The girls are back in school

All 3 of the girls are finally in the same school. This is kind of a big deal. Their first day was last Thursday. Thankfully, Kara set her alarm for 5:30AM, so they were up and about pretty early. Everyone had carefully set out their new school clothes the night before, and lunches and snacks were packed and waiting in the fridge. This gave me plenty of time to help them all with the hairdos they wanted. Kiersten wanted to go curly, which is not something her stick straight hair likes to do, so I used the waving iron. That usually lasts the longest. Of course my curly girly, Evie wanted her hair straightened. And Kara was doing her own thing, until she saw Evie, and then wanted her hair straightened too. (Which only takes about 5 swipes, and 3 minutes, so not a big deal). I even had time to make them all a hot breakfast, and we were early leaving for the bus stop. If only every morning could be like that. (I've had to wake them up and drag them out of bed every morning since that first one.)

They always look forward to a first day photo shoot.

This was the only pose Kara cared about getting. Her sisters were sweet to accommodate her.

My sweet girlies!

Kara is very excited to be starting 4th grade. She made back to school pictures for all her friends, and set out 6 days worth of outfits in her room. She wasn't happy that I made her put all the extra clothes away.

Kiersten is just ecstatic to be a second grader. She loves her class, and has fun stories every day after school. She kept thinking of more poses to do, so I finally had to cut her off so Evie could take a few. It was hard choosing the best one. I think I'll be able to fill an entire scrapbook page with just her porch poses.

Evie had some pretty cute poses too. She is very excited about kindergarten. She has lots of her buddies in her class. I am unsure if her stories are true, or imagined, but if true, then she has had some pretty exciting and eventful days at school so far! I'm 80% sure one of the kids she talks about is an imaginary friend. If not, they are certainly the naughty kid at school.

She's had this backpack for 2 years and finally gets to use it! She did not take one to preschool, as they provided bags for the kids. She is so proud to walk to the bus stop every day.

Our fun group of bus stop friends!

Evie has been waiting for the day she could get on the bus with her sisters. She loves it so far. It is still strange for me to come home alone, and not have anyone following me around chattering. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Winding down summer days

Summer is over, and I find myself asking if it was ever really here. Wednesday last week was the last day to spend with the girls before they had to go back to school, so I let the housework slide and made a "fun chart". The girls got to spin the spinner and we had to do whatever it landed on right away. The first thing was a doll and stuffed animal war. I didn't get any pictures of that, because it was pretty crazy. We were all exhausted and sweaty by the end, and a few harder dolls did get thrown at a few faces. In the end, Evie and I were victorious with 47 stuffed animals captured to Kara and Kiersten's 25.

After the war, we spun again and landed on "make a snack". So I got out some nilla wafers, peanut butter, and nutella. I let the girls make any combo they wanted. I probably shouldn't have set out a light colored table cloth, but oh well.

The mess potential was pretty high, but luckily, this was the worst of it. She went to wash her hands 3 separate times, but ended up getting it all over herself again the second she sat back down.

Kiersten went for a double decker.

So Kara had to show her up with a triple decker...

that she could barely even get a bite of.

The last thing before we headed to the pool was to play with sidewalk chalk. It was sweltering out, so we didn't last too long out there.

Ben bought the girls these sidewalk stencils. They are pretty cool. They don't come off when it rains, so they can just go out and re-color them in. They are pretty easy to rub off, though, when you want them gone for good.

Those butterflies have been there for over a month now.

I helped Evie spell out " I love daddy". But she tried to color it in before it was dry, and it got messed up a little. He still noticed it, and could tell what it said.

Of course Kara took 10,000 years to do one stencil. She can be pretty perfectionist when it comes to anything artistic. I just let her do her thing. The other girls did 3-4 each while she worked on hers, and didn't quite end up finishing it before they all decided to go to the pool.

Kiersten had her first soccer practice on Saturday. She was excited and ready to get back to playing!

Afterward, she was tired and sweaty, and wanted nothing other than a shower. She is on a great team with lots of her little besties. It should be a fun season!

Several weeks of Summer

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately, or posting many. But I did finally download the ones I have taken.
These park pictures are from mid-July when my parents were here. We took the kids to play at the park.

Kiersten ran 20 laps around the playground.

So Kara decided to do it too, but in crocs. I think she ran 6 or 7 before she gave up and went off to play.

And of course Evie just played nicely and had a grand time.

After the park we went to Silky's for frozen custard and rootbeer floats. It was a fun afternoon.

While they were here, we also went to Ben's softball game, Evie's T-ball game, and to see the Minion movie. It was a fantastic week.
These pictures are from 2 weeks ago at the park where Ben plays softball. I made the girls actually watch his game, and then afterward, they got to play at the park.

And then they all had sno-cones.

A few pool pictures from the past week or so. We haven't taken the camera with us too many times this summer.

It's kind of amazing what a difference a few weeks makes when you are at the pool almost every day. At the beginning of summer, Evie was afraid to put her face in the water, and now she swims confidently in the deep end, and can even dive to the bottom to get dive sticks. It really did just suddenly click one day for her, and off she went.

We also took them to hurricane harbor at six flags, which was  a blast, but I didn't have the camera. It was a pretty great day.
Kiersten earned a makeover by doing her chores, so she was pretty excited to cash that in. She said she looked like a rock star!

She also got to give me a makeover, which always goes so well, haha. She's not shy with that eyeliner, that's for sure.

Evie got a little jealous, so I gave her a little sparkle as well, since we didn't have plans to leave the house that day. She thought she looked like a mermaid.

I guess that's what we've been up to mostly. we've done tons of stuff, but it's hard to remember everything. Evie got to go to cooking camp with the big girls this year, so that's something you'd think I might have wanted to get a picture of. Oh well. We've got the memories!