the countdown

you'll have to forgive the abundance of posts lately.  I finally gave myself permission to spend the inordinate amount of time required to catch up, since I feel like part of really settling in is being able to talk about our present life!  at least to be in the right state, the right job, and the right school year anyways =p

so back to june.. we decided to have preschool right up to the last minute, the day before our moving day.  I didn't want the girls to miss out on any chances to be with their friends, and as it turned out, our very last day ended with a birthday party for one of the younger sisters.  the girls were all given flowery headdresses (not sure what you'd call them??) and wands, and even our s wasn't neglected, as you will see =)

c bestowed balloons on her teacher and her fellow 'graduates'

the birthday girl is the one looking at the camera

and the baby gallery =)

sporting his party favor

seems like there ought to be a really good caption for this...

 

as if one party weren't enough, they were invited to play at s' house afterwards while I packed

 

and finally, friday, june 14th dawned bright and clear.  I had tried to strategically park the cars on the street to reserve space for the moving truck so as to avoid the extra expense of a shuttle.  we'd been praying that one particular car would move overnight, and it did, only to be replaced by another.  as of an hour before, there was still one vehicle in the way, but when I went to check on it, I ran into the owner just getting into the car.  hurray!  it couldn't have worked out any better. 

 

m picked up the girls just as the truck arrived, and s and I settled into a quiet, even relaxing moving day.  yes, I said quiet and relaxing!  the crew was professional and friendly, and besides feeding s on the floor in the bathroom ;-), I just sat on the kitchen stool and did work while everything was disassembled and carted off.  the girls had a great time at pump it up (inflatable bounce place), mcdonald's, and m's house, where i'm told they amused themselves picking up leaves and sticks in her yard ;-) 

 

our neighbor across the hall came over with their two vacuum cleaners and strict orders not to touch them till his wife came over to help me.  so when the crew left, the girls were with a friend, our neighbor was vacuuming our apartment, and s was sleeping through it all ;-).  what amazing blessings!  when they got back, the girls of course put the newly empty space to good use:

 

I love s in the background ;-)

 

we spent two last nights in this apartment before heading out.  I would not have chosen to move during our two years in MD, but this place served us well, and we will have good memories of all the running, jumping, dancing, thumping and gymnastics that took place in it =)