School

We got back from our beach trip, and St Paul started the next week! 

I realized as I was talking to a good friend from college this week that I had not blogged about our school decision. St. George's, the girls preschool, changed their hours for this year, and every child had to stay for the extended day Tuesday-Friday. It hit me about this time last year as Maddie had had afternoon after afternoon of meltdowns and falling asleep for the night at 5:30 that I did not want to have to go through that again this year if she would be adding another afternoon and full day at school. So I started searching for other options, but I had already missed the Kindergarten Admission panel & all of the schools open houses, & I did not know the first thing about what to expect! I emailed a friend and asked for her to be praying for an answer for next year. She had a son in Junior Kindergarten and sent me this video.

Junior Kindergarten at St. Paul Christian Academy from St. Paul Christian on Vimeo.

It brought tears to my eyes to have a school that would truly partner with us in educating our children. We literally had our tour the day before the applications were due, praying that the Lord would make it abundantly clear because I knew it would be really hard on all of us to move Maddie a year before all of her friends. We left confident that we wanted to go ahead and put in the application but knowing a lot had to fall into place in order for her to go this year. And He provided abundantly! We are so grateful to have the opportunity to send her to school that we are continually amazed by.

 Mrs. Holladay came to our house for a visit! All the Junior Kindergarten teachers go to each students house so the child can become comfortable with them in their own setting.

 

First day of school - loving the uniform!

 

Walking her in on her first day! 

She is in a class with 10 other little girls!

And two weeks later, Miss Em started school. She was less than pleased to go back, until I told her she would see Miss Anne Byrn (her teacher from last year) on the playground. She stopped mid-tear and said, "Wait a minute...Miss Anne Byrn? What about her sister?" Referring to Miss Michelle her other teacher from last year - I couldn't help but laugh! In her world any two girls together were sisters. :)

 

Emalyn's visit with her teachers - Mrs Philpot and Mrs Rutledge

 

Her first day of school. 

She has never been attached to any one comfort item, but since school has started back we cannot go anywhere without "lambie." Not going to lie, I am not thrilled about having to keep up with one more thing! But if it helps with our transition to school every morning, guess I'll have to get used to it!

Friday Fun Project

Both of my girls are home with me on Fridays, so it is our let down day after a busy week. It's so nice not to have to get up and get lunches made and Maddie out the door by 7:40! It's nice to stay in our pjs and relax. I usually try to plan a playdate Friday mornings, but my favorite thing is starting a craft project in the afternoon with the girls. 

So here is our latest project - burlap door hangers. It was so fun and easy.  Here's how I did it. Let me preface this with I am crafty not artsy - so I have to trace or look at a picture to draw anything and there is always a lot of erasing that goes in to get the shape right.

I started by drawing a pumpkin and a football shape out of crate paper and then traced it onto some extra burlap I had.

 

I folded the burlap over (so I would have a front and back) and cut the shapes out. And then it was onto the girls favorite part - painting!

 Once again I'm not artistic - so I printed out a font I liked from the computer, cut it out and traced around it for the letters. I used the edge of a paper plate for the laces and the white stripes (there probably is a name for those and my husband would be most disappointed that I don't know - but that about sums up my football knowledge) :).

I used a hot glue gun to glue the front and the back together and stuffed it with plastic grocery bags. 

I glued some orange ribbon on to hang it with and....

 the finished product hanging on the front door. 

 

 I'm still working on the pumpkin - maybe next Friday afternoon!

The Beach

We ended our summer with a 10 day trip to the beach. And it was actually really fun for everyone this year! Partly, I think I finally have the mind set that it is not a vacation but a family trip. It is not time for me to relax, but time for me to enjoy my sweet girls with help during the day! Not to mention at two and five, the beach is really fun for them.  No one is scared of the ocean, no meltdowns because there is sand on hands or feet. We never made it longer than about an hour and half at the beach at a time, but that was okay - it was so nice not to have a schedule!

Chris was supposed to fly down and meet us half way through the week, but "Mr Joe" as the girls call his boss asked him why he wasn't going down with us. Chris reminded him he would be gone for 2 weeks, and he said so... just make sure I would remember this when he is working 60 hours a week this fall (so I am bracing myself) but excited for him as they start working on a new idea.

The girls loved their daddy time. After such a hectic winter and spring with Chris traveling to Chattanooga every week, they soaked up the extra time with him!

When I told Emalyn, we were going outside to take pictures before dinner, she responded, "okay, I go get bitty".  So we had to make sure we got a few pictures with bitty in them.

The girls with Bebe - each with bitty in hand. :)

My sweet family! 

Thanks Honey for the cute matching dresses!

 

My big 5 year old! I still cannot believe she is 5. For some reason, 5 seems so much older than 4!

Dancing at dinner one night with Uncle Tee and Miss Caroline

 Celebrating the birthday girl - she was celebrated quite a lot this year!

We brought a few present for her to open at the beach - Uncle Tee gave her a baseball tee & a pink bat. She had blast hitting the ball!

Pillow fight with Uncle Tee! 

We are so thankful for Uncle Tee and Miss Caroline - not only do they keep my girls once a week for us to go to small group, but they truly love spending time with my girls. And for that Chris and I are grateful.

Chris' family came down to the beach the next week, so we stay a few days with them. The house they stayed in was about 40 minutes away, but the beach was so different. There were shell everywhere!

 Maddie and Anna Caroline loved collecting the shells. There is no doubt about it, Miss Maddie definitely has Chris' dark complexion.

