School days, part 2

This is a much overdue picture of Anna on her "last day of summer"...dressed and ready to go to the "end of summer luau party" at her school. She was trying to get a jump start on the fall curriculum with her ABC's book.

(Please disregard the big mess around her...I was in the process of cleaning out and reorganizing our stairwell closet when this photo was taken...)

School days

It is with great pride that I announce that we all SURVIVED Kate's first day of school! She admittedly did much better than Mommy did. While her teachers did report that she had some tears on and off, she did take a nap, eat a little, and played quite a bit with her new "friends". Mommy, on the other hand, mostly just cried.

For whatever reason, I thought it would be easier to take Kate to school than it was for Anna--mostly because I already know (and love!) her teachers, am familiar with the whole "school" thing, etc. But, I think in some ways it was harder because I realize how much "just Kate and Mommy" time I'm losing (since most of the time I'm at home now I'll be with both Anna and Kate). I of course love and treasure the time I have with both girls together, but I will certainly miss the amount of "baby time" I had just with Kate. We'll still have some days at home when Anna is in school and Kate is not, though, so I'll just have to take full advantage of those days!

I'm not sure Kate fully appreciates the academic experience she should be preparing for. I think she's a bit more interested in attempting to eat the flowers off of her backpack. Oh well...

She does all her own stunts...

In addition to learning to swim this summer, Anna also got her first taste of doing "tricks" in the pool. Between doing underwater somersaults, swimming between our legs, and being "thrown" (as seen in this photo), she has become quite the little stunt performer. As you can see, we took full advantage this summer of Anna still only weighing 25 pounds. I think by next summer it will have to be Daddy doing the throwing...

A good, solid meal

About a week ago, we decided that Kate had been looking longingly at our "real food" for long enough, and it was time for her to start solids. Even though I have been super excited about this for a long time (not entirely sure why??), I don't think anyone was more excited than Anna! She was thrilled to get to put Kate's first bib on her (thank you to Aunt Jackie for all the wonderful bibs!), and loved watching Kate learning to swallow real food.

Not that we expected anything different given this girl's love to eat, but she was a big big fan of the rice cereal. She's still mastering the mechanics of the whole process, to be sure, but she just loves sitting in her "chair" at the table with us and eating at the same time as the rest of the family.

This shot was about as close as I could come, short of a video, to showing Kate's excitement about eating. She gets so worked up when the food gets close to her mouth that she starts flailing her arms as though she's going to take flight. Quite cute, but tends to result in an avocado bath for all things within a 5 feet radius...

Pool time

We've been a little hesitant to have many people over this summer because we're still learning how to balance our two little ones with entertaining, grilling out, margarita making, etc. But, we did manage to have a few friends over a few weekends ago. The Maples and Rupps joined us for a dip, some dinner, and a great time just hanging out! These are the kinds of friends that we can invite over and they don't mind if we just order pizza. Perfect.

Kate was just enamoured with Melanie, as usual. There is something about Mel that both of my girls (and all kids!) just love...even though she now has two beautiful babies of her own, she will always be "Nanny Mel" to my ladies!

A family photo! Yet again, we cannot manage to all four be looking at the camera at the same time. Oh well...we're working on it...

Anna and Owen having a blast together, as usual...

Playing doctor

Anna and Owen having some fun "playing doctor". Ok, you two, while this is irresistably adorable now, this is going to be significantly less cute when you're teenagers and there's no plastic stethoscope involved...

Yummy

The busyness of the last few months have resulted in lots of pictures that I meant to post to blog, but just never quite got around to. Well, I'm going to try to catch up over the next week or two. Here are some pics of Anna enjoying some of the treats of summer...

Her first Dilly bar! She's "eaten" hundreds of plastic ones in her play kitchen, but this was the first real deal. And, she's definitely her mother's daughter...needs a sweatshirt if she's eating ice cream, even if its July in Houston!

Enjoying a cupcake at her buddy, Julian's, birthday party...this girl loves her desserts!

Happy feet

"How come no one told me I have these fabulous playthings attached to the ends of my legs?? How very convenient!"

So, a few weeks ago, Kate discovered the glorious joy that are her feet! Hours and hours of fun she's had grabbing, pulling, and attempting to consume her peds...

So much fun, they're even worth giggling about!

Labor Day, Part 2

We had a great Labor Day celebration at our friends Rynee and Tim's house. The kids were having so much fun, they decided to do a congo line! (Honesty disclaimer: the purpose of their congo line was actually to chant "No pictures! No pictures!" The Mama Paparazzi did not oblige their request.)

(One other disclaimer: please disregard Anna's outfit in this photo. There was a slight wardrobe malfunction post-swimming, and Kate got put in Anna's dress and then promptly fell asleep, leaving Anna nothing to wear except Kate's outfit. Yes, this is a 6-9 month outfit that my 3 1/2 year old is running around in. :-) )

When they realized they weren't going to convince the paparazzi to ceast and desist, they decided to try to outrun us. No such luck...

The tiny girls were a little more cooperative with our photo requests. Being less experienced with the paparazzi, they were able to be enticed into a photo shoot with some toys to chew on.

Labor Day, Part 1

We had a great Labor Day weekend with Grammie and Grandpa (aka Bucko) in town to visit. The girls loved playing outside on the swingset and in the pool with them--they were busy busy playing all weekend! And, Grammie and Bucko were so generous to let Clint and I go out on our first date since Kate was born! We had such a great time...

We also celebrated Anna's "half birthday" while they were in town. I just love birthdays so much that I decided we should start at least having a small celebration for the kids' half birthdays. I mean, you only get the joy of celebrating birthdays as a kid once, right?

Kickin' the saucer

In yet another example of me not really realizing how fast Kate is growing up (or subconsciously not being ready for her to grow up, maybe?), it hadn't really dawned on me that she's old enough for the exersaucer. Well, after a suggestion from our pediatrician and some friends that she might enjoy it, I extracted it from the garage. They were right--she loves it! (Although, I'm not sure who is playing with it more...Kate or Anna...)

The naked chef

Last weekend combined two of Anna's favorite activities--cooking with Mommy, and running around the house with little to no clothes on. The result? My little half-naked chef making some absolutely fabulous German chocolate cake balls, as well as some orange juice and lemonade popsicles. I think everyone was happy with the results from this activity...

I taught Anna how to crack an egg during this cooking adventure. She did really really well with it! There were a few sacraficial eggs involved in the teaching process, but not too bad at all for her first attempt!