Amundsons

Charlotte had been in anxious anticipation for the 1st day of kindergarten all summer. She woke up early and started the routine we had practiced: she got herself dressed, brushed her hair and teeth headed downstairs to start her chores of feeding the dog Ole and the fish Bobby "wasabi". When Jake and I heard an "Oh NO!! something is WRONG with BOBBY!!" yeah... first day of school and her fish had gone off to swim in the big blue. There were tears, but this sad little girl put on her brave face to meet her big day. Her school has a "soft-opening" for the 1st day of kindergarten. It was a shorter day and parents dropped them off, stayed and then took them home. It was a nice way to start the year, particularly when she was on the verge of tears most of the morning. Nothing to do with kindergarten- everything to do with her little blue fish friend. Ready to enter the gates of education (bum bum bummmmm). The first book- The Kissing Hand ...

Summer 2011 was sweet. Mostly cause we had Jake home all summer and did not have to share him with California. So in an attempt to document a "see girls we did do things with you even though you dont remember" this post is just a mish mash of summer fun. HANG OUT: as with any good summer there was significant amounts of: hang-out-not-much-going-on-lets-run-through-the-sprinklers-and-eat-watermelon-kind-of-day. This happen to be one of those. MUNY : Charlotte and I went to the Muny again this year and saw The Little Mermaid, ate too much ice cream and had a fabulous girls day out. NY: Got a chance to see my parents out in NY which was filled with multiple water activities Do not let this photo fool you. Claire is fearless. She hurled herself off of this pier multiple times. SOCCER CAMP: Charlotte went to a day soccer camp, which she loved. Every day I picked her up she was sweaty, bright red in the face, hungry and tired. Sounds like the perfect camp to me. HORSE...

Charlotte is a ballerina. And when I say Charlotte is a ballerina, I do not simply mean that she took ballet lessons this year. She spins, twirls, leaps, and prances her way through her day. She moves continually and gracefully, fully aware of her body in space, and of any eyes on her (perhaps we have a prima donna as well). So yeah... I'm her mom so of course I think she is going to Julliard, but until she moves to NY she is at the local Greenville ballet center. This year they performed the Nutcracker and she was a lemon drop for her debut. See her in the back?? Ha. I love it.

Ok so we didn't really have Easter in August but these pictures have been just sitting on my computer and they are seriously too stinkin' cute to not put on the blog. So I will bear my shame and post them now. Plus when is it not the season to celebrate that He has risen?

Ole was born on January 4, with his 4 brothers and 2 sisters, on a farm just outside of Vandalia. We brought him home March 4, he was a 7 pound ball of fluffy sweetness. Almost immediately he started to grow. And then we blinked and he really grew. Like a lot. He gains about 3-4 pounds a week. What does that? Ole apparently. He is a sweet puppy, that gets in trouble quite a bit. To be fair everytime he wakes up his body is bigger then when he went to bed. Check out his little eye drop! His Saint Bernard-ness is starting to show.