Brace Face

Here are the before and after photos of the girls. Neither set is looking all that great. I can't wait until the Braces Off post. Those are sure to be looking fabulous. They all agreed that it hurt more than they expected, even though I kept trying to warn them. I guess they thought I was exaggerating. There's no better way to learn something than to experience it. And now they can add braces to their list of experiences.

Maddie's 15th

I can't believe my girl is already 15. Yikes really! She is getting more lovely everyday. For a complete post of her birthday check her blog post.

Flip Book Kids

My crazy little kids decided to take pictures of themselves in pieces so they could make mixed up body pictures. I put them together intact, but they were playing around with the different parts of each other. I thought it was a pretty ingenious way to play.

First Day of School

Here were the girls on the first day of school. Don't they look so studious? Maddie didn't feel like she needed her picture taken. Or maybe I just didn't have it together at that moment of the day. She leaves the house now at 5:45. I get up to make sure she gets something to eat at 5:30. I'm kinda liking the new routine, but I don't think she is yet.

Homemade Crackers

If you've ever seen my family with a box of Cheesitz you must have been around for a rare 2-3 hours right after I bought them. That's really about how long it takes for my girls to devour an entire box of this delicous treat. And if you've ever had them in your house while my girls happened to be there, I'm sorry. Surely I now owe you a box of crackers. So, given that I can't seem to keep them stocked I thought that perhaps I would try to make some myself. After doing a quick search I came across a cracker recipe that I thought would be great. I substituted some of the flour for cheese powder and this is what I came up with. They really were pretty good. Of course, they do NOT compare to the real thing, but were a tasty treat all-in-all. Good news: I thought it was a success. Bad news: I ate them all because noone else did.

"Our" Pool

We are so lucky to have moved into a house that has the neighborhood pool essentially in our backyard. I have to say we DID take full advantage of that this summer. It was nice to be able to look out the window and see if the pool was crowded or empty (which it often was), or see if any of our friends were swimming, or if our favorite lifegaurds were working, or just to watch for fun. Lauren and Ellie really improved their swimming this summer. Ellie can now swim the entire length of the pool. It's really amazing. The resulting bonus is that Ellie is no longer worried about getting water in her ears while in the tub (a problem that has been driving me crazy for years now).
Richard likes to point out that we were there for the closing this year. Yes, indeed, our family (and only our family) was swimming up to the very last possible moment before the close of the season. We'll see you again next year New Friend.

A Day at the Morton Arboretum

On a couple of our last days in Plainfield we decided to try to take advantage of our membership at the Morton Arboretum. It truly is a wonderful place to enjoy nature. There are children's play areas, hiking trails, picnic areas, paved walking paths, and a guided tour via shuttle bus which we took. I wish we had gone there more. But I seem to be the only one who feels that way as you can tell by the overenthusiatic expressions on the lovely faces of my children.