Perhaps the biggest thing to happen this summer, and I do mean this summer, since here kids begin school weeks earlier than I did as a child, Emily went back to school! Here she is, on the first day of four-year-old preschool, standing in front of the house, looking quite excited.
Sadly, she has not been this excited since. She loves school once she is there, but the drop offs are still a little hard for her. A little hard we can do. It was the sobbing Emily, teacher-pulling-Emily-from-me-while-I-walk/run-away-trying-to-wait-until-I-get-out-the-door-to-sob-myself fun of three-year-old preschool that I just couldn't handle.
Here is Claudia on the floor of the dining room enjoying a little school of her own. Clearly she has already figured out that it is better to be the teacher than one of the students.
Here are the girls at their cousin Kyle's birthday party. Kyle is one of Eric's sister's four children who, along with their parents Lynn and Brian, live on what I can only describe as a child's fantasy land acreage. They have, among other things, their own soccer field, a trampoline, a huge pool, and the biggest private-family playground structure I have ever seen. I secretly imagine sneaking over there at night to play with their stuff, Lynn and Brian waking to the sounds of me jumping on their trampoline.
Here Emily is enjoying the pool and Claudia is enjoying the perks that living in the country bring: like giant corn spiders! Both girls are crazy about snakes and spiders and bugs of all kinds, so these spiders that big cousin Ryan caught were a huge hit!
Okay, so Claudia getting her bangs cut wasn't exactly a highlight of our summer, the faces she makes while having her haircut are pretty funny!
Here are the girls, fast asleep with Uncle Brant. The girls asleep was always a highlight... and I mean that in the best way possible.
