Sugar Pie Honey Bunch!

Our little bundle of joy is now two years old! She is full of life and constantly trying to keep up with her sisters. From time to time, she takes a break from running to cuddle with her mom or dad.
She started the "Terrific Twos" this morning with chocolate chip pancakes. We topped the pancake with whipped topping and 2 candles. She blew the candles out before I even picked up my camera. (We tried it again, just for the picture.)
This morning, she had to go to daycare for a couple hours and while we were there, some friends wished her a happy birthday, to which she responded by making a blowing out the candles jesture....too cute!
With Derrick out of town and her party with some family friends not until Friday, we celebrate this evening with a trip to McDonalds where she got her "nugs," "sli," and "ice," (translation: chicken nuggets, slide and icecream.) Big sisters were equally excited to celebrate with her.

39 quarts later...

A week before Labor Day, Derrick and I decided to take a quick trip to Minnesota over the long weekend. Although the time was short, we had a great time reconnecting with great-grands, grandparents, cousins and even the Pizza Ranch! (Look at all those Tevas! Thanks grandma Linda!)

At the DeWilde farm, we were able to gleam the apple trees and scored ourselves 6 1/2 boxes of apples. I'm relieved we thought to give one box away to ambitious cousins and bake an apple pie at my mom's to share with everyone. So, 39 quarts of apples later, we have given a few bags away to neighbors and are eating apple everything..apple bread, apple french toast, apple bread pudding, apple peanut butter smoothies, applesauce, apple crisp....

On a comical note, Derrick told me that Aliya successfully killed two bugs yesterday by getting a shoe from the garage, returning to the bug and smashing it with the shoe. And Madison informed Derrick and I that she killed two grasshoppers at one time yesterday while they were "tackling." Umm, I didn't know it was that time of year for the grasshoppers.

Our girls!

We now have a Kindergartner AND first grader in our home! Breanne started Kindergarten on August 25. She was very excited and not nervous a bit. It was like she's been ready for this since January. She chose what to wear the first day of school. Interestingly to me, she picked out the same dress she wore on the first day of preschool.

The picture looks just the same as last year, except for the new backpack. She got a new haircut the day before school too.

When we got to school, Madison and Breanne took off.

They obviously didn't need dad and mom. They walked circle together and met up with one of Madison's friends, Alyssa. After the bell and pledge of Allegiance, they lined up with their teachers and they were gone.

About an hour after getting home and telling me all about it, Breanne sighed and said, "I just can't wait for Kindergarten tomorrow!" I think that says it all! A week into it, she's learning friends' names and singing songs she's learning.

Friday after work, we headed out to camp with friends in Cody, WY. We got to spend time with friends who moved there a year ago and see the ranch that he works at. Two families in our small group joined us on Saturday. Unfortunately, it rained off and on Saturday afternoon and evening. We saw the first wave of rain coming across the lake which looked really awesome and when it came in, it met us with hail and high winds.

However, we did get to enjoy some s'mores. Derrick and I adored the JUMBO marshmallows! You could never have too much mallow! When it got dark and time for headlights, Aliya was not without!

Thanks to the rain, I got to play a razzing game of Sequence with the girls and got some reading done.

On Sunday afternoon, we rolled into Billings just before a big storm that we watched brew all the way home. The lighting was flashing so we all headed inside for cover. As it started to blow and rain, we noticed the hail coming AGAIN. Derrick got the truck in the garage just before the hail really started pelting. We had marble size hail for about 5 minutes. Needless to say, I think the garden is done. I've never before seen hail in Billings and this year I've seen it 4 times! Just bizarre!