Random August Pictures

August was a big month, but it flew by so quickly. (don't all the warm months fly by fast these days?) We were in Chicago for a week, we went to the shore back home, went to the pool as much as possible, hiked in the nearby woods, discovered the local trailside nature museum, and Doug and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary.

The girls are growing so fast - the first day of school was September 8, so in August we were making sure the uniforms still fit. Clearly Nikki has grown alot over the summer and I'll need to get another longer jumper before the school year is over. Nicole also had her first sleepover with Kendall. Kendall came here first and then a few weeks later, Nikki went to her house to sleep in a tent on the giant trampoline in her backyard. FUN!

Nikki has been in physical therapy for her hip and knee growth. At first she didn't like the idea of going, but her therapist, Josette, is so nice and friendly, Nikki looks forward to her sessions now and doesn't want them to end.

Caroline has been obsessed with the computer, her MP3 player, the Wii, and playing games on a cell phone. She's our technology girl. She's also very interested in keeping up with Nicole in all things. When I had Nicole learn the states and their capitols before school, since that's what they'll be learning in 4th grade, Caroline wanted to do it, too. So now both my big girls can tell you all 50 states and their capitols! They learned them in a day on a fabulous website that has also been keeping Caroline busy with her addition skills. She is so far beyond what will be expected of her in 1st grade.

Kaitlin has been keeping us on our toes. She is in to everything! She loves nothing more than to go to her changing table and pull EVERYTHING off the shelves and play with the lotions, diapers, bibs, etc. She does this to the girls' cubbies, too. She loves to stand at the front door and look out the window. She waves and says "hi" and she claps and says "yay." It's an exciting time watching her grow and explore her surroundings, but it's also exhausting. Often I feel like I've gotten nothing done because either I've been shadowing her explorations all day, or I've put stuff away only to have her empty everything out again! But she's so quick with a smile, that it makes it all okay.

This was taken on our break from hiking in the woods in the Watchung Reservation. We went with John, Sherry, Sarah & Julia. The kids really enjoyed the long walk and weren't bothered by the rocky uphill climbs! We'll do it again when the leaves are changing.

All that hiking made Kaitlin a very tired little girl!