Dollywood

As many of you know, school starts back this week. It will also mean that my youngest starts Kindergarten. Each year we get a gift for the kids as a "have a good school year" and we love them kind of present. This year, I probably did a lot more than usual because it has been a rough few months (ok, maybe a rough whole year). We took the kids to Dollywood today and I obviously caught this picture of Matt attempting to stop a car with no brakes. He can be such a dork! The girls had a great time and my mom joined us for the trip, which allowed for more rides with the girls individually since mom could be with the one we were not riding with. Sweet Pea rode Dare Devil Falls for the first time this year. I thought she would be terrified but she was ready to go again. We had the traditional funnel cake and went by a store on the way home because it was the only store that had the one thing that Sweet Pea really wanted as a gift.

So, for the gifts... 1. trip to Dollywood, 2. a silver bracelet, 3. a monogrammed heart charm and necklace and another silver necklace with a charm that says "Daddy's Girl", 4. the newest Junie B. Jones book, which happens to be an activity book about going to school (because we adore June B. in our house), 5. Sweet Pea got a new computer game and Pumpkin Pie got a new DS game, and finally 6. Sweet Pea got a ring with a flower (the thing she really wanted) on it and she added to her collection of stuffed pigs today. We spent the same amount of money on the girls even though the number of gifts are not even. I know that some people get hung up on that issue but the girls understand the concept.

Here are a couple of pictures...the ring and the Junie B. Jones book and the pig-





Just for the record, I am having a really hard time with Sweet Pea starting school. Although we plan to have more children, health concerns are putting that on the back burner. That leaves me with feeling like it may be my last one to go off to school. I do cry every year when Pumpkin Pie goes to school for the first day, just for the record. But anyway, it is a sad thing for your youngest to go off to school and makes me dread Pumpkin Pie's teenage years rapidly approaching. Although it is still several years away, it seems to be coming at me like a freight train.
I also thought that I would show off the girls backpacks. Sweet Pea insisted on having two backpacks this year (polka dots from Gymboree and black/white Damask print that her cousin was able to get for us). She actually wanted more but I insisted that two was more than she could carry at one time. Pumpkin Pie has three backpacks that she has accumulated over the past few years that have proven to withstand HER. We typically have to purchase at least two backpacks per year (and we are not talking cheap backpacks) because she is so hard on them that they fall apart. These have managed to outlast her, although the Limited Two backpack is giving in.