Summer Photos :)

Today has been such a drizzly, lazy day, and we've loved every minute of it!! Daddy just got back from a business trip to Virginia, and we are SOOOOOO happy to have him home (the girls literally cried themselves to sleep the past 3 nights. We missed him so badly!! We've never been apart from him for so long.) We were able to do some yardwork this morning before the monsoons came, and we ain't done NUTTIN' since!! So, I thought I'd take this time to post some of our "summer photos" before summer officially fades away:

Me and my gals:

Our whole crew:

Ella took this one: :)

We were also able to take some fun photos at the Carrollton Square one night before school started back:

Our "Back to School" picture :)

Little hippies:

I'll leave with you with a collage of these two goobers. It's borderline impossible to get a serious photo with them #twopeasinapod:

And PS - one more "summer treat" - Nora and Daddy's rendition of "Just A Closer Walk With Thee"

Cheers to lazy days and summer dreams!!

Rowdy at the Rodeo!!

On Saturday night, we realized that a rodeo was taking place right up the road from us. Soooo....we threw on our best cowgirl attire and headed out for some hillbilly FUN!! Yeehawwww!!

The first thing we did was buy funnel cakes and ride ponies!! Ella's pony was named "Toothpick," and he was such a sweet and fluffy little fellow:

Nora's pony was pregnant with TWINS!!! Had we known that, we would've picked another pony....POOR GIRL!!!

Like most things in life, it took Clairy a minute to warm up to the idea of riding a pony, but she soon LOVED it :)

Time for the show!!

Hootin' and hollerin' on into the night:

Having a dance party with our little friend, Emma:

Trying so hard to win some free T-shirts and prizes. "Throw it to us, cowgirls!!"

We didn't win any free stuff, but had a whole lotta' fun!!

I'll leave you with our video of our dance party in the van while traveling to the rodeo. Apparently, everyone in west Georgia and their brothers decided to attend the rodeo along with us, so it gave us plenty of time to dance while trying to get in and park. Believe it or not, we've all been practicing our Nae-Nae skills in the mirror every night, but we still have a long way to go. Our legs aren't quite as "stank" as they need to be:

Cheers to Stanky-Legs and cowboys!!!

Back to School!!!

It's that time of year again!!! School has officially started, and it has started with a BANG!! :) It is SO.HARD.TO.BELIEVE that Nora is now in 3rd grade, Ella is now in 1st, and Claira will be in Pre-K next year. How? HOW?? Anyhoo, the girls got to go and meet their new teachers 2 weeks ago at Open House. Nora has some pretty FAB teachers this year:

That's right!! I am one of her teachers, and I get to teach her 50% of her school day!! Her homeroom teacher is Senora Gist (I am such a loser and didn't get a picture with Senora. We were CrAzY busy!). Senora Gist (Kenny G) has been my partner in crime, Spanish serenade, right arm, educational soulmate and confidant for 3 years now, and we have shared and taught our students together. I am SO GRATEFUL that we get to share Nora this year!!

All my babies at Open House!! Ella was stoked about 1st grade, especially her new teachers, Sra. Garcia, and Ms. Saylors!!

 First day of school!! Ella is yawning while she was smiling. It was EARLY!!!

 As usual, Daddy brought the girls to school on the first day.

 As you can see, Ella didn't wait around to snap a picture with Daddy. She was ready to get to her classroom!! She is my little social brain-iac who LOVES SCHOOL. She has come such a long way from that little, shy 4-year-old who cried everyday of Pre-K up until December.....Remember this?? Tears all around:

So very happy and grateful that God can conquer the fears within our children!! I'm also grateful for this year to teach Nora (she is SUCH a great student, by the way!! Much more well-behaved than she is at home). :) I'm grateful for my workplace filled with loving friends in every room, including my dynamite team!! I awake with gratitude, and I go to bed with gratitude. GOD IS GOOD.

Cheers to a new school year!!

I will cherish every minute!!

Six Flags (& More)!!!

A few weeks back, Nora, Ella, and I headed over to Six Flags!! We had free tickets from a reading program at school, and we couldn't pass up a free trip!! In all honesty, Six Flags is not one of my favorites, and I was ONLY taking them because I would hate for free tickets to go to waste. But turns out, we had a BLAST! We stayed from 9:00am-8:30pm. We enjoyed every minute!!

First ride = LOG RIDE

The next ride was the Monster Plantation which we rode twice in a row (they LOVED it).

First rollercoaster!!

The air boats

We enjoyed the kiddie park for a while....

I wish I could've zoomed in on Nora's face here. She HATES heights. I thought she might vom.

Taking a break and cooling off with a magic show at the Crystal Pistol:

Sky Buckets!

In all honesty again, I was REALLY dreading the waterpark part of Six Flags. But I learned to never knock it until you try it!! It was hands-down our FAVORITE part of the day, and we stayed there for hours!! 

Finally, we got dried off and headed back to the main part to ride some more rides. Like the bumper cars....

The carousel

I think the carousel was my favorite....I had never been more excited to sit down in my whole life!! :)

Sadly, my phone died while we were on the carousel, so I couldn't take anymore pictures. But, with the exception of the gigantic roller coasters, we literally rode everything in the park, including Splash Waterfalls. The girls talked about that one for days!!

So, since we loved the waterpark so very much, we decided to try out our little local "Midtown Waterpark" in Carrollton. We brought Clairy along this time:

E-Bobby showed Claira how to do the frog slide....

....and that was all she wrote. Claira rode that frog for hours!!

Meanwhile, the big girls rode the other slides:

So much fun at Midtown!! We've been back a few times (with Daddy and our church group), and we hope to go a few more times this summer:

I'll leave with with Claira's attempt at a selfie stick:

Cheers to rollercoasters and water slides!!!