Lauren Turns 7!!!! : )

Lauren turned 7 this past week....just seems like yesterday that we spent the day before she was born at the State Fair walking around (and yes, me eating everything in sight! HA!) and then coming home to anxiously await the night before she arrived into our family....and now 7 years later...she's started 1st grade, loves playing with her friends, riding her big girl bike, creating lots of arts and crafts, and thinks it's pretty neat to sleep on the top bunk of her bunkbeds! ; ) We celebrated with two parties this year......one for her and some of her friends last weekend...she wanted a pirate themed party! ARGHHH!! : ) And then one this past Sat for our family to come over, eat, play in the water and have fun! What a great couple of weekends we have had!!! Here are some photos to share from our celebration....and again, Happy birthday to one of the sweetest, prettiest and compassionate little girls we know! We love you Lauren Elizabeth Massey and are so thankful God has blessed us with you in our family!!!

First day of school! : )

Cannot believe that we are ready to start school again! Summer has flown by! The girls are both pretty excited about it....Allie (given that she is a 6th grader this year) is glad to be able to see her friends every day again but not so glad to have to wake up early and have homework during the week! Lauren, heading into 1st grade, could not be more excited! She told me this morning while we were waiting on the bus that she was so excited she could almost pee her pants! ; ) I told her she better not do that! HA! I cannot wait until they get home so I can hear all about their first day back! Now on to the rest of our day.....spending a little time one-on-one with my sweet Katelyn! Just think....a couple of more years and she'll be getting on that bus as well....ugh, I don't even wanna think about that yet! : )

Fun at the State Fair!

We carried on our family tradition and took a day before school starts to head out to the State Fair for some fun and good deals! We always go on the $2 discount day....$2 for food, $2 for rides and $2 to get in...woohoo! : ) This year we got a bit later start (Allie was at the movies with some friends earlier in the day as a treat!) so we stayed the latest we've ever stayed....got home at 11:30pm! But had a great time. The kiddos always love seeing all of the animals, as well as playing a couple of games, riding a few rides and...the best part of all.....eating all of the fair food! :) What a great way to round out an absolutely awesome summer!!!!!!

Vacation....and I'm in denial that the summer is almost over... : (

We were able to get away for a family vacation to northern Michigan again this summer....one of our absolute favorite places to go! And this time, my parents and my sis, bro-in-law and two nieces joined us too! FUNNNN!!!! We stayed at the same house on Crooked Lake, fully stocked with 2 jet skis, tubes, a canoe, a kayak, a water trampoline, a gorgeous view and tons of comfort and relaxation to boot! : ) What a wonderful way to round out our summer! We spent time hanging out by the water, being in the water : ), hunting for shells, eating, laughing, shopping, eating again : ), watching movies together at night, laughing some more, biking on Mackinac Island, exploring Harbor Springs, Petoskey, and Charlevoix and just having fun together! All in all, it just couldn't have been better.....well, unless we were able to stay a few more weeks! : ) Now on to getting things back to "normal" around here (as if we are EVER normal!), and although I'm still in denial...getting ready to send the girlies back to school!