First Day of School - 4th and 2nd

School time is here!  The week before school started, Stonehaven hosted its annual Back to School Picnic on the Square.  It was wonderful to see so many friends again and welcome new families.  Of course, the girls were most excited about the face painting artist who was there.

 The next day, we got back to school haircuts.  Look how adorable Mia's is!  I love this short do on her.  Notice anything else missing?  That's right, a tooth.  At the picnic, Mrs. Barbulescu helped her pull out the really wiggly one!

Here we go...ready for another great year!

I love seeing their aspirations!

 Mia is looking forward to a wonderful year with Mrs. St. Hill.  2nd grade will be awesome!

 Lily is excited about 4th grade with Ms. Keesee!

 Let's get this new year started!

End of Summer Fun

A few fun things we did to wrap up summer...

First, we most definitely enjoyed these macaroons Ryan picked up for us in the Paris airport on his way home from Lebanon.  He also brought baklava from Beirut.  Our tastebuds rejoiced!

 We took a weekend trip to Birmingham to visit Liz and her new home.  It's so lovely, and we're so thrilled she found it!  We were excited to spend a little time with Caroline and Liam while we were there too.

 Bama having fun in the pool with her granddaughters!

 I think its safe to say that Decker has become part of the family.

 Mia's been having some fun baking recently.  First she made some fudge (some with sprinkles, some without), and then she recently made a key lime pie.  Both delicious!

 Being treated to breakfast in bed is always a nice treat; thanks Lily!

 On one beautiful afternoon, I realized the girls had been outside for a pretty long while.  I looked out the back window to see they had found our huge wheeled trashcan and had filled it with water to create a little mini-pool.  They were having a blast playing in it!

 Ryan took both girls on Daddy Daughter Dates recently.  Since Vini, Vidi, Vici closed, he and Lily are looking for their new spot.  They tried out Valencia, and absolutely loved it.  I had some of her leftover pasta for lunch, and it was fantastic.  I want to go try it soon!  While Lily was at Emory's playing, he and Mia went to Chuck E Cheese.  She scored a pretty big loot that day!

Mia and I had fun together too.  After eating dinner at the Japanese restaurant, we came home to decorate cupcakes that she and Ryan had made earlier in the day.  I taught her to use my decorating gun which she loved.  She thought the way it mixed colors inside of it was awesome.  I love making fun and tasty memories together!

And just like that, summer was over!  I'm not sure any of us really wanted it to end this year, but ready or not, it's time for school!

After Camp Fun

I forgot to write about our after-camp experience.  We were so thrilled to have our family back together again!  After we checked into the hotel, we headed over to a nature center.  It was a fun way to spend a few hours talking with one another and simply enjoying our time together again.

 Painting with water is always fun.

 They thought playing on this old tractor was pretty cool.

 Since they also have several animals here, there is lots of education surrounding that too, from how to care for them and their environment to useful information about each one.  We decided we would actually want to see the bear with this size paw on it.

 This musical playground was pretty neat!

 We all slept well on Friday night, and we headed to Biltmore Estate on Saturday morning.  I love this place.  It reminds me of Downton Abbey which Ryan and I miss terribly.  I love to imagine what life was like while they lived here.

 We took lots of great pictures of this beautiful estate, but I decided just to put this little collage here instead of listing each one separately.

We stayed for several hours taking in the whole house (the girls loved the basement with its kitchen, swimming pool and bowling alley!), but by lunch, they were pretty tired.  We knew the last couple of weeks were wearing on them too, so we headed on home.  It was a great way to have a little fun family time though!