I said I’d take pictures of the girls’ dresses, but we got busy with the new school year starting. However, I received a special request from a certain grandma to present pictures as soon as possible, so I jumped on the ball this morning and shot some quick pictures.

This is my favorite picture, but the sun was directly behind them which made the camera quite mad.

Here’s a better view of the dresses from top to bottom.

I’m happy to report that the girls absolutely love these dresses (they never seemed much interested in the other dresses I’ve made). It really was an easy dress to sew up, and I’d like to make more of them with different color schemes/patterns. We’ll see if I can find another group of cute fabrics and find the time.

Today was the first day of elementary school for both Annie and Mimi. The girls were very excited and had everything prepared last night including making lunches and laying out clothes. I thought I would have trouble getting the girls to bed because of their giddiness about the upcoming big day, but they actually went to sleep quickly and without delay.

Unfortunately, the girls woke up to cloudy skies and drizzly rain, but since the forecast showed no rain for the rest of the day I didn’t send them off in rain gear.

The bus stop is so much smaller compared to Annie’s first two years in school. Many of those kids are now middle schoolers, but at least Annie and Mimi’s two best neighbor friends are still there for them.

It seems so strange to me to have sent Mimi off on the bus today, but off she went. Just like preschool she showed no anxiety for the unknown or about not being at home with me anymore. Mimi was ready to take on the world.

Annie loved being the expert about elementary school and tried to tell Mimi all there is to know about how the school day will go. Poor Mimi did look a little overwhelmed with all the information being shot at her, but she didn’t let it scare her.

After school today there were still smiles on the girls’ faces, so that must mean all went well. However, it was reported to me that Mimi did cry after being officially separated from Annie (remember how I’ve said in the past that Mimi is obsessed not with her mother or father but with Annie), but she prevailed and seemed to get through the rest of her day happily. Annie returned home with a new object, a school planner. I think she feels so grown up with it.

It looks like it was a great day for the cul-de-sac girls.

And Violet couldn’t have been more thrilled to get Momma all to her self again.

I didn’t think it was going to happen, but I actually got a project completed while the girls were away. And just in time for the girls to return to be surprised by these fun dresses. I can’t wait to see what they look like on all the girls. Glee!

As I mentioned before the girls have been away visiting some Minnesota relatives. I was hoping to complete a lot of projects on the want-to-do list, but it wasn’t to be. Instead Vi and I have really bonded this week. She figured out pretty quickly that she had me all to herself and has demanded those exclusive rights most of the day. Let’s just say that Vi’s favorite place to be is on Momma’s left hip preferably being walked around. This doesn’t leave much time for crafts, but I do love me some Violet.

In other news, you may notice a few red marks on Violet’s nose and upper lip. That would be my fault. While picking tomatoes with Mike the other night I unwisely thought Vi could hang out in one of the girls’ folding chairs. I mean, c’mon, it’s only 4 inches from the ground. Nope, Vi took a nose-dive into the stone patio floor and scraped up her lip and nose. Chalk this one up as realizing a 1-year-old is not coordinated enough to sit in a big kid chair yet.

Annie’s front teeth had been loose for a long time, but she did not like us messing them to try to loosen them more. In turn, we waited patiently for the two buggers to get to the point where they were loose enough to come out on their own. Finally, one night Mike noticed that one tooth was quite loose, and he was determined to get it out. He promised Annie the moon if she would just let him get it out. Well, the moon wasn’t exactly was promised. A hexbug nano with remote control was up for negotiation, and then Annie finalized the deal with the purchase of a new watch. After much pulling, prodding, twisting, inspecting, tying on of strings, crying, screaming, and begging for no more the tooth was finally yanked from Annie’s mouth. The next day we went and got Annie all of the items promised to her which cost nearly $40. I asked Mike if the whole experience was worth $41 (don’t forget about the tooth fairy), and he said, “ABSOLUTELY!” Truly a dentist.

The other tooth made it’s way to being so loose to the point of just hanging on by a thread, but Annie refused to let Daddy talk her into another torture experiment. I kept telling her it was going to come out any day on its own, but she wasn’t convinced. Then on our way to Legoland, Annie declared that her tooth was on backwards. I told her it would definitely be coming out any second. Annie proceeded to get herself into hysterics and insisting that it wouldn’t. Not more than a minute later Annie screamed, “My tooth came out! My tooth came out!” I think it was worth it to finally let Annie experience a tooth coming out all by itself this time.