August 2017, Part 2

The end of summer was full and fun! We so loved our time together, but these monkeys were ready to get back to their friends!

August 14: Play date at a park with the McDonnell Clan! And the squirrels were so friendly and cute!

Then we headed to the aquarium...

My two boys no longer nap- ever! But we go a lot, and sometimes they just pass out (and almost always in the car)!

LJ wanted me to take this picture for Ben! Ben taught him a lot about cars, and he was excited to see a real Ferrari!

8-16: Good morning from Ellie Grace!!

And these silly monkeys!

We really enjoyed our last few days of summer for LJ... smoothies at Juiceland!

8-17: We had a wonderful morning with Christine and precious Cora!

8-18: The kids have to go to the gym with me often! They usually love it and rarely complain...

And I often reward us all with Smoothies after!

Impromptu fun at the park by our house... a huge sand box and splash pad!!

No bathing suits, but it was so hot!! They held hands and ran over and over!

Not easy to get these silly monkeys to all smile at the same time today!

LJ's meet the teacher night. Mrs. Troccoli seems like a great fit for LJ, and we are hopefully looking forward to a good 1st grade year!

Barrett had a meeting so the whole clan had to go! Evan and Ellie were excited to be in LJ's big school!

But less excited to take a picture in front of the school! Haha!

We got Italian food for dinner- LJ said they were meatballs just like Aunt Sandy makes! His favorite!

These two showed up in the kitchen dressed the same! Black shirts and gray shorts! Love it!

8-19: After reading the Captain Underpants books throughout the summer with the McDonnells, we all got together to go see the movie! We left all the younger kids at our house to play and nap, and just took the olders.

Ordering their popcorn and drink! We had some excited kids!

We got home, and this precious little face was just getting up from her nap!

We got to hang with our besties for the rest of the evening! Happy happy day!

8-20: Waking up to Ellie is always fun!! She dresses herself, and she has such a strong opinion about what she has going on!! I love her style and independance!

I am a proud wife today!! My husband was nominated, voted in, and officially became an elder at our church today! He has already given so much of himself, time, and resources to this young church, and I am excited to see how God uses him to do even more! Way to go Barrett!

At the beginning of summer, I got both boys a Summer Bridge workbook to go through during the summer. The toy store we bought them from offered a program where if the boys finished EVERY page, they could come back and get a huge discount on a toy. LJ got close, but there were some pages missing. Evan did it though- every single page!

8-21: Evan picked a Lego set! Proud of my little guy!!

This face is in honor of the Ninjago legos he picked out!

Monday night, we got LJ's board all filled out and ready for his first day of school.

I get the best smiles out of the boys by quoting things from Captain Underpants!

Our bus stop had 4-5 kids last year... wow has that changed!!! So many kids ready for their first day! It was like a party out there!

There he goes... We were excited to see the same bus driver we had the second semester of last year!

After we got LJ on the bus, I jumped in my car and raced to school to walk LJ to his class. Unfortunately, parking wasn't easy so LJ was already in his class when I got there! But I did get to help him and get a picture! I can't believe how different this year feels compared to last year! He has his own desk with all his notebooks! Such a big boy!

Then I got Evan and Ellie ready, and we started looking for things to do as just a threesome (already missing our LJ!). First on the list, a music class! Ellie has never done Music Together, but she loves stuff like this! I may need to sign her up!

Evan had lots of fun too!

8-23: The next day, we hit the gym and Smoothie King. Ellie insisted on wearing her brother's old monster toe slippers.

Oh my gosh! She actually asked for this picture and then posed like this! I can't handle it!!

We ran errands after and it got to be almost time for LJ to be getting off the bus, so I let her stay awake and go meet him. She was SO excited!!

And then LJ was arguably more excited to see her waiting!!! It was so precious!!!! He jumped off teh bus, and they ran into each other's arms for a hug! My heart melted!!!

This dog has decided she needs to start sleeping on the bed! Lucky for her she is so cute!!

8-25: The next day we got to meet the younger McDonnell kids for some fun at the Domain! The little girls all had this matching outfit, so Sang made my heart happy and let them match!! Getting a good picture of them, however, was another challenge all together!

Ok, we will let her swing instead!

Sweet Evan was ready and willing to be in any picture!!

Ellie. Grace.

This will have to do!

And then as we were leaving, a big truck started honking at us. It was my cousin A.J. and his friend Matt!! So we got to have an impromptu lunch with them! What a fun and awesome surprise!

Evan loves his new construction worker costume!

Ellie, "Wait, are we dressing up!?"

Storm is coming so the boys have to get in as much outside time as they can ... even football practice in the rain!

When it's raining outside, what do we do? Build legos! Lots and lots of legos!

8-27: And of course, dress up a little!! Flash!

Belle!

My dancing girl!

We prayed for all our dear friends and family in Houston as we watched the water rise, but it never got as high as we feared in our neighborhood.

Shopping with these two.. .and they became obsessed with looking at themselves in mirrors! Obsessed!

And Gigi's influence is strong in these two! Evan insisted on stopping to pick up trash

Back to school haircut for Evan!

Evan having his 5 year well-check. The doctor said he is a PERFECT example of what a 5 year old should look like - 50th percentile across the board! We also tried a new doctor in Cedar Park (we had been driving back to Austin for doctor visits since we moved), and we really like him so far!

Then we had Evan and Ellie's meet-the-teacher mornings. Evan was very excited to meet his teacher - a brand new hire at HOPE. He liked Mrs. Gresham, and she seems very sweet!

And Evan already knew Mrs. Hare as she has been one of the kinder teachers since Evan started at HOPE! There will be 17 kids in Evan's kindergarten class- 10 boys and almost all May-September birthdays! I am hopeful for a good year for Evan!

He already had a few friends in class, like Luke!

Ellie took longer to warm up to her teachers and the room, but we finally got her in there! Her teachers have been at HOPE forever, so she has seen them around and knew them already too.

Ms. Carol!

And Mrs. Jones.

And the last day of the month was spent celebrating my precious Bella! Today is her 13th birthday!! I can't express how much joy this little dog has brought into my life, and I am grateful for her every day! She seems to have aged quite a bit this year, and it makes me sad!! Happy birthday Binkers!!