Eight is Just Great

Today we celebrated Ava's 8th birthday.  I feel like we've been anticipating this since about April.  She has been talking about this, and dreaming about it, and making requests, and planning, and replanning, and changing plans for m.o.n.t.h.s!  Today was finally the day.  Gramme was able to come down this weekend also, so Ava was able to have a very special guest help usher her into her 9th year.  

We started at a place almost in Austin called Mt. Playmore.  It was wonderful!  The kids wore themselves out (and so did the adults) running, crawling, bouncing and sliding all over this massive play scape.  It was a great way to start the day.

Ava decided to have lunch at Cici's.  We gorged ourselves and then headed to Claire's.  She has been asking to get her ears pierced for a solid year now.  Because we made Elle wait until she was 8, we imposed the same rule on Ava.  This is something she's anticipated and been more excited about than any other aspect of her birthday.

She did such a great job and absolutely LOVES her ears now!  She wanted to keep staring at herself and had the biggest smile on her face.  She has told me at least 3 times this afternoon that I MUST put her hair in a bun for church in the morning, so everyone can see her earrings.  They do look so very cute on her!

We got home around 1:30 and it was time for naps and resting for a while.  

After naps, we had dinner.  The dinner menu was planned by Ava.  It consisted of chicken noodle soup and Big Red.  Shawn and I added Hawaiian roll sandwiches and chips.  For dessert she requested a watermelon cake with a scoop of lime sherbet.  Interesting combos, but whatever.

After we ate dinner, she opened her gifts and loved everything!  She has always been so easy to please and so excited about her gifts.

Then we sang to her and she blew out those 8 candles.

This birthday was so wonderful.  So low-key.  And in the words of Ava "The best birthday ever!"

Pre K...SERIOUSLY PRE TO THE K!!!!!

My snookie pookie, woogie poggie, squishy cheeked, precious little momma-loving baby, that's right BABY, started Preschool today.  That whole birth-order thing is REAL ya'll!  He will always be my baby.  I promise to try really hard to limit all that sappy stuff, like what I just wrote, to forums such as this and not actually doing that kind of stuff in front of others.  I'm sure Levi will thank me for that one day.  So, the big day arrived.  No one cried at all...not even tearing up...from either of us!  He was so excited and ready to be a big boy that we probably could have dropped him in the parking lot and he would have been fine finding his class and getting settled.  It's so much easier to leave them when they are excited and acting so confident. I am thankful for that.  I have full trust and faith in his wonderful teacher that she knows EXACTLY what she's doing.  Anyway, it was a wonderful day for him. This makes preparing for Kindergarten so much less scary for both of us!  He did get a huge smile on his face and coming running to me, when he saw me at the door today.  Good to know I still get that kind of response.  :)  

On a bit of a side note, it almost wasn't a great day today.  After dropping Levi off, Shawn decided to spend this first day of no kids, with me!  It was a great surprise.  We did some shopping (I got some cute fall stuff at Old Navy :), and then did a HUGE grocery trip.  During the shopping we started getting calls on our phones that the girl's school had been evacuated for a gas leak in the neighborhood.  They had the whole school out on the field and they were saying they hoped to have it fixed in less than TWO hours...ya'll...it's hot here, even in the morning.  So I could see where this was possibly going.  We decide to just keep on with our plans until we heard differently.  So a few minutes later, we get more calls saying they are evacuating the kids to another school a mile away because the winds had shifted and the gas was blowing towards the school.  Shawn and I couldn't believe it.  Our first true no-kids day and we were about to pick up both the girls for day!  Really?!  So Shawn left the grocery store while I kept shopping, to go and pick up the girls. While he was gone, I got yet another call saying everything was clear and fixed.  I immediately called Shawn and screamed "DON'T DO IT!"  lol  Then I explained the story.  He had just pulled into the parking lot to find the girls.  So...he turned around and headed back to the store.  We finished our shopping, thankful that the gas leak was contained, our girls were safe, and the first kids-free day was still on!

After dropping off all the groceries, we headed to a small VERY authentic Mexican restaurant in town and had lunch.  We finished just in time to go pick up Levi!  What an eventful first no-kids day! 

Here's a few pictures from this morning and then of course, the traditional interview after we picked him up.  

I can't stand his cuteness!  It's too much for my heart!!!

Heading down the hall.

Levi with Mrs. Becky

Levi and Uriah--these two crack me up when they are together!

I turned back to look one more time and in true Levi fashion, he had taken the small yellow circle links and put one on each ear as earrings.  Shawn and I got a good laugh from that!

Here's the first day interview:

DSC 0757 from Emma Montandon on Vimeo.

NonLaborious Day

I sure do love Labor Day.  After just one week of school, someone decided that we already needed a break from it.  I like that it feels a little more like we get to ease back into this whole school routine thing.  Chad and Lesley came down again for Labor Day this year.  They stay with Lesley's dad and we are always invited over for swimming and cooking out.  I made homemade peach icecream and Lesley's dad's wife grilled some peaches to put on top....YUM.  

Ivy had on THE.CUTEST.BATHING.SUIT. ever!!!!  She was fun to watch in the pool.

This dolphin/whale thing was BIG hit!  The kids never get to play with this kind of stuff at the public pools since they don't allow almost anything!

Cousins in the water

Ava was all labored out.

These two had a lot of fun together :)  They will both start Kinder next year!