First Day of School 2015

All three eager & ready for their first day of school!

 Aiden, First Grade

Marshall Road Elementary

 Andrew, Pre-K

Holy Comforter Preschool

Abby, 2's Preschool Class

Holy Comforter Preschool

Our Last Week of Summer :)

I'm totally getting caught up as I am finally blogging about the last week of summer:)

After spending two weeks of vacation in NC, we were ready to home for one last week of summer before school started.  Well, almost all of us were.  My mom was going to head up to baby-sit Jack for a week in Baltimore but with a quick last minute decision, she decided to take Jack and Aiden home with her.  So off to grandma's house, Aiden went & he couldn't have been more excited.  He eagerly waved good-bye to us at the beach house while Chris, Abby, Andrew, & I drove away without one bit of nerves in his body.  This is his first time having a "sleepover" somewhere else & almost a full week.  He LOVED it & says it was his favorite part of summer.  They got lots of special treats, visited the museum, parks, & just got to be with his grandma and cousin Jack for several days. 

While Aiden was off to Grandma's house, the kids & I settled back into life in Virginia.  It was a lot of errands, getting everything for school, & enjoying a few more carefree days of summer.  Someone was happy that his Halloween costume came...

 And someone else needed a vacation from vacation...

  We had fun, but we sure missed Aiden!

Aiden finally returned & we enjoyed a nice three-day family weekend over Labor Day.  Just spending together, with no special plans, sometimes makes these extra long weekends the best!

 

Now, it's time to send these kids off to school...

Another day in paradise...

Love this girl!

The beach always knows how make one nap...

Have you ever tried to take four kids, six and under to putt-putt golf?  It's not as much fun as you think it sounds, trust me!

little Andrew, big Ocean

Seriously, the sky.  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Sand Angel Abby

Hot afternoons means creative fun inside.  Aiden decided to make his very own board game:  Color World.

Andrew built this huge Magnatiles tower!

Hello gorgeous beach.

Window shopping at the toy shop!

Happy with our sweet candy loot!

Happy girl!

Happy boy!

Sandcastle builders

Someone loved our food stash...

Nature's playground

Good-bye beach, see you next year!

Some More Favorite Photos, Emerald Isle

This week, I am sharing all my favorite beach photos so here is round two :)

Annual Trip to Emerald Isle, NC

If you ask me where my favorite place on Earth is, this may be it.  Emerald Isle.  We come here every summer & it is one of the highlights of our year.  So many family memories, a great place to escape from the busyness of life, & lots of time to just "be" together as a family.  This post may be a little late (as it happened in August), but these pictures are ones I don't want to forget.  Hello Emerald Isle:

What do we do here?  We spend almost every waking moment either at the beach together as a family or spending time in the beach house together as a family.  This year, we had a blast together & enjoyed some extra special time with Grandma Snow, MeMe Ruff, & Aunt Jill/Uncle Tom/Jack for the week!  As you can see below, the kids love their beach weeks.  I will be sharing a few more pictures in posts to come.

Sassy Abby

 Notice all three kids content (this is rare!)

 Thank goodness Chris builds sandcastles because I don't!

 Sweet Brothers in their pajamas

Happy Rogers trio! 

 Mommy & Abby

 Happy Kids:)

:) 

I love love this picture! 

 Chris trying out the panoramic camera:)