maddie turns three!

Maddie turned 3 on Saturday!!

We had a fun cowgirl party at the house with a few friends and family members over to celebrate.

She started off the day opening up her present from Mommy and Daddy... some pink cowboy boots!

More pictures to come!

bye bye to summer beach trip

The Herndons said goodbye to this crazy hot summer with one last trip to the beach. It was a little... interesting taking a 10 month old who doesn't sit still and puts everything in her mouth to the land of sand, but we managed. She stayed in the stroller during our walks on the beach and spent very little time actually on the beach blanket. She LOVED floating in the pool in her raft. So far she's a little swimmer- whenever she's in the water she kicks her legs and tries to put her face in the water!

We took advantage of the early evening hours (and the early morning hours as well) on the beach when Tucker could run and play with us.

We didn't see any dolphins in the water this trip - unfortunately. Thats my favorite part of southern beaches... but we did get to see lots of fish swimming in the surf while we swam. Maddie was VERY brave girl and let us take her out into the ocean with her swimmies on. She did great riding up over the waves and even floating for a bit by herself. Go Maddie!

Back to School Part 2

Okay... Im finally getting around to posting the part 2 of 2 Back to School photos. Ive been having to travel a bit for work again so things always get a little hectic when we have to start juggling work and travel and the kids!

So far schools been great. Minus a little hiccup with Maddie missing her first day because of a sore throat, she and Caroline went the next day and I think Maddie is fitting right in. Here they are below on the front steps. I couldnt for the life of me get Maddie to hold her lunchbag... she just wanted to hold Caroline.

I was a little nervous about our very newly potty trained Maddie with a new classroom and new teachers (and new potties!) but she has only had one accident in 6 days of class and her teachers have said she's totally independent!

We get daily reports from school and its SO fun to see what they do each day. Even Baby Caroline!!! The first week they were learning about the beach and the ocean. Caroline fingerpainted... we have her very first piece of art on the fridge as we speak. Caroline has also been doing yoga. I might leave my digital camera there this week and beg them to take pictures while C is in her "shooting star" pose.

Here they are getting ready for their second day together (C's third).

Can't wait to see what they learn this week. Jims pretty excited that Maddie was learning the NC state song... so Im sure they'll be practicing that together all week.

1st day of school... part 1

Baby Caroline had her VERY first day of school EVER today!

Both of the girls were supposed to be starting today, but Maddie woke up around 1am last night complaining that her neck hurt - so she was home today with a sore throat. Since Baby Caroline felt fine, we went ahead and sent her to school.

She did great. One thing I like about this new school is that the class sizes are very small. When I dropped her off- there was only one other baby there. There are two boys and two girls, and the two boys are on vacation this week so she had almost 1 on 1 attention from her teacher.

Want to know what she did today? I'll tell you whats on her daily report.

She... listened to the word "rainbow" and practiced the sign for it.

She used purple and orange markers (yikes).

She waved colorful scarves.

and she played with playdough (special note from teacher... she loved it but tried to eat it).

All in all - sounds like a pretty good day for a 9 month old!

I have to say that sending the girls back into a daycare environment after having a nanny for 6 months was a really hard decision for us but I think this school will work out well. The girls will get some outside stimulus and get to socialize with other kids, but still be home with me on Mondays and Fridays. They will also be learning sign language, Spanish and practicing yoga... so Im sure there will be lots of fun yoga pictures to come.

I hope Part 2 of this post will be tomorrow when Maddie feels better and can go to school.

9 month stats!

I need to get these 9 month stats posted before she turns 10 months!

Our sweet Caroline is growing so fast- its hard to believe. She's been crawling for a month or so now, and pulling up on absolutely everything. I think she'll be walking before she turns a year old.

Her favorite "toy" right now is door stoppers and LOVES to take the little white rubber stopper off the top and chew on it. Its a mad race to get to them before she does and we've just removed the rubber stopper on most of them. She also loves Tuckers water bowl and has made her own little water table from it... yuck!

She's eating finger foods now and loves just about anything.

She had her 9 month appt a few weeks ago and did great. She had one shot and took it like a champ. Only cried until Daddy picked her up and stopped right away.

She weighed 19 lbs 8 oz. (>50%)

Length: 28" (75th%)

Head: 18" (95th%)

So she's doing absolutely perfect!