945 tickets that the girls redeemed for junk and a piece of candy, but a fun time was had by all.

Friday was a quiet day. Nana went into her attic and found a few boxes of at least 20 barbie dolls that used to be mine. She saved the dolls and all the clothes that she made for them (and it was a lot!). The girls brought the entire collection home. They've been playing Barbies and TV karaoke (thanks to Nana and Poppy), coloring a wooden peace sign that Lilly is going to hang in her room (thanks to Aunt Carole), watching Teen Beach Movie (thank you, Aunt Carole) -- all the things they acquired while on the trip. Their regular toys have been pushed to the side.

We left early Saturday morning for our 8.5 hour drive which went by really quickly. The girls watched movies and dozed off for a while. We even stopped and rested for a bit too. Will and Sadie were equally excited to see us. 

We had a super time in PA and the weather was awesome except I noticed that it was more humid there than in Va Beach. Will think it's all the trees in PA.  He thinks they keep in the moisture. I think he's nuts, but who knows?

Here are two super cute pictures I got of Lilly while we were there.

Last Pool Adventure with Haley and Carlie

Last week we took Haley and Carlie to the pool with us. It will probably end up being the last time we visit the pool with them this summer.  Our pool membership expires on Labor Day.  Michelle's dad has a pool at his house so maybe we will get invited to swim with them one last time, but more than likely we'll start hitting the beaches instead. It's so nice when the tourists leave and we can once again find parking at the crowded beaches! Good-bye vacationers!

A Pet Event

A few weekends ago I took the girls to a girl scout event revolving around pets.  We met up with Haley and Carlie for the morning.

The girls all got their faces painted and had a great time petting tiny kittens, watching three dogs perform in an impressive frisbee competition and, of course, running around in the drizzle that started as soon as we arrived.

The cousins

We tried several times to get a picture of all the cousins.  Here's the best one that I ended up with in the end.  I'm not sure if anyone else had much more success.  I guess when the ages range from 4 months to 15 years you're bound to have a hard time.  

 

Here's a picture of Terra, Lilly, Madeline, Sophia and Jack at our house. 

Face Masks

Ok...so here's a picture of Lilly and Madeline having a facial mask.  This is Lilly's straight face.  We all told her not to talk or smile or her mask would crack. She took it very seriously. 

Baby Caroline

After Mike and the crew stayed here for a few days we followed them back to Northern VA for a long weekend.  This time the girls and I stayed with Rob and Christina and Caroline.  She's growing so fast and smiles all the time.  Here are some of our favorite pictures:

A visit from the Kansas Alexanders

Uncle Mike, Aunt Misty, Terra, Madeline and Jack drove down to Virginia Beach for a few days while they were on vacation in Northern Va to visit the rest of our family.

All the kids went down this water slide.  Lilly was the only one who didn't have any desire to do it again.  You should have seen her face all the way down the slide.  She looked terrified.  To be honest I was surprised she did it at all.

Here's Sophia speeding down the first time.  I think Uncle Mike paid for them all to go down a second or even third time. 

We spent two days at the beach and one evening walking around aimlessly in search of a restaurant that could seat 9 immediately.  We all agreed that the restaurant we finally ended up at was awful.  Will and I are familiar with the restaurants between 5th and 17th street, but any farther North than that and we're out of luck.

It was fun to have them over to our house for dinner a few nights too.  The cousins all get along so well considering that they very rarely see each other.  Sophia and Jack were extremely buddy-buddy. One might even say there was a mutual crush going on there. 

Here's what the girls looked like after a long day at the beach.  They both fell asleep in the 15 minute ride back to our house. 

1,000 piece puzzle

This puzzle was especially difficult because it's the "after" scene.  The "before" scene was the image on the front of the box.  I had no when I bought it that it would be so confusing, but once I got the hang of it and worked from the outside in I zoomed through it.

Sophia helped with the red and yellow section. Lilly gave moral support and found the very last puzzle piece which went missing as I was finishing.  When I was done there was a single piece missing.  We searched under the table and chairs, but didn't see it anywhere.  Well, Lilly found it today in our bin labeled "Games" where we keep game and puzzle pieces until they get put away in the correct box.  How funny.