First Day of School

Kindergarten

Fourth Grade

Capri was beyond excited for school to start.  She is everything I wished I was growing up.  Responsible, organized, stylish, beautiful, and oh so confident.  

Third Grade

Jeff gave all the kids father's blessings before school today.  The spirit was strong for all, but especially for Rome's.  Jeff said some things that struck me in particular.  Afterwards, Jeff whispered to me "Rome is a very special spirit".   I know he's right.

I managed not to cry when we dropped Sable off at her classroom.  But only because I cried at back to school night a few days ago.  She's tough for me to send away.  In my head, she is still my "Sable baby".  Her hair hasn't grown, and she is the easiest child in the world.  In my head I bounce her on my hip and she smiles at everything. 

In reality, she's 6.  Her hair is long (longer even last night before I cut several inches off).  She gets grumpy and has a lot of opinions.  She has crushes and likes to put up a fight. 

But she still is ready for a snuggle anytime.  She is kind to others and thinks of them often.  She would happily let me bounce her on my hip - if only I wasn't worried I'd break in two. 

Be bold and strong my Sable baby, I'll miss you terribly.

In Love

Or obsessed?  She's told me a couple times (and Capri a couple dozen times) that she wishes she could meet them.  The blonde is her favorite, he's just "so handsome".

I, personally, have now heard their songs about 1.2 million times.  

She'd wanted a certain box of Legos for ages until she found a book and posters of them at Barnes and Noble.  Now her precious chore money is being saved to buy them.

She's five.

About an hour ago. . .

All is safe in Runyan City.

Sable's Wonka

Fiesta!

Capri and Sable had a joint birthday Fiesta after the baptism. With the power out when we left the house I was praying that it would be on when we got home. The whole house had already been decorated, everything was there. Moving the party would not be possible. We needed to do a bunch of cooking for the taco bar and with all the people coming we really needed the air conditioning. Driving home from the church all I could think about was how much we needed the power to be on. But I was trying to tell myself to roll with the punches if it wasn't. As we pulled on to our street I was scanning for ANY evidence of power. Glory be, the neighbors had a porch light on! We opened our door and felt the AC. That was it, the tears started immediately and I made a beeline for my bedroom. I fell on my knees in thankful prayer. Honestly, I was beside myself with joy and thanks.

The fiesta was ON!




Taco bar! (Mostly consumed by the time I took this picture.)



Cupcakes!



Friends and family!




Pin the tail on the donkey!



Presents!





It was a massive unwrapping with presents everywhere. Even Rome and Oz got a belated b-day present each. Uncle Jon, Aunt Katie and their kids picked out such fun stuff for them both.



Adorable kids!




















Pinata!



This is our "super duper safe" (I say that as sarcastically as possible) solution to not being able to do the pinata outside because of all the mud and sticks in the yard from the storm.



It actually worked really well and was HILARIOUS to watch. Luckily nobody got hurt and everybody had fun. You can't see it in the pictures but all the kids and adults were instructed to stay behind a coffee table I'd moved to behind "the hitters". But try and imagine keeping 16 kids and 12 adults back at a safe distance. Honestly it's amazing nobody got smacked!



Singing!







All done! (And tuckered out.)

We successfully made it through "birthday party season". Phew.

Till next year!

No more exclamation points.

I promise!

4 year old girl

Sable turned four on the 16th! We went to the zoo to start her birthday. I had some zoo bucks and told her she could pick out something from the gift shop. Shocker, she picked candy. Really if she'd gotten anything else she wouldn't be Sable.




On the carousel.



Her blue eyes truly are as killer as they look.






Just hanging around.





Turn around and smile!



We visited an area of the zoo we've never been to (which with as many times we've been there is AMAZING). It's the elephant enclosure they go to at 4:00 every day. I've wanted to see it forever but we never seem to be in the right part of the zoo at that time. It was really cool to see the elephants all come in and spread out.



After the zoo we headed home to start celebrating. Sable helped make her cupcakes and decorated them all.



For dinner she picked steak, mac & cheese and salad.


















Presents!


















After presents we all went to Chuck E Cheese - Sable's pick for her big birthday activity. We were surprised to see that our Chuck E Cheese had replaced over half of their games with brand new ones. We always have a fun time there, but it was even more fun checking out the new stuff.



Rome and Capri were there too, but I neglected to get a video of them. They were usually over at their new favorite "monkey game" which they both declared "the best game in the whole world!".

Happy birthday Princess Sable! We love you!