First Day of School!

The first day of school was a rainy day, but the kids got up on their own--lots of excitement especially for Ben--the kindergartener! Ben and Olivia love their new school bags: red backpack for Ben, and black book bag with butterflies for Olivia. Sam carried a book in his arm for this picture, but he has a blue bag with his name on it that he takes to Carrie's house each day.

The kids get up at 6:30 each morning so they have time to eat breakfast before we leave the house at 7:15. Olivia is used to this routine, but it's the first year that Ben has to eat breakfast so early. He is getting the hang of it!
Ben and his friends Maci and Hunter from daycare walk from Carrie's each morning to school and back in the afternoon. Maci and Ben are in the same class this year. They get to see Hunter at lunch and recess!
Olivia, Jackson, and Ben walk with the younger kids to school. Olivia and Jackson are in the same class again for the fourth year! Ben is a 6th grader this year.
The wet walk to school. John and I walked with some other parents the first day. We didn't have umbrellas:-(

I snapped a quick picture of Olivia sitting in her new classroom next to Logan (he has been in her class every year since kindergarten)! Olivia likes her teacher and her classmates. She is enjoying the social studies unit on explorers. She is still an avid reader.

Ben sat down at a table and started coloring. I think John and I were feeling more teary-eyed than Ben! He didn't cry when we left:-) He really likes school so far--he was the first student in his class to get 10 stickers (awarded for good behavior). He loves gym class and recess, of course!

Sammy Celebrates Birthday #2!

Sam had a fantastic 2nd birthday! It's hard to believe two years have already gone by. He is such a sweet little (tall) guy--we love him so much!!

The birthday cake was his favorite part of the day!

His sister, brother, and cousing Millie posed for some pictures and then the opening of presents began!

We didn't make it to the swimming pool--because of the birthday boy's nap, but the kids had fun playing in the sprinkler (Dad played with them--but I left those pictures out) :-)

Olivia's Birthday Party!!

Olivia had a birthday party with friends the day after her birthday! She invited seven friends + her brother, Ben. We went swimming and then came back to the house for a pizza party, games, and cupcakes and ice cream. The kids seemed to have a great time!! John and I were a little tired after five hours, but we enjoyed it! Creating the games and watching the kids play the games was the best part for us!! The kids are from left (back) Lauren, Olivia, Jenna, Chloe, Jayden, and Kate (front)-Ben, Jackson, and Logan.

Keeping track of nine kids at the pool was quite a job. Luckily, Grandma came over to watch Sam while we went swimming!
The kids ate a ton of pizza---which was about the only time there wasn't much noise:-)
Olivia received a lot of nice gifts from her friends--she loved everything she got! I think Ben was in almost every picture I took--he blended in quite well with the "big" kids:-)
My friend, Stephanie, let me use this cut-out of a hula girl for pictures---Sammy posed for some pictures after the party! He loved watching the kids!

Olivia Turned 8!!

Olivia turned 8 on July 9! We can't believe she is going to be in 3rd grade already. She had a fun day with her family. She requested to play tennis in the morning, to eat lunch at Wendy's, and to have a big spaghetti dinner at home with Mom, Dad, brothers, grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousin Millie. She enjoyed eating the chocolate cake that Grandma Jane baked for her and of course, opening presents was a lot of fun:-) She wore her new hair bow (made by Dedra) and her sun dress that Aunt Angela and Uncle Tyler brought back from Jamaica.

Sam and Ben had fun helping Olivia with her presents. Both boys got their hair cut after this picture was taken---I will update those soon!
Millie enjoyed the party---and she wore her matching sun dress!
One of Olivia's favorite shows is I Love Lucy---thanks to Aunt Amy and Uncle Dave, she can watch all of the episodes from the first year!
A new globe was another one of her presents that she and Ben have been enjoying.

Summer Vacation

We took our annual vacation to Tan-Tar-A in Osage Beach with our cousins again this year--one set of cousins wasn't able to go and we missed them, but we managed to have lots of fun! Olivia, Ben, and Sam enjoyed playing with their cousins Andrea, Evan, and Nicholas--they did lots of swimming, jet skiing, fishing, bowling, golfing and golf cart riding, tennis playing, boat cruising, and most of all LAUGHING. Below are some photos from our trip.

Since we've been back Olivia and Ben have been busy with swim lessons, and Olivia has participated in basketball and soccer camp. John and I are teaching tennis lessons again this summer, so Olivia and Ben both get to attend those as well. Sam stays busy trying to keep up with his big sister and brother. He's doing a lot more talking, but there are still many words that only he can understand:-) I will try to do a better job of keeping up with this blog!!