Harper is FOUR!

Better late than never... but about a month ago my sweet middle girl turned FOUR!!  I still can't believe she has hit her fourth year.  She is the one among my three that can still snuggle, and has the funniest personality.

 

 

ALL she wanted for her birthday was Caroline Abbott, the new American Girl, so she could play dolls with Sophie. We obliged, and that doll has rarely left her side!

 

 

 

For her birthday she wanted to eat peanut butter sandwiches at the park and swing with friends.  Mission accomplished.  We added a cake for our benefit, because Harper was okay without one.  

 

 

 

Harper has matured a ton in the past few months.  She is the momma of her preschool class, starting to read a little, and is your best pal if she wants to be.  We love having Harper in our family!

Walking on Sunshine

 

 

 

 

The last couple of weeks Camille has been in the WORST mood.  Hated eating, hated sitting still, hated moving, you get the idea.  And, if you are a mom, you know that means something BIG is about to happen.  We finally have a walker!! And our happy smile is back!

 

 

Happy Girl at yet another school function for big sister
 

 

 

Camille is the latest walker of our three.  Sophie took a step on her first birthday, but took off on Lee's birthday, at 12 1/2 months.  Harper walked on Halloween, at 13 months.  Camille is a week shy of 15 months.  I blame it on a summer of two sisters at home waiting on her every need.  Why should she have learned to walk?  Since school has taken up much of her servants' time,  she has been grumpy.  Her little mind had to decide it needed to figure out the walking thing herself.  So, on Labor Day, she stoop up and walked.  And walked everywhere the whole day.  The next day she wouldn't let me put her down, but the next day we were back on the walking track.  And our mood is drastically better!

 



Here is the video of her second long walk (excuse the dirty floors):

Back to School!

See this sleeping baby?  This means it's school time!



 We are off to another busy fun year of school!  The girls are starting back activities, bedtime is a little more strict, snacks are a little heartier, and as seen by the picture above, Camille is back in the land of carpooling and cat naps!  Monday Sophie started us off by entering First Grade.  Her teacher is Mrs. Smart, and we are hoping for a great year!  Her sweet little class from last year was all split up, leaving Sophie with just two boys from her Kindergarten class.  Her best little friends wave at each other during lunch and sneak to play during PE, but she has some sweet girls in her class I hope she becomes fast friends with soon.  Last week I asked her our annual school time questions.

Sophie- Age 6
Favorite Color- Purple
Favorite Food- S'mores
Favorite Movie- American Girl: McKenna (It's all about gymnastics which is great during Olympics!)
Favorite Friend- Caroline
Favorite Activity- playing Barbies
Ambition- Vet
Favorite Part of School- PE
Least Favorite Part of School- none, she likes it all!


So the day after Sophie started Harper began 3K!  She was so excited to see her teacher Mrs. Maggie.  She picked out her outfit for her first day and couldn't wait to began her year.  Her cousin William is in her class again, as well as one friend from her last year's class continuing on their days.   I asked her a few questions too....

Harper- Age 3
Favorite Color- Pink
Favorite Food- Cheese Sticks
Favorite Show-  The Disney Documentary that follows Lady and the Tramp
Favorite Friend- William
Favorite Activity- Hugging Mommy
Amobitition- Nurse

Sophie turns Six!

In the midst of the back to school rush, we had a birthday to celebrate!  Sophie is now a big six year old.  Saturday, before classes began, we had all the little girls from her Kindergarten class, plus a few extra friends, at a  local make your own yogurt bar for some birthday fun.

Sophie and her sisters waiting for her guests!

Most of the party guests, getting ready to enjoy ice cream!

  A little blurry, but our one shot with the birthday girl!

A little unsure about all the sparklers on her candle!

Sophie and her best friend from Kindergarten, Caroline.

Charlie filling his bowl with gummy worms!

So besides being the easiest birthday party ever to throw, we had a great time watching Sophie play with old friends, talk about new teachers, and catching up with other moms and dads.  Sophie being six makes her seem a little older, a little more mature, and ready to face a new year in school!  She is still tiny, but her voice and actions seem mature beyond her few years.  She is a people pleaser, sometimes silly, rarely moody, and wants to always do the best she can at whatever she is doing.  She is such a fun little spirit to raise!

Reality.....

