Cannon Ball!

Ross had a great time swimming at our nephew's birthday party a few weeks ago! Who says going down pool slides is only for little kids, anyway?! 

Splash Time

I've taken Lucy and Molly to splash time at a local pool four times this summer. The pool is very nice and toddler-friendly with a zero entry area and shaded spots in the pool. There's fountains for the kids to play with, too. It's been a great way to spend an hour in the sun.

Lucy plays in the water for pretty much the entire hour that we are there. Molly plays in the water for maybe 10-15 minutes and then would rather sit and eat her snacks. The following pictures are from three different visits to splash time. She is such a little stinker!

Anniversaries

This past Sunday, August 21, we celebrated two anniversaries. One was Ross' parents 45th wedding anniversary and the other was mine and Ross' seven-year anniversary of getting engaged. Larry and Wanda are spending the week in Branson, so we spent the day with them on Sunday. It was a nice time. We had brunch at the Keeter Center on the College of the Ozarks campus and then spent the day at their condo swimming and relaxing. It was a nice time and perfect weather to celebrate special days!

We Have A Preschooler!

Lucy officially started preschool this morning! She will go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1pm. We've been talking about preschool for quite a while now, trying to get her ready for it. We've been asking her if she's excited, scared, nervous, or anything like that about preschool but we've never gotten a good, consistent answer from her. We've had some problems the last few mornings with her throwing fits when getting ready for the day and I was so worried about that happening this morning. Thankfully, it didn't and she woke up on her own, came into our room, and was wide awake and super excited! We asked her if she was ready for preschool and she said yes. Ross looked at me and said, "Well, Lucy might be ready for preschool, but is preschool ready for Lucy?!"

I made sure to have all of her stuff ready last night. I got her backpack ready with the folder that she takes to school each day and I had her lunch ready...a luchable! Maybe it's not the healthiest option, but she likes it and eats all of it. That's all I care about!

Everything went so well this morning. She ate, got her hair fixed, and got dressed with no issues at all. I was even able to take some pictures at home without her complaining about it! Ross came with us to drop her off and that went well, too. We saw a few of Lucy's friends when we got there so took a few pictures with them and walked in together.

We had preschool open house last Monday night, so Lucy was familiar with her classroom and had already met her teacher. When we got to her classroom, Lucy walked in and hung up her bag by her name and then put her lunchbox under the counter. Then I guess she started playing, I'm not sure. We had to leave, as they didn't want parents standing around a long time. At one point it seemed like Lucy was maybe a little scared or timid, but that didn't last long at all and she did great. She didn't cry or protest us leaving and I am so thankful for that. I so wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see what she did all day!

Molly and I left and filled our time with a trip to Target, the park, and them home to play a little and have lunch before heading back to preschool to get Lucy. It was a nice morning with Molly but it was so quiet! Lucy just brings so much energy to our life and I missed it and I think Molly did, too. She kept saying "Lu-sha," which is how she says Lucy.

We picked Lucy up at 1pm and were able to watch some of the singing at the end of their chapel service. It was fun to watch Lucy and see how she pays attention and interacts with the other kids. It was so nice to have Lucy back home! I firmly believe in her attending preschool, but I certainly will miss her while she's gone!

And funny thing...four years ago on this date, August 16, 2012, we found out I was pregnant with Lucy! I remember that day and taking that test like it was yesterday. We spent the whole week wondering if I was pregnant or not and that afternoon while we were both at work we decided, via text message, that I would take a pregnancy test when I got home that afternoon. It was so nerve-racking and unbelievable when my first of five tests showed positive! Lucy has been such a blessing and absolute joy to us!

Lucy's backpack all ready to go! You can kind of see that Elsa's dress is lit up. 

Lucy's first lunch! Water, a lunchable, and chips because she doesn't like the crackers that come with the lunchable. 

Lucy picked out her dress for the first day of school. It's so pretty and fits her very well. And a bonus - it was on sale and after a coupon only cost about $4.50!

Lucy is very proud of her backpack! There's a button to push that will make Elsa's dress light up. She enjoys telling everyone about that! 

I used my cutting machine to make a name tag for her lunch box. She enjoys showing that to people, too. :) 

Molly!

Lucy's friend, Rowan. They are friends from the gym and Rowan is exactly three months older than Lucy. 

Bennett, another fun friend from the gym!

Getting ready to go into her classroom. 

Each morning she will hang her backpack up by her name. 

This is one of her teachers, Miss Amy. 

Molly and I had fun at preschool, too. This morning it was at the park. Not sure where it will be on Thursday! :)

The preschool has Facebook pages for the classrooms and they post pictures of what's going on throughout the day. I love this feature! Here's a picture of gym class!. 

A picture of music class!

This is the end of chapel service. I'm not sure if they have a little devotion or if they just sing. 

Lucy patiently waiting on the green line for me to come pic her up. 

Another picture of music class. 

Lunch time!

Sisters

Such sweetness here. They really do like to play together and get along so well, most of the time. :)

Goals.....

For the most part I'm a goal-oriented person. I like to have a to-do list for the day and a goal list to check off. In the past my goals have been pretty big...run a half-marathon, run a full marathon, successfully organize a 1,000+ person luncheon when I was working....things like that.

I'm still goal-oriented now, but as my life has changed with kids, sadly some of my goals have changed, too. I still have ambitions of running long distance races, however those goals are harder to reach now given the kids. I am proud to say, though, that one goal I reached recently was to catch up to and surpass Ross on Candy Crush. And now I am happy to report that that goal has now been checked off my list!!!!

Goals.........

Trash

The picture below is the inside of our trash can. If you look closely, you will see a flowered piece of material on the top of the picture (or if you turn the picture 90 degrees to the left, the flowered piece of material is on the left side of the trash can). The flowered piece of material is actually one of Molly's baby doll's dresses. Currently, Molly is infatuated with throwing things away in our trash can. She's thrown away this and other baby doll outfits, the girl's play dishcloths for their kitchen, washcloths we use to clean the girls up after eating, toys, and other miscellaneous items. Sometimes it's kind of frustrating because we might have to fish something our amidst real trash, but it is quite funny seeing the things she puts in the trash can. We've watched her do it, too. She just walks over to the trash can, opens the lid, puts whatever she has in, and walks away. What a stinker she is!

This is new to us as Lucy didn't do anything like this at all. Thankfully, though, our trash can has a lock on it and we are not putting that lock to good use!

Water The Molly, Make The Molly Grow

When Lucy would take a bath as a baby I'd use the watering can to pour the water on her and say, "Water the Lucy, make the Lucy grow." I've done that off and on to her and now do that to Molly. Lucy has picked up on that and has started doing the same to Molly. She even sings, "Water the Molly, make the Molly grow." Molly loves it. :)

The Fair

We went to the fair last week and had a great time! We looked at the animals, played games, and walked around. It was a pretty nice night and a really fun time. I look forward to going again next year.

Waffle Wednesday!

Today is Wednesday which means we had waffles and scrambled eggs for lunch - Waffle Wednesday! For probably a year now, we've been having waffles and scrambled eggs for lunch on Wednesdays. I don't know why I started doing this, but it's been the best thing. Both girls love to eat waffles and scrambled eggs and it's such a quick, easy meal to fix. Woohoo for Waffle Wednesday!