Charlotte's Farm Field Trip

I got to go with Charlotte on her farm field trip a few weeks ago.  No siblings were allowed, so we got to have each other all to ourselves. It is so fun to see her in her school environment with her friends.  We had a great time.

 There was a tractor ride.

 She fed the bunnies (many time)

 She "scrubbed" a miniature pony.

 And she rode a horse.  I love my Charlotte, she's one sweet girl.

Grandad

I did a terribly job of documenting with photos, but we went to Chattanooga in late Sept for Parks' Grandad's funeral.  It really was a celebration of his life.  He will be missed.

Soccer Season

Our girls (& a handful of our friends) just started soccer season.  Our first game was Saturday.  They loved it.  As we were pulling in I realized that I wasn't sure if Charlotte even really knew that there would be an opposing team and that they were playing against each other.  We aren't the sportiest group if you haven't noticed.  She said, "The other people are going to take our ball, that is so mean!"  Charlotte mostly just ran after the group of kids with the ball.  She would kick it if it rolled free, but never tried to kick it away from anyone.  We'll work on explaining the basics of the game.  

 Samuel & Charlotte

 Lily Kate loved it too (which I was a little unsure about).  I was impressed at her involvement the whole time.  I guess they stop picking flowers on the sides and start playing the game by the time they're six.  It was fun to watch them both have so much fun.

Savannah for 24hrs

Lily Kate and I both had a callback for (tiny) parts in Sponge Bob square pants, the movie.  We were asked to go to Savannah so our family decided to make a mini vacation out of it.  We had a blast.  We left Thursday at lunch and got there around dinner time.  We parked downtown and walked through some of the town's squares.  Hadley loved the horses and carraiges.  She kept saying "hoe-ses and carrots, I love dem"

 We ate at a fun, causal Japanese place.  Testing out the chopsticks started out like this...

 ...but very quickly turned into this.....

 ....and this. Between wearing the chopsticks and accidentally shooting edamame beans out of their pods the while trying to shell them the girls (and the parents) laughed through most of dinner.   

 We swam at the hotel.

 We also checked out Forsyth Park.  It was beautiful, look at the Spanish moss dripping from the trees.  Wilmington has a lot of it too, so I see it all the time, but its southern beauty just doesn't get old.  

 Sitting with Hadley at the playground while the big girls played 

 This might be my new favorite picture.  Our baby is growing up so much!

Our last stop before the audition was River Street Sweets for pralines.  We went to the audition (which was short and fun) then over to Paula Dean's restaurant for lunch and back in the car for a 5 hour drive home.  Fast and furious, but a lot of fun!

Our little friend, Claire celebrated her birthday with a princess party at a ballet studio.  The girls got make up, up do's, and dress up clothes.

The birthday girl.

 Walker, watching all the little ladies

 Isla and Hadley, enthusiastic as usual :)

Happy Birthday, Parks!

To celebrate Parks, this year, we had a big party on our new patio.  Parks' favorite things are good food and lots of good friends.  I feel like both of those things came together successfully.  I didn't take any pictures that night, but I snapped a few on his actual birthday.  

 These girls are loved by their daddy!

Anyone who knows us knows we have a lively bunch.  The girls loved celebrating Parks.  They made him precious card and made sure that the cake was his favorite kind and that he had his box of Whoppers (their annual present to him). 

Back to School

These sweet pictures are mostly so that I can see the fun progress by comparing them with the last day of school pictures that will come later next year.  

Lily Kate 6yrs old, just started first grade

 Charlotte 4yrs old, just started Pre-K

 Hadley, 2yrs.  Hasn't started preschool, but she sure did want to stay when I dropped off Charlotte on the first day.  Then, today when I pulled into the pick up line to get Charlotte, Hadley's eyes lit up and she said, "I go to school now! Yay!!" Poor kid, I'm not ready to let go of you yet :) One more year.

I promise we're still here.....

Oh, it's been a long time... a very long time.  I'm going to do a speed catch up of our summer.  We started the summer with our annual Tate trip.  I can't even go through those pics right now because there are always a lot.  Such a great week with our family. Here is the rest of my "summer at a glance".

We came back to Wilmington in time for a week of VBS, which inspired our girls to do a lemonade stand to raise money to buy backpacks for kids who can't afford them.  It a was well oiled machine, that lemonade stand, complete with 3 little managers :)

The two older girls took swim lessons in the evenings for a few weeks.  The parents enjoyed a solo cup of wine in a pool chair chatting and watching from a distance most of the time.  Hadley loved the water this summer.  She regularly marches to the deep end calls out "Un, Two, Free, JUMP" and jumps right in.  She loves to go under.  

Here's Parks playing with the girls after lessons and after Hadley used my half full cup as a water toy :(

We played at home in the afternoons while Hadley napped.  Here are the girls playing "beach" in the driveway.  Can you tell which one was talked into being the husband?

We took ballet lessons.  I spied on the girls through the large glass window.  Most of the time they were making faces at themselves.  I guess it's too tempting to have a wall of mirror in front of you when you're 4 and 6 yrs old.  Fun times.

We took art camp.  Well, Charlotte took art camp and Kate took fine arts camp with singing and acting.  It was a fit for sure.  I didn't get any pictures of this except that they asked us to snap a picture of our family in front of our home for a slide show they did.  Since I couldn't take a picture of myself I snapped this one of the kids on our front porch really quick and it has turned out to be one of my favorites.  

Lily Kate got her ears pierced!!  This was a big deal in our family of girls.  She has been asking to do this for many months and it was a momentous occasion.  I may have teared up a bit.

My parents came to visit.  My dad worked his tail off planting flower beds with Parks.  I'll do a before and after of our backyard/patio makeover.  I love the end result! We found time for fun too.  Here are some shots on the patio sitting by the fire pit.

Mom & Kate

Dad & Charlotte with marshmallow mouths

The big girls

We also celebrated Hadley's 2nd birthday while they were here.  It was a blast.  Hadley is really growing up.  She was such a parrot before, repeating everything we said, but now she is just chatty, full of her own ideas.  She is really a ham, she loves to dance and sing.  She is very loud and animated.  She still likes Parks best of all, which I think is so great.  Funny how I can't imagine our family without her.

It was a great summer.  We went to 1st grade orientation tonight and LK starts school on Tuesday.  The end is rapidly approaching.  Hopefully I'll do a better job posting this fall! 

Kindergarten

First Day of Kindergarten ---- Last Day of Kindergarten

Happy Birthday, Evan

 For our friend, Evan's, birthday we went downtown to ride the trolley and had lunch at Trolley Stop.  Such a cute idea for a birthday party!  The kids were thrilled to be on the trolley.  

 Ella, Lily Kate, & Claire... I mean & Princess (she dressed up for the occasion)

 Katharine & Isla

 Charlotte and the birthday boy, Evan

 Hadley and Daddy

 Ok, here's the thing.  Katharine regularly makes these awesome cookies for birthdays and showers.  They always look this good.  I have told her that she should sell them.  People would buy them!  She's modest and says, "nah".  So, I took at picture.  If you're interested I'll take orders. 

and one more cute shot from the same weekend.  Kate carrying Isla at Music at Mayfaire.