First Day of First Grade

Eva's a 1st grader.
AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
All day school. Tests. Reading. Writing. Rules. Responsibilities.
1st grade is an entire world away from Kindergarten. I'm still in shock by how different it is.
When we went back to school shopping Eva picked out everything. We had this little problem last year that...well she hated all her clothes and only want to wear boy clothes.
I thought about just buying her boy clothes this year but then I thought "NO!" you are a girl, deal with it and embrace it (I'm no Angelina Jolie apparently), there are plenty of girl clothes that aren't pink and purple.
So I told her only pick out things you love and that you will wear....and since you're picking them out you will not tell me that you don't like it and are not wearing it. Trust me we had a looooong talk about it.
Anyway, I loved everything she picked out. And she didn't love everything I picked and I told her that was fine...I wanted her to know, it will not hurt my feelings if you don't like what I like. We had a great shopping trip!

So for her first day she picked out this adorable shirt with a giant picture of a dog on it and...
skinny cords! She looks like a 10 year old in them! I couldn't believe she wanted skinny jeans! She picked them because "they are soooo soft:"
Anyway, none of the pictures I took on her first day turned out. Not even joking...I'll post a few just to prove there were no good ones.
This is the first one I took and it was the best out of all of them:

Oh and of course she's sporting her new Sketchers...when do kids learn brand names and then ask for them?
Lucky for me I got a great deal at Famous Footwear (they are the perfect place to get kids shoes) I got her Sketchers and Elle these hideous pink/rainbow/sparkle/light up/princess shoes (that she LOVES) for less than the cost of the Sketchers!! Bam. Good deal.

Seriously, there's about 8 more exactly like this....

Of course Elle wanted to get in on the dropping off Eva picture action. At this point you can tell Eva just wants to get into her classroom!

Can you see her little thumbs up? So cute! She did that all on her own!!

With her new 1st grade teacher. And the face of a 1st grader that says, "Ok mom, enough, you can stop taking pictures and go now!"

So I did. I waved bye and Elle and I went home and stared at each other till 2:10pm when we left to go pick Eva up.

Labor Day Weekend

We went to the beach with my parents for Labor day. We had so much fun!
Us girls (that's right all four of us) went to the outlet malls and got Eva and Elle back to school clothes...mostly stuff for Eva. We also got a great deal on these ballet clothes for Elle's upcoming ballet and tap class. (Pictures of that coming up soon).
Anyway, I didn't take any pics of the actual shopping but we had fun relaxing on the beach together.
It was a really great last trip to the coast with my parents!

Mommy's little poser. Always hamming it up.

Super Girl!

The boys.

My favorite group shot...we took a lot of them!

Mama's Little Picassa

Does this look familiar? A certain famous mouse we all know and love?
When I asked Elle what she was drawing, she said, "it's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!"
This stayed on our stairwell for about a month or so...I was so impressed I couldn't wash it...plus I hadn't taken pictures of it yet..hence the no washing.
Finally Elle felt a little remorseful for drawing all over the walls (she does it all the time...and always feels bad...weeks later) anyway, before she washed it away I told her I had to take a picture of it.

She's my proud little artist, ready to pose at any opportunity and has her colorox wipe in hand.

Guest Post at Or So She Says...

Hi family and friends, I wanted to let you know that I'm guest posting at Or So She Says...
it's one of my favorite blogs and I was soooo honored and excited they asked me to write something!
Click Here for my post.

Locks of Love

Here's what we did today:

Eva watched a documentary on Locks of Love a few months ago and decided that when she was ready to cut her hair she wanted to donate it.
I am SO proud of her for making this choice and she was so excited to get her hair cut.
She had the biggest smile and when we pulled up to the salon she said, "Mommy I have tickles all in my stomach!" I told her I did too!
She plans on continuing to grow her hair out and cut it to donate. I am so proud of her and grateful to a place like Locks of Love that can help me teach my child how to be giving, selfless and charitable.

I hate loading pictures, it takes for-ev-er. That's why I hardly update this blog anymore...but people want pictures.
Here are the best of our kite flying pictures:

The End.

Brower Power Road Trip Extravaganza 2010

We just got back from our two week vacation to visit Jeremy's parents in North Dakota.
If you remember we went last year too but we traveled a ton of places in between...this year there and back.
Much easier to handle.
I have a ton of pics but here's part one, entitled: 4th of July on the 3rd of July...titillating, I know.

Elle's new thing is posing for pictures. You'll see lots of posed pics by Elle throughout the photo sharing extravaganza.

Jeremy got these AWESOME army man parachute "fireworks" you lit it and it shot up really high, like seriously, really high in the air (I think you could only do this type of firework in a place like ND) and then he parachuted down and the girls ran like crazy to go and catch it. It was really, really fun.

I love this picture of Jeremy and his dad running away from some sort of contraption of fireworks they rigged together.

Elle was dancing around with her little sparkler like a ballerina. Unfortunately for her she didn't understand that it was hot and touched it and got a pretty big blister/burn. Sweet baby, I guess she knows not to touch it now.

What summer night isn't complete without a messy ice cream sandwich?