Lily's 1st Grade Photo Shoot

Instead of ordering school pictures, the last few years I have been trying to do a little photo shoot with each of the kids. Sometimes we go to a park and sometimes we just wander around the property and take pictures. This year, I decided to do them here. Lily is always excited to do her "photo shoot". She sure loves the spotlight. I wonder who she gets that from.

"Uneven Bread"

Today, after church...

Lily- "Today, at church, we made uneven bread".
Me- "Uneven bread? What's that?"
Lily- "You know, the kind the Isrealites ate."
Isaiah-"Oh, you mean unleavened bread."

Seattle

We ended up taking kind of a last-minute trip to Seattle over Labor Day Weekend. We left Saturday morning and went to the Woodland Park Zoo.

Here is our "Zoo Crew". This is about as good as it gets for a family picture with us.

I thought I'd post this one to, just to show how good the first one was.


These little black and white guys were a definite hit with the kids.




I think they could have watched the penguins all day.

Okay, I'm sorry I made you turn around, Micah.

Lily even made herself right at home in a penguin nest model.


This guy was also pretty popular, but not for the same reasons. Apparently, gorillas like to regurgitage their food after eating it and re-eat it over and over. Micah was pretty impressed.



The kids took lots of pictures with their cameras...

Micah learned that he is not as strong as an elephant...


...Lucy got to play in an "African Village" hut.

...and the kids all got to be snow leopards.



Hooray for the Woodland Park Zoo!


The next day, we also went to the Pacific Science Center. I think the best thing about the science center was the Butterfly House. They had this big greenhouse with all these tropical plants and butterflies were everywhere. It was amazing. I think we could have spent hours in there. One even landed right on Micah's finger.







All in all, it was a fun family trip. We had a pool at our hotel, so the kids got to swim. On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe's and the Outlet Mall, so Mommy was happy. Now we can check two more things off our list of places to take the kids :)

Fire Station Field Trip!

Lucy went on her first Preschool field trip to the Fire Station a few weeks ago. She was a little unsure what to think about the big trucks at first.

The firefighters did a great job showing the kids how they put their gear on and explaining how it works and why they should not be afraid of the firefighters. Then, they all had a chance to come up and touch the firefighter so they could see that he wasn't scary at all.

Then, they all got to shake hands with the firefighters.


Here is the whole class, in front of one of the fire engines.

Lucy stuck pretty close to Lola the whole time (when she wasn't clinging to my leg).



She even got to spray a real fire hose! Go Firefighter, Lucy!


By the end of the field trip, she was ready to fight some fires!

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school for all three kids. It is hard to believe I have a 3rd grader, a 1st grader, and a Preschooler now. They are all growing up too fast. Here they all are before we left for school in the morning. Lily has become quite the little fashionista lately. She had her outfit picked out weeks ago and is really into anything sparkly or glittery. As usual, Micah could have cared less what he wore as long as it was comfortable and had some kind of sport or other cool picture on it. Lucy also picked out her own outfit, which has been a favorite all summer.

And outside of Micah and Lily's school.


After we dropped Micah and Lily off at school, I ran Lucy over to Shining Stars Preschool. I was so rushed, I didn't even have time to feel sad. Micah and Lily both went to the same preschool, so it is nice that it is familiar and that we all know "Miss Jan". Here is Lucy outside of her school. She was so proud of her big girl backpack.


I could tell she was excited, but a little nervous too. She kept asking me to stay with her and I thought for sure she would cry until she spotted her friend Lola.
Here they are giving each other a big hug. I think these girls are going to have a great year!


After I dropped Lucy off, the reality sunk in for me and I just sat in my car holding back tears for a few minutes. Luckily, I had a hair appointment, so it gave me something to do and kept my mind off of missing my kiddos. It is funny how they can drive me crazy all summer, but I still don't want them to leave and go to school. As much as it will be nice to have a little more freedom, it is so hard to let go and let them grow up.