Here’s some of the neighborhood gang.  Apparently we only breed girls down in this neck of the woods.  The children missing are girls, and another neighbor is also pregnant with a girl.  It’s quite fun seeing them play together.

Here Emma, Anna, Kate, & Brooke are filling Brooke’s scooter basket with dirt.  Kate had the great idea that it was gas, to help make the scooter run.  That’s a smart cookie.  The not smart idea is playing with dirt directly after you just played in the sprinkler.  Whoops!

I found these journals in packs of 3 for about 3 bucks at Target (which you all know is a black hole in my universe, continually sucking me in…that’s another post).  Immediately when I saw them I thought they’d be great for the girls in our High School bible study.  So, I prettified them with these ribbons (I found it on old birthday bags – yes, I save those suckers) & added a pen later.  It just felt nice to think of someone besides myself.

These precious envelopes are notes from the girls in my high school bible study for ME!  They gave me an envelope for each day that I’m away in Ethiopia to help pass the time, to remember them, and to remind me of home.  *sniff sniff*  They are so sweet!  When I arrived at bible study this evening they had these notes, a poster saying “We’ll miss you Mandy” and yummy homemade cupcakes!  Girls, you make me cry!  You are so sweet & thoughtful & teach me more than I could ever hope to pass on to you!  Thank you for thinking of me & for your constant prayers!  I love you all!

Last night I had these girls over to my house for a sleepover.  They are some of the girls in the bible study that I help lead & we were celebrating them finishing their finals!  “Finals” has been a constant prayer request over the last few weeks & we decided to have a sleepover to just relax, be silly, & enjoy not studying.  We rocked out to some LIPS on the XBox (my lip gloss be poppin’), made some indoor s’mores, gabbed & gabbed, and finally fell asleep to a movie.  It was a great night & I enjoyed staying up til about 2 in the morning with them!  I promised them that if the weather was nice today, we’d go out for a mini photo session before they had to head home.  The photos below are just a few of my favorites that we got.  The rest will be on Facebook shortly.  Thanks girls for letting me in on your fun! (any many thanks to Rachel, our youth intern, for helping me out!)

Each one of them is so gorgeous.  And they have equally gorgeous hearts.  I feel like a proud momma!

It’s so weird not being a teacher anymore because I still get excited when I see the back to school supply ads & the thought of shiny new name tags & new little faces coming in to my classroom still makes me giddy. However, that is not my lot in life at this point and I am satisfied. I now get to be on the parent side of this phenomenon. Emma, my four-year-old (or “four and a HAF” as she says it) had her first “preview” day last Wednesday. She got to attend school for one hour and meet half of her classmates & get reacquainted with her old classroom. She picked out her outfit, chose her headband, put on her socks & shoes all by herself, and even brushed her teeth three times! And as we were leaving she stole a flower from our community for her teacher. And as Brooke does, she copied Emma in every little detail of the day, right down to the flower theft. Here are Emma’s first day snapshots…

Breakfast of champions:  Cinnamon toast in triangles!

Some cartoons to start the morning out right

And now for some awkward posing…silly girl!

Blowing me a kiss goodbye!

Showing off her bag that she designed

A flower for the teacher

And her hook!

Now Brooke (or Brookie as we lovingly call her) went to school the Friday after Emma for her “preview” day.  She has been practicing her teachers’ names before bed and was excited to use them.  For those of you who know Brooke, you probably knew she would have no problem at all in two-year-old class.  We sent Emma at age two because she was deathly shy.  We send Brooke at age two so she can learn to share & follow directions.  They are just different people!  She was very determined to put her shoes on “aw by my felf” so Amaw was so generous and took her fat feet to Stride Rite & got her 2 new pairs of kicks…complete with Velcro!  I’ll let the photos tell you the rest….

Her new size 6′s

She chose a banana for breakfast…the dog got some too

Brooke’s new bag – Tinkerbell & sparkly letters

Here she is being independent again – putting on the bag

The shoes in action!

Dragging her bag into school

Assessing the situation

She spotted some toys

And she’s off!

So that’s it!  My babies are in school and I can’t believe it!  I also get one whole Friday morning to my own self…what ever will I do????