First Day of School.

Yesterday, was the first day of school for everyone. Blake and Claire started 2nd grade and Anna Kate went to Kindergarten. She was so excited. She didn't even want Mark to walk her in. Of course he did with video camera and the digital camera. I am teaching full time this year so I didn't get to go with them but Mark did a great job of getting every moment documented.

This is Anna Kate's teacher Mrs. Doan. This picture was taken at Open House. I think we are going to have a great year with Mrs. Doan. I forgot my camera when the 2nd grade had Open House but a friend took pictures for me. I just don't have them yet.

Kindergarten!! Can you believe it???? I can only because she is soooo ready but I can't believe my baby is in school. We have started a whole new phase of life. Everyone in school!! WOW!

Blake in Mrs. Jones's class.

Claire in Mrs. Yingling's class.

Everyone had a great first day. Anna Kate bought her lunch, took a nap and Mrs. Doan had to wake her up after rest time. She made a few new friends and actually is in class with 3 boys from church and 1 girl from pre-school. She loves it.

Blake and Claire were exhausted when they got home. Blake went and got in his bed and went to sleep at 4pm and Claire fell asleep on the couch. It'll take a while for everyone to get adjusted.

End of Summer!!

Summer has come quickly to an end. Here are a few photos of the events that occurred the last few weeks before school.

We had a mother/daughter pajama party at church. We all wore our pajamas, ate pizza, had devo, made bracelets and painted fingernails. The girls had a lot of fun and Claire was in a helpful big sister mood.

Claire painting Anna Kate's finger nails.

Then Anna Kate made her first trip to the dentist. She had a permanent tooth that came in behind her baby tooth. Her baby tooth wasn't really even loose. So we went to go see our good friend Dr. Todd to have it pulled. All morning she was so excited and couldn't wait. She had a change of mind once we got there.

I didn't think we were ever going to get her still enough or calm enough. She fought us for about 15 minutes. Todd said he has never seen a child get that upset and someone get the calmed down enough to actually get the job done. I wasn't leaving without the tooth pulled. We made every promise in the book. Finally she let us put the gas on her and then Todd got to work. The minute he pulled it she started grinning. Since it appears that we are going to be going down this road again I'm glad she now realizes it's not all that bad.

We've kept our niece and nephew several days this summer while Paula (mark's sister) worked. Anna Kate loved baby Mia around. She really is a very cute and sweet baby.

Finally Blake and Claire were in a musical at church last week. It was a dinner theater put on by the Children's Ministry. It was called the Good News Cruise and Claire's teacher from last year came to watch. The play was really pretty cute. None of the pictures turned out really great but here is one of Blake, Claire and Mrs. Rains.