In order to fit 2 big and 4 little people into our not-so-big house, we are moving the 3 girls upstairs to our bedroom and moving ourselves to the smaller (but, conveniently, located across from the nursery!) bedroom downstairs. Phase one involves painting....getting rid of our trendy red and painting it a more girly-friendly purple. Dan had a lot of extra help to get started! 
Erin, the extremely distractable potty-trainee, will find anything to do that does not involve the potty.
Kate's first day of preschool! Here she is getting some last minute advice from daddy on the phone and saying good-bye to her sisters. She did great when I dropped her off....I think the good-bye hug and kiss was more for my benefit than hers. I will admit to a few tears (mine, not hers!) when I walked out the door and poor Erin is having a mixed-up morning and will admit to a few tears herself. She will be so happy when we go to pick up her big sister! I am so proud of Kate....wow, a school girl at last! 
I had my 20 week ultrasound today and am thrilled to report that the baby is healthy and looks great. What a relief! We even got to see a great huge yawn, which was so cute. I'm sure this baby is already tired....what kind of rest could you even get in-utero with these three noisy sisters?!For our amazing sweet smiley cuddly one-year-old girl....Happy Birthday! We love you so much and we are sooooo very lucky to have you!
I've never really thought Annie looked like either of the girls, until I took this picture of her last night.....and couldn't believe how much she looked like Erin! This is Annie, 5 days before turning one, and Erin, on her first birthday. Wow! 
Our last Loon Lake weekend....the bittersweet end to summer. Lots of water and sand and cousins and Annie's first taste of (first) birthday cake. Kate was so very sad to go home! 
I feel so lucky that this summer I was able to reconnect with my three best friends from college...Julie and I got together about a month ago and Caryn and Tejal and I got together today. The amazing thing about old friends....and especially these old friends!....is that it takes about a 5 second greeting and then you are in a complete comfort zone...like no time has passed. Well, kind of like no time has passed....if you can ignore the 8 little kids that are also now hanging out with us....okay, 8 great little kids! 
The pictures that didn't fit into corn exploring, or treehouse-ing, or jam making, but I love them all the same....good times! 
Lucky little kids....to realize that blackberry jam doesn't (always) come off the grocery store shelves....to know that the best berries are hidden in the pine trees...to get to pick them, eat them, wash them, and then make lots of jam with Grandma....and to get to eat it on toast the next morning! 
