Happy Birthday Rylie!

Rylie is finally 4!

She has been anticipating this day for quite sometime.

Ryan was out of town so her actual bday party will be later, but we still celebrated!

It started with a birthday bouquet from her Aunt Rayne!

They were beautiful and so personalized in color choice.

Thank you!

{Dru and Liv received "back to school" flowers!}

Then blueberry birthday muffins for breakfast.

Only a couple fell. :)

Her first present was a Dora sticker book.

We then met Dru and Liv at school to have lunch!

That was FUN! I think I am going to make that one a tradition.

We even played at recess for a bit.

{I have a pic but my it never loaded for some reason.}

Then Gma Kathy, Gpa Steve and Aunt Kim called and wanted to take us out to dinner to celebrate some more! Rylie chose Artic Circle close by. They even brought candles and gifts to make it a real party.

Perfect!

Thank you!

The girls got shakes and Owen enjoyed a few ice cream cones.

Rylie, I love you!

I love her thick, gorgeous hair.

I love how you make friends everywhere we go.

I love your infectious smile.

I love how you make our whole family laugh. {hard!}

I love all your silly faces.

I love how you love to read.

I love how you love to cuddle.

I love all of you!

First day

Dru started the 3rd grade yesterday.

How do I feel about that? Hmmm. I am not sure.

She is turning into a mature, kind, responsible girl.

She was excited to start school, but it wasn't the same crazy, over

the top excited like she was for all the years previous.

It kind of makes me sad. She is growing up.

But then it makes me really happy and excited. She is growing up! It has been so fun to see her learn and experience new things. And, have I mentioned how helpful she is? I am definitely going to miss her ASKING me if she could help. She is the BEST oldest sister/child. I am anxious to see what this new school year brings.

This is Dru. She is super cool.

{"cool" is her new look}

This is Liv. She is super cute and fancy.

{cute and fancy are still her style}

Olivia had a meeting with her new teachers on Monday. She felt a bit overwhelmed with the French teacher. The Dual immersion program will be interesting!

Bonjour!

Now it is official. The first day of 1st grade!!

She was over the top, crazy excited. She could barely finish her breakfast.

Look at that face....is she excited or what?

I can't believe I have 2 kids in full-time school!

Tennis!

Dru took tennis lessons this summer with her good friend Ellie.

She loved her instructors, and learned to love the game.

(She will hopefully one day be my tennis partner!)

It was an hour long and right by a park so Liv, Rylie & Owen just played.

Pretty nice.

What made it even better was my dear friend Kim had her boy in the tennis lesson before me.

I always came early and she always stayed late. Perfect!

I miss tennis (really Kim) already!!

Rylie begged me to take this pic.

(I am hoping all my girls play tennis so we can play doubles.)

We went camping with the Fenton family at Strawberry Reservoir.

My girls cannot get enough cousin time!

We did a lot of fun crafts, fishing, & treasure hunting.

Dru with her cousins, Cicily and Berkleigh

Dru and Winston

Cute Boden

Kim, Megan, Henry and Cicily

Samantha and Sage got to come as well.

{we couldn't leave them home alone! } :)

We made cool visors with fun stickers.

Megan brought all her nail polish and painted the girl's nails.

Owen LOVED Boden!

Rylie with her uncle Ryan

Cute Gpa and Gma

Rylie loved Boden too.

Winston hiding in the trees with his bb gun.

The girl cousins

All the "treasures" we found around our campsite.

Waiting for a ride in uncle Ryan's truck.

Learning how to shoot a gun.

We painted rocks for Gma's garden.

The real highlight of the weekend was crawdad fishing!

It was perfect!

You could fish from the dock.

It took NO skill.

Anyone and Everyone could do it.

You ALWAYS caught one.

Rylie caught 5 at a time.

Crawdad fishing at night.

Crawdad fishing during the day.

Gpa was a pro with the net.

It was so fun to see how excited the kids got with each catch.

Winston waiting patiently.

We caught more than a hundred crawdads!

All the boys shelling the crawdads to take home and eat.

{I guess they taste like baby lobster.}

All the grandkids!

{Rylie was sad}

Thanks mom and dad for taking us and planning great activities.

We love getting together!