School Days

The school gang!

Back L-R: Tanner, Ethan and Matt.

Front L-R: Ella, Taylor, Ashley and Emma.

The girls on their first day of school. Emma and Ella starting kindergarten(can you believe it) and Taylor going in 3rd grade. Wow....what a day! I must admit that this day was much easier for the girls than it was for me. I was so proud to share this day with the girls and held in all my tears until I got home. The girls and I filled each others pockets with kisses and hugs to use throughout the day which helped. Emma & Ella were so excited the night before that they had a hard time settling down to sleep and were up bright and early dressed and ready to go. This was all good but made for a very long day and crabby evening after a full day at kindergarten. Things have gotten easier now we are into a routine after a couple weeks. They are all loving every minute!

Meeting Sara, the school therapy dog, on the first day of school.

Taylor with her teacher, Mrs. Mahler. This is who she was hoping to get. She had heard she was the "cool" 3rd grade teacher and she seems to be great!

Ella and Emma with their teacher, Ms. Kronmann. This is her 1st year teaching and seems to have lots of fun learning activities planned. The girls come home excited and ready to go back every day.

Grandma Bs

The girls and I had tons of fun this year visiting with Grandma B, sisters, aunts, cousins, nieces and friends while in Illinois. We got to go swimming, shopping, watch a movie in the park, a trip to the zoo and of course lots of eating out.


Ella lost her first tooth (the bottom middle one) while at Grandma Bs. She was actually with Aunt Jane, Brittany and Olivia so I missed this first but she was VERY excited that the tooth fairy visited her at Grandmas.

Enjoying the day at the zoo with Brittany, Olivia and Aunt Jane

Pool fun at Aunt Becky's
Ella coming off the slide

Taylor on the diving board

Emma with the horse at Grandma Bs

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park

We planned a weekend "camping" trip with our great friends at the Jellystone Park in Indiana http://www.jellystonesbest.com/ the last part of July. Many people do not consider camping to be a cabin with air, satellite TV, full kitchen, bath & shower, etc....to be camping but I do. We rented the cabin for Friday and Saturday night and had a blast doing so many things.

Emma's souvenir tye dye shirt

Rental bikes that we got to ride around the campgrounds

The kids fishing

The guys playing poker

Emma, Ella, Ashley, Tanner and Taylor

Pool fun

Country Lane Tree Farm

The girls and I had the chance to visit The Country Lane Tree Farm http://www.countrylanetreefarm.com/ with Sheila and her class. This is a real working farm with so many animals and incredible things for the kids to explore. The girls got to milk a real cow, bottle feed goats and lambs, ride in the barrel train, hold baby chicks, pet bunnies, feed the llamas and run thru the hay maze to name only a few.