Then that night for dinner we went to Chick-fil-A!
After dinner, the girls had fun playing outside on the playground together.
Kendall loves to play...as long as there aren't too many other kids around. :)
Happy first birthday Coop!
We took a few pictures before we left for school. Cooper and I were headed up to visit the school I am interning at, Polk Elementary, after we dropped Kendall off, so I got her dressed and ready to go too.
Ready to go!
When we got to the church, Sarah, Caleb, and Mary were walking in, too! Kendall was excited to see her friends. Sarah is in the 4 year old class this year, and Caleb is in the 2s!
So much love!
Kendall got a little nervous the closer we got to her room. She told me she wanted me to take her to the bathroom, but first we hung her backpack on the hook with her name on it!
After I took her to the bathroom, we found her place at the table and she got to start practicing tracing her name! She got the pink marker, so she was loving that. Right after I took this picture, her teacher, Ms Shiloh came over and started working with her, so I gave her a quick hug and walked out with Cooper! I watched from the door for a little bit, and she was so focused on writing her name! She looked so grown up and was just fine, but for some reason, for the first year, I teared up a little! This is her third year to go to preschool, and my first year to be emotional about it!
When I came to pick her up, all the kids were sitting on their class's line.
Here she is with her teacher, Ms Shiloh!
She had a great day! She told me that Conner and Gyliana were in her class, and that she got to go to Chapel today. She also told me about the stoplight (for behavior) and that if you get moved to yellow, that means slow down, and if you go to red, that means you don't listen. She loves her teachers and said they were nice. She has a hard time saying "Shiloh," so it came out "Ms Sharlo" several times. :)
I love this big girl! I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see what she learns this year! 
She was a little unsure when we first walked in. They rearranged some of the classrooms this year, so she is actually in the same room as she was last year, but she has new teachers and a few new friends in her class. She is still going two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1.
She found the dress up clothes real quick! She wanted me to take her dress off and put Snow White on her. :)
Cooper watched from the stroller!
They had puzzles laid out for the kids to play and these color-matching boards. Kendall enjoyed doing these!
We finally put Snow White on for a little bit before we left. She got more comfortable by the time we were leaving and was looking forward to starting class!
a present for each day of the week leading up to my birthday! Randy had not only kept both girls by himself Friday night and Saturday, but he also took them shopping and planned out a fun birthday week for me! I got to open a present on Saturday and then every day leading up to Wednesday. They were all little, thoughtful gifts, and my favorite was the last one: a book called "29 Reasons We Love You For Your 29th Birthday!" Randy sat down with Kendall and asked her why she loved me, why Cooper loved me, and put reasons in there from him, too! It is so precious. Some of my favorites are:
Oh the faces...
Then, on Thursday night after my birthday, we had the Johnsons, Erskines, Sanders, and Mitterlings over for dinner, cake, and ice cream. We cooked roast (my favorite) and Randy and Kendall made a wonderful strawberry cake with strawberry icing. Randy decorated it with real strawberries on top and it was so pretty, but I never got a picture! 
I had a great long week of birthday celebrations! It for sure did not get lost in the shuffle of Cooper's birthday!! We have been working hard getting ready for that though and I can't wait to post pictures of her party this weekend!
Last week I braved taking both girls by myself. Our plans with friends fell through and she was already so excited to go, so I packed us up and we went out there for lunch and to play! The girls both did great and at one point, I even thought I might could have brought a book! They both played together and by themselves and we all just had a blast.
The rest of these pictures are from a beach baptism we had last Sunday night. After the girls' naps, we went out as a family, watched Daddy baptize some people, and then played for awhile.
I love these sweet little beach bums!
After we were able to tear her away from that store (we were able to get out of there with only the things we needed for the party and the birthday princess crown) we went to Barnes and Noble to look for Cooper's birthday book. Kendall wore her new crown into the store and a lady stopped and said, "Oh, is it your birthday?? Happy birthday!!" Kendall looked so confused and told her that it is Mommy's birthday and then Cooper's. Come on lady - don't you know sometimes you just wear a pink and purple birthday princess crown because you just love it??
She had fun looking at all the books in the children's section and at one point Randy and I looked over and saw this. She had picked out a couple of books and just gone off by herself to sit and read. She is so cute and funny! We never have a dull moment! I loved my birthday/celebration date with my sweet family!
There were tons of fun little carnival games that were perfect for her age group. Fishing,
picking out ducks,
eating popcorn,
and bowling were some of her favorite things we did.
Cooper loved playing in the ball pits and she kept this ball with her as we went around to the different games.
She even got to play Plinko!
There was a cupcake walk and the first time Kendall and I played, we won! She was very proud of her cupcake and couldn't wait to go home so she could eat it!
Love these girls! Love Coop's little head poking up in the back!
We came back to the ball pit several times so Coop could play. :)
Lots of families came out to play and the event was a big success!
Biggest news of the day: Kendall bounced in a bounce house for the first time EVER! Anytime we go to parties or events that have bounce houses, she is not even the least bit interested. She says that she is scared of them and has never wanted to bounce - it doesn't even matter if it's a smaller one like this. But today for some reason....who knows??...she decided she was ready! She just climbed right on in and started bouncing! We were so proud and happy that she finally got to experience the greatness of bouncing!
She crawled in so fast we didn't have time to get her sucker away from her! We got it from her before she started bouncing, though! So glad she had fun doing this!
Cooper enjoyed her sucker while she was in the bounce house.
We had such a good morning hanging out together as a family and with our friends at church! We are thankful for an awesome children's ministry that makes it a priority to take care of our whole family!
