Stuff

Our partying all night Saturday night (till 9:30) took its toll on Laney-lanes.

Sarah sent me these from when she totally crashed in primary. She's such a trip!

After church we hosted the first linger longer of the year. It felt very chaotic to me, but others I asked said it was great. It was so nice that everyone pitched in and everything got done pretty quickly. After the LL, we had JoAnn present a fireside on pornography. It was a good discussion and could have lasted much longer than the one hour. Chris had taken the girls home, which was nice because otherwise it would have been a really long day for them.

On Monday I hosted our first kid swap of the 2016-2017 school year. We had 6 friends, 7 with Laney, over for the day. It was a really good kid swap day. Some days are definitely more work than others, but this was one was good.

We got Frankie's tap shoes on Monday and, I gotta say, we were all pretty excited. I'm no dancer, but I've always wanted to try on a pair of tap shoes. Even Addie said she might like to try.

Matt took the girls swimming while I pta'd. The beginning of the year is busy busy. Plus I'm chairing our big fundraiser. Plus trying to catch up on visits and church stuff and don't even get me started on housework. We'll make it. 

In exciting news, Miss Gayle called that morning and said that Delaney had gotten in to pre-k at Duke! Yay! And also, ahhh! I'd just prepped and resigned myself that she wouldn't start until January. I don't know why, it just seemed like halfway through the year would be a good time to start. So hearing that she could start tomorrow, holy smokes. A lot for my mama heart. It's good, it's just taken some getting used to. Spoiler alert - she loves it!

Saturday

It was a good day with the right balance of things to do. Bubba worked all day, but the rest of the crew hung out at the White House on pensive street. 

Matt took the little girls apple picking, only they weren't actually able to pick apples because the orchard was covered in poison ivy, and even though we'd called ahead, they hadn't told us to wear long pants or tall socks. Oh well. Best laid plans. 

I stayed home to take Addie to Jodie's for activity days. They are prepping for their recognition night and they were there to paint their female scripture hero's. Addie chose Abish. I guess she got frustrated with her painting and decided to take a break until next time. I think she did awesome! Emily is going to clean up some of the lines for her and they'll do another painting night. Addie and I had a long talk after, and she and I both felt better. 

We did more cuddling and talking. 

Frankie is the only one of the three littles that will rub feet, and she's good at it. Service with a smile!

We hung out at home, ate hot dogs for lunch, and had a nice afternoon. We had some errands to run. Another in the long series of "take a picture of me, mommy!"

Wally had the world's longest lines and d-money was silly!

We got birthday gifts and groceries, and headed to a birthday party for the gravelles at Solomon's island pool. 

First we ate chicfila and pizza. Yummo. 

Then it was go time. The party started at 7:30 and the girls thought they were the hit for being able to go to a party that started at their bedtime. 

#nerdlife

There were 2 waterslides and a diving board, and like, 15 people swimming, so they could do whatever they wanted. It was pretty awesome. 

Delaney, who couldn't bring herself to jump off the board in Seattle, climbed right onto the diving board and jumped. Brave girl!

She also went down one of the slides with Matt, only he intentionally made them go faster and scared the day lights outs of her. After that she wouldn't try it again. Addie and Frankie though were slide fiends. They went down dozens of times. 

These 4. <3

Goggle hair. #nerdlife

Happy girls!

Delaney loved the dolphin garbage can. 

So excited to throw something away in there!

It was not hot, so after about an hour and a half of swimming, lanes cuddled with her towel. I took this picture and my flash went off, and she immediatly poked her head out of the towel and asked if there was lightning. Haha. 

Addie perfected her 8-year-old dive. Or scorpion, if you will. 

We sang happy birthday and had cake, then there was time for a little bit more swimming. It was great, a cool'er summer night, good food and fun friends, and best of all, happy kids. A good Saturday. 

2nd and 3rd

Frankie pretty much wakes up ready to go. I mean, just look at that hair. #blessed

D and I love hanging out together while the girls are at school.

We're trying to appreciate the time we have together and we've been doing a lot of laying around talking.

chic's got a lot to say, always. And we're pretty codependent on eachother, so it works. And I'm only halfway kidding on that.

No photoshoot is complete without silly faces.

Later a red faced 1st grader told me all about her second day of school.

And one very expressive 3rd grader.

That night we met up at the pool. I can't believe we only have one more week of pool nights!

On Friday we spent a leisurely morning doing more of that laying around chatting. D has been such a momma's girl, that she would hardly go to Matt.

Delaney and I picked up Joni and Adam and headed to the park for our first littles play date of the school year. Things were rough going there for awhile. Delaney was all "mommy, watch me!" and "mommy, come over here!" She's never like that, so it was weird too. She was the oldest one, and it took a long time for her to warm up and play.

I remember Lana bringing a little pre-k aged Grace over to one of our baby playgroups (forever) 7 years ago, and how she was the oldest one there and didn't really want to play. Now my baby is doing the same thing. Sassy 4 year olds.  This big girl!

As soon as we got home from the park we headed over to the pool for time with our wee ones. Our sweet British friend Justine had invited us, and she's never tried to organize anything so we wanted to support her. And it was actually nice to be there with just the babes. Matt came too and they played and played. 

