Simple Beauty

My niece is a feshman in high school this year and she attended her first homecoming this weekend. In true family fashion, we all went to my parents house to watch the hair and make-up, the dress and oooh and ahhh. Callie was in awe and would like to be in beautiful dress with all the razzle dazzle herself. Guess what little girl- you have a long way to go!!

I know I'm biased but I thought she looked quite beautiful.

Callie and Anna with their cousin.

Once my niece was dropped off at a friends house, we got out the fire pit. This is a special treat for my kiddos since we don't have one. They loved it.

I heard the dance was fun and we enjoyed getting to be a part of this special time.

First Day of Preschool

Oh the joy of the first day of preschool.  I love my kiddos a lot, I really do, but I think it's mutual that we all need a little time on our own.  And they LOVE school.  They love their friends, their teachers, the awesome playground, and the playtime.  And I get a couple of hours to myself, even if it is running errands or folding laundry.

Can you see the joy in their little faces.

 Carter being his normal goofy self.   Unfortunately Carter was not smiling when his daddy went to leave the preschool this morning.  He put on quite a crying show.  Poor Brian.  Teachers said he was fine when Brian left.  I think Carter has his Daddy's heart in a big way.

And what did I do this first day with a little time off.  Knocked off my 18 mile run.  Marathon is in 6 weeks.  Getting close, ready to be done with all this crazy running!

A Catch up post

 Brian and I traveled to New York last week with our best friends to watch the U.S. Open.  The kiddos stayed home with our fantastic babysitter and did great.  This is the first trip we have taken without kids in 2 years and our first time away from Anna.  Everyone did wonderfully.  Despite missing kids, it's so refreshing to know we can have a bit of time to ourselves and know the kids will be just fine.
The weather in New York was awesome and we love spending time with this couple.  In addition to a lot of tennis, we did some New York sightseeing.  We stayed in Times Square, enjoyed good food, saw Wicked (awesome!!!) and laughed a lot.

 Times Square.

 The guys reading the paper and enjoying Times Square.

 The most common scene all week.  Figuring out how to navigate the Subway.  There was no mistaking that we were tourists.

A couple of weeks ago my nephew celebrated his 4th birthday and had a tennis party.
Jack and Anna

 Callie and Carter

 Anna

 And our nature walk.  I try and get a couple of these in a year, just to take in the surroundings.  No playground, no toys, just nature.

 Otherwise, the big kids are doing well with the back to school routine and the little kids and I are just hanging around.  They start preschool tomorrow- woo hoo!