End of an August

Hello!  Okay, this post covers the rest of August, including Joshua's birthday, Evelyn's birthday, and the first day of school.  :o)  PS - I must warn you that there are quite a few pictures of these fools and the catz chillin' together like a bunch of villains, just fyi.  ;o)

Upon our return to New Orleans, we updated our family decals.

And added these too!

Best Decals EVER!  :oD

All the kids were ecstatic to smother see their beloved pets, oh and Daddy too.  ;o)

On August 17th, we visited a nearby nursing home with the Navy Wives Club and hosted a bingo party for the residents.

After helping serve drinks and hand out cards and stuff, the kids got to play too.  :o)

Those midgets brought out a lot of smiles that day.

:o)

That evening, we got the kids' backpacks out to prepare them for orientation.

And both of the cats promptly crawled into the bags and refused to get out.

Haha, seriously, the cats LOVED those backpacks.

We have since discovered that they also love crawling into empty laundry hampers; Guess it's something about the netting.  But after having them knock over full hampers and push all the clothes out of the way just so there's room for them to sleep in there, I'm tempted just to buy them their own freakin' hampers already. ;oP

Orientation was on Monday, August 18th - but before that, Emily had her first day of Gymnastics at the Y!

She was sooooo excited to go.

She was such a good listener.  :o)

I must say, I was pretty impressed with her skillz.

And she took the whole "Stand in a straight line" thing quite seriously.

;o)

Crab walk.

With Evelyn in the background showing them how it's done.  :oD

That girl is too cool.

Then we attended the kids' orientation, met their teachers, stood in lines for forever, the usual.

:o)

Later, Matthew took Peeta for a spin around the house.

Hehe.  :o)

August 20th was the First Day of School!

Ivy couldn't wait!  ;o)

Wow.  Seriously, they don't look any older than they did last year, do they?  Do they???

They "let us" walk them because it was the first day.

But they've been walking themselves every day since then!  And it's even a threat now, "You better behave unless you want me to walk you to school!  Well??  Want me to hold your hand too?!"  Lol.  Yeah, evil Mom, that's me.  ;o)

Emily went home and cuddled with her baby brother.

:o)

That evening, I caught J in the hall so I could take a last pic of him being 11.

And BAM!  Just like that, he was 12!

Seriously?!  How did he change over night?  Bleh. 

That evening, we celebrated his day.

Emily made him a lego cupcake.

And we got him a birthday pie!

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Best card ever.

He scored a new Assassin's Creed jacket (which is a video game and his new favorite obsession.)

Which he excitedly wore to school the next day.

:oD

That weekend, Joshua performed with the school band at a Macy's Fundraising Event.

They played so well and it was so cool!

Hope you can see this video!

Way to go Joshua!

Later, Emily tried to get Peeta to play with her toy mouse.

And when he wasn't interested, she scratched him behind the ear and said, "Oh yeah, right there huh?"  Haha!

Then they laid down for a nap together.

Haha, don't ask, it was just funny.  ;o)

The next day, we took the kids to the movies to continue Joshua's birthday celebration.

He chose the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I was quite skeptical about, but dude - it was pretty good!  :o)

And when we got home, we found Ivy asleep on the dish mat.

:oP

Evelyn was on the floor trying to study when Peeta decided to help her.

But Evie didn't mind.

:oD

Emily goes to gymnastics every Monday morning at 9:30, but she's usually dressed herself and begging me to do her hair by 6:30.

:oD

Emily: "Look Mom, my toy is riding on Ivy's back!"

Oh these kids and their cats.

:o)

Seriously, these 2 are like best friends now.

And Ivy continues to just do whatever she wants whenever she wants.

She even helps me file.  :oP  ;o)

And then, our big girl turned 11!

And we celebrated with more birthday pie!  Woohoo!

Happy Birthday Evelyn!

Evelyn's obsession - well it's Frozen of course.  :oD

:o)

I just can't handle all this cuteness.

:o)

Peeta even tries to sleep with Joshua or Matthew every night!

What did we do before we had pets?!

And that was the end of our August.  I know, I know, it's October now, and I am soooo slow at getting these posted, my bad.  Hope everyone's doing well.  I have more posts to work on! ;o)

Laters!