Nutcracker auditions!

 Friday ~ made it through the first three days of school. I spent a few hours today sitting with Kathy so that Ted could run some errands. I held her hand, and told her stories, and she mostly slept. So thankful for this woman who I have loved and been loved by for the past twenty years. 

After school, it was time for ... Nutcracker auditions! I honestly think the girls were way more nervous and excited for Nutcracker auditions than they were about the new school year!

Hard to see, but Sydney is a Level 5 in the blue (standing in back row) and Quinn a Level 4 in the pink (bottom row, 2nd from right). 

After auditions, Sydney and I went next door to give Rollo some love as his family had gone up to Seattle for the evening. Nothing Sydney loves more than some furry time!

Dog in motion!

She wore him out!

Back to School for 6th and 10th Grades!

Back to school for an amazing 2024 - 2025 School Year!! 

She's ready for middle school!

Love this kid!

So excited for her year!

Sisters... Ready!

They are so amazing!

Whimsy!

Silly!

This kid. If she could love herself as much as I love her. Wow!

Where will the year take her??

Quinn went to school with our next door carpool, and I dropped Sydney off. Then... time for some Mom pampering! Picked up my pumpkin spice latte, and headed to get a fall pedicure. Yay!

Labor Day Weekend & Back to School Eve!

We enjoyed a mostly lazy Labor Day weekend ~ just sleeping in (the girls), and reading, thinking, talking with each other. It was lovely, and a nice rest before the busyness of the school year begins. 

We had a lovely visit with Ted and Kathy on Sunday. 

Grandpa snuggles.

Quinn and I finished our Vision Boards for 2024-2025! Sydney elected to not participate in this activity with us. :-) 

Sydney and I had a Lord of the Rings marathon! So fun to share this series with her. Brandon even watched a bit with us and we had a great time laughing as she kept discovering different plot points in Harry Potter that you can trace right back to the inspiration of Tolkien!

On the day before school starts... we had fun at the Griffin Open House!

Quinn and her friends listening to Principal Hagen welcome them and tell them what to expect~ 

Afterwards, they got to find all their classes and meet all their teachers. Fun! 

Sydney decided it was a good day to make "slutty brownies" ~ a crust of chocolate chip cookie dough, Oreos in the middle, brownies on top! They were a bit intense!

The last week of summer...

The last week of summer... involved me working at Starbucks a lot because I spent so much time driving these girls to various activities and waiting for them to be done! But hey... it's Pumpkin Spice Latte season, so I'm very happy!

Sydney is driving us home from Island Market or Griffin ~ she's not doing any highway driving yet, but this was the very first time she drove Ruby with me in the car. She's doing great!

"Mom, I can't believe you're taking a picture of this!"

Later in the same day... 

The girls have been slumber partying in Sydney's room this week ~ Sydney says it helps her to go to bed earlier at night! :-) It's hard to see here... but that is Sydney sound asleep at about 10am when I was waking the girls to get ready to head to a dance class!

Sleeping Quinn ~ love how both girls have their sleeping masks on!

Sleepy girls... going to be a rude transition when school starts next week!

Love Sydney's immune response to whatever bug bit her on the beach on Monday!

Back to school shopping ~ Sydney's Stitch Fix box arrived. It was a really good one! Cute flannel that matches the one Quinn got in her box. :-) 

New jeans!

Love the sweater!

Quinn had a sleepover with her bestie Bailey~ 24 hours of nonstop playing and giggling, followed by a huge breakfast of waffles and whipped cream in the morning.

I had peanut butter on mine. Everything tastes better when it is Mickey shaped!

The girls had a blast setting up dominos on the three flights of stairs!

We went over to the Oestreichs for dinner on Thursday night, and Sydney drove home from Island Market in the dark for the first time!! She was very nervous about it, but did great.

We're giving our Misha Cat so much love these days. He's slowing down in his cancer battle, and we're getting closer to the point where it's just doing all we can to keep him comfortable. He's still his happy and snuggly self, and we're loving on him all the time!

Traditional Harry Potter movie marathon countdown to September 1st and Back to Hogwarts Day! Quinn is currently reading the books and is in Book 5, so we watched 6, 7, and 8. So much fun!

Enjoying the final days of summer!

This has been such a busy summer that when we get a moment of downtime we tend to just want to lay about the house and quietly read our books. Yesterday we met some friends at the beach, and it was a lovely reminder of how beautiful and accessible our backyard is!

The mountain was out and gorgeous!

Seagulls, cormorants, and harbor seals ~

So many different jellies in the water, too. Hard to see in the picture, but lots of harbor seals swimming about, and hauled out further down on the docks.

I love how this kid loves nature.

Quinn and her 4H besties were having the best time playing on the beach... as the tide was rapidly rising!

Sydney enjoyed sitting at the table with the Moms and chatting with us, while texting with her friends.

Love these girls!