first day of school 2013

i have loved scrolling through instagram the last few days and seeing everyone's first day of school pics.
so. cute.

i was telling the boys how i vividly remember my first day of 7th grade.
i had a matching purple shirt {with the side in a t-shirt clip no doubt}, ruffly skirt and scrunchy.
pretty sure i had matching socks and fake keds as well.
i remember standing in front of the mirror in my room, admiring my outfit and my side pony tail and thinking how cute i looked.
never mind the fact that i always looked about 2 grades younger than i was.
i'm sure i rocked it. ha. ;)
....and suddenly i feel  super old.

yesterday was our big boys' first day of 5th and 3rd grade.
yeah. they are crazy old. it's nuts.

the boys wear uniforms and we are dorky and like to all wear school colors on the first day. :)

if you're reading and saying to yourself, "hey i thought she homeschooled??"
i do. part time.
our boys go to a college-prep, university model school which means they attend classes at the school two days a week and i home school them the other 3 days.

avery and his buddy sawyer {aka, big sawyer} rolling their ginormo bags in {a necessity for bringing books back and forth to school}.

this crazy cat needed to wear his pretend head set.

me and my twin. :)

i love that finley's teacher is funny and sweet. :)
i think he'll have a great year.

by the time i got to avery's class, they had already started so i just snapped a quick picture at his desk.

after drop off we have a tradition of heading to chic-fil-a and letting our little ones play while we decompress from all the craziness of getting everyone ready for the first day.

all of our first born boys are in the fifth grade together so we give each other lots of moral support. :)

it's always, always sad to see summer go, but we are thrilled to have our boys back at providence.
knowing that i will still have them home 5 out of 7 days a week makes it so much easier to start back to school.
plus we got our homeschool done early today and headed to the pool so that's pretty sweet.

yay for living in the south and having plenty of warm days ahead. :) :)


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hello, monday.

this is definitely a second cup of coffee kinda day.

we had a lovely weekend.
we had a good amount of family time and a good amount of time with dear friends.
dear friends who moved off to india to do some life changing work.

thankfully their work with joyn & dehradun guitar co. bring them back every summer, so we keep connected.
our boys have the best time together and look forward to it all year.

these goofy boys love a snow cone. 

who doesn't?

we went to a nearby lake that i grew up going to.

why do we not go there more often?? so crazy.

i am on a mission to change that. it is so beautiful out there and so fun.

it's also really peaceful and perfect for our nature loving family. 

okay, so the lake is not the cleanest thing you have ever seen but it was like just dandy for folks who live in india. ;)

our boy fisherman was in heaven.
amazing how that full of energy kid can fish for hours. love him.


well, this month is packed full of activity.
fighting my natural tendency to get way overwhelmed.
taking deep breaths and one day at a time.
want to navigate it with joy and grace. :)

blessings today, friends. :) enjoy your monday and have a second cup if you need to. :)

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ladies, ladies, ladies.

i had the best weekend.

girls' weekend.
we look forward to it all year. 
six of my college girlfriends and i get together for a weekend every summer.
this is our 13th year to do it.

we are spread across a few states...some closer than others...but we make it work and get together for a weekend of catching up, relaxing, eating, sleeping in and really just being girls instead of mamas for a weekend.
it's good for the soul.

friday was such an exciting day...anticipating the weekend...meeting up and getting sonic drinks for the drive to the lake house.... laughing and talking all the way there. :)

we ate every meal out on the deck in front of the lake.
so, so peaceful.

saturday was such a blast with sleeping in, eating a big breakfast {slowly with coffee :)} and heading out to the lake.

i. love. the. lake.
seriously, put me in front of a body of water and i am happy.
i could stay out there all day long.
so, so fun....these pictures put me right back there.
such a happy, carefree day.

we usually get dressed up and go out to eat on our girls' weekends but this year we just decided to head to soda steve's for a late lunch in our swim suits.
it was super yummy.

after that we headed back to the cabin...changed into sweats and hung out there for the rest of the night.
so fun.
these mama's needed to relax and we sure did. :)

i am so beyond thankful for these girls, their friendship and our commitment to do this weekend every year.
what a gift.
love you girls. :)

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memorial day 2013

we had a really fun memorial day weekend this year.
our friends, zach & erin, invited us to go to his parents house for their family renunion weekend.
it was so sweet of his parents to welcome us in with the whole big family staying at their house.

it's so beautiful out there and there's tons for the kids {and grownups} to do.

yes, this is at their house.

and yes, that is an ark.

that's root beer.
:)
they did lots of swimming.
so glad for them to get some good swim time in now that we don't have a pool. {sad face}.

we did lots of hanging out and eating.
they fed us so well.

zach's grandma did cute little bible story times that reminded me of back yard bible clubs i went to when i was little....except i don't remember there being any ventriloquists.

the kids were so cute and listened really well.

they had a duck race in the pond.

and lots and lots of fishing.
avery loves fishing.
he wants to fish every chance he gets.
he caught several fish this weekend so that was super exciting for him.

aj and i didn't grow up fishing really and it doesn't come natural for us so we try to take advantage of any opportunity for him to learn.

erin and i mostly observed. . . and talked and laughed. :)

so thankful for my good friend who is really a sister. :)

sleepovers with these crazy cats are so fun.
we all bunked over the garage together.

catherine and sophie are such little mamas.
they are so very sweet to ruby and tote her around all over the place.
they pretty much babysit her anytime we're together.
obviously it's nice for me, but also ruby loves them.
she just walks up to them and holds her hands up. so cute. :)

love a long weekend with this hottie.
:)

and we tie-dyed shirts.
cool kids club!
the family that tie-dyes together stays together.

and just because it's cute...a video of ruby babbling. :)

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