kindergarten - the highlights

• A boy tried to kiss her. 
• She got homework on the FIRST DAY! 
• She wants to go to St. Louis forever. 

....shew!  :)

first day of school!

end of year picnic

Oh good, you're still here! :) The last few weeks have been a flurry of activity with school activities, picnics, parties, and lots of time spent outdoors.

Emma's end of year school picnic was a hit. She wanted to be very prepared, so she dressed and packed herself for the big day:

First order of business was face paint and the playground!


Sliding with her gal pal Madison...

Then the bubble station...

Then KONA ICE!!!

Comparing notes with her homegirl Kaitlyn...

followed by some girl talk...

What a great day!

June Jamboree!

I think June gets the award for one of the busiest months we've had in a long time. I have a whole month to catch up on with blogging!

After Dad & Josh left, Gammie and Poppa came to visit. They got to visit Emma on her last day of school and participate in her graduation. Here she is with her diploma:

Here is Gammie presenting Emma with a new book. She knows how much Emma loves the touch-and-feel books. This one is called, "peekaboo! I love you!"

So the Emster finished school, I finished work and celebrated my birthday all in one week. After Gammie and Poppa left, we all traveled to Houston to visit Sarah, John and baby Jack. We got to stay with them in their gorgeous house! It was reallllly hot that weekend, so poor us, we had to spend most of the days at their incredible neighborhood pool - complete with baby pool and water slide. Emma couldn't get enough of the 'wawa'. It was the first thing she asked for in the morning, and the last thing she talked about before going to bed. She would have swam allll day long. There were so many pictures, so I decided to compile a slideshow (make sure you can read the descriptions):



We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some video at the pool too. Luckily, our point and shoot is waterproof so we could take it in the pool with us. Fun! You can catch Emma enjoying the water slide (note the HUGE smile on her face) and chanting 'more! more!'. We'll definitely have to get this one some swimming lessons soon, she is FEARLESS.

It's been just as busy back at home. In fact, we're having so much fun that Emma has decided to stop sleeping. Lucky me! I kid, I kid - I think she's cutting her 2 year molars. We've been enjoying the summer with great weather and being outdoors as much as possible. This includes a little outdoor painting (note the various stages of undress):

yummy watermelon

trips to the playground with friends,

Here she is playing with her friend, Shae. Emma and Shae were born on the exact same day!

more pool time
and...I got to finally break in the portable studio I got for my birthday. I love it! I can't wait to use it more. Emma was happy to help me do some test shots, and she's sporting her very first ponytail (or 'ponie' as she calls it). :)

That's all folks!! It's the last day of June, so tomorrow starts another month of great fun! We're headed to Vermont to celebrate Opa's 60th birthday and then to New York for our friend Justin's wedding. We'll be back soon!

Closing a chapter, opening another

We're so sad to have to say goodbye to our amazing nanny Mandy, aka "Mimi". She's moving back east to become a teacher and Friday was her last day with us. We're truly going to miss her. She has been like family to us, and Emma would jump out of my arms every morning that Mimi arrived to go and give her a hug. It was a teary farewell. I always knew that Emma was in outstanding, capable hands and as a parent, you can't replace that feeling.

The new chapter is now opening and Emma started school on Monday. She did great with the other kids, playing, interacting and being her usual busy self. However, it was a lot of new surroundings, and she didn't sleep very well the first two days. Then on the third day she got the Rotavirus bug and threw up for the first time. It was a rough night, followed by a second night of diarrhea but she's feeling much better and surviving with a steady stream of Pedialyte popsicles. No shortage of popsicles in this house -thank goodness for those things! :)

So here's a little run down of our first day. Getting ready to drive to school with dada:


Making sure her baby can come with her!

And after I picked her up:


It's been a big week!