Beginning of the school year, 2013

I'm writing this on September 1, 2014...just 2 days before school starts around here.  These photos and one DARLING movie were taken at the beginning of LAST school year...I can hardly believe how much these sweet girls have grown in one year!!

This was an exciting, but a little bit sad picture.  This is Jade's first day at Springfield, a lovely, small, private school...and Amaris' first day at Fawcett, our local public school.  Both girls ended up having a great year, but they were not happy to be parting ways every morning.

September days are confusing...especially for the birds.  A misled robin smacked into the window, and Jade gave him a decent burial, adding a lovely red dahlia to honor him.

This was a FUN surprise!  A cousin showed up at church!  Uncle Isaac's cousin Zack was in town and decided to join us for Sunday worship!

Jade and I drove out to McKenna to visit friends, and we spied this enormous anthill....I was happy to be the photographer!  That is one GIGANTIC ant hotel!!!

This little movie really made me smile...first, because the girls both look so little!!!  And again because even though they've changed SO much in a year, they have also remained very much "themselves"...notice how Amaris so quickly speaks up to correct me that this GREAT present came from Gramma Tina, not Steve and Kara (I was mistaken, because we picked it up from Steve and Kara's...), and that they have continued to use this amazing invention all through this summer as well!!


Well, rats!  I tried again to upload this video, but it doesn't seem to work...I wish you all could hear the audio!