Long day for Dad

Saturday was not the best day for Dan. He woke up with an issue at work, then the horns got soaked by the KState Wildcats(not to mention that he also got rained on both during halftime and on the walk to the car...he was still dripping wet when he got home), and then I beat him 6-2 in our weekly football bet. BUT today is a new day...

What Dan did miss yesterday was an operation of sorts. Kate decided it was high time to perform surgery on Lauren. Apparently Lauren thought so too because she stayed on the table long enough to endure it.

Prepping

Implanting the letter "c"

"help"

This morning, to brighten Dan's day, we made semi-blueberry muffins. "Semi" because most of the blueberries were eaten by the chefs before they made it in the bowl.

The Chefs

Shelbi's Wedding

Friday night we headed out to Luckenbach for a wedding party. The girls so rarely get to join us for these types of events, it was fun to get to take them! It was also great to reconnect with people I have not seen in years.

Friends since 4th grade...how quickly time flies

Began the night a little shy....

But soon became Dancing Queens

or groupies????

Trying to keep her eyes open for the ride home...

Lauren found a new use for her hat...

18 Month Check-Up

Lauren did great at her 18 month checkup. She is still in the 50-75% for weight at 24lbs. 15oz but zoomed into the 75-90% for height at 32in. Both girls have lengthened over the summer it seems (hard to believe with their father, grandfathers, and uncle being so short...) SO I immediately brought her home to practice:

Girls, this weekend, after they found mom's stash of lollipops...

Finally Friday!

Broke down and took Lauren to the doctor yesterday-her coughing had kept us up for too darn long. His diagnosis was not what we expected..."let me look in her ears...oh this one is bad, it has pus and...oh but this one is worse". Made me feel like a terrible mom-poor baby suffering through a double ear infection for who knows how long! A respiratory virus was causing the cough. She is on drugs now and was back to her old self even today.

The girls played outside after naps:

Playing house

Up to no good....

On the swing

About to slide

"Raking" the flowers for mom

"Come back here Lauren"....

A little "new camera" play with the last picture of the afternoon...

Lauren's Cough

We have spent the last two nights up with Lauren's cough. She slept on my chest to finally get to sleep last night. Luckily the weather kept us indoors today so we stayed in our pajama's and tried to get well.

Coloring

"Cheese"

Classic Kate pose

Sisters making cupcakes

Decorate one, then eat it...

Decorating all...

Looks like she feels better already...

Full Time School

Today was the first full day of school for both girls(9-1). Here are two pics of them before we walk out the door:

Lauren is not the easiest child to drop off at school. As we walk towards her classroom, she wants me to pick her up. Her legs encircle my waist and she takes a death grip on my arms. Today seemed especially hard...later I found out why.

When I went to pick her up, Kris Ann(her teacher) said that she seemed really tired. She kept crawling in their laps and leaning back like she was sleepy. She also ate very little lunch. Lauren coughed through most of her nap and I found this on the couch once they got up....so even her sister's lap was a place of comfort today.

Birthday Party Month

September is a month of birthday parties-every weekend we have at least one to attend. Sadly, last weekend we missed a couple because the girls were sick. I think we made up for it in the last two days(the girls fell asleep in the parking lot after today's fun!). Here are a few pics of the girls "partying":

I forgot the new camera for the first party so here is the post-party look:

Today's fun

Kate in the Austin American Statesman!

Here is a link to the story: Preemies: Katherine Grace Benzon

New Camera

Not sure if you can tell the difference but we got our new camera today. Here are the few pics I took before baths...

First Day of School!!

The girls were snot/cough free all day yesterday so today was their first day of school!!! Lauren knew something was up and was very clingy all morning. Here are some pics before we arrived at school:






As you can tell, Lauren was not so happy to be going to school. We dropped Kate off in Ms Gwyneth's classroom first. Kate walked right in as if she owned the place-never looked back at me to see if I was staying too....Lauren wanted "up" the moment we started walking to her classroom. She clung to me as we walked in and I had to set her down and walk away. She cried and cried-breaking my heart.

Kate only had a half day so her and her boyfriend Brayden went to lunch at Chick Fil A and played on their playground. We picked Lauren up at 1 and she was so excited to see us. I picked her up and she would not let me put her down until we got into the car. Her teachers said she did great and did not cry for long...how different two sisters can be...

What to do?

The girls did rally today and seemed to feel better. Will likely take Lauren(and probably Kate too since I am making the trip) to the dr tomorrow to see if he can finally clear it all up and out.

We did find some stuff to keep us occupied. Although the temperature never got above 80 degrees(hard to believe it is Sept in Austin but it rained all day long), we never made it out the front door. Here are quiet a few pics of stuff that went on:

Putting on mom's shoes

"walking"

Playing in their kitchen(Ernie, Bert and Elmo are in the microwave)

Making cookies in mom's kitchen

Here is the result(I know better than to make cookies without good ol' Crisco-for me it is the only way to a really good cookie...these had two sticks of butter and zero taste, texture...threw them out)

This is a game they created-pull your sister round the house with a ribbon...

Why buy toys?

Caught them red handed trying to unlock our file cabinet

Reading with dad

Back in their kitchen(cooking Shamu??)

Despite not feeling great(for almost a week) I did get a few smiles....