Lovin' the Lake

Kevin's parents flew in from California Saturday to break ground on their lake house! The kids were so excited to see them. We spent the evening together on Saturday and then we decided that we would spend Sunday at the lake. So Sunday morning we packed up, grabbed a picnic lunch at McAllister's and headed out to their property. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the water was nice and warm. It was such a perfect way to spend our last day of summer. We can't wait until Babushka and Deudushka live here! The builders will probably start next month and hopefully finish by next May, just in time for lazy summer days at the lake. Sounds good to us!

The kids were all dead set on wearing their floaties even though the water level is still pretty low from the drought. They wouldn't even take them off to eat. They are all such little fish! They had such a wonderful time collecting shells, playing in the sand, swimming, jumping off the dock, and spending time together.












This isn't one of the better pictures I took, but it made me realize that Sophie and Julian really do have more physical similarities than I realized. Their faces look so similar in this one!









Sophie and Deudushka could join the circus! Or Cirque du Soleil's "O" in Las Vegas. :)

And Julian too!

After the lake we went home and dropped the boys off for baths. Then the girls and I headed to the mall to find Sophie some red shoes to go with her first day of school dress. Red or navy, or even white. Apparently we are not cool because we could not find shoes we liked for Sophie's dress anywhere. We had been to Target and Tootsies earlier in the week. We went through Nordstrom (who has great shoes, but none in the colors we were looking for), Belk, and finally found some for her at Gymboree. They are bright cherry red and look so cute on her! We ended up getting Julian some adorable brown topsiders at Nordsrom, but I bought the wrong size. This is the second time I had done this to poor Julian. So he went to school this morning in a pair of shoes he already had. We have a few pairs of shoes we got him for school, but none went with what he was wearing all that well. As the girls like to say, "Eatz oh-kay!" He is a boy afterall.

Kevin's parents spoiled us and brought us Sticky Fingers BBQ for dinner. It was nice not to cook. These Ukrainian-Americans sure do love their Southern BBQ!




After the girls bath and blow drying they set out their clothes for this morning, complete with socks in the shoes and everything! They actually tried them on first, which of course made Julian try his on too. (This is when we realized the shoe mistake.) Of course Tate wants to get dressed then too...

We did settle down for stories and bed a little earlier than usual. We read these four school books, followed by our one nightly constant "Goodnight Moon." We must have worn them out at the lake because they were all asleep pretty quickly!

I will try to post the first day of school pictures later. They looked so cute. Tate and I have spent the morning doing things around here and now we are off to Nordstrom to exchange the shoes. :) It is too quiet here for us!