Speedy September

September started with a sweet start to the new year with a lovely little family dinner and the family services for Rosh Hashanna. 

We're starting to get the hang of this back-to-school thing and September! We seem to love Kindergarten and being a Turtle at the ECP!

Part of our new routine is Soccer for Jake. They practice on Wednesday night and have games Saturday morning. After this last game, they want to up the practice time. Even though they lost miserably they were so stinking cute on the field. 

Jake's team, the Red Chimas, had their first game and well...more practice needed. But OMG were they cute! 

Jake & Levi

Griffin & Jake post game. If only they could have scored 42 points. Or 4. Or 2. :)

Later that afternoon we headed out to Hailey's bouncy house birthday party! They were so cute and were attached at the hip the whole time!

Allie and Jake take a boat ride

In the totally disgusting pit. Do they make purell sanitizer showers?

Hailey and her sweet mom, Mollie, blow out the candle!

We got home to watch the end of the very exciting Georgia game where they beat South Carolina. We teach them young in our house!

Allie getting ready for Yom Kippur tot-services. She loves her necklace. I think we have a girly-girl here!

Jake enjoying the zipline at the Grossman's during the break-fast. 

As we were getting ready to leave, Allie walked right over to the lox and grabbed a big piece! That's MY girl! 

Allie's friend Addison had a fancy dress-up party for her birthday! Allie mostly loved wearing pretty shoes and having a dress like a ballerina. 

 

Jake's teacher has a kindergarten blog which is so wonderful because we get to have a little peek into his life at school. 

Meet the Flash and Super girl! We gave our Halloween costumes an early run (literally) with the Austin CASA Superhero Run. CASA is a wonderful organization that gives abused children a voice and support. We were happy to support the organization with this fun event.

Ready to race!

With Batgirl (aka Mia)

Superman gives Supergirl a ride!

Super Family!

Yom Kippur and Mother Nature kept the Red Chimas off the field for the last two weeks but we finally played our second game and WON or at least tied. They've definitely improved and it was much more fun to be able to see them score instead of just watching the other team! Jake scored 2 goals!

Cheering on his team during a break!

Snack time!

Allie and Peppa Pig cheer on the boys.

Max, Max and Allie cheer on the Chimas.

September sped by but we're excited for October when we get to celebrate Allie turning 2! 

August Adventures

In Texas going to the pool in the summer is a must and thankfully Jake's awesome progress in swimming continues! I am so proud of him!

Now that he's on his way to conquering the pool, Jake is getting ready for soccer and that included getting his first pair of cleats!

The first weekend in August was also play date weekend! Saturday Jake had a friend come over to play and Sunday morning we met up with Allie's BFF Hailey and her mom, Mollie for a play date at the splash pad and then lunch. I had no idea that friendships could be that strong at such a young age. Hailey is the only thing that makes me sad about Allie is leaving the school she's been at to go to the JCC (where Jake was) but we're going to get them in classes together so they can still see each other. 

BFF!

Sunday afternoon Jake had a birthday party for his friend John at the same bowling alley where he had his last party. 

Jake works on his technique!

Jake and Avi watch for the pins to fall!

Alex headed to SF for a few days for work so we had a few dinner play dates.

Jaxton, Jake and Allie at Amy's Ice Cream

Still in SF for our 9th wedding anniversary on August 8th, Alex made sure we had several make up dates. It amazes me everyday what (and who) we've created together! 

We're getting excited for football season so we got out our red & black to head out to the Austin SEC Picnic and hang out with some of our favorite Austin Dawgs! 

The next week we had a visit from Dorry & Zayde! They came in Wednesday evening and everyone stayed up to see them. Along with a number of other gifts of course, they brought Jake a chess set and taught him to play. 

While Dorry & Zayde were in town we had lots of back to school events! A parents night for the kindergartners and then meet-the-teachers for both kids!

Allie was first up! We went to visit the Turtle room at the ECP. Jake was in the Turtle class when he was Allie's age also! The open house ran a couple of hours and as we started to leave she wanted to say good-bye to us and not the teachers! Allie will do just fine at ECP. 

Jake in front of the Hill Elementary sign

In preparation for school starting the kids both got haircuts! It's amazing how much the lollipop factors into this event! 

Before we went back to school on August 26th we said good-bye to Dorry and Zayde. We had a fun visit with a crazy book buying shopping spree at Barnes & Noble, a fun night out without the little people, some yummy meals and most importantly lots of time playing and reading with and just enjoying their grandchildren. 

So here we go...Jake is a kindergartner! I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it did and we're so excited for his year ahead at Hill Elementary in Ms. Weinberg's class! And while I usually fail at these kind of things, I managed the first day of school pictures!

 

First stop: Hill Elementary and Kindergarten! It was so exciting walking in with Jake for his first day. He's been a little nervous but after just a few minutes of getting to his classroom he told me it was okay for us to leave!

Enough pictures! You can go now!

After a "tears & cheers" coffee in the library with other parents we headed to ECP. Allie's doing great at school and despite crying at morning drop-off she's doing great!

I left work early to pick up my big kindergartner and take him for some ice cream. From what I could tell, he couldn't seem to remember anything they did except that they ate lunch and went to the playground, he had a great day!   

He made it through the first day!

After only a few days without each other at school, I knew Allie needed some time with BFF Hailey. She was so excited to see her and they hugged, danced, squealed and had so much fun. 

Soccer has begun and Jake is part of the North Austin Soccer Association, yes, NASA. He's on a team with some of his best buds from ECP: Jacob, Avi, Griffin, Levi, & John. Jake may be most excited about the fact that his daddy is one of the coaches!

They had a great first practice (and Jake even scored a goal), the little siblings had a fun playdate at the playground next to the field and we all had a fun, although slightly chaotic, dinner afterwards! 

To end August, we headed to Plano to see the Viviers. Alex had a bunch of weekend obligations so sadly he stayed home but as always we had fun with one little exception...

A neighbor was having some work done on their trees and apparently my car got in the way! As I'm writing this my car is still in Plano and hopefully getting fixed very soon! Vivier's get the garage ready because from now on that is where I'll be parking! :) 

Other then that, we had a great time! We attempted to make it to a number of Talia's soccer games but was thwarted by the car situation  the heat and slow moving children. They placed second in the whole tournament and Talia was such a trooper playing sick. 

There was lots of snuggling and playing, swimming and of course as always eating! I'm not sure how Brenna (and Josh) stayed out of all my pictures, she must have been too busy cuddling and snuggling the littles!

Jake introduces Michael to Peppa Pig

After the car fiasco, Brenna knew I needed a little relaxation so we met Jodi and went for manicures and pedicures. Allie came with us and had her first pedicure! She loved it (a little too much) just like her mommy and godmommy!

She picked out her color all by herself. Pink, naturally!

She LOVED the bunny chair!

Fun month and we're off to September! See you next month!