First Day of Kindergarten

Here's our big girl on her first day of school! She was so excited leading up to this...a little nervous when the day actually arrived. She was a mixture of emotions about this new adventure, equal parts thrilled to be so big, and terrified to venture into this new big, unknown school. Our whole family walked down to school together, even Daddy made time to go! We walked her in to her teacher and said a goodbye and she became a little teary. I tried to make a swift exit, to not prolong her sad goodbye and as we were leaving her friend Ella said "hello" to her from across the hall. That brought a big smile to her face. They aren't in the same class, but they did get to play together on the playground later that day too. That was the highlight of her day she said. She said the talked on the swings, but it was really noisy so they had to shout :) She seemed confident, happy and said I didn't need to worry about her at school. She was going to be fine! Whew.

Sadie's BIG girl room

On vacation Sadie slept in a big girl bed at the cottage, the same way her big sister made the leap 3 years ago. She did very well, sleeping through the night, and when we returned home she said, "no cribby, big girl bed." So, there was no turning back. We had 2 good nights under our belt at home and made the leap to rearrange her room and disassemble the beloved cribby. I am going to miss having a little one in a crib. It marks an end of an era at the Cotts house. Kind of sad. But, what fun our little people are today!
Here are a before and 2 after shots of her room!

Glen Lake Photos

A digital scrapbook by Smilebox

Glen Lake Days

We are having a fantastic time at the lake this year! The girls have been loving the water and playing in the sand. We've been very content to stick close by the cottage and just wander out to the lake the lake outside our door each day.

We have been to the sand dunes and got one good photo of the 4 of us...kind of a miracle. Sadie is NOT into having her picture taken all of the sudden. She's a camera and starts whining "no picture!" Not sure why! I guess I've been the paparazzi lately??? Sadie was a little unsure about the dunes because it was fairly windy and blowing sand into our faces, as well as the super steep, sandy hills, so she required a ride up and down the hills...whew! That was a lot of work!!! Tom and I took turns and she was ok, but ready to go. Her sister on the other hand, could have stayed and explored all day.

The second morning we took a great hike in the woods for a couple of hours with the girls. We went to overlooks of Glen Lake and the big lake, too. Beautiful morning. On our hike we saw what looked to be a medium sized dog trotting up the trail towards us...until we realized "oh my, it's a cyote!" He turned and ran into the woods away from us, but then doubled back and trailed us for awhile but eventually left. We took turns carrying a VERY big stick after that. Pushing the stroller up those wooded trails, some sandy, is not getting easier with our heavy loads. Sophie did a good job of hiking most of the way up, so that helped a ton!

Yesterday Tom got to golf at the Bear in TC with his dad all day and we hung out at the cottage, a girls day :) Late in the day the wind died down enough to take a boat ride on Cheryl's new pontoon boat with the kids. Sophie got to drive and loved it! Sadie again, unsure about the new experience, but she was exhausted from not napping so she fell sound asleep...photos to come!!!

Rain today, so we'll see what we get into. A little shopping, maybe a playground if it stops raining...out for ice cream, just being together. Bliss.

Window in her mouth

Sophie finally lost the tooth that has been loose for months! Grammy pulled it out for her on Tuesday night at dinner. It was just hanging on, almost sideways. It didn't hurt her, but she was so scared! The big teeth underneath have pushed the baby teeth into the middle and now it looks like she lost 2 teeth because she has a gap on either side of the other lower front tooth :) She was so excited to have the tooth fairy come, too! Tooth fairy was pretty proud to remember her task that evening. She left a dollar bill and a silver dollar...because it was the first tooth. I've heard that subsequent teeth only fetch a dollar. Any day now that other lower tooth should be popping out...or getting pulled out! Then she'll have a great big window in her mouth!