Day 240

C. loves her hair all wavy from braids so that's how she wore it to school today. Here she is posing with Miss Madonna. Love them looking at each other!

Day 239

Best Friends - These two have been soulmates for over four years. How lucky that they live only about 20 feet apart! C. spent the entire weekend celebrating her bud's 7th birthday. She came home tonight sporting beautiful braids and happy as a clam. Happy Birthday to our sweet friend, J.!!! We love you!

Day 238

C's best buddy celebrated her 7th birthday today with a makeover/sleepover party. Eric volunteered to take portraits of the girls to complete picture frame crafts they were making. Unfortunately it was like 110 degrees outside (maybe not QUITE that hot, but really, once you hit triple digits, does it matter?) so the kids weren't super keen on the whole thing but he did get some nice shots. Here hs is setting up C. for her close up. =)

Day 237

TGIF - we watched a movie tonight on the D channel that C. has been waiting ALL summer for. First week of school was really great for both girlies and tomorrow, they have a party (slumber for C.!!) to go to.

Day 236

The evening sky was really cool with this great blanket of clouds tonight!

Day 235

Two little water pixies getting Dad to squirt them with the hose while they play in the hot tub. They are so funny!

Day 234

Kids are loving school already. Here they are doing "homework" - Kumon workbooks. Numbers 1-70 book for Miss C. and lower case alpha book for Miss T. I had to tell them to stop finally so they could get ready for bed - they would both stay and do worksheets all night if I let them!

Day 233

First day of school. Not a great photo, I'm kind of under the weather today. C. started 1st grade and T. in Pre-K. Big big day!

Day 232

Making progress! We took both kids out on their bikes this afternoon. T. scared me to death - wizzing all around the park on her new bike like she was born on it. Just when I thought I was recovering, C. decided to show off her mad-bike-skillz and try some short runs, sans training wheels! Gave dad quite the work out!!

Day 231

Happy Birthday - Miss T. is 4 and I'm 4 plus some other number. =)

Day 230

Birthday cupcakes in T.'s classroom this afternoon. She couldn't stop talking about it, but when it actually happened, she wouldn't smile and spent most of the time trying to get one of us to pick her up and keep her out of it all. I had fun anyway and the kids all liked (including her!) the Buzz Lightyear cupcakes and plates. =) Tomorrow is the big event!!

Day 229

My little model - how this face grows day to day, month to month and year to year and these are the eyes that can see right into my heart.

Day 228

The kids are upstairs working on some "secret" project because someone they love is about to have a birthday. In between turns on the "secret" project, they were wildly running around the house. I caught this shot of Dad trying to tone down the excitement, or maybe he was ramping it up, I'm not so sure...

Day 227

I have been a busy bee - preparing for a certain someone's 4th birthday - or should I say 1st birthday, but celebrating her 4th year. Last year, this time was so hard, so unbelievably hard, to know that she was without her foster family and without her forever family. That my birthday twin was going to be by herself, that my birthday wish to be together would not happen. This year has brought SO much happiness, is SO different, I can't help but get caught up in it. It is everything I wanted coming true. So - here is Buzz, getting ready for a classroom cupcake celebration that she has been counting the days to, me too!

Day 226

Going to bed, all "Lightning'd out".

Day 225

On our way to little Sarah's 3rd birthday, the girls decided they wanted to match so they have on tshirts and matching shorts. So sweet - had to snap a photo before we jumped in the car. Its so wonderful that these kisses just take a little prompt - and not even that without the camera! Telling you, I am truly lucky!

Day 224

We went to a birthday party at the girls' gym. The best part was all of the kids jumping into the big foam block pit and climbing through the blocks.

Day 223

Okay - this is kind of a repeat - but seriously, this is how she came down, dressed for bed, complete with beauty sash and you can't quite catch it, but the top and skirt of the HSM cheerleader outfit are also included in this ensemble...

Day 222

Okay - so the haircut I meant to get her all along finally happened - and MAN she looks like her sister at 3! So so cute! And...we received our first birthday gifts! You can't see it but she has the cutest little silver pendant with a cupcake stamped on a round disk, on a pink ribbon cord and I have matching silver earrings. Clever, huh? My friend Tammy sent them! So so cute!!

Day 221

Found these great shirts at Target tonight - and both kids loved them! Too cute!

Day 220

Come on, could you resist this face? Look at my baby Mabel! She's waiting to see if I'm really leaving the house or maybe I'll be hers all day. Bummer, not today, Mabel, but she was waiting when I came home!

Day 219

This hat is making random appearances lately. Like tonight, with jammies. Hmmm. As T. would say "quack, quack, quack".

Day 218

We don't have a lot of school shopping to do, the girls' school doesn't require any supplies, but how can I resist $1 crayons and markers and these super cute new shoes? LOVE school shopping!

Day 217

The beautiful stain glass in the lobby of Adobe and some goofballs, I mean friends, posing with it! We were at Adobe for an all day crop and snuck in this picture on our way out. I love how they are all in silhouette for the most part!

Day 216

Okay - so now it looks like all we do is put the kids in pajamas. We had a really fun night, our local cousins and our Irish cousins came over for dinner and we had a loud, rowdy, fun, fun, fun crowd of kids and we were having so much fun, I missed all photo opportunities...so...here is a freshly showered T. The photo came out blurry so I used some fun actions by Pioneer Woman to come up with this cool look!

Day 215

So, T's ideo of clean up was to take 4 puzzles and put them all in with the legos. Make sense to you? Hmmmm. Me neither. She's sorting puzzle pieces here. Can you see how she's suddenly "sprouting"? Starting to get a little lengthy and girly. =) My baby is almost 4 - just 16 more days...

Day 214

One of the parents in this house (not the one that blogs) thought these big balloons were a good idea and they have been all over the house since a trip to the grocery over the weekend. T. is showing off her mad skillz, keeping the big orange balloon off of the floor.

Day 213

Just 10 more minutes mom - everyone loves Dad's iTouch. C. is playing a game of chess before its lights out!

Day 212

Zombies have taken over our house. I started it, I'll admit it. I download an occasional game and this one - Plants vs. Zombies, I mean, how do you pass that up? Well, I went through it, then Eric got hooked and now we have a new generation of Zombie Masters. Hmmm. Kind of a weird photo.

Day 211

ah! My big girl is back from her mini-vacation at Lake Tahoe. We went over to our cousins' home for a bbq tonight and had so much fun. They have this perfect little climbing tree in the backyard. Oh how I missed this little girl!

Day 210

A friend of ours opened up a restaurant a short drive from our home so T. and I went down to check it out. She's enjoying a yummy yogurt/tea drink while we check out the crowds!