Cheers to the Weekend, School's Back in Session Edition

Yeehaw! We have made it through our first week of school relatively unscathed and are welcoming in the weekend with open arms. A few things we are saying CHEERS to before Raleigh and I hit the road for Mother-Daughter Camp (hooray!) : 

Father-Son Camp. Last weekend, the Lu Crew fellas headed out for the weekend to the F3 Father-Son Camp and had an absolute blast. There was rock climbing and giant water sliding and BB gunning and frisbee playing and ropes course-ing and fishing and exercising. There was sharing a cabin with great friends and watching fireworks and eating good food and staying up late. There was good guy time, and my guys loved every minute. 

Girls weekend. Meanwhile, the Lu ladies hung back at home and had ourselves a lovely little girls weekend. We had a movie night/slumber party Friday, donut breakfast, play date and back-to-school pool party, and hair braiding lesson on Saturday, and relaxation and school prep Sunday. In short, we had a blast together, just us girls. 

Bohemian baby shower. Before the weekend kicked off, though, four other girlfriends and I hosted a baby shower for our sweet friend, who is expecting twin daughters. We loved celebrating the addition of pink to her family and the double blessings who will be making their debut soon. <3 <3 

 

Fall sports. Whelp, along with the start of school comes Fall sports! In addition to golf, Banks is also playing tackle football this year, and it is no joke! He now has practices four days a week :0 , but he is SO excited. He's been waiting years for this day to arrive. Harrison will also be taking the football field in his first season of flag football, which gets underway next week. 

Meanwhile, Raleigh has opted back into gymnastics, which starts in a few weeks, and Bella had her FIRST EVER DANCE CLASS earlier this week!!! She is in a combo tap/ballet class, and ohmydearLord. I can hardly handle the cuteness. 

Back-to-school. Oh yeah, I guess I should share our back-to-school photos to kick off the school year, huh? I am so, so, so proud of how well my kiddos did bright and early Monday morning, especially my sweet kindergartener. To my surprise, Harrison did not have one ounce of anxiety. I thought for sure he'd be nervous, but he was so excited to walk into his new school. And then, as we were walking him to his class, his big brother put his arm around him and I just about lost it. These boys and their bond are something else. <3

Changes for Bels. Over the last six months, Bella was placed on a VERY strict diet per her holistic doctor, based on some elevations we saw in blood, urine, and stool samples. Basically, we needed to clean out her gut and reduce the impact of certain food sensitivities. For those who have ever done the Whole 30, imagine doing that, as a 3-year-old, for six months straight, but even in a more restrictive form: no dairy, no gluten, no soyt, no refined sugar, no corn products, no legumes...you get the point. God bless my baby girl. She took it in stride like only she can, but if I'm being honest, it was really, really hard and really, really stressful...for me. :/ But, she did it and we were very compliant with the doctor's requests. Well, six months has passed and she was just given the all-clear to add just about everything back into her diet, save any dairy products. And while I still hope to keep her on a cleaner diet with reduced gluten and sugar, it has certainly been easier to plan meals over the last week. :) Bella has some new supplements, and we are experimenting with a trial of some holistic therapies; so, we would appreciate all prayers for health and progress for our girl. Thank you in advance. 

In other news, I went to book club last week and came home to my baby girl in a big girl bed! Daddy FOR THE WIN! She is loving being in her big girl bed and has done a super job with it (aside from that one morning she got up and decided to dump the cat's food allllllll over the bathroom). Other than that, all good. ;) 

And that's it for now, y'all! Raleigh and I are headed to the mountains of North Carolina for the weekend, and we cannot WAIT! We've been waiting for this weekend to arrive for a year now, and the time has come for some great girl fun! Y'all have an awesome weekend, and I'll be back next week. :)