The official end of a GREAT Summer...

Well if you can't tell from the absence of my frequent blogs, the summer is over and school is officially back in session. We had a great end to the summer just spending time with Kate in her playroom, on the swing set, in the pool, and running in circles around our house (a new favorite of Kate's).

The blur in the picture above is partly because I took it with my phone and mostly because that is our Kate... a blur on the go!

One of the first things to show our end of summer was my going back to work full time from 8 to 4. I have probably had one of the best starts to the school year that I can remember thankfully but it is still so tough to be away from Kate for so long. Over the summer I still took Kate to Ms. Judy one to two times a week for a few hours so that the fall adjustment wouldn't be so rough on either of us. It gave Kate time with her friends (especially Sienna, a new little girl at Ms. Judy's who I think is only 3 months older) and it gave me a chance to vacuum and really do the type of cleaning I needed to do without Kate "helping". Of course Ms. Judy didn't skip a beat and each week Ms. Judy kept up with her thematic weeks and I tried to plan Kate's time there to coincide with the "special" days at school. Some of my favorites were: "Let's go shopping" (the kids all shopped for grocery boxes all the parents brought, "Cooking"(the kids each brought a veggie and fruit from home for vegetable soup and fruit cocktail), "Water Play", "Camping" (yes there was a tent in the kitchen when we got there, and "Luau" to end the summer. Kate loved them all and Ms. Judy got some great pictures that she promises to send me soon.

Pictures to come....

We also had to say goodbye to Kate's cousins as they went back to La Paz to get ready for their own school year. We were spoiled to have cousins here for a month and a half and I think watching Kate love them so much made their leaving this summer the hardest yet. Kate truly lights up when she sees Angela and even two weeks after they've left Kate is still asking for "El-a, and Ca-che" her cousin's nicknames. I hope as time goes by we will be able to work out our schedules better and get more than one visit a year.

Mariana and Kate had a great time in Kate's Elmo Restaurant.

The "girls" in the car Abu and Pochi got them! Such princesses!

SO happy with Tia Angela.


One last picture of the girls in their matching dresses. Can you tell that they had truly enjoyed the playroom as well before this picture? Ha!

I plan to try to keep updating Kate's blog at least once a week now that I'm back in school but time will only tell. Francisco started back to school today as well and I can't begin to express how excited I am at the thought of him finishing this May! I continue to pray that God will help him through these next two semesters and continue to guide our family as we venture to new things once Francisco is through with school (he's been in school since we were dating!). Wishing everyone all the best and a great school year...counting the days until my first break! ~Michele