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We gathered at Grams and Pop's house on Saturday for the Auburn-LSU game. Leah was not as entertained by the football game, so she decided to show me her love - upclose and personal.

Aunt EA is an LSU grad so she and her boyfriend, Scott, joined us as well. We all of course came in full Auburn spirit, and the girls were definitely into cheering. Scott then started playing Angry Birds on his iPad with Leah, and told EA that he was distracting part of our cheering section.

Grammy visited as well, but would have preferred to watch the Georgia game as she's a Georgia alum. So, Scott handed her his iPad with the WatchESPN app so she could watch a bit of her team. Fun to see an octogenarian finding today's technology useful.

After Scott tired of Leah constantly shooting the angry birds backwards, they moved onto some light reading.

Aunt EA makes a nice place to rest your head.

Despite all this school spirit, Auburn came up short, losing 12-10. That said, after a horrible start to the season, coming that close against the #2 team in the nation was a huge improvement. So, War Eagle!

I set up a tour of Rita's Italian Ice on Friday morning for some friends. Miss Dora taught the kids all about how the ice and custard are made.

After learning how to make the cool treats, the kids played a "Guess the Flavor" game with samples of the Italian ice. They tried banana, mango, oatmeal raisin cookie, and Sour Patch Kids.

Leah was kind enough to share her samples with me. "Want some, Mommy?"

We had a bunch of family up our way to celebrate Leah's 3rd birthday. For the first time, JJ got to join the fun at our house.

The girls had to show off their dance moves. Well, Molly and Emmie did. Leah sometimes danced, but sometimes told the other two that they were being silly.

Since Emmie was sleeping over, I made the girls matching nightgowns that coordinated perfectly with the party weekend.

JJ, sporting his snazzy Strawberry Shortcake glasses.

We don't have any babies on Chad's side of the family right now, but JJ was happy to serve as a surrogate grandbaby for Grams for a few minutes.

Aunt Caroline is hilarious.

Leah was kind enough to show JJ the fun of playing with Minnie Mouse. He got the idea pretty quickly.

JJ said hi to me, but seemed to be more interested in the camera and the uncle behind it.

Three cute cousins, ready for church, all wearing dresses made by G'Mom.

Molly showed off her reading skills several times to our visitors.

There are a lot more pictures from the weekend on Flickr. Go check them out!

Leah had lots of presents and a yummy cupcake at her party on Saturday, but her actual birthday was Sunday. So, we kept on celebrating!

I made Leah a super hero cape. I think that face means she likes it?

She couldn't wait to see what's in this box from Grandaddy and Betty.

It's an Uglydoll. Looks pretty funny to me too.

Despite all the great presents, the thing she couldn't stop playing with all day was this card from Aunt EA. It has a pop up cake inside and sings "IIIIIt's aaaaaaa paper cake. A really big paper cake…"

If you didn't get the idea from the video, Leah loves the whole candles/singing part of her birthday.

Since I did all the baking on Saturday, I picked up cupcakes and pastries from Linda's Bakery for dessert. They did not disappoint! Molly inhaled her cupcake, but some large portions of it missed her mouth and ended up on her face.

We celebrated Leah's 3rd birthday this weekend with a Strawberry Shortcake party. I made the girls new outfits for the birthday party. The birthday girl as Strawberry Shortcake, and big sister as Lemon Meringue.

As the kids arrived, many took a turn at the bean bag toss. Chad and I worked together to make this - I drew it, he cut, I painted.

There were also coloring pages of Strawberry Shortcake and her friends.

After completing the coloring, everyone gathered in the den for some fun activities. First, I read the kids a Strawberry Shortcake book.

Next, they played a game of pin the stem on the strawberry. Leah didn't want her eyes covered, so we told her she had to shut them. She did a great job until she opened them a couple feet from the wall.

Next up - making chocolate dipped strawberries with sprinkles. The hardest part was resisting eating them immediately and waiting an hour for them to dry.

