Monday, August 31, 2015

First Day of First Grade

Somehow this summer completely FLEW by, and the first day of school was here before I hardly knew it.
Monkey bread is a breakfast that Grace requests from time to time, so we made it for her as a special first day treat. Grace and Bethany were so excited to eat one of their favorite breakfasts!
 


I almost teared up helping Grace get ready this morning. She suddenly seemed SO tall, as if she'd transformed into a big first grader overnight! I just couldn't believe the 6 year old vision in front of me, all ready to go to school for her first day.


She anxiously waited for the bus, asking again and again why it wasn't here yet. ;)

And when the bus finally came, and she had serenely watched it pull up and heard Travis and I say our final "I love you's", she was off--confidently running to her old bus driver and a whole new year.
 
Grace and her bus driver April.

I was just so impressed with her this morning--at her confidence and maturity. She was ready for it. She reported that she had a great first day, and I hope the rest of her first grade year will be just as wonderful!
 
And since I haven't posted a picture of all our sweet girls in a long time, here is a picture of all them in matching dresses from this past Sunday:
(Bethany, Kaylee, Cambree, Grace)

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Family Campout 2015

A family campout has been on our summer bucket list, and last night we made it happen! We decided to go family friendly, and stayed at the Salem KOA, about 30 minutes from our house in Youngstown. It was a great campground!
Cambree, our little adventurer, was so happy to be in the great outdoors, and loved exploring the little bridge near our campsite and running around.
 

After exploring a little, we quickly set up our tent (with some help from some kind camping neighbors), then headed to the pool, where we had fun swimming and going down the slide.

When the pool closed for the night, we headed back to camp to get dinner started and finish getting our campsite set up.

I looked over while setting up camp/getting dinner ready to see this sweet little moment between Kaylee and Bethany. Kaylee apparently thought Bethany's shirt was pretty cute and interesting, and Bethany was sweet enough to play along. ;)

We took a break from our typical healthy diet (for fun and ease of convenience) and had a classic campfire dinner--hot dogs, watermelon, chips, and potato salad. After dinner we roasted smores (my first time trying them with peanut butter--yum!) and dad made a yummy peach cobbler in his new dutch oven.

The men working the fire with the skill of true scouts, and roasting dogs for the women folk.

This was Kaylee and Cambree's first campout, and they had fun eating dinner at the picnic table.

Grace was VERY proud to have roasted her own hot dogs and marsh-eh-mellows (as she calls them). It was pretty cute. :)
 


Bethany enjoying her sticky marshmallow (she prefers her smores deconstructed).

More camping fun:
Grammy loving on Kaylee. Mom was a big help watching these little wanderers around the campsite, while we made dinner and set up/took down camp.

 
 Kaylee found my glasses and had fun wearing them around camp like this:
 
Kaylee (L) and Cambree (R) having fun using flashlights for the first time and sitting in their new camp chairs.

It was a beautiful night!

 

We went easy for breakfast and got our favorite doughnuts for a special treat, to go with some bananas, cold cereal, and juice. My dad went big as always though and made him and mom toast, bacon, and eggs.

After breakfast, my mom, dad, and I took the girls to the camp playground to play while Travis packed up camp.
Grace was so proud to be pumping her legs and swinging all by herself!

We all had fun playing there.

My pretty Kaylee babe:

There was this cute little playhouse that the kids had fun playing in too:

Grace has always loved having her picture taken in these wood cut-outs, and wanted to try each one they had. :)

She told me this was her being a marshmallow--LOL! I love her creative mind!

Hunter Grace:

 

The kids did great on the campout, except for poor Cambree who came down with the flu around dinner and woke up moaning about every hour during the night. :( Needless to say, she needed some extra snuggles from her mom, dad, and Grammy today. The rest of the girls fell asleep fast and slept great through the night though.

 

Other than poor Cambree getting sick, we had a good time, and we all went for a nice paddle boat ride together before packing up and heading home.