August Pictures

August has been going by WAY too fast:( Riley and I now have our first week of school under our belt and we are all easing back in to the new routine. Payton had a rough first week away from mommy. Riley had a great 1st and 2nd day but a sad 3rd day. She went to bed wishing that kids did not have to go to school...lol Hopefully the morning won't be too rough.

Payton is almost ready to walk on her own! She has been trying a few stps on her own and barely holds onto things now as she zooms along furniture and pulls up on EVERYTHING! If she just got the courage we think that she could be walking completely all on her own. By the end of this week...who knows? Then watch out, here comes trouble!!

Here are a few pics of the girls from August. As you know, I have a hard time remembering to take pictures:)

If anyone is interested.....

Riley has officially entered school and thus entered the fundraising world too:) I hate to hound anyone, so I figured I will post what she is selling here and if anyone is interested, they can let me know and we can figure out the details. Currently, she is selling football mania raffle tickets. (I have had these tickets for a long time and now they are due Friday...oops!) These raffle tickets are $20 and each ticket has a 1 in 48 chance of winning. The tickets correlate to the NFL and each week your ticket has 3 teams listed that play that week and you win based on combined points scored by the teams that your card has. There are 6 prizes each week and 2 grand prizes. If you are interested in purchasing one of these tickets, just let me know and I can get them to you. Like I said...I sat on them for over a month and now they are due on Friday, but we can work out logistics:) (If you want more info, the website is www.charitymania.com)

The other thing that her school sells are gift cards. The school uses the "great lakes scrip center" for this. There a ton of restaurants, stores, and more that you can order gift cards from in various denominations. Her school turns in orders every Monday or it looks like I can set up an online account to do so as well. I have the list of retailers if anyone is interested or the website is www.shopwithscrip.com and they should have the listing there as well. This is an ongoing fundraiser throughout the whole year, so if you are ever interested, just let me know. (I am thinking ahead for Christmas shopping....)

I hope that no one felt pressured by this post:) Just the new fundraising life of a private school mother...lol If you want to support her school with either of these fundraisers, just let me know!

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Riley's first day of kindergarten! It was also my first full day of school with my students so unfortunately, I was unable to take her:( Mike however was able to get the day off and so daddy took her:) (This might have actually been better...) She had a few tears when it was time to go to her room but Mike explained that many of the other kids...who also had tears....were nervous too. He said that she was fine when he left and when he picked her up she was smiling and in a good mood. On the way home, she got an ice cream treat to celebrate a great first day! Tomorrow will be another test since I will be taking her and she will need to go to the before and after school program as well. She has only shared a few details of her day but it sounded like she enjoyed her first day and will learn lots! Here is to a great first year of school for Riley....

And on a Payton side note...she took about 5 steps a few times walking in between us:) Maybe she will continue to get braver and be walking all by herself soon!!

Another milestone....

Recently, Riley has been talking more about getting her ears pierced. She wondered how much it would hurt especially. We tried telling her that it would be like a hard pinch but hurt less than a shot. Yesterday we went to the mall and after observing a few other kids get theirs done, she decided that she was ready to get her ears pierced too! I think another big selling feature was that she could have them both done at the same time and sit on my lap;) She said she was ready when they asked her and much to our surprise, she didn't cry or say it even hurt! (She actually said it hurt worse when we were practice pinching her ears....) She looks so much more grown up with her new earrings. And we know she loves them because she is constantly going to look at them, putting her hair behind her ears, and she wore a headband today too:) Another big milestone done...next up....kindergarten on Wednesday.....

Starved Rock

Today Granny and Papa Dan took Jadyn and Riley to Starved Rock. Although I was home and only heard about the adventures second hand, I had to share these too cute pictures that Papa Dan shared. It is so cute how Jadyn and Riley love each other. Whenever they are together, they walk around holding hands like in the picture. Thanks to Granny and Papa Dan for Riley's adventure. If it wasn't for the thunderstorm that woke her up and freaked her out, I think she would've slept like a log! (Instead she is now asleep in "my spot" while I stay up late to catch up on my blog...)

Payton's 1 year stats

Today Payton had her one year appointment and all checked out just fine. She got 2 shots...poor girl:( (I felt so bad for her, as this time she had real tears!) A tough cookie though, she only cried for a little bit and then was fine. Doctor was pleased with all that she is doing and thinks that walking is not far away. She is stubborn like Riley was though and will not attempt any steps without your hands, even though I am sure she could probably manage a few. I think that all of her moving around is helping her to start tapering off in the weight department. She literally is non-stop when she is awake and now that she goes up the stairs, keeps us on our toes.

Here is how she stacked up at todays appointment:

22 lbs 13 oz (74th %tile)
29 inches (41st %tile)
18.3 inch head (85th %tile)...she is a smart one with that big brain:)

Back we go at about 15 months for her last shots until kindergarten and she has the green light for everything now...well with the exception of peanut butter.Here is Payton's 1 year picture...we love those "buttery bucks"!