The first day of school

Abby and Emma are currently in the middle of their first ever day AT school. They have both been pretty anxious about starting something so new, but within the last couple of days we have been overwhelmed by all of the love and encouragement we've received from friends and family.

We have had many phone calls checking in telling us we're being prayed for. We received a package in the mail from my sister with homemade super cool magnets for Abby's and Emma's lockers along with other fun school stuff. She also sent Grace a craft kit to enjoy at home when her sisters were gone.

Our dear friends, the Larson family, sent a perfectly timed Top 10 List of why GOING to school is cool composed by Logan and Alyssa. We just got it in the mail yesterday, and it is currently hanging on our fridge.

I was the backpack fairy last night, trying to sneak cards into Abby's and Emma's backpacks in their rooms while the were asleep. I was really terrible at it. They both woke up to ask me what I was doing.

"Nothing, you never saw me here. Good night."

By this morning, the anxiety was gone and Abby and Emma seemed mostly just excited.

And Grace and I went to our first "Mom of going to school kids" thing right after we dropped Abby and Emma off. We all met at the Donut shop and laughed and cried a bit and prayed and ate donuts and sat and talked for a long time until the jitters wore off a bit.

All good things...

And the fun has continued...

Emma's violin concert at a nursing home... Her instructor is on the left.

A captive audience

Mrs. Spencer asked Grace to come up and sing Jesus Loves Me while the violinists accompanied her. Our little born performer quickly and SUPER cheerfully agreed to the idea and charmed everyone. Ethan was invited up as well, but he wasn't quite as eager so he charmed from the sidelines with his sweet face.

The day of the violin concert also happened to be Grace's first ever ballet class which she has been waiting for her whole life. I had to snap a quick, blurry picture before she ran to join her circle.

We've seen the American Girl Kit movie in the theater, we went swimming at an indoor pool on a rainy evening, we spent all day today at The Exploration Place (science museum) in Wichita, and I'm feeling a little tired.

BUT, we have made fabulous memories and thoroughly enjoyed our last hurrah of summer. Tomorrow Hannah and Ethan head home, and something tells me the house will seem terribly boring as soon as we hug good-bye.

Cousin Camp!

Sorry it's been awhile - we've been fully enjoying our last few weeks of summer. I just enrolled Abby and Emma for middle school on Monday, and their first day of school is August 12th.

We went to Dallas last weekend to pick up cousins Hannah and Ethan who are staying with us for a week. We are having a fabulous time enjoying our GREAT LAST HURRAH OF SUMMER together.

So far we've been to a lake resort with a beach to swim, fish, and cook out. We hit our own Hesston splash park. Today we went to a zoo in the morning and a really fun water park / pool in the afternoon with a picnic lunch in between. We're grilling burgers, eating ice cream cones, and playing games.

Here are a few pictures of the fun so far...

Greg, Abby, and I were all praying that Ethan would catch his first fish without realizing we all were praying the same thing. He SO wanted to catch one and it was SO hot and seemed an impossibility...

Don't you know the Lord was tickled with that face!

Robots and Fazoli's

This has been kind of a crazy week so far - fun, but crazy. Abby has been at Lego Robotics Camp at Wichita State University this week. She has to be there every morning by 9:00 and is done at 4:30. A dear friend of ours, who also happens to be an instructor at the university, has taken her and brought her home a few times (a huge blessing considering the commute and the cost of gas).

Abby has really enjoyed this so far. The 6-8th graders work in teams led by engineering students to build and program robots and then compete in challenges. Tomorrow ends with a parent reception.

I took Abby and Emma each out for a "date with Mom" to buy their school supplies and some school clothes, since we're spending all of this extra time in Wichita as it is. This is all a new experience for us as the girls enter school for the first time in August. I took each of them out to dinner as part of our shopping outing to a reasonable place of their choice. Abby picked Famous Dave's and Emma picked Fazoli's. Honestly, being from Texas has made me a bar-be-cue snob, and Famous Dave's was terribly unimpressive (esp. for the price), but I think Abby really liked her meal - and we had a great time. Now Fazoli's just makes me really happy. All those fabulous bread sticks, amazing prices, decent atmosphere - and we had a great time.

