The New Neighbor . . .

As much as we all love our new neighborhood in Illinois I think little Laurel is the happiest. Her yard is exponentially larger than before AND there are lots of cute boys in the neighborhood. This guy just moved in. We don't know his name, but he seems like a pretty good dog.

Chase me!

Hey, let's invite Jack over to play too.

P.S. A few days after this our new neighbor was roaming the 'hood again. I think he likes us because he sat down in the driveway behind Jeff's car. I had to put him in my car and drive him home . . . poor guy.

What Happens When A Four Year Old Is Alone With Lip Gloss?

Hey Mom! I'm ready to go to the mall.

Back to St. Pats 2008

Twas the night before first grade
and Sarah was ready
She picked out an outfit
while she chatted with Daddy.
Her lipgloss, necklace and shoes in a stack
on top of her skirt next to her backpack.
She woke up at 6:00 and hollered to Kate
"Wake up little sis, I cannot be late!!"
She ate just a bit and I combed her curls.
Then we zipped to St. Pat’s
To give first grade a whirl.

I wasn't kidding. Her outfit was laid out.

Complete with matching frog socks and undies,

lipgloss, S necklace and shoes.

Okay, I'm all ready for bed.

Good morning.
I think I’ll sneak my IPod,
Journal and toy cell phone in my bag.

What will I do today?

Okay, ready to go mom!

We're here!! I'm so excited!

Whew someone I know!!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome home little first grader!

It was a good day mom!!

I think an otter pop is all I want.

Back to Business

That's it! Summer is over. School starts in a few days. It's time to get back to business. We need school clothes, shoes, haircuts and Supermom needs to get organized.

Today we had a girls day to get ready for school. We started at our favorite place Miss Jen's salon. Jen is one of the wonderful people here in Illinois who has been extraordinarily nice. She is a fun, chatty, warm hearted lady with a really neat energy. If you come to Washington, IL I highly recommend a visit to Miss Jen!!


Miss Jen greeted the girls at the door as if they were princesses. And boy did she give them the royal treatment . . .

Sarah went first.

She started with a shampoo

and scalp massage.

Then the cut.

Miss Jen added some layers

to show off Sarah's gorgeous curls.

Then she got to sit under they dryer.

That's HUGE when you're six!!

Then it was Kate's turn.

Shampoo and scalp massage.

Just a trim on her pretty tresses.

And a blow dry and style.

Then Jen took the girls upstairs and polished their nails. After the salon, we picked up Dad and headed to the mall. We had lunch and finished up school shopping at Justice. What a fun day!!

Look out school

here come the Schultz Girls!

Roadtrip!!!

It's been a very long time since we've visited our family in Virginia (pronounced Vuh-gin-yuh ever since we watched John Adams on HBO, thank you Mr. Jefferson) It's been so long in fact, we had never actually met our two year old nephew, Jayden, in person. Yeah, no cape here . . .

From Illinois it's only a about a 12 drive to DC, so we loaded up the car, asked the neighbors to watch the dog and zipped off to our homeland to spend Poppy's 60th birthday:

We left at 4:00 am

Sarah was so excited she was wide awake.

So was Kate.

But she was hiding her dark circles

with the big glasses.

Then she turned into a penguin.

And Sarah turned into a monkey.

~

~

While I do have many, many pictures of our trip - you'll notice shots of the girls with Nana, Poppy, Aunt Kelly and Uncle TC are missing. Why you might wonder - well once again Supermom blew it. We were having so much fun I just wasn't snapping pics. Duh!!!

The Big Surprise

For those of you who have never met Jeff's mom (aka Nana or MommyD - it's a cute story, I'll tell ya later) She is a wonderful, loving lady. Prior to our trip Nana planned a special makeover for the girls at Libby Lu. If you need to feel like a diva this is the place to go!!! Anyway, Nana told the girls she had an appointment at the mall but promised to do something fun afterward. Sarah and Kate were just happy to spend time with her so they went along. When we got to there Nana told them she had a surprise . . . they couldn't even come close to guessing it. Then we walked into Libby Lu.

The stylist showed them all their

choices of hairstyles and treat packages.

Kate chose Princess Style

Gorgeous!!

Sarah had her nails done.

In blue glitter.

They had total makeovers.

Sarah chose 'Sporty' Style.

Ooooh la la

So pretty!

Then they both got to pick a puppy

collars and clothes for the dog

and a carrier.

They had their choice of microphones.

Kate chose the one with bling.

Sarah opted for the hands free model.

Then they got to shop for more goodies.

Make-up, hair ties, jewelry.

Look at the divas!!!

~

~

More fun in Vuh-Gin-Yuh
~
~

On the way home we took the girls

to the church where Superdad and I got married.

When we got back to Nana and Poppy's house

we finally met sweet little Jayden.

Isn't he cute?

The girls loved him!!

Later that day we had Poppy's birthday party.

All Jeff's cousins came over.

Sarah and Kate had a blast

playing with all the kids.

Happy 60th Poppy!!!
~
~
Ocean City

(since we're being silly, aka the B-e-ch)

Here we are checking in to the hotel.

Check out the view!

Hey Sarah, mom said we shouldn't

crawl around on the hotel floor.

So let's hang on this table thing

and try not to fall off

onto the floor mom doesn't

want us to play on.

Going to the bech.

Hello seaguls.

Hello sand.

Hello fun!!!

Look out water here I come!!

Hello waves.

Hello cockail hour!!

Okay, remember Kate broke her arm

5 days before we left on our trip.

The cast is waterproof

BUT we had to keep sand from getting in it.

Hello Mojito!!

Sarah discovered that she likes muscles.

On the boardwalk.

The next day we hit the beach.

Supermodel Kate is wearing a Hawiian tankini with a bright yellow dishwashing glove duct taped to her cast. At the top of her cast she has waterproof bandages to keep sand and water out. Little Kat was the toast of Ocean City in this outfit.

Remember you saw it here first!!

The girls met a friend.

They built a volcano.

I'm a beachgirl.

Can we move here.

Sarah and her friend found a dead crab.

And Supermom let them play with it.

I'm still capeless over here.

Buddies!

Dad's favorite part of the trip was the

seafood buffet. It was pretty busy so there

aren't any pics. But we did manage to pose with

the cool giant turle outside.

Thrasher French Fries.

There's a lot of hype about these

but honestly I'm not sure why.

They were kinda gross!

P.S. Note the annoyed smile on Superdad. His real smile is much more handsome. That smirk was his way of saying hurry up with the dumb picture so I can eat my world famous Thrasher fries - which are not really that good and will probably give me a stomach ache later.

We're too excited to sleep!

~

~

Back in Virgnia

~

~

Kate bonded with cousin Jayden.

And the girls caught up on some much needed sleep.

~

~

Cincinnati

~

We reluctantly left home and headed off to Cincinnati for a quick visit with Aunt-T and her family.

On the way Kate slept some more.

So did big sister.

We were in Cincinnati less than 24 hours but we managed to have a nice dinner, watch cousin Mike run a 5K, go to football photos with cousin Joe and watch cousin Jake play a 3 way football scrimage.

Kate loved on Jakey.

Aunt-T is always happy to see the girls.

Sarah found a praying mantis. See!

And the girls harrassed big boy Jake.

~

~

Heading Home

The rest of the trip home was quiet.

There was a lot of sleeping . . .

No picture taking at all.

It was a really great trip.

I wish we had more pics with the family!!