First Day of School ~ 2013 - 2014

Somehow it has happened again.  Summer has flown by and it's time for the kiddos to head back to school.  I am, usually, ready for them to go.  This year...I'm not!  I don't feel like we had enough time for fun this summer.  I want a few more weeks!  They, however, are ready and excited to go.  Well, two of the three, anyway.

I have the hardest time believing that Ben is a sophomore this year!  Ugh!  Time is just flying by way too fast!

 

Abby...can she possibly be in her final year of middle school?!  How does this happen???

 

I know that Abby is a beautiful girl, but, for some reason, this morning I just couldn't get over how beautiful and grown up she looked!  My girl is gorgeous!

 

 And then there's Luke.

Luke has not been looking forward to school starting all summer.  I have been very nervous about how he would handle the first day.  It is going to be long!  I know he will do great, but still... I worry.  I am not a fan of all day kindergarten.  Ben and Abby never had to go to kindergarten all day.  I don't want Luke to go all day.  But I never told him that.

Thankfully, Luke got up, got ready for school and was very willing to let me take some pictures of him before we left for his big day.

Seriously, I did not ask him to pose for me!  He just kept being adorable, so I kept taking pictures.  I love this!!

 

I am so thankful for Luke's teacher, Mrs. Nickles!  She is going to amazing for my little guy!!

 

Yes, there are significantly more pictures of Luke on his first day of school, but how often does your baby start kindergarten?!  I am sad and happy that Luke is in kindergarten.  I know he is going to love it!  He is going to learn so much.  He is going to have influences that I don't like.  He is going to grow up so much this year.  Oh dear...

Lord, please protect my babies.  Please keep them safe from harm, from bad influences. Help them to make good choices and to know that you are in them and at school with them all day, every day.  Please put friends in their lives that know you and love you.  Help them to be strong and faithful.  Help them show you in all that they do.  Thank you for the teachers that you have hand picked for Ben, Abby and Luke.  Please bless them.  Give them an extra dose of grace and patience as they teach every day.  Thank you for giving us another school year.  Amen.

2nd Annual Girl's Weekend ~ St. Louis

Last year began what was sure to become an annual event for me, my mom and my sisters.  Mom is so hard to shop for for Christmas and birthday, that buying tickets to a play and making a weekend out of it is the perfect gift.  Not just for her, but for all of us!  Now that we've made it two years in a row, I am already looking forward to next year!

Again, we headed to St. Louis.  It is a great halfway point for the four of us to meet and there is SO much to do there.  I found it funny that, 1.  The only plans we had were to go to see West Side Story. 2.  We didn't see any of the same things we saw last year.  Not even close. 

We started our adventure by heading to the box office to pick up our tickets.  We ended up staying in the area for the majority of our day.  Who knew there was so much in this area?!

This was, probably, my favorite moment of the entire weekend!  Maybe my favorite moment ever with my mom and sisters!  We were all laughing SO hard!  One of us was real close to having tears running down their legs!  I won't say who! (:

We paid a little visit to the St. Louis Art Museum.  None of us are into art, but hey, why not?  Did I mention that it was FREE?  Yep! It was!

 I was slightly in awe as I was looking at original Van Gogh's, Monet's and Picasso's!  WOW!!  I wished that Ben could have been there to see this!

Outside of the art museum was a wishing tree with what other people had wished for.  This was my favorite wish.  I feel the same way.

Not only was the art museum in the same park as the outdoor theater where we would see West Side Story, but so was the zoo.  Yes, the four of us adults went to the zoo.  No kids!  And you know what?  There was no bickering or complaining at all!  (:

 There were some very interesting people at the zoo, but we'll just stick to animals here. ;)

I love the zoo!

We left the park area and headed downtown St. Louis.  We had no idea what we were going to do.  We just thought we would head the direction of The Arch.  Jon had mentioned to me earlier that the Cardinals were playing at home that night.  I mentioned it.  Kris said, "I wonder if scalping tickets is legal here."  The next thing you know, we are stopped at a stop sign and there is a guy standing on the corner with tickets.  The conversation happened very fast in our car.  We decided that we would give it a whirl, but that none of us were willing to pay more than $20 for a ticket.  I can't even begin to tell you the hilarity that ensued in the next few minutes!  I will just say that we ended up with four tickets for $100!!  Not too shabby!!

Sooo...we were off to the ball game!

 I hadn't been to a major league baseball game in so long!  I think the last time was when I was in 3rd or 4th grade.  I live too far away to go to big games.  I love that we have a minor league team in Tulsa, but it's not quite the same.  I was really excited about the game!  One thing,  even though I'm not much of a dedicated baseball fan, I couldn't root for the Cardinals.  Nope.  Just couldn't do it.  Go Cubs!

The Cubs won!

We had so much fun!

To think that all of this fun happened in only one day is just crazy!!  To say that we were a little wiped out would be an understatement!

We may have done a little bit of snacking...

On Saturday we did some shopping.  We got some amazing deals!  Of course, that only happens when we go shopping with Mom!

Since Kris works for Maggiano's, we thought that would be the perfect place for dinner before we headed to the play.  YUM!!  It was....oh my goodness...it was amazing!

I felt a little bit guilty going to see West Side Story without Ben.  He loves the movie!  He would have loved the play!

I tried SO hard to get a picture of the four of us.  It just wasn't working out very well.

This is the best we could get.  (:  But I love it!

Thankfully, after the play, someone saw us trying to take a picture of ourselves and offered to take it for us.

The play was great!

The weekend was great!

This weekend was the getaway that I needed away from home!  Between Jon going away for a week for work, Abby in softball, Ben in marching band, Luke and I spending every waking moment together and trying to get all three kids ready for school to start... I definitely needed a break!  This was so perfect!

I miss my mom and sisters all the time and this is perfect thing for way for us to get to see each other, take a break from life at home and have fun.

I can't wait for next year!!

Jon's Trip To Oshkosh

For years, Jon has thought it would be cool to have the opportunity to go to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for AirVenture.  "The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration"  He finally got his chance this year! 

 

 He had to fly one of Cessna's planes up there and then stick around to do demos for the week.  Not a bad deal!  I was so happy for him to get to go!