Is it Fall yet? September in review.

Once school starts and you are busy watching football on the weekends, it feels like the weather should be cooler. I guess in some parts of the world that is the case and the first day of Autumn really feels crisp and lovely. But we have learned to accept Texas for all of its flaws and the heat in September is one of them.

This month we earned money at a lemonade stand, went on a date with our friends the Martin's to a High School football game, packed our suitcases and pretended to board a plane with half of our playroom again and baked Pinkalicious cupcakes which caused Olivia to try her very hardest to turn pink, including eating 4 herself. Isabelle was awarded as the Summer Reading Challenge Winner for second grade reading close to 2000 pages in June, July and August and was quite pleased with her Barnes and Noble Gift Card.


Olivia continued to learn what it meant to go to school and got picked to fill the Share Bucket with some of her favorite things to share with her class.  Isabelle finally earned enough money to buy Saige, The American Girl, after we gave her a little money from an envelope we had from holidays past from Grandma Joan.  We felt like what a great use of the money since Grandma always loved dolls and Saige spends most of her time with her grandma.  It was a fun day when we traveled to The American Girl Store and brought Saige home for her first night.

Despite the (too) warm temps we kept busy with school, ballet, soccer and church and managed to sneak a few play dates in as well.  Now we are on to pumpkin pie and some of the most fun holidays of the year...and hopefully some cooler weather.

BeeNanza 2013

I am blessed with good women in my life. Not only do I have a great mom and sisters but I have cousins and aunts that are best friends as well. This September we hosted our annual Bee Trip right here in Houston, TX. My dad hit the road for Montana as the Bee flights began to arrive and we spent the next three days at my parents home laughing, eating, shopping, laughing, crafting, eating, shopping some more and having so much fun. We celebrated Gloria's birthday one day and then mourned with Tara turning 40 the next. We made new Bee necklaces, held our official Bee meeting with a tribute to the Queen Bee we lost this year, Grandma Joan, had a black shoe contest and shared each of our favorite things. We ate Mexican, BBQ, Kolaches, Bahama Bucks and even made a trip to the huge Bucees in Waller. The weekend flew by and sadly flights started departing rather than arriving but plans for our next reunion are already underway. I love these women and am so glad we have each other. Long live the Bees!

Preschool Days

Olivia wants to be just like her big sister. She is always trying to keep up with Isabelle, and much to my dismay, often seems to be not too far behind. We didn't send Isabelle to preschool at age three but Olivia was ready to go so we bit the bullet and registered her in a two day school program.

We had a bit of a rocky start as the original school I had selected did not leave me with warm feelings for my little Livi after 1 day, but we quickly made a move to a recommended school where Olivia spends her time now on Mondays and Wednesdays. There are 11 tiny 3-year olds in the Busy Bee class and two patient teachers, Ms Stephanie and Ms Mary. Olivia is always excited when it is a school day and comes home happy and exhausted. Her school days are long starting at 9:00am and not ending until 2:00pm but she gets to do science experiments, sing in music, cut/glue/paint and play at the playground twice a day. She takes her own lunch and always tells me exactly what she wants in it, but is happy with whatever I send. Ms Mary always gives me glowing reports on pick-up of her behavior and how sweet and smart she is and Livi is happy to hug me and her teachers both hello and goodbye.

It's hard to believe that my little buddy is a school girl already but it has been a great adventure so far for both of us.

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. -Winnie the Pooh

Hot and Humid - August in Houston

August, the month of my birthday and the month that is so miserably hot here in Texas. It came and went but sadly the heat is still lingering. We braved the heat one day and took the girls to the Houston Zoo for a day of animals, fun and sweat. The girls loved being there as a family and we promised we would return soon, hopefully in the Fall when the temps are a bit cooler.

We also got ready for our Back to School days with pedis and our BFF's, Emily and Ashley. The girls all picked different colors and came away with the tiniest toe rings. They loved being pampered and feeling girly and beautiful. Any day spent shopping and at the spa with friends is a pretty good day for a girl, no matter the age.

We rode bikes, had Leo over for a sleep over, made messes, and ate lots and lots of Pinkalicious cupcakes. Olivia read the book daily many times and ate half a dozen cupcakes herself trying to turn pink. Even though she was disappointed, I am glad my babe stayed her nice tan self.

Before we knew it, Belle was back in school as a 2nd grader and we were getting out our Aggie attire to cheer for a Texas A&M Football victory. It is starting to BE fall in the big USA, now if we could just get the weather to agree.

Back to school...2nd Grade!

Isabelle started 2nd Grade the last week of August. It has been hard for Ben and I to wrap our head around her growing up, but it is happening whether we want it to or not. Sigh. Belle is always a good student, but would probably never chose to go to school on any given day. She takes a lot of encouraging but once she makes it out the door, she is ready to learn.

We met her teacher, Mrs Steed, a few days before hand and instantly knew she was going to have a great year. Not only does she have a super fun teacher, but she also has her two very best friends in her class again, Emily and Paloma, and her church/neighbor/boy friend Henry.

We are all enjoying getting back into a school year routine and we know that Belle is happiest when she is busy and growing (mentally and socially) so we are trying to gird up our loins and face 2nd grade with our best happy faces. All four of us look forward to that afternoon bell finally ringing though and look forward to our family dates now even more.

Back to school, back to school.


(Shelly and I and the littles went to lunch to commiserate together on the first day of school. It happened to rain for a few minutes and since the moms were too busy chatting, Livi and Ashley decided to do a little rain dance celebration of their own.)

Smile

Why does it always seem like your children inherit your worst features? Both of our girls sadly inherited Ben's thick upper frenum and both have now had surgery to remove it. Ben always hated it as a kid and wished he had had his clipped much younger so when our dentist suggested we remove our girls, we signed on the dotted line.

Olivia had her frenectomy when she was just 18 months old and was under the knife anyway getting her newly broken teeth fixed. Her mouth was swollen and stitched from the event, so we were just glad when she finally looked like her self again. Isabelle, on the other hand, never had another reason to get her frenectomy done so Dr. Anderson thought the best time to have the surgery would be when she was starting to lose her baby teeth.

This summer she lost her first and second baby teeth so we knew it was time to schedule the appointment. Isabelle was nervous, as you would expect, but knew she would be happier once the surgery was over so she put her brave face on and marched into the dentist office. It wasn't too long before they had quickly put her out cold and took her back to surgery. Ben and I were shocked when they invited us to watch the procedure, but were told we had to be silent and ask no questions. It was a little difficult to watch them cut and sew up our little girl, but we really like Dr. Anderson and he was gentle and quick and we knew she was in good hands.

Soon it was time to wake sweet Belle up and take her home. She was pretty sleepy and silly for a while but finally close to bedtime she was starting to get a little hungry and tried to eat a little something. It took a few days before the swelling went away and the stitches in her mouth dissolved, but Belle was a trooper and was so relieved the worst was over. I am not sure how she could be any cuter, but I guess having nice straight front teeth will not hurt.