Another Summer Comes to an End

We crammed some end-of-summer fun in with Grandma and Grandpa - one morning we met them at the Boulder County Fair and another we met up at the Broomfield Bay water park.

The Fair day was quite hot (you can tell by Emily's picture...), but both girls enjoyed seeing the farm animals, and even saw their first clown show!  Emily was a little apprehensive, but quickly started to enjoy herself.  And Kara was cracking up!  Kara also got to enjoy some carnival rides with Grandma and Grandpa while Emily went home for a nap.

We only got to Broomfield Bay (small local pool/water park) one day this summer (same as last summer) and both girls had a blast!  It was a bit chilly for the adults, but we powered through.  Kara couldn't get enough of the big water slides, and Emily made Dad go down the medium slide over and over and over....

August also brought lots of bounty from our little garden.  We got several rounds of beans, lots and lots....and lots of zucchini, and yummy tomatoes!  Our carrots were very sad and the watermelons were a complete no-show (maybe we should have weeded?!), but we plan to garden again next year.  The girls really enjoyed watching everything grow.

Emily went with Mom and Kara to the hair salon one day and got her first salon experience.  Ms. Rose was very nice and shampooed Emily's hair and gave her a good blow dry.  Emily just thought it was the coolest thing.

Emily is going through an independent phase.  She wants to do everything herself (including getting dressed, getting into the bath, reading books) and gets very irritated if someone tried to do something for her or makes her do something before she's ready. It has been a little tricky to get her to do things sometimes...

Kid quotes:
Emily: "No thank you, I'm playing toys" when we asked her to come to dinner one night.

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Kara's First Day of Kindergarten

Kara's first day of Kindergarten was today.  It's hard to believe sometimes that the little girl we brought home almost 6 years ago is now in school.

Kara was really good on her first day.  She got dressed and did her morning routine (eating breakfast, brushing teeth, brushing hair, making bed) with almost no reminding from Mom or Dad.  Kara was even a couple of minutes early for class.   As Kara crossed the street and looked at her new school, she stated, "I'm prepared."  Mommy had a few tears in her eyes, but Kara was happy and ready to go.

After her long day of school (Kindergarten class in the morning, then lunch and enrichment in the afternoon), she was in great spirits.  At bedtime Kara said, "I can't wait for school tomorrow!" :)

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Backyard Camp-out 2015

On the evening of August 8th, Daddy and Kara had their 2nd annual camp-out.  The girls helped Dad get the tent set up early in the afternoon and the girls had a great time playing in and around the tent for the rest of the afternoon.

For dinner, we fired up the grill and had hamburgers and hot dogs.  We wrapped up dinner with S'mores (because what is camping out without S'mores?).  Both the girls really enjoy their S'mores, but Emily particularly enjoyed hers (see the video).

After dessert, Mom corralled Emily and headed inside while Dad and Kara got settled in the tent.  After a bit of goofing around with glow sticks, Kara settled down and had a a great night's sleep under the stars.

Emily was still a little young to stay outside for the night this year, but we're sure she will be out there with Kara and Daddy next summer!

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Tae Kwon Do Purple Belt Test

Kara tested for her purple belt on August 8th.  Kara, of course, did "outstanding" during her testing (all the kids did outstanding).  She did all the moves correctly and broke the board on her second try.

Kara is very proud that she did an outstanding job on her belt test (actual quote from Kara).  Mom and Dad are pretty proud of her as well.

Link to pictures