Dolly Party Preview

I am going through over 500 photos that I've taken since getting a new camera for my birthday (thanks Nana!). 500 photos since August 3rd. So that's not even including any house/renovation photos. Or cell photos. Ridiculous! Granted, most of them are from Maddie's birthday shenanigans. Have I mentioned we did another big party for baby bub? It's a party theme I am going to be selling in my shoppe soon! I'm hoping this one will be as much of a success as the Bug Party was last year. We did a Dolly theme because if there is one thing this little girl loves, it's being a good mommy to her dollies! Here are a bunch of sneak peeks.

Working on more pics! Also working on some tutorials from this party like I shared last year. Maddie has her third day of MDO tomorrow (still doing well :) so this momma is going to actually have some time to work before 11pm!!

She's a Monkey

Baby Bub had her first day of school! Such a big girl. It's just one day a week of Mother's Day Out for now, but a big step for us! I was really nervous about drop-off. Could hardly sleep! Sometimes she's such an independent spirit but other times she is a total mommy's girl. As usual, my worries were for naught. Maddie Brynn walked right in and just barely looked back. She's in the "Monkey" classroom, which is very appropriate, being one of her nicknames and the fact that all she wants to do right now is jump, climb and swing from everything she sees!

ready to go!

what's this mom?

Here she is with one of her teachers approximately 3 seconds after drop off.

Bye Maddie! love you! sniff sniff

They said she had a good day overall, even though she was a little overwhelmed a couple of times. After I picked her up, Baby Bub told me that she went to the playground and the library and it was "exciting." Ha. I asked if she wanted to go back to school again and she said, "yes!" She also keeps saying, "meet new friends and new teachers," because that's what I told her she'd be doing whenever we talked about starting school! So cute. 

This was also the first "free day" I'd had in 2 years, with both girls in school. What a weird feeling! It was nice, though. I actually had some meals. Did I do more unpacking? No. Did I do any decorating? No. Did I work on getting my photos in order? No....  I did sit on the couch and watch an old movie on TCM though! And got a little card work done. And wondered what the girls were doing. And did a tiny bit of cleaning {tiny bit}. And got on Facebook. And wondered if the girls were enjoying the lunches we packed.... and daydreamed about how great it's going to be when I have the new house all set up. And then it was time to pick them up! Ah well. Hopefully next Monday will be more productive :)

Summer, it's time for you to go

I'm real serious. The heat, the mosquitoes, the humidity, I'm beyond over it. I don't think there's ever been a Houston summer that has bothered me so much. And I was 7-9 months pregnant in summer '11 people! The only possible good thing about it still being hot as hades is that the girls continue to enjoy the pool. We went today and I got a couple of good photos of Maddie in her towel hoodie.

They reminded me of photos of her big sister in the same hoodie, 4 years ago!

Equally adorable of course, but sometimes these girls 

don't even look related...maybe the nose?

I can't even adequately explain how glad I am that Avery is back to loving the pool. She's basically taken an entire year off from swim therapy and I'm eager to start her again.  Her new school year is going ok but everything is about to change this week as they add 3 more kids to the room, eek! Not sure how that's going to go. She's also getting a new round of Botox injections on Tuesday. That's Bub the hub's birthday too! Not the most fun way to spend his birthday, but we are just grateful that we can still get the injections and that they are still working. Hopefully we can make the rest of the day more fun for Bub daddy :).

Meanwhile, we are still unpacking and finishing the new house up. And I am still trying to find the time to organize all my house photos. Sigh. Just need to get one big card order out the door and unpack a bit more. And then decorate. We did make a huge change to the front of the house that I can share now. Behold an actual before & after!

original house at sale

house as of yesterday...painted and lots of landscaping!

More to come soon!

Back to School, again

Avery started school again on Wednesday. I couldn't be happier to get her back into a good routine. And I'm not gonna lie, I needed to get that girl out of the house! She gets so bored on summer break. I feel the mom guilt for not getting her out more, but finding things to do for a non-mobile, non-verbal, special needs princess is ridiculously hard. Throw in a running, bouncing, talking-a-mile-a-minute little sister and it's all out impossible.

Sadly, going back to school wasn't quite as fun as the previous years. Lil'bub is in a new classroom this year, with different teachers. Change is so hard. Especially when you feel like certain people (Avery's previous teachers) know your child almost as well as you do, and love them without judgement. I cried like a baby on the last day of school, knowing we wouldn't be back in that class, with those wonderful teachers again. Avery's head teacher changed her life, and ours, in so many amazing ways. 

I'm trying to keep an open mind about this new class, but it's hard for a lot of reasons. You know what else is hard? Seeing friends on Facebook posting adorable photos of their 5 year olds starting Kindergarten. Like mine should be doing, in a different world. I hope no one will take offense here, I don't mean to make anyone feel bad. It's a memorable milestone! I just wish we could join in the fun. And don't get me wrong, I love my daughter's school and I am beyond grateful that she can attend and get the help she needs....I can't help imagine though. There I go again. What if.

Here is my big girl on another first day. Hoping another great year lays ahead.