Austin's 1st Day of Preschool!

(Sigh!) Our youngest baby started preschool today! Kinda sad to think that Austin, our last child is officially starting his educational journey. He looked adorable in his new shirt and haircut. He was so excited to be going to school like everyone else.He loved having his own backpack.

He was dying to get into school; having to wait outside for 5 minutes is really hard for a 3 1/2 year old!

Austin getting his name tag from Mrs. M

Austin learning which animal to look for so he knows where to hang up his back pack.

Today, was a shorten day only 1 1/2 hours. It was torture wondering how he was doing, if he was making new friends, missing mommy, did he find the diggers in the BIG room??? My heart jumped with joy as he came  bounding up the steps with a great big grin on his face. HE LOVED SCHOOL!!! He didn't get to play with the diggers, but Mrs. D showed him some cool trains instead. He is chomping at the bit to go back on Thursday.

Apple magnet he made at school to put on the fridge...awww no cuter apple than this!

Preschool really wears a little boy out...hee hee! He ate lunch and was out in less than a minute.

Papercrafting Frenzy!

Kimberly got to celebrate her birthday at school on Friday, we had a lot of fun making cake balls and chocolate covered pretzels for everyone to eat.

The creative juices have been flowing and I have been having fun creating a cute gift for Kimberly's teacher, lots of cards using butterflies, and experimenting with the "Forest Friends" stamp set. I even recreated a cute card I found on Pinterest (MY FAVORITE WEBSITE!!!) But I will talk about that later.

This card uses the Forest Friends stamp set.

 All the butterfly cards were made possible thanks to Dana for letting me borrow her 2 butterfly punches. For the card below I just layered the three different sizes on top of each other to give the butterflies texture.

The butterfly strip was what was left over after punching out all the butterflies. I thought it looked really cool and thought it would be perfect for a card.

Forest Friends stamp set again.

 The two cards below are the ones I copied off a card I saw on Pinterest...who doesn't love rainbows!

 The next two cards are probably my favorites! I just LOVE how they turned out!

 This is the gift Kimberly gave her teacher the 1st day of school. What a cute personalized notepad and matching pen don't ya think!?!? I admit I copied this from Pinterest too, but it was darling and way  super cheap to make. All you need is an acrylic picture frame, post-it notes, pen and paper crafting supplies to personalize.

Back To School With The Ossege's

Everyone was looking fashion forward this past Wednesday as they headed back to school. Everyone was a little nervous and a little happy to be going back. This year Lexus has moved up to the Middle School (6th grade) and Kimberly is in 2nd grade.

2 cutest girls!

 Kimberly was so exited because her new best friend McKenna is in her class this year. Lexus was equally excited to learn her best friend Shelby and several other girlfriends are in her classes this year.

 Just to preface: I did NOT walk Lexus all the way inside to her locker to get a pic the 1st morning of middle school. I am NOT one of "those"moms that embarrass their child. BUT, I did wait till everyone was gone at the end of the day and took it then ;-) Hey, in my defense I need pics for her scrapbook.

 Austin was not left out this year; he got to meet both of his teachers at Wise Owl (Mrs. D & Mrs. M) as he goes into the 3's program this year. They brought Austin his new school bag and the book "Llama Llama Misses Mama". He is really looking forward to playing with the diggers in the BIG room.

Everyone gave the 1st day of school a thumbs up! (Even the 2nd day too!) Now if only I could figure out what time to leave in the morning to drop everyone off on time. 7:30 is way too early, but 7:45 is way too late...go figure!

How Much Can You Cram In A Weekend?

Randy's NEW car - 2011 Chevy Impala!!!

Randy got his new car on Thursday, now he has something reliable to drive to work everyday. It is really nice to know we won't be putting it in the shop every week or two like the truck. Randy is going to sell the truck, but it will be hard to see it go since he has had it for sooooo long (lots of memories).

Kimberly turned the BIG 7 on Friday! She was my sous chef Friday morning making spaghetti and meatballs for her birthday dinner. She also helped me bake the 5 cakes for her Doll Birthday Cake.

She wanted 5 mini-doll cakes for her birthday this year.

She loved the new purse backpack we gave her to store her DS stuff in. She also loved the presents she received from her grandparents too!

She is totally in LOVE with Barbie right now!

Randy and I surprised the kids with a small overnight trip to Indy before school started. We drove up to see the Indianapolis Children's Museum. There were so many new things to check out since we had been there the last time. Austin was seven kinds of happy when he saw "Bumblebee" standing in the lobby. He is his FAV Transformer! This one was actually used in the 1st Transformers movie for some scenes.

We revisited Dinosphere; another of Austin's favorite exhibits!

Check out the 3 dinosaurs in the bubble!

The Three Archaeologists: Lexus, Kimberly & Austin

Can you guess who LOVED this spot??? (Hint: he already spends all his time digging in a dirt hole and sandbox at home.) I truly believe we could of left him there all day and he would of been just as happy.

All three kids really enjoyed the "Treasures of the Earth" exhibit which was really hands on. They rebuilt a terracotta warrior, took measurements on an underwater discovery of ship cannons, and helped clear rubble from Seti I's tomb.

After a great lunch and some BIG cookies, we moved on to the BARBIE: The Fashion Experience exhibit. Kimberly is literally obsessed with Barbie at the moment. I can totally relate; Barbie was such a HUGE part of my childhood. I really enjoy watching Kimberly play with my old Barbie toys on the porch with her friends just like Jenny and I used to do!

What a fun way to showcase Barbie!

Kimberly loves fashion just as much as she loves Barbie! She really knows what is trendy and likes to be very girlie with her look. I don't know how many times I heard her say I wish I had that outfit!

Our fashionista walking the runway!

Another new exhibit "Take Me There Egypt" placed you in modern day Egypt after a long plane ride. Each of the kids got to participate in creating a mummy: Lexus helped pull out the brains (eew!), Kimberly pulled out the intestines, and Austin helped wiped the body with perfume. 

After the museum we headed to our hotel to go swimming and have pizza. Unfortumately there was a rugby team staying on our floor who were really loud running up and down the halls late at night. Now that is usually behavior I expect out of kids or teenagers, not full grown men. But wait it gets better...4:30 a.m. the fire alarm goes off because the morons tried to use a fire extinguisher to cover one of their teammates in the foam. The fire dept. shows up with 2 trucks and determines there is no fire. I'd hate to see what they were charged for that. So much for a good nights rest!

On the way home we made a small detour to Metamora, IN. We got old fashioned ice cream sodas and bought a few small things. It started to rain and everyone was still really tired from the night before so we headed for home sweet home!