Mother's Day Out for Ashton!

Ashton has gone with me since she was born to take Addie to Mother's day out... and now it was her turn! Tuesdays are now Ashton's day for "school" and my day to do whatever I need to do. Today, my first day to myself, I'm catching up on my blog! But I'm excited now to be able to make appointments for Tuesdays (doctors, dentists, hairstylists, grocery shopping) and do them without kids. Wow, I can't believe I'm even saying that! Ashton has Miss Nadine as her teacher and we are so happy! Addie had Miss Nadine so it made it easy to take Ashton. In fact, at open house when we were leaving, she gave Miss Nadine hugs without me even saying anything. And today when I dropped her off, she didn't cry. It looks like she has a lot of girls in her class so that will be so fun. I'm happy for her... and I'm happy to have one day to myself!

First Day of School!!

It was August 11th, the first day of school! We went to the open house the night before to take the kids school supplies and meet their teachers. Austin got Mrs. Roseborough as his second grade teacher. He was very excited and especially so because one of his good friends, Silas, is in his class. You can already tell he likes this year much better, he never complains about going to school anymore! (Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself!)

Avery was my child who couldn't wait for school to start again! Even though I missed my friends during the summer, I was never anxious for school to start back up. She also has one of her best friends, Kaitlyn, in her class so she was super happy about that. Mrs. England is Avery's fourth grade teacher. Avery found out that Mrs. England is expecting a baby in February, and her favorite thing right now is that Mrs. England brings snacks for everyone because she needs to have snacks throughout the day. Avery loves her snacks!

Ranch Heights Elementary recently went through an amazing renovation which included a new 4 year old Pre-K wing. Yes, we have all day Pre-K in our schools. Addie's teacher is Mrs. Eason. Addie was so excited to see her new school... and she was most excited to finally get to ride the bus with the kids to school. I was going to take them to school for their first few days but Addie really wanted to ride the bus! That turned out great because I heard the car line was crazy! When they got home from school after their first day, Addie was beaming from ear to ear! It was so fun to see her excitement!

Ashton, on the otherhand, was not excited for Addie, Austin and Avery to go to school and leave her behind. The first three days, Ashton cried to ride the bus with the kids. Two more years AJ! It will go by fast!

Saying goodbye to summer!

It was our very last day of summer! Yes, we are barely into our 2nd week of August and summer is over! Sniff, sniff. We wanted to take it for all it was worth so we headed up to Independence, KS to spend the afternoon with Auntie Jen and at the Independence Waterpark. Sadly, this was also our first time up to the waterpark this summer! I don't know what took us so long! WE LOVED IT!!

This was Ashton's first time to the waterpark... and I think she mistaked it for heaven! She was so happy! That girl was a water baby from the very beginning. You couldn't keep her head out of the water. I finally had to put her floaties on just to keep myself from having a panic attack. She is crazy!

Other years I would always wait for a weekend to take the kids up to Kansas because I get nervous in waterparks by myself with my kids. I always wanted Randy with me. Jen was the best! She is such a big help and we had such a good time. She hung out with the younger girls while I took some pictures and then she took the big kids over to the diving boards. They all had so much fun.

The waterpark doesn't open til 1pm, so we went early and brought lunch over to Jen and Jordan's house and hung out for a while. The only sad part was that the kids open house at school was that night, so we could only stay for a couple hours before we had to head back. Thanks for the fun day, Jen! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Addie!

Wow! Another year has flown by! Addie was so excited for her birthday to finally be here! It's hard for Addie because all of her siblings have birthdays before her... so she feels like hers takes forever to get here. But for me, I can't believe she is four! We started the day at, where else, the doughnut shop!

After the doughnut shop we swung by Walmart for Addie to pick out a few things for her birthday. Next we hit the pool to hang out for the afternoon. This summer has been ridiculously HOT. If you are not in the pool, you are inside! The thing about Oklahoma heat combined with the humidity is that you just can't breath! But the pool was very refreshing and my kids LOVE the pool!

After lots of fun at the pool, it was time for lunch! Addie chose none other than McDonalds for her birthday lunch! They continued their fun in the playground area until it was time to head to Gum-Gum's house for a little birthday party for Addie with Nana and Gum-Gum (my mom and grandma). Addie was so excited about her new shirt, princess umbrella, and princess plate, bowl and glass. I have to make sure her dishes are washed everyday because she wants to use them for breakfast each morning.

Two plus two equals four!! This was one of Addie's special purchases when we went to Walmart! Happy Birthday, Addie!! You have grown up so fast! You are such a special girl and we love you so much!!