Zoo

On Friday, Abigail and I went to the zoo while Emily was at school.  Abigail's school starts next week so this was a fun day for us to spend together before her school starts.  When we got there she ran from exhibit to exhibit so quickly that I thought we would be done in less than an hour.

 They have a new pavilion near the tiger exhibit so we got to watch our first show at the zoo.  They showed several birds and they all flew to different posts in the arena.  It was really cool to see them fly.  Abigail was more interested in walking up and down the aisle and missed most of it.  But I enjoyed the show : )

 Some of the birds looked like they were going to run into someone:

We ended our time at the playground and then headed home to meet Emily at the bus.  We had a great time together!

Baseball Game

Emily had a great 3 days of school!  It was so nice to start school on a Wednesday vs a Monday.  Every Friday is spirit day so Emily wore her school shirt:

I also finished the girls Auburn dresses : )

Friday night we got to go to a Braves game with our friend Tara and her daughter Taylor.  She got free tickets from work and invited us!  Abigail and Joe had fun Friday night together while Emily and I went to the game:

We were on the 15th row and the tickets came with a parking pass . . .

Emily had fun watching all the "bells and whistles" at the stadium:

It was Star Wars night so they incorporated that into the tool race that they always have:

The camera guy came around a couple of times and I wanted Emily to get on the big screen so bad.  She danced and danced trying to get him to notice her:

She also enjoyed an entire pretzel : )

It started raining as we were leaving so Emily put on my old Auburn rain jacket:

Because it was Friday night they had fireworks after the game.  We had so much fun!  On the way home Emily was so excited that she was up so late.  We got home about 12:15 and I told her it was Saturday morning when we got home.  She thought that was pretty cool and thought it was cool that Joe was already asleep when we got home.  "Mom, we stayed up later than Daddy!"  I really enjoyed getting to do this with just her and allowing Abigail to spend time with just her Dad.  Fun!

Emily's first day of Kindergarten

Well we've done it!  Emily started kindergarten today.  For the next 15 years we will be a part of the school system with our girls : )    Here she is eating breakfast and trying to wake up:

 Ready to go . . .

 Abigail trying to wake up before we all take Emily to school:

 Walking to class . . . have a great day baby girl!!!!

Meet and Greet

Yesterday we went to Meet and Greet to meet Emily's new kindergarten teacher.  Her name is Mrs. Reynolds.  She has been teaching for 18 years and has two children.  Both pluses for me . . . not too young and not too old and a mom!  We are praying for a great first year of school:

Joe helped keep Abigail from leaving the room and taking off on her own.  I'm so glad her was there because I had paperwork to fill out and Abigail was ALL OVER THE PLACE:

Here is a picture of her classroom.  There are 24 students in Emily's class:

 Today we took Abigail to summer camp and then Emily and I had a "Mommy and me" day together before she starts school tomorrow.  We went to a pottery place and Emily made a plate.  We painted it together:

 The paint was shaped like a flower so she wanted different colors for every petal:

 Then she painted a rainbow and put dots around her rainbow.  She also spotted a little princess dress that she wanted to paint that they will make into a magnet:

When we get it back they have a black pen we can use to write her name and date on it.  She can use it as her dinner plate!

We then met Joe for lunch at Emily's restaurant of choice: Wendy's.  Then we picked Abigail up from camp and enjoyed some yogurt together:

I can't believe my baby girl is starting kindergarten!  Here we go . . . .

In random news, I have been searching for Emily's size 3 night gowns and had just decided that I must have given them away . . . and then found them on Saturday.  So Abigail has been so excited to wear nightgowns to bed:

Swimming

On Saturday afternoon we went swimming at our pool.  Emily climbed on top of Joe's shoulders . . .

  . . . and jumped into the water:

She also continued to practice swimming in the deep end and keeping her head above water.  She goes further and further each time!

More swimming fun

Today was Emily's last day of summer camp.  She had to get a cavity filled this morning so since Joe took the day off today he took her to the dentist and then off to the last couple of hours of camp.  Then we all met several PreK friends from Mt View for ice cream and then swimming for our last big fun day before school starts for several of us.  The kids had a blast:

 

It was especially fun to watch Joe interact with all these rugrats : )  Joe also helped the girls make a tent the other day and they have had fun every afternoon and morning hanging out:

 This is such a fun age with these two.  I think that's part of the reason why I've had anxiety about Emily starting kindergarten.  I feel like she's going to grow up way too fast too soon and I want to hit the pause button and enjoy this time in our lives a little longer . . .

Swimming with Friends

Yesterday we went to Julia's pool and went swimming with Julia, Liliana, and Ashlyn.  The girls had fun jumping off the side of the pool and jumping off the diving board:

Emily did a really good job of swimming with her head above water.  We practiced a lot in the deep end together.  She swam the length of the pool with a few breaks in between.  She also wanted to jump off the deep end with no floaties so she would go under and I would help her back up.  She also started pulling herself out of the pool without any help for the first time yesterday.  I've been amazed at her progress this year.

I also had the biggest scare of my life yesterday.  Abigail got out to play in an enclosed area of the pool that had play toys.  So because she was in an area that she couldn't get out of, I took her life jacket off.  While I was talking to another mom I lifted her out of the play area and then before I realized I didn't have her jacket on her, I noticed Emily getting too close to the deep end without her floaties on.  So I walked over to the side of the pool to talk to her about it.  When I turned back to Abigail, she was under water in the pool.  I will never get that image out of my head of her scared face under water trying desperately to get her head above water.  I of course screamed and jumped in the pool to get her out.  Thanks to the good Lord she was ok and immediately started crying and coughing when I got her out.  It was a big wake up call for me to stay focused when my kids are in the water.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Lord that Abigail is ok.