Elsie Turned Five and Matt Turned 30!

 Still catching up on summer pictures.  Here are some from Elsie's 5th birthday festivities.  She made Rupunzel braids with her cousins. 

 Elsie and Matt making wishes.  :)

 Cousins playing.

"Thanks for the birthday gifts Aunt Sara and Uncle Gary!"

 Jacob helping frost Big Sister's and Daddy's cakes.  :)

The one thing Elsie asked for for her birthday was a cuckoo clock! 

Samuel's First Day of Preschool!

:)

On Thursday our little Sammy started preschool.  He had been waiting for this day for a long, long time.  When Thursday morning arrived, I awakened to him singing about school in his bed.  :)

 All three on Sam's first day, and Elsie's third. 

 It was all going well until he tried to go the front door, to discover is backpack had been shut in the door.  ;)

 His first walk down the sidewalk as a true preschooler!

 He found his cubby!

Finally getting to play with all the things he could only look at while dropping Elsie off last year.  :)

A Little Summer Catch-Up

 I figured since Fall is just around the corner, I should get caught up on some of our summer pictures.  I have so many, but we'll start with a few for tonight.  It's amazing how fast kids grow.  Just looking at this picture, I can see how much Jacob has grown since the beginning of the summer.  This was probably from July, but he some how looks older to me now, and he's grown out of those sandals since then.  lol 

 Elsie and Emmy played t-ball together in July (or was it June...).  Here's Emmy getting ready to take off after whacking a good one!

 And there goes Elsie!

 Here was Matt up to bat, at the kids vs. parents game. 

 And again, here she is with her teammates, or at least the ones who showed up on this particular evening.

 The kids love their Slip N'Slide....

 But prefer to use is as a drinking fountain!

 Notice how dead the grass was earlier in the summer... 

Elsie's First Day Of Kindergarten

Oh course I've been dreading the day I'd have to send my little girl off to Kindergarten, but I must say, the first day couldn't have gone any better.  :)  I didn't even have to wake her up this morning (which is a first).  I heard the pitter patter of her running across the upstairs and then she came bounding down the stairs with the mismatched outfit she had picked out in her hands.  I was relieved to see how excited she was!

 Here she is all ready to go!

 Samuel and Jacob were excited too.  Although poor Jake was so disappointed when we returned home after dropping Elsie off.  I guess he figured, with all the commotion and running around to get ready, that we must be going somewhere fun.  We pulled back in the driveway and he just kept saying "no, no, no".  Anyway, Elsie's big smile never faded and when I got her out of the car I thought for sure I would loose it, but she just turned around and waved saying "bye Mommy!".  She was completely fine with it and happy to go, so I was too!  :) 

 As soon as we got in the door Samuel figured he'd better practice writing his name to get ready for his big day at preschool on Thursday.  :)  Of course Jacob wanted to do his homework too.  :)

She's growing up too fast!  I sure missed her all day.  But at the end of the day, this is how they returned her to me!  Lets hope tomorrow goes just as well!!