Emmie, is there a little bit of strawberry inside that chocolate?

Lunch was inspired by Strawberry Shortcake and her friends. The menu included Strawberry Shortcake kabobs, blueberry muffins, lemonade chex mix, orange jell-o slices, and raspberries & cream yogurt.

After eating, it was time to open presents. First, the kids had to clean up the toys they'd been playing with. Rather than helping, Leah thought her job was to tell everyone to clean up. Here she is saying "clean up, guys" with a stern face.

There were a couple themes to this year's gifts - Minnie Mouse and Strawberry Shortcake. This was a Minnie Mouse purse and pair of glasses.

She loved this Strawberry Shortcake dress. She had to put it on immediately and was not happy when she had to take it off. Later in the day when Molly and Emmie were playing outside, Leah declined to join them because she knew it would mean taking off her new outfit.

Then on to dessert - strawberry cupcakes with strawberry decorations. What could be better?

Time to dig into the yummy cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries.

The birthday girl, all dressed up! She loved every bit of her party.

Believe it or not, Leah is now 3. There will be more here regarding the festivities celebrating the occasion, but for now here's the critical candle moment filled with pure joy.

Leah's been watching Molly head off to school for years now, so she was more than excited to start school too! Yesterday was her first day at My First School. It's two hours twice a week through Recreation and Parks and is the perfect way to ease her in to school since she won't start Kindergarten for three years given her mid-September birthday.

Before we even entered the classroom, Leah was asking if I could leave. Ha! She ran right in and immediately sat down to start working with the playdough.

She definitely had a fun first day at preschool!

Molly and I had a birthday party to attend last night, so Chad and Leah decided to head out for a sweet treat after dinner to celebrate the day!

Molly started Kindergarten today! She's wearing the same dress that her Aunt Caroline wore on her first day of Kindergarten. Grams made it, and the smocking plate is even called Kindergarten Scissors.

Walking to the bus stop. Thankfully, it's at the end of our street, so it's not a long walk.

Molly is not scared of this one bit. She's so ready to go!

A quick photo op with Mom and Leah while waiting for the bus.

Molly said that she was very excited, and that her friend Kaylin was so excited too that she was jumping up and down. Then, she demonstrated for us.

The bus is here! She was very eager to check out her bus and find a seat.

Off she goes, in her seat grinning from ear to ear as the bus pulls away. I held it together until waving to her on the bus, then walked home in tears.

At the end of her first day, Molly got off the bus, ran to me exclaiming, "Mom! I had so much fun!"

We're off to a great school year!

When Chad and I came home from Back to School Night on Thursday with news that Molly's friend Kaylin will be in her class, Molly squealed and danced. She is so excited to have a friend in class with her. On Friday, Molly was finally able to meet her teacher, Ms. Colella, at Kindergarten Open House.

Molly toured her new classroom, finding her name at several stations around the room.

She also had to say hello to the class fish. She still has her own way of speaking to them.

We are all excited for school to start, especially Molly. She was hyped on adrenaline all day on Friday. Tomorrow is the big day! We'll be back with more pictures then.

For our last summer playgroup, we met up with friends at the (new to us) Jeffers Hill community playground. How have we not know about this playground before?! The kids had a blast on this teeter-totter.

Things could get pretty rockin' when Simon was bouncing the teeter-totter.

The playground has a lot of great things to play on, but not much shade. So, the picnic lunch was in the shade of a very small tree.

This was the last playgroup before the big kids start Kindergarten on Monday. Molly will miss seeing all these silly friends every week.

In honor of National Peach Month, I also took the girls to pick peaches at Larriland Farm this week. Molly loved climbing the peach tree in search of the perfect peach.

Leah had to get in on the tree climbing too. I eventually had to stop the great peach pickers since the box was full. We came home with 20 lbs. of peaches. Mmmm, that's a lot of peach goodness. I've already got peach custard ice cream, peach salsa, and peach & brie quesadillas on the menu this week!

Picking peaches with friends makes it even more fun.