September 5, 2011

The start of school and Birthday fun

Andrew and Brooklyn stopped for a quick picture showing off Brooklyn's new haircut for school.  They rarely act well and want to stop for pictures so while they were cooperating I snapped a few at or church.  Below are all three kids, Andrew age 6 (almost 7), Brooklyn age 4 (almost 5), and Garrett 9 mos.

                          



Shane holding Cora for the first time.  We took a little road trip to KC to see her before they left the hospital.  It's hard to believe how small the kiddos start out!



Brooklyn joined us while the boys stayed with Grandma Barb and Grandpa Jeff.  Although Brooklyn doesn't look it in the picture on the left, she was very excited to get to hold Cora at the hospital.



Our church has started to have baptisms at Lake Sherwood and this year the kids jumped in the lake to play for a little bit after witnessing the baptisms.
The picture on the left shows some of the adults and kids from our life group.  If you look closely you will see the biggest kid of all splashing some of the others.  (Jim you are a great influence!)  To the right is a picture of Garrett and his first experience playing in lake water.

Brooklyn getting her stuff put away in her cubby and finding her spot in her classroom.  I'm so glad she has the same teacher that Andrew had.  She loved going to Andrew's class last year and helping out and knowing her teacher already is going to make starting school a breeze!

 The kids walking down to catch the bus on the first day of school, 2011-12 school year!


"I see it!  I see it!  The bus is coming!"
And there they go... off on a new adventure for one and the start of another great year for the other. 
I actually caught a glimpse of her before she went into the school.  She didn't even know I was there, but look at how big she is walking into school.  My baby girl is growing up too fast!









Brooklyn opening her presents from us on her actual Birthday (Aug 30th).  She loves to draw so we'll see how long a 200 pc set of coloring stuff lasts.  She also wanted some new clothes for winter so here is one of the new shirts she got from Andrew and Garrett.



We had a wonderful turnout for the kids' party.  We ended up with 28 family members for brunch.  We are blessed to have such a great family.  Thank you to the Koci's, Renyer's and Hampton's for helping us celebrate Andrew and Brooklyn's birthdays!




Don't look too closely at the cakes.  Andrew's is missing a couple strings... they broke so we decided to go with only four.  (Actually I forgot there was supposed to be six and then I ran out of room to add anymore.) 

Andrew and Brooklyn getting ready to blow out their candles.  Andrew is celebrating his 7th ( a little early) and Brooklyn her 5th Birthday.

Brooklyn enjoying getting to hold Cora after her Birthday party.