Maggie and Drew's special day

Maggie filled up her gem jar. Oh, you don't know what that means? I shall try and remember to do a post about that soon.

Ok, back to what I was saying before I got side tracked, that happens so easily to me.

Because Maggie filled up her gem jar she got to pick something special to do without all her siblings. Not surprisingly at all she wanted to do something with her best buddy Drew. Who just happens to be son to my best friend Neala.

So we went to the mall for a few hours of fun and fun we did have!




Starting out at the fun play area...

Followed by Build-a-bear. Maggie took a while to chose her animal.

While Drew chose his right away without even a bit of doubt. He picked an army bear.

Then he picked a heart for his new friend.

Maggie finally picked a bunny, the same bunny that Katelyn picked last time. She figured the two bunnies could be friends.

She also picked a heart to put in her new friend. I, for the life of me, can't remember why they rubbed the heart on their nose.

Then after their new special friend was stuffed and the heart filled with love and magic was put in they had to give them a shower.

Next was time to dress their new teddy bear and bunny.

Finally it was time to make a birth certificate for their new friends. This is where Maggie named her bunny Ellie and Drew named his bear Army.

After Build-A-Bear we moved on to the carousel. They picked the spinny thing and pretended they were being chased by the horses. Not a single one caught them!

OK, OK, I will admit that I posed this picture. They were walking side-by-side and looked so stinkin cute that I told them to hold hands so I could take a picture.

Maggie rode in a space shuttle.

And Drew went on a roller coaster.

Then they went into the hurricane-wind-thingy. I have never been in it but they seemed to like it. Maggie's hair and dress were flying around like crazy!

These two best friends had a wonderful day full of adventures. I didn't even get pictures of lunch or shopping in AC Moore!

Neala and I had a wonderful day with some time spent with just one of our children. It was so fun and special and we can't wait to have a chance to do it again!

Continuous

I

Have
Wanted

A

Camera

that

Can

Take

Continuous

Pictures

For

A

Very

Long

Time!

Professional picture???

Is this a professional picture???

No, it's not professional but it sure looks like it to me! Doesn't it???

Just look at this picture! I can't get over how perfect and beautiful it is. I can't get over how much I LOVE my new camera!

Lucky and Savanah

Just last week I got a new camera! It's a digital SLR camera and I have so much to learn. I took it to my best friend's house the day after I got it to "play" with it.
I was slightly obsessed with taking pictures of her new kitty and her wonderful dog.
His name is Lucky and I must admit that I fell in love with him!

And by the look of these pictures I think Neala has fallen in love too.

But seriously, look at this face...

And this face....

Oh, and I got a couple of the children too.

But not nearly as many as I should have...
You can't really blame me though, Lucky and Savanah are so adorable!

Lemonade stand

A lemonade stand.

On a hot afternoon at the beach house.

Is there anything more fun for a kid?

Making money.

Enjoying life.

Just wonderful.

First day of school

Last night I was restless! I started getting lunches together. Blogged. Cleaned up a little. The night before school starts makes mommies anxious too!
I wrote each of my school-bound-monkeys a little encouraging note and attached a kiss to surprise them when they opened their lunch boxes.

I tried to write it "on their reading level" so that they could try and read it themselves. Well, that's not entirely accurate, Katelyn could read her own and Maggie would have her teacher read it, but I knew Connor wouldn't ask for help reading it so I kept it simple.

This morning the kids were up and ready with lightning speed, probably the only time this year I will see that.

Possibly it helped that they wanted to wear part of their outfits to bed last night so they wouldn't have so much to change this morning. I can not confirm nor deny whether I allowed such a thing.

The smiles on their faces and excitement in their hearts was just beautiful.
When the bus came they eagerly ran across the road and climbed on barely looking back. As the matter-of-fact Connor went so quick I missed a picture of him but luckily Katelyn was right on that and called him back saying, "Connor, come back, Mommy wants a picture."

After waiting a very long 2 1/2 hours at home it was time for Maggie to go to school. She must have asked at least ten times if it was time to go. I had to keep distracting her.

When we got to school we were greeted by two baby calfs which made her day.

And Ben's day too.

Look at how big she looks walking in with her back pack and lunch!

She said, "Mom, take a picture of me now!" and this is the pose she did.

We arrived right in time for recess and we were all thrilled to see Rosie, the goat. She seriously is more like a dog then a goat! It just cracks me up how she wants attention and wags her tail happily when she gets it.

So I am sure you are wondering what Ben and I did with our time. Well, we did a little "home-schooling" of our own.

We worked on fine motor, speech, and language when Ben stuck these kitty stickers to the paper.

We worked on self help skills and more fine motor at lunch time when he fed himself.

Then it was nap time! After nap Ben was happy to snuggle for a few minutes with his beloved Auntie.

And see his cousin, Sarah, who started high school today!

Then it was time to pick up Maggie. The whole ride there Ben moooooed like a cow.

We were ecstatic to see our Maggie! And she was so excited to show us the egg she found in the hen house.

How many pre-schoolers come home with an egg that they find on their own??? Not many. Oh, and really not Maggie either as she dropped it not long after I captured this picture.

Then it was off to the bus stop to pick up Katelyn and Connor. We waited and watched...

And I think my heart leapt out of my body when we saw the bus come around the corner!

Katelyn made my day when she flew off the bus and into my arms! Connor was happy to see me but was much more interested in playing with the neighbors.

Every year we celebrate the first day of school by going out for ice cream but today the ice cream came to us.

The kids all had a great first day of school and we are all looking forward to a wonderful year full of learning and growing!

Octopus

Wordless Wednesday...