First Day of School

Lucy started 3K today! With her September birthday she misses the cutoff for 4K by 10 days, so she will be 4 years old for almost all of her year in 3K. We are excited for her to have the same teacher and the same kids in her class for the entire school year. As you can see, she's excited too! I can't believe my little girl is getting so big. Sigh.

Chubbers

Audrey is getting some cheeks!

Kaylee

Thank you to Kaylee, who came to play with Lucy and Ella for a day!

Audrey's Picture of the Day

A Day at the Lake

Greg's written boards are coming up on September 11th, so when it's possible, he has been taking time to study and prepare himself for the test. Today while he was studying, the girls and I went out to GG's lake with my mom and dad. GG was hosting a get-together for the family and some extended family that we haven't seen for years. The weather was beautiful and we had a very fun day...thanks again to mom and dad for all of your help!

little sister Audrey with big sister Lucy

Here's Audrey next to Danny, the son of my cousin Ken and his wife Lisa. Today was the first time we met Danny--he is adorable! Believe it or not, he was born a few days after Audrey! He weighed in at 10 pounds, 12 ounces--it was hilarious seeing the two of them side by side.

big sister Ella

Lainy, Grandpa, and Ella

Lucy and Grandma

Grandpa and his granddaughters

Ballet Recital

Lucy and Ella finished up their ballet class with an open house. Parents and guests were invited to the entire class period to watch and see what the girls did during a typical class and then see the performance they worked on each week.

First, the ballerinas stretched out their muscles.


Next, the teacher, Miss Carly asked each girl to show their favorite ballet move.



The girls showed us their work on the bar.


These videos show Lucy and Ella doing their ballerina walk. They wear a crown and are supposed to keep their heads and hands up and walk slowly across the room on their toes.



Lucy definitely took her time, and looked like a real ballerina in training. Ella definitely looked like Ella.


Next, the girls did their Freeze Dance. They got to wear pretty ribbons on their arms and run around to music until the song told them to "Freeze!"

Their smiles show how much they loved this!

After Freeze Dance was over, the girls lined up on their spots and sang "I'm a Little Ballerina." The girl next to Ella sang VERY loudly, so Ella plugged her ears!

Their moves weren't quite lined up here...

...that's better!

It was finally time to see the recital! Miss Carly told Lucy to stand on the first blue spot, and then asked Ella to stand on the yellow spot. Ella wasn't looking, and when she turned around, Miss Carly was already pointing to the next red spot. So, she thought she was supposed to be on the red spot, but another girl stood there. Ella was so upset about this she couldn't even make it through the routine...meanwhile, Lucy had quite the itch on her leg, and then didn't care at all that she was the only one doing the routine by the end!

Miss Carly decided to lighten things up a bit and let the girls listen to the Goldfish Song...again, it's lots of running around that leads to lots of fun.

Time to try the recital again...we almost made it the whole way through without spot drama...

Class Photo

Lucy and Ella with Miss Carly

We are very proud of our little ballerinas! They learned how to pointe, plie, arabesque, echappe, and stand in first and second positions, and they had tons of fun!

Yawn & Stretch

Tuesday Night Fun

It was a busy night at our house...Auntie Julie, Laura, Kaylee, Auntie Donna, Uncle Wayne, and Ava came to visit. Lucy and Ella were so excited to have kids to play with!

Lovely

Aren't her hands so pretty and delicate?

Audrey meets Audrey!

Audrey is named after her Great Grandma (who we call GG), Audrey. They met for the first time today!

Fingers & Toes

Pretty Girls

I love their smiles.

Sisters

Lucy and Ella are excited about being big sisters to Audrey. They love giving her hugs and kisses and seeing her pretty eyes. Lucy started talking to my belly a few weeks ago, and her chosen phrase time and time again was, "Coochy-coochy-coo," said in a high-pitched, baby-talk manner. Once Audrey was born, the baby talk continued. After we got home from the hospital, Lucy started calling Audrey "Cooch." Greg and I quickly put a stop to that, and now (thankfully!) Lucy sticks to calling Audrey by her name or just "Little."

Ella and Lucy used the tool set from Audrey to make the first letters of their names.

We have had a lot of help to make the transition easier for the girls. Ellen stayed with us for a few days and was able to give Lucy and Ella lots of love and attention while we got settled in with the baby. Grandma and Grandpa have been frequent visitors and have helped get the girls out of the house quite a bit. Here, they are headed to my mom and dad's pool. We are so thankful for all of this help!!

Visitors

Auntie Gail, Christy, and Simon came to visit today. Simon is adorable...he's 11 months old and looks like such a big boy next to Audrey!