August in a Nutshell

Ok, I'll admit it.  I've been crappy at blogging.  My computer that I have to use for blogging is 8 years old and REALLY slow.  Last fall Alan and I decided to delay the purchase of a new computer by buying a Kindle, so that's what I mostly use during the day to email and browse the internet.  It seems silly to buy a new computer just so I can do faster blogging...

At the end of July, Alan's company had a party where we got to go to a bunch of venues for free: gardens, dinosaur museum, etc.  However, I was so busy with baby Evelyn during most of the day that only took two pictures.  I'm lame.  But Jared and Maggie enjoyed this cow train, the bounce houses, and the free snow cones.

Anyone who knows our family well knows the kind of crazy work schedule Alan has had for the past year.  Not very many days off at all.  However, during August he was able to take many days off, and we had our own little stay-cation!  We went to our local water park a bunch of times, and we went to the Aviary.  Of course, I only took one picture (below).  What I did NOT get a picture of was the awesome parrot that got to land on Jared's arm during the bird show we saw.  He thought it was so awesome to get chosen as a volunteer!!!

Alan also set up our tent in the backyard and had a sleepover with Jared and Maggie.  Evelyn slept inside the house with me, but she really wanted to be in the picture, too.

Jared started soccer in mid-August.  On the morning of his first soccer game, his first top tooth fell out!

I was worried he would only have one missing tooth for school pictures (AWKWARD!), but luckily the 2nd top tooth fell out about a week and a half later:

A typical first-grade, toothless smile!

These pictures are from Jared's first day of 1st grade!  My boy is so big!

 Maggie and I have been having more one-on-one time since Jared is at school every day.  I've been worried about her having "middle child syndrome" lately, so I've been making an effort to give her more attention.

 This was taken on Maggie's first day of "Princess Preschool!"  Tons of my neighbors put their 3-year-olds in preschool, but I wasn't going to sign Maggie up, purely because I'm a cheapskate.  I was planning on just having my 2-days-a-week "Mommy School" that I did with Jared when he was three.  However, I was invited by a mom who just barely moved in to my neighborhood to put Maggie in a little 3-year-old preschool with some other girls in a neighborhood about 10 minutes away.  There are a total of 7 little girls, and they decided to call it Princess Preschool.  The moms that were planning this already had it all organized and planned for the whole year when they invited me to join them, and the whole year is costing me a total of $10 for supplies!  It rotates from house to house every week, so I will have to host and teach Princess Preschool about once every 7 weeks or so.  I am thrilled with this set-up, and Maggie loves it, too!

Last but not least, here are some pictures of Evy:

Trying to capture giggles on camera:  (not super successful)