This past week...

 ...we went to a "High School Flashback Party" where we dress up in different high school clique attire.  I dresses as a cow girl and Ty as a "cool guy".  Please notice the earrings.  I couldn't look at him all night.  It was a little too unnerving.  I wish you could have smelled him too.  He made sure to put on extra cologne.  We made quite the pair.  We ate cafeteria style food and played games testing our high school knowledge.  Thanks for the fun party Hatsuho!

 ...we celebrated my 29th birthday.  Mckinlay bought me nail polish (of course!), and Ty and I got to go out on a much needed date.  I think this week was the busiest week of his life, so it was nice to have a night to spend together.

 ...someone had a very muddy soccer game.  

{I kind of think those are the funnest kind.}

 ...we cleaned up some big messes.

{which never seem as bad when they are made by cute little stinkers}

 ...we finally explored the river right by our house.  Remember how we've lived her for over 2 years and haven't been there yet!?

...oh yeah, and someone came home from his mission!!!  Wahoo!

Welcome home to my little BIG brother!  We love you and are so proud of you.  Can't wait to see you at Christmas!

"Legs Loveless"

 Mckinlay had her first soccer game this Saturday. 

It's been much anticipated for many reasons:

Molly is on her team,

Uncle Tyler {who will be home from his mission in 3 1/2 weeks days!} plays soccer,

& it meant she could wear her new shin guards.

I've started calling her "legs."  She is definitely the tallest kid on her team.  If the hat blonde hair doesn't give her away, the legs do.

Liza seems to like this whole soccer thing too.  She gets to snuggle up, eat snacks and cheer for "Sissy.

Preschool

 Yesterday was the first day of Preschool for Mckinlay.   

To use the word excited would be an understatement.

{is it just me or does she look really, really old here?}

She had an orientation day a few days ago where I got to go with her to met her teachers and to see her new classroom.  You can see below how awesome her classroom is.  Everything is sparkly and new and to be honest -- I'm a little jealous she gets to go everyday.

 

Yesterday morning we had a special first-day-of-school breakfast.  We had heart shaped cinnamon rolls with sprinkles on tip.  When she say them she said "this really is the best day ever!"  She also got to open a back to school package sent by Happy Jo.  

Right when we got to school she saw her friend Molly.  They ran straight toward each other and hugged and hugged.  It was pretty darn cute and fun that they were able to walk in together.

We got her backpack and coat hung and she was ready to start!  

It's gonna be a great year.

{a very windy} labor day.

 It feels like fall.  

What better way to welcome it in then spending a cold windy day at the beach!?

We had been planning a big beach day with friends for weeks, but apparently Mother Nature wasn't aware of our plans.  It was about cold and so, so windy.  But you know, it was lots of fun!   

We're lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa here for the week {so they had to come}

and we even had some other "die hard" friends come along!

The kiddos didn't seem to mind the weather.  The little boys even swam -- although it was probably warmer in the water than out of it!?

Thanks for the fun everyone!  It's was a great way to end the summer. 

{and maybe it's a good thing summer is over because someone has outgrown her swim suit!}

Now bring on the fall!  

And that means schools starts!!

Road trip with the Mckins

A few weeks ago we met up with my brother and his family for a little road trip.  We drove to the Indian Dunes National Lakeshore which is along Lake Michigan.  We shared a big hotel room and just played for 3 days. 

The first two day we spent at the dunes and the beach with a stop at a candy factory in between (They are serious when they claim to have the world's best gummies!).

The third day we drove out to Fair Oaks Farm.  It's a HUGE dairy farm with a section that has been turned into a family adventure park of sorts.  It was awesome!  We toured the farm, rode a train, jumped on the coolest trampoline ever, and all sorts of other things.  The biggest highlights were the grilled cheese sandwiches with fresh cheese, the fabulous (and FATTENING!) chocolate milk, fresh ice cream and watching a calf be born (so amazing!).  If you're ever in the area, we'd highly recommend a stop at Fair Oaks.  

Summer of swimming

We just finished 9 weeks of swimming lessons.   (You see, we've been too busy at the pool to post this summer.)  Every day we had lessons, ate lunch with friends and played at the pool.  Not a bad way to spend the summer!  

{Mckinlay said she's marrying Ethan because he is her favorite right now.  The hand holding pics will be cute for the wedding video, don't' you think!?}

Lessons started in June.  June in Cleveland is not quite swimming weather -- but Mckinlay didn't care.  In 65 degree weather she'd look up from her lesson and say, teeth chattering, "this is the best day ever!"  Her favorite day was the day she had a lesson in a major downpour.  She was the only person in the pool and loved it. Eliza and I watched from the car.

Mckinlay has turned into a awesome little swimmer!   She passed level 1 and 2 and ended on level 3.  It's been really fun watching her go from learning to float to jumping off the diving board all by herself.

We're already looking forward to next summer's swimming lessons!

So sad that summer is almost over!  Preschool starts back up again in 2 weeks.  We're excited, but summer has gone by too fast.  I'm not ready for winter...

Our weekend

 Thursday we had a duel celebration.  We celebrated Mckinlay's half birthday and celebrated Ty.  He took Part II of his medical boards that day.  If that's not reasons to party, then I don't know what is.  

