PHOTOBOOTH FUN

I love my Mac. I just recently discovered the photo booth option [ I know, I know, I am slow] on this beautiful computer o' mine, and I have to say I love that too.

The kids and I have spent the weekend messing around with it and have had quite a lot of fun doing so....

ART WORK

I will never, ever tire of the art work that my monkeys bring home from school each day. It is something I look forward to each time they come running off of the bus and hand me their backpacks for me to go through.

The past two days Lucas has come home with some really great stuff.

The front: My favorite part of this summer was... Tubing. Not so great on the spelling, but the picture gave away what he was attempting to write. Him in the tube, with Dad in the boat pulling him along. How wonderful is that picture?

the back: I went to the movie theatre. I think half way through attempting to write "theatre" he gave up - hence the "Dr". I love, love, love the photo that goes along with this one. People sitting in their theater seats eating popcorn - notice the kid in the last row was ever so gracious as to share his popcorn with the kid in the middle row.

Day 2 he came home with this little gem.

In first grade this year, I would really like to... Play outside whenever I want. Accompanied by a picture of what I assume to be a playground.

When he arrived home with this second piece of artwork I mentioned to him how much I enjoyed it all. I also ever so casually asked if his teacher was letting everyone complete these little assignments all on their own. Meaning without any help when it came to spelling, punctuation, etc. I am certain you can guess what the answer to that question was.

JUST LIKE HER SISTER

My Liv loves to dance. Anytime a catchy song comes on you'll find her shakin' her little booty and waving her arms in the air dancing away to her hearts content. When driving in the car she will yell out "louder Momma, louder!!" whenever she hears something she fancies. When I turn it up she giggles and waves her arms in the air and moves her head from side to side to the beat. So very cute to watch.

What has been not so very cute lately is her need to dress up in Ava'a dance attire each time she feels like rockin' out. Why? Well, tights are expensive and she will more than likely put a huge run in them which would result in me needing to buy a new pair every other week. And her leotard will most likely get stretched to hell and ruined one of these times as she cannot seem to figure out that both legs do not go in one of the leg holes. Silly little girl.

After dealing with having to take off tights and leotards that did not belong to her while she was in the throws of a huge tantrum what seemed like 100 times within a week, I decided I needed to buy her her very own dance attire. So off to Target I went where I dropped $16.99 for my girl to have her very own leotard so as to avoid dealing with her wearing her sisters all the time.

Needless to say, I think she really enjoys her new dance outfit. She spent the entire day yesterday roaming around the house in it. Playing little people, dancing to Katy Perry's California Girls and Justin Beiber's Baby, Baby, Baby song that Daddy put on the Ipad for her, watching cartoons, dancing to her favorite tunes some more, playing outside a bit, dancing some more. You get the idea.

I decided I needed to snap a few photos of her dance routine that she performs while listening to these songs. These Godforsaken songs that I would most definitely not shed a tear for if I were to never, ever hear again.

So without further ado, here they are:

Pretty spectacular, no?

BACK TO DANCE!

My goodness has this family had a lot of "back to" days as of late. Last night was Ava's first night of dance for the year.

Last week she and I made a night of it and went to the Open House where we bought new tap and ballet shoes, and also splurged for a new leotard, two pair of tights, and some "booty shorts."

Let me take a moment to talk about these little gems that we call "booty shorts." If you are not sure what they are, and you are a mother who has been blessed with a daughter who loves to dance, then you should be happy to know nothing about them. What are they? They are skin tight super short shorts that the older girls around Larkin dance studio like to wear along with a sports bra to dance. Notice I said older girls. But of course they sell them in little girls sizes as well, and we have seen many a little girl prancing around the studio in them, so of course, Ava along with her little friend Lauren just had to have them. With much hesitation, I decided to make the purchase and let her have her coveted booty shorts. But I made it very clear that she would be wearing a leotard underneath them, and that the sports bra would have to wait a few years.

So now that we have the "booty shorts" thing cleared up, on with the story....

Last night she got herself ready for dance class. As she was up in her room I was secretly hoping she would come downstairs in her leotard along with her sweet little skirt that still fit her from last year. No such luck. She came bounding down the stairs in the good ol' booty shorts, excited as ever to get to dance class. I have to say, I bought them for her, so I could not complain - and on top of that, they really did not look all that bad when worn with a leotard.

So off to dance we went, equipped with my camera ready to take a bunch of pictures before class started. Of course, we ended up being late which made picture taking a bit difficult, but I still managed to get a few shots.

