Back to School Festivities

Our elementary school's back to school parade kicked things off! Sophie has a brand new to teaching teacher that we are happy for and Rhys finally got the teacher he has hugged every day for two years!
We made our signs and joined other friends at the Street's home across form Story Park as the teachers rolled by!

 That afternoon we headed to the sprayground, and knowing I only had them one more day, I decided to chase them through the water much to their surprise.

First day of 4th and 2nd

 Mother's Rejoicing Party! Donuts, giddy squeals of joy, tears, and a whole lot of chatting!

Summer Service Project 2

For our second service project we invited friends and members of our community to donate cleaning supplies to Refugee Services of North Texas. They set up apartments for arriving families. We had enough for 5 families to be blessed thanks to everyone's generosity.

Up Close and Personal with Nature

Aunt Kira and Uncle David gifted Sophie with a butterfly atrium for her birthday. Over days we saw them create cocoons, wiggle in their cocoons, come out and spill their leftover body juice (ick), and in time their release. Really cool experience.

From Little Girl's Room to Terrific Tween Room

This summer we decided to give Sophie's room an updated look that was pre-teen approriate. Down came the butterflies and lace edged curtains. We had a good time shopping for decor and painting her room a new shade. Though there are no "after" pictures here we went with a chevron print comforter, added a desk and over the door mirror, and popped some color!
Shopping for decor ideas:

Getting to work together:

This set of drawers was rescued from the curb, it just needed some a squirrel nest removed and some fresh paint. We blinged it up with new pulls.

I Heart U message painted for her mom

July 4th

Top of The Village parking structure.

Time with Aunt Kira and Uncle David

We headed down to Waco while Kira and David were in town to go to Magnolia, famous because of the Fixer Upper show. We were greeted with cupcakes from their soon-to-open bakery and spent time in the store and out in the open area. It is a cute place in the middle of a run down section of town. After that we headed over to the Waco Mammoth National Monument to see mammoth remains.

Aunt Kira telling the kids to tickle his armpits.

The next day's outing was taking the train down to the Dallas World Aquarium and back and the adults enjoying dinner at a nice Brazilian Bar-B-Q restaurant to cap off Neal's birthday celebrations.

Sophie's 9th Birthday

 Two days after her father's birthday party, we celebrated Sophie's Luau style! We were thankful to use Oma's and Opa's pool to splash and play. The girls each got a lei and swim ring.  They had jumping contests for belly flop, biggest splash, and most creative for which they won flip flops. Lunch was at Sophie's request, hot dogs and Cheetos. Thanks for manning the grill Opa. We know it was hot out there. Dessert was a beach scene of a sunbathing teddy bear with umbrella and beach ball. Happy birthday sweet girl!