The Last Day of Summer 2014

Tomorrow, my first born will be a Kindergartner.  I'm inwardly sad but outwardly happy for her sake.  For me, these first 5 years at home is the reason why I decided to be a stay-at-home-mom.  Selfishly, I wanted these 5 years to be OUR time.  And tonight, I can look back at these past almost 5.5 years and feel satisfied that I did the right thing.  Not even an hour ago I was lying in bed with her consoling her heart and putting her mind at ease about the big day tomorrow.  It was so hard not to cry with her.  My baby, my baby, my baby.  As strict and as hard as I am with her, I'm also a huge softy and the biggest sucker around her.  Those that know me know I'm not a worrier but for the first time in my adult life, I'm a mixed bag of nerves, anxiety and what looks to be a sleepless night.  If I could make one wish tonight, it would be to see a huge smile on her face when she steps off the bus tomorrow afternoon.  Let's hope I'm not a mess again when Lilly starts in 1.5 weeks.

In the last few weeks of summer, my girls have been spoiled with spending LOTS of fun time with family, family, family!  We even got to spend an evening with my cousin from NY and all of her wonderful kiddos!  Abby and I hadn't seen them since we were in NY this past January.  I've got a bunch of random pictures to post again....I hope to be back into my usual posting routine once school starts.

Bryce built them a fort built out of couch cushions again.  Our bi-annual couch vacuum tradition.

This sums up a lot of our summer - eating popsicles to beat the heat.

Can you tell Mei Mei likes it? She eats faster than Abby.

This is what they all do when I ask them to smile.  Thanks, Bryce!

The Baker Girls!

Lao Nian and Mei Mei.

Abby and her look-alike!

Lao Yie came with us to gymnastics one day.  The girls loved it!

A rare gathering of about half the cousins!  I already know I'll be looking back at this picture for years to come.

We spent a few days at a Hill Country Resort in San Antonio.  Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture of us in the pool or lazy river.  It was just too hot and wet to bring a phone or camera downstairs.  But needless to say, we had a BLAST!  They made smores every night by the camp fire and we even watched Frozen on the front lawn one evening!

Watch whatever you want on the Kindle Fire?  Sure!

Eat chips in bed?  Sure!

Why not?  It's a hotel and we're on vacation, baby!

We had to ditch hotel food for Chick-fil-A one night.

Lucy took us and the girls to a bouncy house place by their house.  All 3 girls had SO much fun running around and working up a good sweat.  I love it when they get to hang out together!

How Lilly likes to smile for the camera.  :P

This princess bouncy house was a hit for all 3 girls.  :)

Can you tell Lilly was ready for her nap??

This picture is out of order but I really liked their smiles so it made it here.

Last Friday we went to Abby's "Meet the Teacher" and here she is filling out her "All About Me" sheet.  Her teacher seems really sweet and I can't wait to see how much she'll learn this year!

Lilly insisted on putting tattoos on today so Abby obliged.  They sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star once and then remove the wet towel.  It's so cute!

They insisted Daddy get a tattoo too and he was more than happy to do it.  Definitely a dad of two daughters.  ♥

Real men wear Hello Kitty!!!