Excitement for any holiday, any cause to celebrate and eat more chocolate is growing around here. Now that my dd understands how calendars work, she keeps very close track of the days–and especially the holidays. Today was rainbow day at school, in fact. It was quite the thrill! Here’s S’s punkin drawing with a little Halloween festivity courtesty {me}:

I have to document many “firsts” that happen around here. Here’s a little something that may often be overlooked on the list of firsts:

My dd received a call from our local library yesterday to inform her that she had won a contest. We were to pick up the prize at the library. I don’t think A. knows what “luck” is, but once she saw the prize, she was feeling like one lucky duck! Here she is!

Can you remember the first thing you ever won? Mine was a cakewalk at the Halloween carnival when I was in first grade. I was wearing strawberry shortcake sandals (she was popular back then as well) with my pink bunny rabbit costume. I won the biggest cake EVER, and I even shared it with my siblings. I was on cloud nine. It was covered in chocolate frosting, and I felt like I had won the lottery (or at least the cakewalk)!

Here is a design I am having printed as a 24″x36″ gallery wrapped canvas. Yesterday I took the kiddos on a photo adventure “downtown” in our hometown. There are some great old brick walls with chipped paint and old wooden doors that make a great backdrop. I love the urban-vintage feel it creates, even with the silly expressions and poses offered by my darling, wiggly children.

Someone said to me today, “I bet your kids love having their photo taken.” I wish I could say I never resort to bribery . . . but my kids know me all to well. Our little field trips always seem to coincide with photo shoots. Needless to say, I brought along a bag of peanut m&m’s for this shoot and we did have a great time. I will post a photo of the finished canvas when it arrives next week!!

I must mention that my oldest dd really gets into it when I allow her to shoot a few photos with my camera. She snapped the one of baby brother on the lower left corner. Looks like I’ve got a great assistant/ competitor in the making!

. . . growing up so fast, like they said she would. She’s off to kindergarten and there’s no turning back. Please allow me to get a bit sentimental, as I am not prone to crying but I do feel the same emotions minus the tears.

This girl is normally not so chipper in the mornings, but all last week she was eager, giddy and just so excited to get to school. After summertime boredom at home, I think she was ready for a solid routine and some action-packed fun and learning.

So the first day of school arrived- and it took almost a month worth of her crossing out the days to get here! On the way to school I told S., “Do you know that you could make 20 new friends today?” Her eyes widened with excitement at that amazing possibility. Here are some images that capture that first day of school:

{Ready}

{Time to go?}

{Giddy. Anxious. Sweet.}

{There she goes. She gets so focussed that she almost doesn’t look back, but she knows that I need her to –and for my sake she does.}

Here’s to the next 13 years until her HS graduation . . .

Note- I didn’t have time to cry after dropping her off, because it immediately began to rain and we had to quickly run for cover.

My two girls have a vast collection of hand puppets. This is because I love puppets and secretly wanted to be a puppeteer after attending a puppet show as a child. So I buy them. They come out to play once in a while. One day they became the ultimate fairy fashion “must-have” and I just had to document them. The following fairy wardrobes were completely designed by my 3 & 5 year-old daughters. I hope you get a laugh out of them, as I surely did!

{You may recognize the stylin’ curly hair-do. It was a vital component of Daddy’s Napoleon Dynamite Costume a couple years ago. He even won a costume contest with it!!}

Watch out for this spunky toddler! She is quite the sweetheart with such beautiful eyes. She is modeling a beautiful collection of hand-embroidered dresses from Ecuador. Meet H. . .

{Who could resist this sweet smile?}

{This is called a “wrestle-hug.”}

{I love the varied expressions the boys have, especially in this photo!}