As I put the girls to bed at 9:00 tonight, it hit me that reality is closing in so much faster than I want.  All summer we have played hard, napped hard, travelled, swam, and sucked out all of the fun we could on our first official summer.  With the Olympics ending tomorrow, so does the last free week of summer. Next week we meet our first grade teacher, celebrate a special 6 year olds birthday, throw a back to school lunch for teachers, and learn to wake up consistently at 6:30 again.  Ugh.

Today was an unseasonably cooler day, so we cleaned up our garden plots and planted some pumpkin seeds, spinach, and fall tomatoes.  I straightened the garage and got our shoe holders and closets ready for a new year of business( not really sure why the garage and closets must be clean before life gets busy, but they do, so I did it).

However, we won't lot our last week get us down.  We are getting ready for Sophie's ice cream birthday party.  The girls have one last sleepover planned, and I fully expect a few friends over to destroy the playroom one more morning.

Our Pirate Adventure

This weekend we had some friends come into town and they wanted to do some fun stuff at the beach. We thought about a dolphin cruise, but with those being at night, and taking tired kids on one sounding horrible, I was so pumped to hear about a pirate cruise offered in the morning!  It was soooo much fun. Our girls got to get faces painted, hats, guns, and treasure.  They learned the difference between bow and stern, and port and starboard.  They attacked other boats with water balloons, and sent scallywag dads (including ours) to the dungeon.  

Here is Sophie driving the ship.  Everyone got a chance to go to the top of the boat, hang out with a peg leg captain, and feel the great breeze.   

They had games on the boat, like water balloon fights, limbo, and the freeze dance.  The adults had just as much fun with the water balloons as the kids.  Lee and a few other dads really liked the sling shots they had on the sides.

Harper really got in to using her water pistol to attack other boats.  Anytime they yelled PORT or STARBOARD she went running to that side to use her "shoot gun". 

Camille surprised us all and loved the trip.  At first she screamed because of sunscreen and that massive life jacket, but we finally chucked all of that and she had a great time.  I think feeling the cool breeze and getting to watch all the crazy kids was fun to her.

Midsummer

So, everyone is currently taking a nap.  Sophie had a busy playdate this morning, Harper got some time with me at Target, and Camille is always ready for a nap.  It's probably the first time in about two weeks everyone is actually stopped at the same time.  Don't worry, it will crank up soon with a sleepover of girl cousins in a few hours at our house.  So what a perfect time to dump some pictures from my phone on the blog!  It has been a busy few weeks, and we are now enjoying a month of doing whatever we want!

Two weeks ago, right after we got back from our yearly Blue Ridge trip (more about that later...) we were thrown into the busy world of VBS!  What a fun, exhausting, hot week full of kids!  Somehow I got put in co-charge this year of over 400 kids and 100 volunteers, as a learning process for next year when another girl and myself are in charge.... but it was such a blast.  Besides a few parents who got mad that they couldn't drop their kids off fast enough on the first morning of their free daycare...ahem... everything ran so smoothly, everyone stayed happy and hydrated, and both myself and the girls got closer to a lot of people at our church.  I must say the daily naps after getting home by all four of us were the BEST naps I have had since all night study sessions in college. 

 Here is a picture of our first morning at Sky....

 Harper is growning up SOOO fast.  This was her fist official year as a VBSer.  She loved every minute.



Last year as a very pregnant and then new mom, we didn't get to enjoy living near the water too much.  This year we are making up!  We have loved getting to kayak, swim, and being near the gulf is great.  A few nights ago we headed to a local pier around 8 pm to try to catch crabs.  We put out our baskets and hoped for the best.  After a few checks, Harper, Camille, and I called it quits and went home.  Lee and Sophie stayed late into the night, fishing and looking for crabs.  Although they only caught a baby crab, it was still a fun night for them.  Sophie did catch a croaker fish, and threw it right back when it starting "tooting" at her, as she described it. 



I also have a few shots of our annual Blue Ridge Trip.  We have gone for five years, and each year a new baby has come along.  This year baby Thad got his inaguaral trip under his belt!  These six kids (and their parents!) had a ball for a week in the mountains.  We fished, tubed, hiked, gem mined, played on the porch, grilled out, and as always, can't wait to go back!

On the way home from Blue Ridge we took a detour to Amicalola Falls, the largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River (no, I didn't know that... read it on a sign).  I do not recommend hiking with a baby in a Bjorn, but Camille loved seeing all the water.