I went up to the school early to PTA. The girls have been begging me to let them walk home alone. All in good time. 

Kim had texted on Thursday and said her hubby had been overbooked and she had an extra ticket for the Goo Goo Dolls concert. I couldn't name a single song they sing, but I love the Marine Museum venue, so I figured why not?!?

We met up at 4 and headed over to beat the traffic. We got dinner at a new little restaurant on Solomon's island. I got mahi mahi tacos and they were yummy. They brought the check in this cute hollowed out book. So clever.

The concert was fun. I recognized about half the songs and Kim, Anne, and I had fun chatting.

It was hotter than hades. Which was a bummer because it was nice all week, and then Friday got hot and humid again. It was crazy hot. Crazy. Hot. The bands mentioned how hot it was too, but they used much more colorful language.

And week one is in the books!

1st day of school

Wednesday, August 24th came way too soon. Our lazy summer days are over. But all good things must come to an end, otherwise they often stop being good things. I've had so much dread of going back to school that I finally just was ready to rip the bandaid off. And a little bit of routine always does me good. So let's do this, I say!

My discombobulation continues though. I found myself asking what do I usually do for the first day? A big breakfast? A special lunch? What do I do?

I settled on a note and special yogurt we had bought last week.

We found ourselves running behind, and FYI, Laney continues to be the world's s-l-o-w-e-s-t balance biker. When we got to the school, as they were letting the walkers inside, I remembered that i hadn't taken first day of school pictures! I fully realize these are first world problems, but, dangit! So we snapped some quick ones on the side of the school.

Two excited girls!

They're ready! It wasn't the smoothest first day, but we made it and they were ready.

As the bus kids were walking in I realized, much to my dismay, that we'd forgotten Frankies frog lanyard that she was supposed to wear the first 3 days. I try so hard to be prepared! Even though miss Lorrie said I didn't need to, I hurried home and we brought back her lanyard. D looked all abused child and it made me laugh.

And then she laughed and did this super natural smile.

We had PTA stuff to do in the morning, and a RS meeting in the afternoon. Summer is officially over! We had just enough time to make our membership copies and prep the deposit and then it was time to pick the girls up. People asked d all day if she missed her sisters and each time she enthusiastically said "no! I love playing by myself!"

Julia always wants to play date, and since we needed to deposit and pick up spirit night pizza, I let her go over. They were so excited. Cute girls!

Addie asked to stay home alone, so while we hit the bank and Ledo's, she enjoyed a quiet house. Feels so weird, but I guess she's growing up. 

Daddy had scouts and Bubba was at work, so we ate our pizza and headed to the pool at 6. Streeters were there and it was another quiet and chilly night at the pool. On the way home I'd dropped this bucket and asked Laney to pick it up. I told her to please carry it home and she said, and I quote, "why do I always have to carry everything?!"

Meanwhile, I carry everything always. Oh D, you so crazy.

Twas the night before school started

Tuesday was the 5 year anniversary of our east coast earthquake. I clearly and vividly remember that day. Well, maybe not so clearly, because I didn't remember that I was 4 months pregnant with Delaney. But other than that, it's crystal. That was a wild week. An earthquake, tornado, and hurricane, and all during an emergency drill at church. Weird, weird.

Tiesday morning we met at the wooden park for a last big kid play date before school. All these summer last's. Makes me sad. We got to the school by about 12:45 to help man the PTA table. It was so fun to see all of our school friends and talk about who has which teacher. Back to school is an exciting time of year!

We worked the PTA table for an hour while the other ladies visited their kids classrooms, then we traded and visited ours. Frankie has mrs. G again! We're so happy!

And it turns out that she originally wasn't in Mrs. G's class, but another student needed to change, so they switched them. Happy coincidence.

She's got 2 of her besties, and a lot of other friends in her class with her. We're all super stoked.

Next we met Addie's teacher, who is a super cutie and super fun. She had music playing, and the first two songs were Roar, and Call me Maybe. Talk about a happy coincidence. We just knew it was meant to be.

Sadly, I lost ma brain and didn't take a single picture of Addie in her new upstairs big girl classroom, or with her teacher or anything. I'm all discombobulated. 

When Addie got baptized, miss Kim and kaitlyn got her a Heritage Chocolates gift card, and she's been asking us to take her for awhile. Matt was working late, but Chris took the girls to the pool, and I took Addie to the chocolate shop. This precious girl bought a small box of chocolates to share, and a decadent caramel apple for her teacher for the first day of school. Love her.

We met up with the gang at the pool, and since it was the night before school, we had it all to ourselves. It was awesome!

I filled out stacks and stacks of paperwork while the girls frolicked.

Then they asked me to take pictures of them jumping in the pool.

We could do this for hours, it's so fun.

This was supposed to be all of them jumping in at the same time. Didn't really work.

Sillies.

Somewhere in the frolicking, lanes got hit by a bucket wielded by Addie. She had a big red mark, and today a nice little bruise. Oops.

Walking home. Sweet end of summer moments. It's been cooler the past few days, and there was a sweet summer evening smell, and the girls were clean and happy and tired and excited.

Good things are in store for this year!