Wednesday, September 30

Apple Valley Fall Festival!

 

A few of my neighborhood friends and I decided to throw a Fall Festival in Apple Valley this fall! Everyone contributed their time or talent and it was a a lot of fun!  Our neighbor Mike Kerwin plays in a local "Dad Band" and he brought his buddies to play music for us, another family offered to smoke ribs all weekend for us, and everyone brought a side dish to share! We even had a fun polaroid Photo Booth one of the neighbors set up!


The food was AMAZING!

I really love our little Apple Valley neighborhood so much and love that the girls have grown up with all these wonderful people of all ages from babies they babysit for to older neighbors who are like second grandparents to them . . . 










The Dad Band was so good!!




Kate and her friend Lucy asked if they could play a couple songs at the end of the night! To their surprise, the band said YES and they ran home so fast to grab a couple guitars from our house! These girls have never sang together before and Kate has NEVER sang in public before! I was so proud of them!

No rehearsal needed!

Turn up the volume!





Tuesday, September 29

September Days . . .

September might just have been the busiest month of our lives! 8th Grade year for Kate at Cure' of Ars - and being the last of 9 years in the same school - lots of rituals and traditions have kicked off!  Molly being in her Junior year and supposedly the busiest of HS years - with all her advanced and AP classes, plus playing on the Varsity tennis team and wanting to go to all the football games and high school rituals! Mike and I are both just trying to keep up between our jobs, the never-ending yardwork to be done, our house upkeep and making it a priority to still have family dinners almost every night and mass together every Sunday! Whew! It's a whirlwind and September felt like it was 3 years packed in to 30 days. Regardless, I managed to take a few pix to remember it all!  Feeling very blessed!

Kate and friends at recess!

Molly and her friend Isabella at a football game - the theme was ANIMALS!

Mike and I snuck in a dinner date for our 19 year anniversary!

Bear still waits with his ball, until I come out to play with him. 
He never gives up hope!

My Aunt Carol came to visit us for a few days and we all loved having her here!! It was so much fun!
Here we are the first morning she was here watching Molly play tennis for Saint James!  


Another day we got to watch Kate play volleyball . . . 

It was nice Kate was playing at "HOME" so Carol could come to her alma mater to watch the Cure' girls play!

One of the girls Kate babysits came to watch Kate as well!

Kate & Blakely . . . 

We loved having Carol stay with us so much! I've always been close to Carol and had a special relationship with her but it's really cool to see my girls love her as well. Everyone was sad to see her leave after her 4 day visit! We had lots of great talks and laughs  . . . 

More football games for Molly . . . This week the theme was RED, WHITE & BLUE!


Bear is loving the cooler temps . . .

And riding with the windows down again - 

St. Michael's Youth Group kick off was a paint ball party!
{Mary, Molly, Anna}

Brian came in town for the MNF Chiefs game with friends so we met 
him at Jack Stack BBQ before the game!

Molly - SJA Club pix

More Tennis tournaments for Saint James - 
I could watch Molly play and never ever get sick of it. She is SO good and so competitive mentally. She is really fun to watch! She and her doubles partner, Leah are having a great season. Most of her tournaments are all day long so I've been moving work around to not miss any of it!


Kate is playing yet again this year in the Hand Bell choir at church. This was an all school mass I attended to her her play. It was beautiful!

8th Grade Progressive Dinner!
{Reece, Lottie, Lucy, Kate}

Love this class! Such great kids she's known some of them since she was a baby!

Prayer Service at the first home, followed by dinner at the 2nd home, then they walked to the final house for a DJ dance party in the backyard!



They are all starting to feel sentimental this is their last year together - as they are all going off to different High Schools next year . . .



More volleyball games - Friday night!

Molly was asked to Homecoming while hanging out at her friend Mary's house by a sweet boy named John. Homecoming is in a few weeks!

Kate and her good friend Lucy went to Freya Skye concert!

Love their glitter freckles!