Avery got her ears pierced!

This kid got her ears pierced!!

at claiiiiiiirrrres!! (said in my best oprah voice because she was soo excited to go to claires.  She looked it up online, got on the website and made us all watch the video of how to care for ears. Then, she watched it like 10 times.  I love her.)

(and they both got fake glasses.  Flasses, I like to call them.  I have some too and we pretend we need them.  and sass full on wears hers to school like everyday.  I love her.)
I dont know why I was so hesitant to let avery get her ears pierced.  Why do I even care?  I mean, all it means is that she can now put earrings in.  I am glad that she waited until she could take care of her ears, because we all know I would forget to do it and she seems to be very on it.  I say seems to be, because I honestly have no idea how often she cleans them at all. I do wish there was a little more pizzazz to whole thing, though.  I mean, it was good.  And no offense to the girl who was the only worker there and did not wear her sunday best with her fake glasses to pierce my daughters ears, or have fantastic music playing afterwards like I would do if I were claires.  I get it.  They have tons to do and, like the website says, they pierce the most ears in America.  So, they are busy.  And I guess the big prize is the holes in the ears.
Anyway, so aves is now hoop ready! Or, you know, in 6 weeks.  Here's to a new grown up chapter.  I mean, she looks so much more grown up already! What am I going to do when she has chandelier ones that get caught in everything and shea pulls on them because she doesn't even know what they are bc her mom never wears jewelry?  Don't answer that.  Cross that bridge when we get there.
Happy New Ears Aves!

8 months

Happy 8 months Shea Shea!

You are so big.  How has 2/3 of a year already gone by?!

You took your first over seas trip to the Caymans this month and you were a rock star.  You loved the beach and loved the pool and took great naps- you were made for vacation.

You also had your first few nights away from us with Minnie and Jake and you did so good!  I mean, they tell me you did and I guess what else are they going to say, but I am going to believe them.  You have shown your skills at adaptability and I just am so proud.  Of course I barely made it through and could not get home fast enough to see you, but at least you were a champ.
You started crawling this month and you dont really love it.  You are particular about where you want to actually crawl and how it feels on your knees.  And you know I am going to pick you up.  So you pretty much just wait for a chariot of some kind to take you where you want to go.  Luckily we dont mind.  You are still the best eater and have actually slept through the night a few times now!!! What?! It is so exciting and hopefully you are getting the hang of that sleeping stuff.
Love you shea bean, so so much.

1st Day of School!

I can't believe summer is over! I also can't believe I haven't blogged any of our fun summer yet. It's in the works.

Ella and McKenna started school on Wednesday. It went great and I am so excited for this year. I think it will be one of my favorite years. McKenna is old enough to start Pre-K at Ella's school so they are both there together. Not only in the same school but just a door down from each other. It's a dream. McKenna is in the Pre-K 3's class and Ella is in Kindergarten. She is repeating this year and I can already tell it was the best decision for her. She is more confident and loves school so much. I am so excited for her to shine and step up to be a leader this year.
McKenna has done so awesome too. That kid was made for school. She pops out of bed the second her alarm goes off and comes in to make sure I am awake. (9 times out of 10, I'm still in bed snoozing my alarm) She gets herself dressed, brushes her hair and is ready to go. She is such a joy and makes early mornings so much better. McKenna goes for half days for most of the week but stays late a couple days. I sure do miss not having her around on the long days but I sure do love walking in the school and picking them both up together. McKenna gets 3 Skittles from her teacher when school is over. So far every time I have picked her up she opens her hand to show me that she saved one Skittle for Ella. Is that the sweetest thing or what?!
 

Bob (who now has no hair, more on that funny story later) started a back to school tradition last year with the girls. The night before the first day, he takes them to get their nails done and then to eat breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel. The best part about it is that he actually gets his nails done too. The girls love it and tried to talk him into zebra print on his toes. (don't worry, he said no)

For the first day, I fixed everyones favorites for breakfast. Banana pancakes with chocolate chips for Ella and cinnamon waffles for McKenna. 

We loaded up with teacher treats and headed to school. I made the caramel apple dip for their teachers, a candy jar for McKenna's sweet preschool director and some special stickers for the school secretary. 

Mrs. Brooks has somehow become the tooth puller at school. Everyone knows that if you have a loose tooth, you go to Mrs. Brooks to pull it. It's pretty funny. Ella can't wait for Mrs. Brooks to pull her next tooth. I figured that when you go to the doctor you get a sticker so it should be the same with the tooth puller. If you get your tooth pulled by Mrs. Brooks, you get a sticker to wear. 

I ordered the girls backpacks from Justice and they love them so much. As if the ginormous initial wasn't enough to tell the backpacks apart, I made them a little picture locket to put on the zipper. I saw this idea on little blue boo's blog and loved it. I bought the locket at Micheals. It was made of glass which I didn't love. I knew they would throw their backpack down somewhere and glass would shatter so I popped the glass pieces out and just laminated the pictures with packing tape. I put an individual picture of them on one side and a sister pic on the other. Then I wrote their name and a little message on the inside. I didn't tell the girls I did this so they were so surprised when they saw them.

 

I'm sad that summer has come to an end but excited to jump into a schedule and looking forward to all the fun school stuff. 

Ranger Games, sleepovers and Chuck E Cheese

I want to say that this is what has been happening lately, but that would imply that these pictures are at all recent, which, unfortunately they really are not.  But for the sake of remembering Julyish, here is what we have been doing lately.

Sass had her first sleepover with avery at Aly's house! She was so excited and could not get over it.  She cried when we left the next day, after we spent the whole day with them. Just too much fun, those Booths.  And we had even put them to work on their playhouse most of the day.  Who said child labor isn't good labor? (Us.  We did.  It was a huge mess).
While the girls slept over and worked for free, ben went fishing with jeff

He hated it.
Then we took shea to her first ranger game.  She looks mas o menos in this pics- but she loved it!






It was like a huge party that she thought, was just for her.

And a few more details include the bummer of Shea getting sick for the first time and I was a mess/ then she got better/ me spending more time at the dentist this summer than the summer of 2012 and that is ALOT/ we have spent quite a few days at chuck e cheese this summer- with cousins, second cousins and the harrisons/ and cousins camp was such a huge hit, just like every year.  Love those grandparents so much!
Ok.  More to come on with these summer catch up post before they go to school.  UGH.  I cant believe I am saying that.  I am just not ready.  I thought that I would be, and that the heat would wear us down, but its not even been that hot.  And I feel like I have barely seen the kids long enough to call it a summer.  School shmool.

Bob's Year of 37 August Envelope

August was a Back to School themed envelope. It had a picture of the girls on the first day of school from last year along with 37 dollars for Bob to take the girls back to school accessory shopping. The note was from Jordan and Brittany and Bob was to write about some of his favorite summer memories in his journal.

He took the girls to Claire's and let the girls pick out some one piece of jewelry, a key chain for their backpacks and the cutest BFF pillows.

Happy August everyone!