Insta August

It's been a...

Birthday celebrating,

color running, 

garden eating,

Olympic fever,

gymnastics coping,

pony riding,

volleyball playing,

friendship celebrating,

school starting,

dress up playing,

Soccer celebrating,

summer loving,

kit building,

 family fun,

gift receiving,

tooth loosing, 

 Daddy supporting...

 kind of month!  

Final weeks of summer and I am NOT ready for it to end! 

You & Me

You and Me from Ryan Black Films on Vimeo.


Our amazingly talented friend Ryan Black is a film maker and photographer. Recently he invited me to be a second shooter for a wedding he did.  In return he made a beautiful video of our family.  I absolutely love our video.  It captures our season and our family perfectly.  Thank you Ryan!  You have given us a gift we will treasure forever!  Check out more of his work at http://www.ryanblackfilms.com/

Back To School

I am not sure why going back to school makes me sad.  This summer had been super fun and I can honestly say we found a routine that worked for us and I very much enjoyed my time at home with the girls this summer.   This past week we made a back to school treat to celebrate school starting.  Push Pop Cake!  Yum!!  The girls and I had a blast making these and they taste delicious!  

Here is Isabelle all ready for 2nd grade!  She is super excited about school this year and her new teacher who we hear is amazing.   Her BFF Audrey is in her class and of course when they found out they couldn't have been happier!  I took Isabelle school clothes shopping this year for the first time.  I gave her a budget and she did great.  She went straight to the clearance rack and made her money go further.  She picked out her first day of school outfit all by herself!  I think she did a great job! 

 Loved this idea posted by a friend on Facebook.  Isabelle wants to be an artist when she grows up.  We think she will make a great artist!!

Calista is starting Pre K this year.   This little girl loves school!  We spent a little time everyday working out of workbooks over the summer and she always wanted to do more.

When asked what she wanted to be, it didn't surprise us. 

We started the morning off with some fun coloring pages I found online, while I made pancakes.  The girls had no problem getting up this morning, they were excited!

Isabelle's new Classroom! 

BFF's 

OK Mom you can go now.

 Calista and Devin wanted in on the fun too! 

 Another school year off to a great start! 

World Vision Kit Building

Over the weekend our church helped build caregiver kits for World Vision. We brought the kids and thought it would be a good opportunity to serve together.  We helped assemble caregiver kits that will be going to Uganda.  These kits are for the many volunteers working in Uganda assisting people with HIV and AIDS.

Calista loved helping and in fact she was one of two of the youngest volunteers there that day.  She made 6 kits almost entirely on her own.  She needed my help holding the bag and reaching for a few of the items.  Our church made 1000 kits that day.

Isabelle assembled several kits on her own also and loved designing and decorating the encouragement cards that went in each kit.

Water Photos

Earlier this summer we went to a BBQ and one of our friends Justin brought his underwater camera.  He captured these two photos of our girls and I thought they were so fun.  I especially love that Isabelle was having a tea party underwater for the camera!!  

Summer Science Fun

In school last year Isabelle learned what happens when you stick a carnation in a glass of colored water.   She is always asking to do it at home, so this time we decided to have a little fun with it.  Split the stem in 4 and try 4 different colors....

Before...

After...

Entrapment Fun!

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and thought it would be fun to do it with the girls.  I wish I had red yarn to make it look more like real lasers but they didn't really care about that.  They had a blast going back and forth through it, trying not to touch the "lasers".   It truly provided hours of entertainment. 

Gymnastics Camp

This week the girls got to participate in Gymnastics camp.  Both girls couldn't wait.  With the recent American Girl movie all about gymnastics and the Olympics, the girls have been practicing everything they have seen on all of our furniture.  So the timing of gymnastics camp couldn't have been better! 

Recently Isabelle and I were watching an interview with Michale Phelps after he won another race in swimming.  She asked me how he got to be the best athlete and I told her it took lots of practice.  Then she asked me how she could become and Olympian.  Again I told her it takes lots of hours of practice.  She later declared that she wanted to go to the Olympics and she would compete in the uneven bars in gymnastics AND she also wanted to play on the women's soccer team.  GO Issy!  Practice Practice Practice!    

The morning of their first day, I stuck around and got to watch them play on all the equipment.  Isabelle went straight to the uneven bars.  

Stretching! 

The coach asked all the kids what they wanted to learn this week and Isabelle of course said the uneven bars. He quickly taught her how to get up onto the bars and to do a backward flip.  It took her three times of him helping her and then she was off on her own. 

Calista loved the balance beam.  She went straight for it and made up her own routine all on her own.  

Love her! 

Isabelle also took a turn making up a routine on the balance beam.