Dinner in the Mountains

I spent my morning in the kitchen, chopping up chicken, green bell peppers, and a pineapple; making a marinade for the meat, and I also sauteed some zuchini and summer squash for a side dish. Once school was out and Kasey got off work, all of us packed up some chairs, toys, and the food that I had prepared earlier on, and headed up the mountain for the evening to relax, cook up our dinner, and to play in the dirt!

The kiddos played while daddy started the fire and mom took a bunch of pictures...

Kasey starting the fire...lets get cookin'!

Our girls LOVE chicken shish-kebabs!!
They each had about 5 skewers each!!


Mikenna avoiding the peppers...big surprise there! :)

Adiee with her mouth full :)

Isla loves the squash! :)

I love summer evenings like these...beautiful surroundings, yummy dinner, and time spent together as a family!!

Ahhh...Life is good! :)

Our First Back To School Night

Kasey and I went to our very FIRST back to school night! We listened to a speech given by the current principal as well as the founding principle of Fort Caspar Academy. We also got to meet Mikenna's teacher Mrs. Geise on a more personal level, asked questions, looked at some of the school's test scores (impressive!), met some of her classmates parents, and I signed up for just about every event in the classroom... I signed up to be a classroom volunteer for the Christmas Party, the Valentine's Party, and a supply volunteer for the Thanksgiving Party. I signed up for the first rotation of snack time (just have to provide a healthy snack for the class)and for work to do at home (like cutting out patterns for art projects, collecting box tops, etc...) since I have Adiee and Isla with me all the time :-) I also signed up for the 3-hour (ugh!) spaulding class here in a couple weeks, where I will hear about the school's curriculum and teaching methods!! Then when Adiee starts preschool, Kasey or I usually volunteer for every class party and drive for all the field trips...hopefully we didn't overdo it?? haha! No way! Anything for our babies :-)

Adiee's Special Day

Kasey and I didn't want Adiee to feel left out, so we took her to the store after we left Mikenna's classroom. She picked out a new toy, a carousel with working lights and music. Adiee got a new Ariel backpack for preschool, which starts in a few weeks. And the lucky little girl also got a slurpee at NINE in the morning! Haha! :) The really funny thing is that she only took 2 sips out of it! Definitely wouldn't have gotten it, had I known that would happen!

After we got home, daddy went to work; Isla took a nap; and Adiee and I colored a bunch of pictures, opened her new toy, and watched Hercules together until she fell asleep! Before she knew it, it was time to go get Mikenna!

Adiee Grace definitely misses her partner in crime!

First Day of School

Fort Caspar Academy

I can't explain the feeling that I had when I was walking into the building with our little girl... I was so very excited for her because I knew that she was, but I was also on the verge of losing it... They had balloons and metallic streamers when we walked into the doors...Mikenna was lovin' it!! (So were Adiee and Isla) Adiee wanted to stay :(

Welp...Today is the day that I have been writing about for a while, Mikenna's first day of kindergarten. Adiee woke the girls up early this morning...it was the sweetest thing; she just randomly started singing, no specific song, just her own words and precious melody. Kasey and I stood outside the door just to listen for a bit. Mikenna woke up ecstatic, first thing she said to me this morning is "Is this my school day?" she even ate her breakfast in record time!! I got her lunch out of the fridge and she immediately sat it down on the floor and tried to get into it; I stopped her and said that it was a surprise for lunchtime. When we got to school, we saw some familiar faces, a few kiddos from preschool as well as from tumbling over the last few years. I was relieved to know that she would already have some friends that she knows so well. Kasey took the morning off so he could partake in this HUGE milestone. I was so glad to have him with me, I could hardly keep it together! He said he was so happy and excited for her just thinking about all the experiences that she's about to have. Kasey, I just want to tell you that you are a wonderful father!! Our kids are lucky to have you, as am I!

Our whole family!

Mikenna waiting outside for the bell to ring...

Mommy and Daddy helping Mikenna put her supplies away...

Orange is Mikenna's favorite color now-a-days. And she was the only one with an orange crayon box...almost all the girls had pink, there were a couple purple; and the boys had green and blue.

Mikenna showing off her desk...

Hanging up her backpack...

Working hard...and ready for us to leave :(

One last snapshot of the class... I know I'm pathetic! Haha :)

I wasn't planning on visiting for lunch, but I heard that a lot of parents do on the first day. So I decided just to go watch for a minute to make sure that she was doing okay. (and take more pictures...)

