Tuesday, September 30, 2014

First Day of Preschool!

This is a big year for us, as it is Emma's first year of "school"!  Ever since Emma was born, she's watched Addy go to school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings , and now she gets to join the fun!

 She was so excited to get her new backpack a few weeks before school started.

And for the most part she was pretty excited about the idea of going to school.  Last year she would run into Addy's classroom and start playing immediately and then cry when I had to take her out.  So I knew she'd love it... eventually.  (Tina came over to see the girls on their first day, and she took these next pics.)

Emma was skeptical at first.  And for some reason she decided she needed to cart around that random bear that she never cared about until that day.  


Big sister Addy to the rescue!


And now we're having fun!


The size of Emma's backpack on her kills me!  It literally comes down past her knees!  She's just so mini :)



And we're walking in!  Typical faces.  Emma and I smiling.  Addy refusing to look at the camera.

 Almost there!

"Come on Emmy!  Follow me!"


Emma did cry a bit that first day, but she was fine after a few minutes.  It was the subsequent days that were the worst, because she remembered that I would be leaving.  The first day she didn't really know what to expect.  So she would cry every morning at drop off for about 2 weeks.  Her and about every other kid in that classroom.  It was like a zoo in there.  I really felt for poor Mrs. St. Peter and Mrs. Snook.  The teachers said that the crying was mostly for the parents benefit, because the kids would stop within minutes after we were gone. 

 And now, Emma is a champ!  She blows me kisses when I leave and yells "Bye Mommy!"  And every day when I pick her up she runs over to me with a huge smile on her face and exclaims, "I had so much fun!"  I'm so glad that she's enjoying it and that she's making some little friends of her own :)  And Addy?  Addy loves school as much as ever and she was such a big help getting Emma acclimated to preschool.  She would hug her and reassure her and I could tell that having her big sister there lessened Emma's nervousness.  Watching their sibling relationship grow and blossom is one of life's sweetest things :)



Sunday, September 28, 2014

September Self Portrait

The time has come!  Both girls are in school this year and I have 2 small slices of free time each week for the first time in over 3.5 years!  It is glorious I tell you.  Glorious.  On their first day, Tina and I went to Starbucks for a nice relaxing drink and then came back to my house to watch a little Teen Mom 2.  (Yup, we watch that garbage.)  So here I am in all my glory:


As a mom, I'm telling you there is nothing like some uninterrupted time to sip your coffee.  Ahhhhhh, quiet :)  That first day was great.  So great in fact that I managed to be a half an hour late picking Emma up.  Yup, Mom of the Year right here.  Since we missed the Open House while we were on vacation, I had no idea that the two year old class gets out a half an hour earlier the first week.  Oops.  Luckily Emma took it all in stride and went out on the playground with Addy's class.  She was none the wiser ;)

The girls are in school Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9:30-12.  As fabulous as that is, it FLIES by.  I always have a list a mile long of things that I want to get done during that time, but it seems like I blink and it's already time to pick them up.  Look at me, complaining already, ha ha.  No, it's great, really and truly.  I come home to an empty house, and to have that time alone is utterly heavenly. 

 You'd think I'd bask in the silence, but it turns out that I like a little noise.  I come home, plug my phone into the Bose and CRANK some tunes.  The kind of noise level that would have Addy whining that it hurts her ears.  But I love it!  There is something so freeing about blasting music in an empty house. 

I usually spend the time cleaning, but I don't even care.  Because I'm alone, and that's something that I haven't been in years.  And regardless of what I spend those 2.5 hours doing, it recharges me and gives me the patience to handle whatever antics the girls decide to throw at me later in the day.  Everyone needs some "me" time, and on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I finally have mine :)

Friday, September 26, 2014

Sandbridge 2014

I know that it's been awhile, but I wanted to post some pics of our last beach trip of the year.  We headed down to Sandbridge, VA for a week with mom, Jim, Tina, Jay, and Grandma and Grandpa D.  It was a great vacation, with awesome weather (thank goodness!).  One of the best parts about our house this year was the awesome pool area outside.  We had our own pool, cabana, and putting green outside, which were all so key with the little ones.  We spent the majority of our days out there.  The girls liked the beach too, but I must say that they both liked the pool better.  I'll give them a few years, but they better learn to LOVE the beach if they're going to live in my family ;)

Exploring

Some drinks in the pool?  Don't mind if we do :)

Selfie Sunday

Emma loved to strap on her floaty and just bob along in the water :)

And.... jump!

Fun times with the ladies :)

A little pool volleyball action


One of the coolest things about having our own pool was that since the girls spent soooo much time in there that week, we could really see Addy progressing, even over that short time.  Here are some videos: 

Head under water for the first time on her own!


First time jumping in the pool without someone to catch her!


Heck, she even swam (a short distance) without her life vest by the end of the week!!!

Even Emmy got in on the action!




Tina got some good pool photos too:
One pool princess

Second pool princess


Daddy's girls :)

View of our house


Anyway, despite the millions of pool photos and videos, we did go to the beach that week too, ha ha!  


The girls got a big kick out of playing "Ice Bucket Challenge"





 They even got brave and let Tina and I take them "way out" in the ocean!

And a beach trip with toddlers wouldn't be complete without getting sand EVERYWHERE!

Here's some of Tina's photos:










And a video of the girls playing at the beach:


Some other random photos:

Grandma and Grandpa D watched the girls so that the six of us could go out to eat.  It was AWESOME!

This girl loves her Wonder Woman costume!

Beers and lunch in the cabana :)

They had some 3D movies at this place and one of the few that they had was The Lion King, the girls current fave.  So we saw a lot of The Lion King that week ;)  The background of this pic accurately depicts an average afternoon in the house.  Girls watching the movie, Tina on her computer, Jim working on the puzzle, and Mom in the kitchen. (And me taking millions of pictures of course.)

And we couldn't complete the week without an awesome photo shoot by Tina:










And in come the girls for some photo shoot action!  We got some really good ones of them!








Emmy just wanted to run...

When we asked her to sit, this is what happened...
 


But somehow, Tina managed to get an awesome one (that is now a canvas on our wall!).

After the shoot we headed out for dinner and got an updated mother/daughters photo.  Love :)

So there was our week at the beach, summed up in about a million and one photos.  Love these times with family.  Nothing beats it :)