Raegan got her ears pierced!

We went to Payless to pick up a pair of ballet shoes last week and Raegan found so many sparkly earrings she wanted, but couldn't have because she didn't have her ears pierced.  Despite my cautioning of how bad it may hurt, she convinced me she was ready to get her ears pierced and that daddy could come too to hold my hand (not hers).  

We went up to Claire's and she picked out tourmaline (pink) gemstone studs, well that's not completely true, she first wanted these little rainbow flower ones but I kinda talked her out of them into something more simple for her first pair!  

She was so tough and didn't even flinch when the lady pierced either of her ears, just giggled a little!  I was super proud of her and she's been doing a fabulous job at cleaning them multiple times a day.  I guess she really was ready! 

She is also very proud of them and shows nearly anyone she sees, even strangers occasionally!  She gets to change her earrings out around my birthday and we already bought a pack of 12 rose shaped different colored studs she picked out that day.  She's excited for that day! 

Kindergarten

Raegan was so excited about kindergarten finally starting this week! Seriously she was running around and acting super goofy last night just at the mention of getting to be part of K5!  

On the playground last year the teachers would announce "K4 line up"or "K5 line up" when it was time to go back inside; so getting to be part of K5 seems like a big deal for her this year.  Funny how recess is such a big deal at this age.  Raegan chose to wear tennis shoes to school today solely for the fact that they make her run faster and she will be able to catch the boys (namely Kyle and Caul) at recess.  She talked about it the whole way to school!  Already so boy crazy!  The other day when she was talking about marrying Kyle, I said, "but I thought Kyle didn't want to marry you?" To which she quickly replied, "he'll change his mind!"  Lord, help us! 

Anyways back to school...

I asked Raegan what she was most excited about and she said, "learning" so that's a good sign.  We took her school supplies for orientation Monday night.  She went right in her class and found her desk and her cubby like a pro.  She is in the back row next to Rogan.  She sat next to Rogan at the beginning of prek last year too.  We listened to Mrs Mays tell us about her take home folder, classroom rules, and emphasize that 'this is kindergarten now' hinting that things the students may have gotten away with in preK weren't going to fly in her classroom.  Philip, Cameron and I went on with the rest of the parents to parent orientation and Raegan and her classmates made a craft and got a tour of where her elective classes (art, Spanish, and music) will be held.  For this first week Raegan will be at the back of the line when the class leaves their room.  The person at the back of the line is suppose to turn off the lights and shut the door when they leave.  Poor Raegan couldn't reach the light switch to turn it off so Mrs Mays said she would get a step stool for her :) 

Okay without further ado here are her 1st day of kindergarten pictures:

The hands on the hips were her idea, so sassy.

Big Cheese!

Mrs Mays

First task = coloring (her fave!)

Wild to look at how much she has changed in just one year! (1st day of prek on left) That is the same size 4 uniform skirt in both pictures.   She's growing up fast, but it's not something that tears me up.  In fact, we celebrate these monumental days. I know she is in a wonderful environment with teachers who will love on her and challenge her to do her very best!  She will come home and tell us all about what she learned and the friendships she is building.  

Can't wait to see where this next school year takes us!

Home away from home

Raegan and Cameron spent a whole week with Papa and Grammee in Tyler.  Raegan loves riding Papa's horses, but Cameron is okay with just petting them.  Here is a picture of the kids with their Papa Ron and Babe

I love this early morning shot of them petting the horses.

Sitting on pickle buckets on the front porch.

They also went to the zoo with Grammee, Aunt Karen, and their cousins: Asa, Scarlett and Brooklyn. 

The kids made homemade lunchables with Grammee! 

Raegan completed another week of swimming lessons with Ms Debbie and is swimming like a fish! Here's a picture of them at the splash pad:

They also got to visit grandmother and take pictures with her. 

I'm glad they got to spend such a great week with relatives.  We picked them up on Saturday and Raegan was excited to see us but I think Cameron had forgotten who we were! 

Can't believe it's already mid August! School days are just right around the corner!

Painting

When Philip gets his mind set on a project there's no stopping him.  So one day he decided to "touch up" a few places around the house with paint he found in the garage, unfortunately it was flat paint for the ceilings and made the touch up spots more noticeable.  So we decided we would have to paint basically the whole downstairs to fix it!  

Colors, colors, colors why are there so many color options for paint. We had at least 20 different sample jars/cans of paint to test out before I could make up my mind.  

Picking up a couple of Benjamin Moore paint samples:

Testing samples on our wall speckled with drywall splattering a from a ceiling patch we've had retouched up 4 times (not exaggerating).

Valspar's purple basil is the color I ended up going with for one wall in my master bath it's bold and dark but I figured my master bath is one place I could go with something like that!  Benjamin Moore's grape juice was too maroon for me. 

Then a crew of three painters came out for two days and went to work. We chose Sherwin Williams Barcelona beige as our main neutral throughout the downstairs. 

In the entry way here it doesn't look much darker than our original paint but in the hallways it looks quite a bit darker than before. 

We went with Sherwin Williams restrained gold for our game room and a half bathroom.  I think the light gold looks good with our Baylor decor. 

We also added a new sectional, rug, projector/screen, and skii ball machine to the game room so that room is coming together nicely! 

We changed out the mirror in this half bath after painting and I like the way it turned out! 

While all this chaos I mean progress was going on, we sent the kiddos to Philips parents house for the week.  I'll post photos from their week soon!