When traveling long distances in a car it is best to find a few stops for both education and stretching our legs. Our stop at Harry S. Truman’s home in Independence , MO was one of these stops. Truman was the 33rd president and hailed from the state of Missouri. We saw the small visitor center exhibits and movie about the home in town. It was where the future Mrs. Truman was born and raised and became the house the married couple lived in for their entire life. The historical perspective from the location we visited was about the home and how they used it. The “next” tour that we could join was a bit of a wait so we skipped it and moved on. The lasting effect of this stop is that the girls learned a bit more about the presidency, discovered that some houses have names (in this case the house was called ‘the little white house’), and can pick a photo of Truman out. We visited for a half of an hour.

The first day of school is here. The girls are pretty excited about the return to the school routine and going to school. They had their clothes picked out ahead of time and the morning planned. Julia’s biggest concern was if Mama would be on board for getting everything done before we needed to leave. Mama had input from both girls for what should be found in their lunches. Many requests for the rest of the week were given too.

Julia was a bit more nervous than her big sister. She was not interested in giving smiles for the photos and once we got to school she just scanned the kids faces, teacher faces, room layout, and just about everything else just trying to take it all in. Emily’s teacher was ready to go and was already giving classroom instruction to the class a few minutes before class even started. He must have a lot to cover on the first day. Third grade must be quite serious.

They were ready to get into the building! Excited for sure!!

The backpack doesn’t dwarf her so much these days. The backpack had to be worn on one shoulder only.

Julia’s desk and her first activity. She was a bit over photos and smiling. This is her “mama get this over with so I can do fun stuff” face.

Julia and her teacher.

Summer is drawing to a close and we are looking forward to a new school year. A warmup at the playground was in order. They are excited girls to meet classmates and start school, but today playing on the playground was just fine.

They are sweet sister that love playing with each other.

When you move to third grade you move to a new area on the playground. We went down and tried out the swings. They were pretty great and in the shade.

She told me that she wanted to make just one silly face. There were plenty of silly faces to choose from!

Someone had to show off a bit on the monkey bars. While she looks like she is standing on the ground, she did pause in her swinging to smile for the camera.

Just hanging around

My Brown Eyed Girl!

In first grade you are allowed to use the monkey bars. She wanted to try them out. Her sister had plenty of “helpful” suggestions.

She kind of looks like a genie. Her smile sure has magic.

My flowers blooming in a field of Texas wildflowers.

When we bought the girls’ backpacks, we purchased a magic version. With every 10 months of school they shrink. Here is the proof of how it works.

August 2014 –

May 2015 – See the girls are not hiding as well behind each backpack because they shrank. Washing, rain, and dirt have no effect and can not stop the process.

If you are interested in buying your own version of this backpack, just let us know and we can point you in the right direction.