Back to School and Sarah Avery is 7!

 The past month has flown by.  The girls and I started school and we celebrated Sarah Avery's birthday.  Here are the photos.........

The week that I had new teacher orientation and pre-planning, our friends were kind enough to take the girls on fun adventures.  This particular day, they visited the Kyiv Zoo.

They had the best time. 

Another day, the went horseback riding.  

Sarah Avery was so proud to ride without anybody leading her horse. 

Peter and I had a date night at a restaurant in our neighborhood to celebrate surviving the first week of me being a working mom.  ;)

Susannah baked Sarah Avery's birthday cupcakes.  Chocolate Chip pumpkin with vanilla frosting.  They were yummy!

So proud of this 7 year old.  She has grown into such a confident and capable girl.  She is kind and affectionate, hilarious and observant, focused and industrious, creative and athletic. I love this beautiful picture of her before her family birthday party.  

She was so excited to open her presents.  

And read her cards. 

Her big present was a watch/phone like Susannah has.  So grown up. 

So exciting!!

Cupcakes made with love by her sister.  

Later that day, her friends came over for a surprise birthday visit.  

They brought homemade ice-cream and played in the yard for a bit.  

And then, the first day of school was upon us.  I was nervous but so excited to have my own classroom again.  

My first day of school pic.  

I wasn't the only one who was excited.  This 5th grader and 2nd grader were ready!

Sarah Avery loves her teacher, Ms. G.

And Susannah was excited to be in a class with her best friend Maja.

The next Saturday was Sarah Avery's friend birthday party.  Our neighbor made these adorable cookies for party favors.  

And this cookie cake which was Sarah Avery's requested dessert.

The inflatable slide we rented just barely fit in our backyard.  

After sliding and climbing for a while, the girls were ready for their skittle and sprite experiment.  

Sarah Avery and her friend Ivy.

Susannah showing off her skittle color wheel.

Next up:  Presents!

These friends had the best time celebrating.  We are so thankful for wonderful neighbors.  

Time to sing!

After cake it was time for a water balloon fight in the front yard.  We didn't buy water balloons, so popping those suckers was a challenge.  :)

This balloon bouquet was so cute and quite the challenge to acquire with my limited language skills.  

Friends stayed and played on the slide until 5 pm. 

It was a blast.  Peter and I even slid our fair share of times.

These three are tackling school mornings without Mommy and are having a great time.  

Shifting gears, I have to acknowledge that while this month was full of fun memories, it also presented its fair share of challenges and heartbreak.  Daddy, or Poppy as the girls knew him, passed away during our first week of school.  I flew home to LaGrange but didn't make it in time to say goodbye.  I am super grateful to Peter for his initiative and support in arranging for me to fly so quickly and for holding down the fort while I was away. It was a challenge to miss a week of school when I was so new, but I'm so glad I was able to be with Sherrie and attend the service.  A silver lining was seeing friends who rallied around me during my visit.  (Thank you Leah, Dean and Elizabeth!!!)   I don't really have any eloquent words to share so I thought I would share this picture instead.  

I love this picture because it was taken on such a fun night of celebration (my friend Lyndsey's wedding), but also because it represents so much of who Daddy was.  He loved to celebrate, he loved to have drinks and laughs with the people he cared about, he loved to tell old stories, he loved to dance, he loved good food.  And we had shared all of that together that night.  I love remembering him like this.  We miss you Poppy.   

It has been a month of highs and lows.  But we have survived and we are looking forward to the next couple of months of settling into our new routines, traveling for Fall Break, and celebrating Halloween.  We hope all of you are well.  Thank you to everyone who prayed and sent love and support.  We love and miss all of you!