So there you have it, Miss Ava's first night of dance class - booty shorts and all.

BACK TO PRESCHOOL!

My Anthony Thomas started his second year of Preschool today. I was hoping being that he was a year older he would not be so sad having to be away from me. Last year every single Monday, Wednesday and Thursday morning at about 8:45 am he would be found standing at the back door crying and begging to stay at home with me. Every single time - no jokes. At the end of every week I would say to myself, "Maybe this week will be better, maybe he will go off happily waving to me as Daddy drove away to take him to preschool." Unfortunately, that week never came.

Now I know I am a pretty cool Mom, but for the love of God, does he not get sick of hanging out with me all day every day?

Apparently not as just like every day last year, he stood by the back door crying and begging me to let him stay home with me for just one more day. Unfortunately he was in such a state of panic and sadness I was unable to get pictures of him on his first day back to preschool. I decided that it was too important of a day to let it go without snapping any photos, so I took them when he arrived home from school.

Smart one, right? He was excited and oh so happy to be home with me, so there was no better time to get some good pictures. Oh, and ask all about his first day. All he had to say was "my teachers are Miss Vicky and Janna Banana again!!" So onto picture taking I went....

He insisted on celebrating his very first day back to school with his buddy "Chicky" by letting him in on the photo shoot.

And we just had to get one of "Chicky" all by himself.

And one last shot to show off his brand new Batman shirt [that did not come in his size and is way too big for him but he just could not live without getting.]

I have to say I am confident that at some point during this year, he will leave for school as happy as he comes home. One can hope, right?

BACK TO SCHOOL! [PART 2]

Before the kids arrived home on the bus this afternoon Dad called saying that he would be home in time to watch them get off the bus. He and I thought it would be fun for them to see us both waiting when they arrived home after their very first day of school. After getting off of the bus, we thought it would be fun to hang out just the 4 of us, have a snack and talk about their first day. You know the stuff - Did you like your teacher? Did you make any new friends? What did you have for lunch? Did you get some homework? Tell me all about it!

When the bus finally arrived,

and they hopped off, I could tell right away that the day was a success.

I could also tell from the look on his face, that Lucas was getting pretty sick of all the pictures I had been taking. And I was alright with that.

I ran excitedly toward them to give them hugs and ask all about their first day, and what did they do? They ran right past me and into the house.

When I finally caught up to them they were half way up the stairs.

"Hey! Aren't you guys going to tell me about your very first day at school? I want to hear all about it!"

"We are going to change and play with everyone outside!"

"But tell me about your first day!"

"It was fine." was what I got from them as they continued on their way up the stairs.

"What did you do?"

Lucas: "I don't really remember."

Ava: "We don't have any homework. Can we play outside?"

Seriously? This was Ava's very first day of 2nd grade and Lucas' very first day of 1st grade - not to mention his very first day at a new school. And this was all they had for me - I don't really remember what we did, it was fine, and Ava completely ignoring my question with a response of we don't have any homework can we play outside?

I am beginning to think this whole first day of school thing is a much bigger deal for Mom and Dad than it is for the kids. No?

BACK TO SCHOOL!

It was a big day around here today as the kids had their very first day back at school. Yaaaahooooooo! Can you tell I am just thrilled? Don't get me wrong, I love my kids to death, but it was most definitely time to get back to school, and back to the daily grind so to speak.

Miss Ava, my 2nd grader,

and Lucas, my 1st grader,

anxiously awaited the arrival of the bus outside in the freezing cold. And I mean freezing - it was 53 degrees out, with misty rain and strong winds. Only in Minnesota will you find such crappy weather in early September. Only in Minnesota.

We waited, and waited, and waited some more - the bus was very late, most likely due to all the other Mom's like myself standing at the bus stop taking pictures like a mad woman as their children got ready to board the bus.

Some of my pictures while we waited:

In all the picture taking chaos, we did not even see the bus coming down the street until it was right in front of us. There it was, the big yellow bus, ready to sweep away my Ava and Lucas for yet another year of school. Every year the arrival of the school bus always results in me crying a big old puddle of tears, but this year I actually made it through with a dry face. No tears! Not to say that it was not so very hard to watch, and that a part of me wanted to run right onto that bus, say to heck with school and take them right back inside the house with me. But I knew I had to let them go -

My little first grader and second grader are off to school - and to think my Anthony will be right there with them next year to start Kindergarten. Why oh why do they have to grow up so darn fast?