Mimi sewed all the girls matching dresses.

Mimi and Grand D with all of the grand kids.

Sweet Macie braided both of their hair for the beach pictures.

Everybody was worn out after the beach pictures! 

Here's the Scoop...

 Miss Maddie is 5!

We had an ice cream themed birthday party this year.

I made the invitations from card stock and then used brown paper lunch sacks for the envelopes (loving all of the fun ideas on Pinterest!)

I have so much fun making their birthdays extra special, although I'm not gonna lie, at some point oh usually the week before the party I have a moment of what was I thinking. :) But it is always worth the effort to see it all come together. One of our sweet friends from church laughed and said you can tell Maddie is the oldest because her 4th child is Maddie's age and he is yet to have a birthday party! Its one thing to do this twice a year, not sure if I could pull 4 parties off a year though. Chris often reminds me that every other year I think it is a good idea to have the party at our house, and I am then reminded why its easier to do it somewhere else! So after last year when the thunderstorms cleared 15 minutes before her party in our backyard started, I was happy to oblige when Maddie asked if she could have her party at BounceU. 

One of the many reasons why it is nice to have the party somewhere else - they set all up and clean it all up afterwards!

I was so excited to find all of the ice cream paper products on sale at Party City!

I monogrammed a chair cover from Chasing Firefly  and used it as a sign to hang on the door

 

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (once again thank you pinterest!)

Ice Cream Cookies for the adults in case they didn't want the oh so delicious funfetti cupcakes!

 

Eliza, Caroline, and the Birthday Girl

Emalyn was little overwhelmed by all the kids and wanted me to hold her for a good part of the party, but at least this year we got a picture of her smiling. She is definitely going to be the more introverted of the two of them!

And let the chaos begin - pizza!

The birthday girl!

The party favors

I found these cute ice cream printables and ordered small ice cream containers for the party favors, however I failed to make sure all the ice cream toys I found on the $1 aisle at target for the boys fit into the ice cream containers before I bought them! So the girls got the cute ice cream container with spoons/ straws tied to them and the boys got white bags.

Maddie's favorite part of the party favors were the bracelets she helped me make (keep her quite busy during her rest time!) with the ice cream cone charms I found on etsy.

At the end of the night with Bebe.

We celebrated her actual birthday at the beach.

One of her major concern about being at the beach on her birthday was still having donuts for breakfast on her birthday.  So Chris went to donut hole that morning, and I even found ice cream cone candles - why wait for the cake? She wanted them in her donut. :) The girlfriend is all about birthdays (she is already talking about next year)!

Oh what a fun year we have had with Miss Maddie - the 4 day 4's at St. Georges, Tuesday afternoon ballet with Caroline Pittman, Disneyworld, the Christmas Paegent, St Georges Soccer, Noah's Ark - and so many more sweet memories! She brings such joy to our home. She has one of the most thoughtful and tender hearts. Her teacher pulled me aside this past year and said she was one of the sweetest, easiest children she had ever had, which of course made my heart smile and reassured me that it has been worth all of the hard work I have put into training this sweet child. She has always liked to talk, but I feel like this year more than ever she is nonstop chatter! Asking every question under the sun! She loves coloring and drawing - we go through more paper than I ever thought was possible. I carried two large trash bags out last week that I had her help me sort through - and she still has 2 containers full of artwork! It has been so fun to watch her this year as she is getting more comfortable writing words and is starting to read and put sounds together. And she has an exciting year ahead of her this year with a new school and new friends!

Summer

Not sure where this summer has gone! Here is a little bit of what we have been up to. 

May was full of end of the school year activities.

Maddie's last chapel

          And the end of the school year picnic. 

Maddie got to eat with one of her sweet friends Hollis.

 Emalyn with Miss Anne Byrn
Miss Anne Byrn was holds a very special place in Emalyn's heart - not sure what she is going to do without her next year!

Maddie with her teachers Mrs. Spelman & Mrs Baird

Class Party

Eliza, Caroline, and Maddie at their class party!

St Paul Bound

With some changes to St. George's schedule for next year, Chris and I started praying about options for next year. And we are so excited that the Lord provided abundantly, and Miss Maddie will be in Junior Kindergarten at St. Paul Christian Academy next year. This picture was at the new families picnic in May.

In other exciting news...

Emalyn is now sleeping in a big girl bed with Maddie!

They have been asking for months, and I figured going into summer was the perfect time to make the change. We have turned Emalyn's room into a playroom, which has been so nice to have one room to put all the toys in! It was definitely an adjustment esp since Emalyn has reached the point where if she takes a nap she is wide awake until 9:30 or 10:00! She stays in the bed, but just talks to herself & her stuffed animals. Maddie told Tee last week, "Uncle Tee, I've got something I need to tell you and you are not going to like it! This whole Emalyn sleeping with me thing is not working out!" 

In June, we went to the lake with the Bruces and the Agnews.  

All the kiddos (and Lewis) eating breakfast

Emalyn, Maddie, baby Elizabeth Agnew, and Will Bruce

Maddie has loved doing ballet recitals for everyone this summer!

The boat ride started like this - the girls were not crazy about the wind

So we finished like this

They are both under the towel. :)

Emalyn loves Miss Katie and Mr. Lewis, but especially Mr. Lewis. 

The Agnews are some of our dearest friends.

 And we had our Macie Day...

 which included manicure and pedicures of course!