Back To School!

I've started a tradition where we have a special dinner the night before Morgan (and soon Charlotte) go back to school. It's a great way to start the year.

 We had her favorite; spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread!

She was so excited the morning of her first day!

 Her best friend Ava is in her class this year.

I'm always looking for ways to celebrate life. It won't be long until they are grown and out of the house. I cherish my time with them.

Sunflowers and Really Nice People In This World!

As I've mentioned before the girls and I grew sunflowers in our front flower bed from seed this summer. One of them turned out to be this breathtakingly large flower. One day I got home from work with plans to take pictures of the flower with my girls because it was so special. When we got home we discovered that someone had stolen the magnificent flower from our front yard. The girls and I were really sad. It was just wrong that someone thought it was okay to take that away from us.

Anyway, I posted on Nextdoor (this app that allows you to communicate with neighbors) about what had happened. I was so touched by people's responses. People commented back about how they had stopped to look at our flower and how they'd pull over to take a picture etc. It was kind of funny because sunflowers look like giant weeds to me so I was wondering if my neighbors weren't thrilled that we planted them. It felt good to find out that so many of our neighbors had been impressed (and dare I say effected) by our giant sunflower. One of our neighbors felt so bad about what had happened that she asked if she could bring over her horse to our front yard for the girls to pet as a way to make up for our loss (okay I know that sounds silly but people really cared and it was SO nice).

These two needed to be in a movie together or something because they were darling together!

The neighbor dressed her grandson, herself and her horse in sunflowers and brought bouquets and buckets of candy to our girls!

 Needless to say, we were blown away by her generosity.

I never thought we'd have a horse in our front yard!

 

Their horse was gorgeous!

This is just some serious feel good stuff that makes me so happy to be alive.

Waterpark!

Dusty was nice enough to treat the girls and I to a trip to the water park. I was thrilled when she told me about some tickets she received for buying a new set of tires because summer was almost over and we hadn't made it to the water park yet. I try to take the girls at least once every summer. The girls and I LOVE our time with Aunt Dusty!

 Later that night I tried my hand at French braiding the girls' hair. I don't do it very often and need practice. Morgan's now getting to the age where she asks that her hair be all the way down all the time. I'm not going to lie, it makes me sad she doesn't let me do fun stuff with it anymore but I know that's part of growing up. Her hair is really long right now so if she's going to start wearing it all the way down, we're going to have to cut off a few inches so it's easier for her to handle. 

 I love hanging out with them.

Good In Every Day!

I came home from work one day to find this from my girls. The note says "This is a present for you. Take it."

And the girls made me this bouquet below using a pot, dirt and roses from our backyard.

I came across this picture of Charlotte at daycare when she was little. My heart melted seeing her this tiny.

My brother, sister and I.

Clothing the girls feels like a full time job in itself sometimes but of course I enjoy it too.

 Morgan's back to school night! They held it before school began so we could go check out Morgan's new room and teacher.

 Charlotte did well during the class presentation. She happily colored her Minion the whole time.

 Daniel and I took the girls out to breakfast one weekend morning. I've really been enjoying him not working the last few months. This is time we definitely don't normally get. Unfortunately this breakfast ended up in disaster thanks to some bad behavior from the kiddos. BUT this is what life is like. It's not always easy and happy.

 She is such a fun goof!

 Running errands with my girls.

 Barnes & Noble is pretty fun spot for little ones. I need to do some Christmas shopping there and am looking forward to taking the girls with me. We'll stop in Starbucks for a treat first and then let the girls play for awhile before doing my shopping.