So here it is the middle of September.  Where did the rest of the summer go?  Just a quick update and then we can move on to all of the fun things happening now.  Grace and Ginny did some weeks at the summer camp at their preschool.  Grace was pretty fired up to do the “big kids camp” portion this year.  It was for kids entering kindergarten through 4th grade and high schoolers were the helpers.  They even had field trips at different locations around town once a week.  Ginny went to camp too for two days a week, but she wasn’t as excited about it.  There weren’t a lot of kids from the school year at camp, and not being a huge fan of school, the lack of friends and familiarity was a little too much.

The last week of July and the first week of August, I took the girls up to Colorado to see Grandma Patty and Aunt Bonnie.  We had a great time and I managed two plane flights sans husband, which was a miracle.  We did plenty of “hiking” (or long walks in parks or on rocks), helping out in Grandma Patty’s garden, painting and ice cream eating while we were there.  Blake came up for a few days the weekend in between and we took the girls horseback riding (which they loved!) and up to Denver to visit Bonnie and Kyle.  Grace even did an overnight trip to see Bonnie and Kyle and stay with them by herself.  She was pretty pumped about it.  We helped out Patty with some house cleaning and a huge garage sale in which she was able to clean out a lot and actually see the garage after it was over!

Grace also did two weeks of dance camp at her ballet studio and loved that.  One week was a Dora the Explorer theme and the second week was Cinderella, made only better by the fact that her best friend Maddie was also in camp that week.  After her enthusiasm at dance camp, we enrolled her in a ballet/tap class this fall.  Let’s hope that enthusiasm lasts until May now.  🙂

Finally, the week before school started, I took the girls up to Mom’s house and they stayed with Mimi and Pappy for a few nights.  They had a great time there too, which included a lot of outdoor time with paints, and running and sprinkler time.  We were home in time to make it to “Meet the Teacher” for kindergarten the Friday before school started.  We don’t know anyone in our class, but our teacher looks great and I am sure Grace will make friends easily.

Here are some pictures from the summer adventures!

Grace and Ginny on a hike in Colorado.

The girls at a coffee shop that we went to every morning after we went on our “hikes” in Colorado.  There were these three pug dogs that were always there and were pretty much the highlight of the day for the girls.

The girls painting on one of our outings in Colorado.  Beautiful weather!

Making homemade ice cream at Grandma Patty’s.

We found more than vegetables in the garden at Grandma Patty’s.

At the Colorado Springs Zoo with our good friends Ryan and Lisa and their two little boys.  Feeding the giraffes lettuce leaves was the best part for the girls.

Getting some bubble gum ice cream with Aunt Bonnie.

A few weekends before school started back, I took Grace to see The Lion King, the play.  She loved it!

In her kindergarten classroom for meet the teacher.