{not sure how the words ended up on Liza's face...but I'm too lazy to fix it.}

Friday morning the girls and I hoped in the car to visit these guys:

We couldn't miss the chance to celebrate Eli's birthday with him.  

He had a darling train party on Saturday.

While we were down there, we dressed up as cows to get free Chick-fil-a, 

{There isn't much I wouldn't do to get a free meal from that place.}

played dress up and princess games, colored, read stories, and learned to catch bubbles.

Alli and I even suck away for a quick shopping trip to the GAP clearance center.  I'm still pretty pumped about my 87 cent shoes!  

We had a great weekend.  Thanks for the fun you guys! 

4th of July

We had a fabulous 4th of July yesterday.  We spent the day at the beach with 9-10 other families.  I've been looking forward to our beach day, fingers crossed we have nice enough weather {gotta love Cleveland}.  Thankfully, we couldn't have asked for more perfect beach weather!  

We ended the day with a BBQ with friends.  

Here's the day in review:

{this may be the cutest friends picture ever.}

 

{this face pretty much sums up the day.}

{remember this dress?}

What a great way to celebrate our nations independence.

The only thing that would have made it better is if we had our families here too. 

As a side note, I have a little sign out the says "I pledge allegiance to the flag...", and Mckinlay was asking me about it and what it means.  I tried to explain to her what it meant and how lucky we are to live in a free country.  I said that 

"living in a free county means people can't tell us what to do" 

then I stammered a little, thinking 

"this is gonna come back and bite me."  

I tried to correct myself and Mckinlay interrupts with 

"So what your saying is people can't tell us what to do -- except for you can tell me what to do because I don't know how to make all good choice yet."

Why yes.  That's what I meant.  

Good girl.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Lately...

Blogging has been at the bottom of the list lately, so in an effort to catch up, here is a brief overview.

We said good bye to several good friends.  

Had lots of parties, lots of play dates and lots of food:

 We're definitely mourning the loss of our across-the-street BFFs!  

{Thankfully they only moved about an hour away!}

Losing friends really stinks!
But what doesn't stink, is the toys that you inherit.  You know, the bigs ones that don't fit in the moving truck...

 Move over Swagger Wagon.  The "jeep's" rollin' in the hood.

We did lose a lot of friends, but also got to see some old friends!  Spragues decided we were worth a drive out from Boston and came to visit for a few days.  

 Thanks for visiting guys!  We love ya!  

Come again soon, I'm hungry. {ha!}

We also got to be a cross-country-drive stop for 2 of our favorite Christophers!  

It was great to see ya Marcus and Aaron!  

And no worries, Brianne, we snapped a few for the wedding video.

These two are growing up fast and beginning little best sister friends.  

It's cute to watch.

Like super cute. 

"dance REformance"

Blog posts have been seriously lacking around this house.  Life's busy {and I've been too busy pinning my life away, I guess}.  We've have lots of friends come and go {snif!}, lots of parties, lots of play dates, and we've been spending lots of time outside. 

  

In effort to catch up a little:

 Mckinlay had her dance "reformance" last month.   

I still can't believe how grown up {and tall} she is.

Here she is with her little dance buds.

Part of what took me so long to post these, is that I can't find our camera cord for our good video camera. These crummy camera videos are all you're gonna get.  

Sorry.

You can't tell, but she is singing along, as she's dancing.  Pretty darn cute.

{Oh, and I take back the crummy video  comment, I meant super crummy.}

After she chose to go to Dairy King.  Her favorite summer spot.

Preschool

 Preschool ended last week.  

Mckinlay had a great year and loved and looked forward to every school day.

I can't believe how much she'd grown up since this picture was taken!

Here are some of Mckinlay's favorite memories from the year, in her own words:

 "This is a picture of me and Mishayla wearing our best friends necklaces.  And I can't believe Eliza broke my necklace and I didn't even want her to!  We love each other, and friends love friends for ever and ever."

 "This is hat day.  We got to choose hats and I brought my very own hat and the princess one was the one that I was going to wear, but Mishayla put it on already, so I wore a witch hat.  Happy witch day!"

"We're riding on the Polar Express.  We ring the bells when were going and that's all.  We just need to ring the bells when the Polar Express goes and they ring the bells in the music and we repeat when they ring the bell."

 "We're making some Stone Soup.  We glued the thing on, then we glued the fruit on, then we colored it."

"This is me at David's birthday party.  I'm in that little thing and I'm so cute!"

The last day of preschool they had an end of preschool/David's birthday party with cake, squirt guns and a bounce house.  A great way to end preschool with a bang!

 Here she is with Miss Bridi and her class.  

We're so sad preschool is over!  It's been a lot of fun.  Mckinlay has learned a lot and is even starting to read a little.  Thanks Miss. Bridi for a great year!  We're gonna miss you lots and lots.

A very merry un-birthday!

 Last night we had a little 1/2 birthday celebration.   

Baby girl's growing up.

Liza is our little energetic, smiley, happy, blue eyed girl.  She never stops moving, unless you ask her for a snuggle, which she is always happy to pause and oblige.   

We love this girl!! 

and we love that she is now old enough for Nursery!  

Whoot whoot! 

I made these vanilla bean cupcakes with strawberry buttercream for the par-tay.  

Yumm yumm.