Sam's Birthday, Eloise's Birthday and the first day of school all wrapped into one big post!

Okay, so I have a break this evening, I'll play catch up.

First, Sam's birthday.  He's turned 2!  I cannot believe he's 2 but at the Sam time I love it and I'm so glad we're finally here.  Not a big newborn baby fan but I LOVE this stage.  I feel like I'm starting to even out and our family is hitting our stride.  It's fantastic.

(Love him.  He's playing with My Little Pony car.

I might have that face too if I was a boy in an all girl house all day.)

 We had a small family party with a Thomas the Train cake.  Then we opened gifts.  That's about it and we loved it.



Second, Eloise turned 6!  She is 6!  Holy cow!  I kept thinking of the day she was born and how excited we were to find out if she was a boy or girl.  I can still remember the entire room bursting song (practically) "it's a girl".  Our long legged baby was born.  And her legs have stayed just the same.  She wanted a Rio birthday party.  If you haven't seen the movie it's a cute little flick about birds in Rio.  She loves to dance and they have some pretty great dance music. 









We got her a cake with hibiscus flowers and a blue makaw (Jewel - from the movie).  She wanted beans, rice and chicken strips.  Juice with floating coconut ice (popsicles).  Then we did coconut bowling.  We prefer the 2 year old bowl in his diaper - much more fun that way.  We rounded off the night with a RIO movie.  Perfect.






Now onto school.  Eloise started school today.  The Lord confirmed our decision the moment we walked into the room.  I felt myself in my element.  Eager to talk with other moms, eager to learn about the other kids and eager to see our family dive into this new adventure.  I love that it's only 2.5 hours.  Lily loves it too.  The thought of being away from Eloise all day right now makes her a little weepy.  Eloise told her she was going to be gone until dinnertime.  Lily cried for 3 nights straight until she finally started to understand that she would only be gone during rest time.



The school is just 2 blocks away so we'll walk her there.  I love her teacher, her sweet little friends who sit at her table and everything about it.  It's going to be a great year.  We also are waiting to read this book that my friend Lindsey suggested on Facebook.  His vision for public school is ours exactly and we can't wait to hear more of his encouraging thoughts.

That's about it for now. I'm working on a pumpkin post for Frugal Living and I've got some other recipes to share.  I'm loving pumpkin overnight oats.  They are my favorite and I don't need to cook them.  The kids love them but I'm a little too stingy to share.  But I'll share the recipe next time.