Saturday, August 22, 2009

First Day of School

Zach-6th Grade

Lauren-5th Grade

Tess-4th Grade

Ella-1 more year until Kindergarten

Look at me!!

Ella taught herself how to ride without her training wheels! We're so proud of her! She tried several times last summer, only to ask her daddy to please put them back on. She finally decided that she REALLY WAS ready....she just took off! Way to go baby girl!

Last Day of Summer Break

When Rebekah Schreiner called Wednesday morning I felt horrible! She wanted us to go with them and have some fun.....it was, after all, our last day of summer break :o( I took a Claritin and we headed out. It was SO MUCH FUN! We headed over to Daybreak to play at their beach and playground. The kids busied themselves building a resevoir with rivers/creeks flowing down to the water. They got along so well together and after a short while I was feeling better myself (I guess it WAS allergies). We packed up, stopped for some lunch, and then headed over to this cute little water park! It wasn't busy at all...the kids pretty much had it all to themselves! It was the perfect ending to our summer break. Great fun with great friends!

Fun at Daybreak
Playin' in the sun!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Tess turns 9!

Well, thank goodness I still have my little Ella because Tess and Lauren are getting WAY too BIG! I can't believe Tess is 9 now! My little Tessie always wants to have a HUGE party for her birthday, and because it's in the summer we always have fun! Well, this year I wanted to simplify things a bit (I don't know if I would use the word simple to describe all the festivities that seemed to go along with her birthday this weekend, but it was worth a shot, wasn't it?)!

First of all, the night of her actual birthday, Brian decided that he was hungry for some Prime Rib, so he told Tess that he would take her out to Texas Roadhouse for Dinner! Brian enjoyed every bite, and Tess loved taking another ride on the birthday saddle. After dinner, we took Tess to spend some of her birthday money from Grandma + Grandpa and she picked out a Children's Songbook for her scripture bag at church. Thanks Grandma + Grandpa for the new purse and songbook :c)
The next day, Tess decided that it would be fun to invite a few friends to go and play at the most AWESOME park EVER. So, we loaded everything into the truck, got some pizzas, cake (or maybe not the cake) + we were off to the park. Thanks to Nannie + Papa for swinging by our house and picking up her cake that we forgot....we didn't realize it until we were already at the park 35 minutes away...WOOPS! It was a lot of fun and the girls were so well behaved. They just played and played and played some more. It finally started raining, so we packed up and called it a night!
Birthday Fun at the park!
The next morning I was busy making some YUMMY ice cream pies that we would have later that evening, and then we got ready to meet Uncle Mikey + Aunt Bekah at Papa's work for a big carnival. The party was catered and we enjoyed some yummy pulled pork! The kids played some games, got some cotton candy + snow cones and even received some cute little badges with their pictures. It was a lot of fun...and then we were off to meet Barb, Ian and Marley who were in town from Ohio. We headed over to our favorite movie theater to see G-Force. Tess had wanted to see G-Force, so we wanted to wait and see it with her cousins while they were down here for Papa's work party. It was so fun to see + visit with everyone...we were so glad we got to "catch-up" with Barb.
Happy Birthday Tess! We love you so much!