First Day of School

 (Rebecca was the only one who didn't get her school supplies dropped off early.  Look how heavy that backpack is!)

 Here are the cute kids on the first day of school, 2012.  They are all looking pretty grown up!

 Rebecca is starting 5th grade.  She is sure looking grown up.  Where has the time gone?

 Miriam is starting 3rd grade.  She is such a sweetie and so pretty!  She will do great in school.

 Where has my baby boy gone?  Joseph is starting kindergarten.  He is ready for lots of fun!

Little Ruth and I are going to have lots of quality time together before she starts school...

Lemonade Stand

 We had a neighborhood garage sale a couple weekends ago.  The kids saw the advertisements for it and wanted to have a garage sale, too.  Now my opinion of garage sales is that it is great for other people to have, but I don't want to sit outside all day long in the heat waiting for someone to come and look at my stuff.  Especially when my husband is out of town so I would have to do all the work.  So the kids settled for setting up a lemonade stand for all the garage sale goers.  They had a fun time and made a little money.  Good job!

Denver Zoo

 I took the kids on a trip to the Denver Zoo.  They all enjoy looking at the animals and spenting time together.

 Rebecca also likes to take pictures of the animals.  I feel that the pictures should have at least one member of the family in them, but Rebecca took a picture of nearly every animal we saw, but I only got these three of us.  Hmm...

Swimming Lessons

 This summer the kids did two sessions of swimming lessons. We went to a different pool than we have in the past, and I was thrilled with their progress.  (Poor Ruth just hung out on the side with me during the other kids' lessons.)

 Miriam really overcame a lot of her fears of the water.  She would willingly play in the water by going under and getting the rings off the bottom.  She learned some basic strokes and was starting to try to breathe.

 Joseph loves the water.  He gained a lot of confidence as well as started to learn some floats and kicks.  He loved it so much that I took the kids to the pool one afternoon and the lifeguard nearly had to jump in and save him because he thought he could swim.  He'd been doing it in lessons, right?

Rebecca is a good little swimmer.  She knows all the basic strokes and is working on being able to swim the length of the pool.  I'm glad that it is something she enjoys!

Hair Cuts

 I have a little tradition going-- the kids go in to get a professional hair cut once a year, before school starts.  It works out pretty well because when you don't go to the fancy kids salon for a whole year, they send you a coupon to get you to come back, which brings the price down to the same as going to Cost Cutters.

 And since the girls are of the mindset that they want to grow out their hair, I just take them in to get it trimmed up even and cleaned up.  I am getting pretty good (okay, not terrible any more) at cutting Joseph's hair.  I practice on him every couple months.

 But for Ruth, this was her first hair cut.  I have been holding off getting it cut, just trying to keep it pulled up and out of her face.  But inevitably she would have hair in her face, and it just looked messy all the time, so I had them trim her some bangs and straighten it all up.  She did pretty good for her first time. 

 What a cutie!

Feeling Guilty

 I realized that I had taken very few pictures of my children this summer, so I pulled out the camera to take some candid shots of the kids being themselves. 

 I found that Ruth has become quite the little ham.  She kept saying, "Cheese" and waiting for me to take a picture of her.

 Joseph and Miriam humored me by looking up from the Play-Doh to take a picture.

 Rebecca, on the other hand, must be too old for her silly mother, because she didn't want to look at me or get her picture taken.  "Come on, Mom!"

What They Do...

 When they're ready for church early!

 I'm surprised I didn't catch anyone reading, that is an activity of choice for Rebecca and Miriam.

 I love these sweet kiddos!