Caroline's New School

Caroline started a new school at our church on August 18th. She will go to this school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She will still go to her old school on Wednesdays. The day before school started we went to the open house. There were kids and parents everywhere. It really was a zoo. Caroline was the only child there that refused to get down and play. She had her little hand as far in her mouth as she could make it go (the hand goes in the mouth when she is nervous or uncomfortable - not just a finger, the entire hand!). I was not sure how things would go the next morning.

Tuesday morning she was excited to go to her new school. She was hesitant because she thought none of the other kids would play with her, but she was ready. She insisted on the princess dress and braids. I can't believe she already has such strong opinions on her clothes and hair. We are in trouble! It was finally time to go, so that means time for pictures. So I say "Caroline, stand up nice and tall so I can take your picture."

This is her version of nice and tall.

I try to correct myself by saying "Not on your tip-toes. You need to put your heels down.

I guess she did what I asked of her!

Here is what we ended up with. Such a big girl!

She was very excited about getting to wear her name tag necklace. We must have tried it on a hundred times the week before.

She walked right in to her classroom. There is a baby gate across the door so the parents don't actually enter the room. You say goodbye in the hall and the child goes on in. Once she was in she did turn around and look at me with a look that said "Wait a minute. How did I end up in here." She was not crying, so I took off.

She finished her first day. Here she is being walked to the car by one of her teachers. She had a great day!

Quack, Quack

I just looked at Jenny's facebook page. She put something on there about going to see the "chick flick" Julie & Julia. It reminded me of a funny story. When we were in Waco over the weekend Andy and I started talking about what movie we should go see. Andy's dad said we should go see Julie & Julia. Andy was very quick in saying he did not want to see that because it is a chick flick. I said "Hello, I am a chick!" Caroline quite frankly replied "Hello, I am a duck...quack, quack." It was hilarious. She is a funny little girl. We all got a good laugh out of it!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Here is part of Caroline's conversation with her daddy this morning.

Happy Birthday Andy!

Let the countdown begin!

28 days. I am counting down the days until school starts. It will be nice to be back in a regular routine. Kayla starts on August 20. We bought all of her school supplies yesterday. Twice, actually. We bought them at WalMart, and then we headed to Target. Everything was cheaper there. I will be returning our stuff to WalMart. Every little bit helps. School supplies are expensive! I am not sure why she needs 36 pencils (Ticonderoga brand only), 8 glue sticks, 4 big pink erasers, etc. Andy is mad we are providing supplies to kids that don't bring them. I think that is still cheaper than having to pay tuition at a private school. I don't mind helping stock the classroom a little. The teacher should not have to cover those costs.

The kids are starting to fight a lot, and the schedule is just crazy. I know school brings about a whole new kind of busy, but at least it will be more routine.

Now for the back to school clothes shopping...

VBS Songs

Caroline loves to sing. It does not matter if she has ever heard the song or not, she is going to sing. On the day that I took these clips she had been singing for a while. It is a song they taught her at VBS. She was doing a great job with the song and the hand motions - until I got the camera out. The first clip is pretty good, but she kind of gets the words mixed up. I still think it is as cute as can be. Most people will know the song (Jesus, lamb of God, worthy is your name...)

She got kind of silly, and this is what the song turned into...

I guess Jesus liked his carrots!

"It Hurts!"

It was only 18 short days ago that we were at the Urgent Care Clinic with Kayla. For a very brief moment this afternoon I thought we might be making a trip there again. Caroline fell and slammed her face against the corner of the wall outside her bedroom door. There was lots of bleeding right at first, and a LOT of screaming. But she is just fine - she does look a little rough though!

Here she is a few minutes after falling.

Here she is about 3 hours later. Poor baby...

Trip to Waco

We made a trip to Waco the weekend of June 26. It was sort of a last minute decision to go so that Andy could attend the funeral of his Great Aunt Kat. It was a long journey to Texas. We did not leave until around 7 pm. Poor Andy was not feeling well, so it was a really long trip. We spent the night in Plano and made it to Waco on Saturday morning. Andy went to the service while I stayed on the farm with the girls. Our girls are not very good at being still and quiet, especially after having been in a car for so long. This was the best arrangement! Saturday evening the girls and I went out on the boat with Nanny and Papa. Andy was still not feeling well, and being on a boat would not have helped matters at all.

Kayla was very excited, but a little nervous, when Papa let her "drive the boat."

Caroline just enjoyed the ride.

Kayla is more relaxed and having a great time.

Papa got Kayla all set up to do some serious fishing.

Caroline also thought she was fishing.

She had no idea there was no hook or worm on her pole.

About the time Papa got the fishing gear set up, the girls were bored. Kayla wanted to swim so it was time to hook up the tube. Kayla and Papa got the first ride.

They may not have been smiling if they had known who was driving the boat...

Next it was Caroline's turn.

This is Kayla pretending to be bored while Papa and Caroline are on the tube.

More Papa and Caroline
They finished the ride. Caroline really enjoyed it. However, once her lifejacket was wet all she wanted to do was go back to the truck. She did NOT like having that wet life jacket on.

Kayla decided she was brave enough to go by herself.

She loved every second of it.

Here are some little clips of each of their rides.

It was a good (quick) weekend. Luckily Andy was feeling better by the time we got back. But for some reason the trip home still took us 7 hours. This was our first road trip since Caroline has been potty trained.

We are looking forward to going back to Waco in August for a longer weekend.