Heading to lunch...

Candid lunch photo. The little girl looking at the camera on the right was so cute, she saw me and said "cheese" with her mouth full!! HAHA! :) Mikenna is sitting next to her friend Davis, from preschool, and Tayla, from tumbling the year before last. It was so exciting to see her! She asked me, "You aren't taking me home yet, are you??" When I told her no, she clapped her hands and squealed! It makes me so happy to know that she is having such a great time!

Yay! She made it! Not that there was ever any doubt!! :) Congratulations Baby! You made it through your first day of KINDERGARTEN!!! And so did I! ;-)

Mikenna's First Packed Lunch

Please excuse me while I do some emotional blogging... haha! If you can't tell, I am having issues with my baby Mikenna going to 'big kid' school...full-time, none-the-least! And to boot, I have NEVER, not once, in her life - not eaten lunch with her. So it's kind of a big deal for me! :) So tomorrow is Mikenna's first day of kindergarten and in order to cut down on before-school chaos I have given baths, picked out clothes, and...packed her lunch.

I had a moment of temporary insanity, and yes, spelled out a message with scrabble cheez-its and attacked her sandwich with cookie cutters! HAHA!!

I also wrote her a note to put in her lunch bag...one that she can read, it sort of matches a previous blog, the one of the doodle-pros, to make sure that she knows what it says!! :)

Clothes, Shoes, Supplies...OH MY!!

Mikenna is gearing up for her new big adventure:

KINDERGARTEN!




We were too excited to wait for the teacher's postcard to find out who she is, so we went to the school to check it out...they have the lists posted on the front door of her school. Her kindergarten teacher is...drumroll, please :)...Mrs. Edna Geise!

She's looking for her name

We finished up shopping for all of Mikenna's school supplies yesterday (had a heck of a time getting the black fine point dry erase markers, and had to go to 4 different stores to get them!! Ugh!)

She found her perfect backpack... Hannah Montana, of course!! :)

I still get a kick out of the fact that she has yet to see her show!

Mikenna shopping some more...

She helped me write her name on everything

All packed up and ready for her FIRST DAY!!








Other things we have been up to:

We did a hand mold and we will put her kindergarten picture in the frame...

Also while we were out:


She just fell in love with these pink patent leather mary janes! So we got them for her among many other things! School shopping is so much FUN!!

On Todays Menu: Tuesday Sandwiches

Mikenna and Adiee love to eat days-of-the-week sandwiches, it's probably one of their absolute favorites!! What is it, you ask?? Well, it's more commonly known as fried-egg sandwiches. They gave it this cute name because they thought that I was saying "Friday" when I told them what they were having for lunch a while back, and it conveniently was a Friday! The name just stuck. Haha!! :-)

Shhhh!! All is Quiet on the Home Front!

There is silence in the Brown Household!! All three of our little ones napped at the same time today! And it came JUST IN TIME!! An indicator that our crazy-busy summer didn't spoil all the hard work it takes to keep those kidlets of ours all on the same schedule; and now that we are gearing up for our school, dance, and tumbling routines, it couldn't have come a minute too soon!! I just had to take pictures of our little angels, they were so sweet and peaceful... Plus, Mikenna falling asleep is always a miracle since she hasn't taken a nap on purpose since she was a year old!! :-)
Our Three Sleeping Beauties!!

Copycat

Little Miss Isla Ann has been just exploding in milestones!! Each day she seems to accomplish something new! She now points with her finger, waves, claps, kisses occasionally, pulls herself up on things if she really wants to, can walk with assistance, and has earned the title "speed racer" when she is crawling about! She doesn't do these things when asked yet, but she copies VERY well... We clap, she claps...We wave, she waves...and so on. This stage is so much fun but I have a feeling that it won't last long with her! Isla seems to be extremely determined to walk and play just like her older sisters, so she isn't holding back - everything is happening SO FAST!
Slow it down kiddo, no need to rush!! :)

Mikenna + Doodle Pro = CUTE!!

I was looking through some of our pictures, and I wanted to note that last week Mikenna came up with a surprise for her mom and dad... They are awesome if I do say so myself!!

Notice that Mikenna and I have girl hair while she gave daddy the boy hair!!

She has always been quite the artist! She drew the little mermaid when she was only a little over 3 years old! Complete with the fish tail and flowing hair! WE LOVE YOU MIKENNA!!!