Lake weekend 2009

Last weekend we went on our 3rd annual trip to Cedar Creek Lake with some of our college friends and their kids. We had a great time catching up, watching all the kids play together, and playing on the lake. We were able to enjoy ourselves a little more this year since the girls are older and also since they slept better (even if they woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning, at least they slept hard all night and took long naps that day!) The worst part of our whole trip was that Kendall was NOT a fan of her life jacket and of the fact that she did not have her lovey on the boat. She cried just about the whole time on the boat-- which was a whipping for everyone I'm sure. But she had so much fun swimming and playing on the beach, so I guess it was worth it. Sunday she kept looking out the back windows and saying, "I want swimming," and getting upset when I told her we couldn't. Avery had a great time playing with the other kids, especially Mick and Alexis's little boy Graham. She was so sad that he had to leave Saturday night. When we were on the boat Sunday she said, "It's not very fun without Graham." She is such a little "people-person." We all had such a good time and we feel so lucky to have the kind of friends where you can just sort of pick up where you left off. Hopefully we'll be able to keep the annual mini-reunion going for years to come!

Avery and Graham liked to snuggle up and watch cartoons together

all the kids (minus Harrison Kennedy who was staying w/ grandma)-- poor Graham was upset that he was about to leave

Scott putting his karate moves on Avery and Graham

Graham helped Avery put on a blue-haired fairy costume

Scott and Avery tubing on the way back from the beach

hanging out on the dock

Avery and Abby Holm

Kendall and I swam in the cove while Scott and Avery rode the jet-ski

First Day of School

Avery- 3yrs. 5 months- starting "Jr. Pre-K" as Young Children's World calls it

Kendall- 19 months- starting in the Toddler class at YCW

Last Thursday was Avery and Kendall's first day of school (Mother's Day Out) for the year. Avery was so excited to go back. She has been asking me since the week after school got out when she was going to get to go again. She has lots of the same kids in her class as she did last year, and she was excited about making new friends too. I was really impressed with her teachers at Meet the Teacher night. It sounds like it is definitely going to be more like actual preschool this year and I am excited to see what all she learns. When I picked her up Thurs. afternoon, her teachers said she had a great day and that she was a very smart little girl. I knew I liked her teachers right from the start :)

I had been kind of anxious about Kendall starting school and questioning my decision to put her in 2 days a week. My original thought was that maybe she would adjust more quickly and get more out of it if she went twice a week and really got into the routine. Plus, I remembered that when Avery was in the toddler class, she missed out on a lot of neat activities since she just went once a week in the fall. Well, Kendall started bawling when we dropped her off, which obviously didn't help my anxiety about the whole thing, but I just stayed really busy all be day and kept telling myself that she was in good hands and was probably having a lot of fun. And when I picked her up, they said she had a GREAT 1st day and was just so happy and played so hard and slept the entire nap time, no problem. So hopefully she'll continue enjoying it and stop crying when we drop her off at some point. As for what I'm going to do with my new-found freedom, I am going to be helping Scott out at the office a little bit here and there, cleaning house, running errands, and enjoying a little me time. Scott and I have even talked about how on Mondays we could sneak away to a matinee movie every now and then since he doesn't see patients on that day. Will that ever really happen? I don't know, but it sure is nice to know we could!

This year I was smart and took a few pictures on Meet the Teacher night. I always take the camera on the 1st day, but it is always WAY too crazy to take any pictures. So now at least I have some of their teachers, classrooms, etc at the beginning of the year other than what gets put in their "Me" books.

Avery with her teachers, Mrs. Patty and Mrs. Christy, at Meet the Teacher night

They took a parent/child picture for Kendall's "Me" book on Meet the Teacher night (hopefully the one w/ their camera was better of Kendall)

Kendall made herself right at home in her new classroom on MTT night

Labor Day

I don't know what most people do on Labor Day weekend, but we often spend part of it doing something to celebrate my birthday, which usually falls on that weekend. This year Scott took me out to Trulucks, which is a really nice steak and seafood restaurant in Southlake on Saturday night. We had such a nice, quiet dinner at one of those cozy curved booths like you always see on TV and movies. The food was amazing too-- I had crab and corn chowder, proscuitto wrapped Mahi-mahi, some of Scott's Texas stone crab claws and sweet potato fries, and then we made a weak attempt at a slice of ice-cream cake they brought for my birthday and the slab of award-winning cake carrot that came with our "date night" special. Monday we had a little family get-together at my parents' house. When you're 32, you don't care much about having birthday parties anymore, but your kids sure have a lot of fun eating your cake and helping you open cards and presents :) We had another delicious meal, more ice cream cake, and a fun time hanging out.

After lunch we all got a little crazy playing with this little pop-up tent that my parents had found at a garage sale. The girls kept going in there and laughing and squealing, and then Scott went in and lifted Kendall up through the middle to peek out. So then Avery wanted to peek out, and then she wanted us to do it, so we all had a turn being silly. The things we do to amuse our children!

"Peek-a boo!"

my "tent dress"

Avery was just tall enough to poke her head through

silly Scott

Kendall was also being silly with some reusable face-part stickers that go to a little sticker book. At one point she had like 10 of them stuck on her face, and then she kept putting this mouth sticker over her mouth and laughing. She's at that age now where she knows when she's being funny and she likes to show off sometimes. She is growing up so much. In just the past week or so, she has gone from single words and some two-word phrases to spouting off these little sentences. Just tonight she said, "I want Avey (Avery) come" when we were going outside, and also she said "Mommy, I drinking milk."
The girls also had fun playing with the toys that my Mom got at the consigment sale we went to recently. Avery's favorite was the vanity with jewelry and accessories and Kendall's was the baby dolls and stroller--surprise, surprise. Aren't they lucky (and spoiled) to have such fun toys at their granparents' house? No one they never want to leave!