Back to School!

Summer has ended and we are back at it! Avery is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Greene, and Aidan is in 5th grade with Mrs. Van Vorst. The first week has gone terrific! Here are some pictures from orientation and the first day of school.

End-of-Summer Adventures

During the last few weeks of summer, we tried fitting in as much fun as we could! We met up with Sarah and her boys at Gloria's and ate on the patio while the kids played at the nearby spray park:

My Jolly cousins Sara, Tracey, Meredith, Cole, and their loved ones come over for a cookout and swim! Sweet Gwen was there and her new baby brother Henry and cousin Marley, that we got to meet. Meredith's boyfriend AJ brought his cute daughter Emma, who Avery loved playing with! We missed you Jason, Jeff, and Jessica!

Speaking of Jolly...I ran into one of my second-cousins on that side of my family when we went out to eat at Babe's one day! I got to know Erin when we went to church together briefly after I graduated from Baylor, and thanks to our Facebook friendship I saw her kids and recognized them! She was there with her parents (Randy is my mom's cousins) and it was great to catch up!

My friends and I made our annual trip to Burger's Lake for the day! We love that place!

I helped throw a baby shower for my neighbor Laurin who's having her third baby boy soon! I tapped into my semi-crafty side and made a diaper cake and a baby carriage fruit salad!

We also had our neighbors over for an end-of-summer swimming bash!

Daniel and I also made time for a fancy date night at Fearing's restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton!

Girl Scout Fun

At the end of last year, our Brownie troop voted to give a portion of their cookie proceeds to a guy who has made animal oxygen masks to donate to local fire departments. We gave enough to donate two masks to the Murphy Fire Department, so this week (the first time everyone has been in town at the same time!) we all went for a tour of their station! Afterwards we came to our house for a pizza and swimming party. It was great to see all the girls, and we are looking to another fun year of Girl Scouts!

The animal oxygen mask organization had the Murphy newspaper come out and take pictures and interview Avery and Ambrielle, and our troop made it into a feature in the Murphy Messenger! So exciting!!! Kimberly and I had been featured a couple months earlier, when we made the official donation while the girls were all still in school.

If that wasn't fun enough, a few members of our troop also went to the circus!

Sailing Lessons

Grandpa and Nanna decided to take sailing lessons in Galveston this past weekend, and invited Aidan to go with them! We've never done any sailing but he was excited to try it. Aunt Kathleen and her boyfriend Josh went with them and all the adults passed the course with flying colors (Aidan wasn't old enough to take the test)!

This and That

The kids did a 3-day camp at PSA and had a blast! Aidan chose soccer, of course, and I added on a "flex day" for him so that he got to spend the whole day there. They did fun stuff in the morning, had lunch, then had their soccer camp in the afternoons. Avery decided to try volleyball and I don't think she actually made much contact with the ball but I was proud of her for trying! She also did a morning cheer camp and loved it! One of her coaches was a little girl named Gracie whose family lived next door to us when she was a baby. It was fun to see her all grown up! It was a busy few days for both kids but they had such fun, and I got some much-needed "me" time!

Fun with family for Jack's first birthday!

Fun with neighbors!

Fun with church friends!

Fun with my mom friends!