O, and while we were shopping, we had to pick up some rain boots for Grace. She has wanted some for as long as she can remember. They were half price at Target, pink, and have kitty faces on the feet. She is super excited, and put them on right away in the living room. Then, she sat on the couch to wait for rain (not a cloud in the sky and 100 degrees). I checked the weather; there might be a storm tomorrow; Grace can hardly sleep due to anticipation.


Just a quick life update, more to come later...

What's up with the Hesston tooth fairy?!

Emma lost a tooth this evening. Grace was astounded and amazed. We all looked at her wad of wet, blood stained paper towel and congratulated her. And then she said this...

"Mom, do you just want to give me the money now, so you don't have to try to remember tonight?"

"WHAT!?" I replied incredulously. "This has nothing to do with me; the Kansas tooth fairy just seems to be a loser. We will absolutely make sure she gets the memo."

A little background is in order...
Back in Cedar Rapids when my daughters first started losing teeth, it was all a very big deal. At one point one of my daughters looked at me, straight in the face and said, "Mom, I know YOU are the tooth fairy. I've seen you sneaking into my room."

I just couldn't lie to her, so I said, "O.K., you're right, I AM the tooth fairy...

for the entire Cedar Rapids area. That's why I am often tired in the afternoon; it's a really big job: putting on the tights and the wings, visiting all those children in the middle of the night, and then trying to find something to do with all of those teeth! Tooth fairies are hired by city, and you're right - it's me."

But now that we're in Kansas and teeth keep falling out and there are so many of them and children get older, this new Kansas tooth fairy is totally not on the ball - or so I told my red head who rolled her eyes the whole time I explained.

I met some friends for coffee this evening and came home to find a little yellow note on my pillow. On the front there is a sweet little drawn face and...

To Mom/fairy

with love

Then the inside has a little fairy drawn on the bottom corner and this message...

Dear Mom/fairy

remember!

I lost a tooth!

a molar!!!!

So, I'm going to go let this Hesston fairy know now.

Happy Birthday, Abby!

HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY, ABBY!

It doesn't matter how old I am - the fact that I now have a 12 year old makes me old. Wow! Greg and I realized today that we only have one more year that we won't have a teenage girl in our home before around 14 years of teenage daughterdom.

Honestly, I am loving this time. It's such a blessing to interact with our oldest daughters in a more grown up way and have deeper conversations. I am fascinated by their unique personalities and talents (and weaknesses). I love to hear them pray. I love to watch their tastes develop. And, I love that we can play with Klutz Icky Poo that Grace gave Abby for her birthday (aka "sticky poo" by Emma and "Icky Poop" by Grace), see picture below:

It was a fun day for Abby. We started with her requested birthday breakfast of...

breakfast sausage... and anything else we wanted. The important thing was breakfast sausage - links. We also had buttermilk pancakes and o.j. - two other favorites. She had a great time opening gifts, enjoying them, receiving some special phone calls, having a guitar lesson, going to volleyball camp (everyday this week from 3-5), and having some surprise gifts dropped off throughout the day from friends.

Requested birthday dinner was bar-b-que beef sandwiches, homemade fries, green beans (o.k., those were not requested; I threw those in), and chocolate chip cake and vanilla ice cream for birthday dessert.

Then we watched a family movie, and now we're calling it a day.

We love you so much, Abby!

Bood pirp

Emma and Greg just returned from a memory-making bike ride that involved a surprising deluge of rain and of other things that sometimes fall from the sky, especially when the sky has birds in it.

After hearing a bit about their adventure, I responded with, "I can't believe a bood pirped on Emma's head!" Some spoonerisms just come out a whole lot better than others, and this particular one had me in tears shortly after I heard it come out of my mouth.

Anyway, yesterday we had the opportunity to go see the Wichita Children's Theater's production of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. We went with some friends and had a great time eating lunch there, watching the play/musical, and then heading back to our house for fun on the "slipper slide." Kansas is not the place for any sort of incline, so the kiddos definitely had to make the slip or slide thing happen all by themselves; but they had great fun.

Here are a few favorite pics:

And, of course, Grace and Malea had to dress up: