...Like I Need a Hole in My Head... Two actually...One in each ear...

The birthday festivities continued today, Regan's actual birthday.  We took cupcakes in to her class.  She was the first person to celebrate a birthday, so everyone was pretty excited.  The frosting was very popular, and ended up on many a chin, much to the 3rd Graders' delight.

Then, the "most exciting thing that ever happened in my whole life, Mom!"...Regan got her ears pierced.  She was quite brave right until the moment before they started to count to three, but then was immediately all smiles again.  She looks great and loves the earrings.

BEFORE

GETTING SANITIZED

AFTER...A BIT TEARY-EYED, BUT THRILLED!

MaD ScIeNCe

We were proud to host the most recent Symposium of the World's Greatest Scientists.  In attendance were some of the foremost Geologists, Vulcanologists, Astrophysicists, etc., and they all had a great time doing science experiments, playing Scientist-May-I, eating cake and lava, and celebrating Regan's eighth birthday.

Regan teaching the other scientists about the effects of water, oil, and salt (hint:  think lava lamps...)

The Volcano cake...not my best, but nobody seemed to mind.  The exploding lava was actually sucker syrup that we made, poured, let cool, then stuck into the cake.  

One of the cutest scientists ever, even in I am biased.

Regan getting her lab notebook ready.  No real scientist is ever without a well-decorated lab book...

School Days & Days of Catching You Up...

It's that time of year, and for the first time ever, I sent both girls to school.  I thought I would be excited for some "me" time, but I was really kind of sad today.  Not only do they insist on growing up, they do it so fast!

Hadyn is just a little excited to go to school...we had to go outside to wait for the bus 20 minutes early...

Regan playin' it cool.  3rd graders don't get excited...or nervous...

Since my last post, we Luke's have been a busy bunch, making sure we fully filled up our final days of summer.

Sniffle, sniffle...we said Goodbye for a while to my neice, Rachel.  She's off to make something of herself at BYU.  She's my oldest niece, and having her leave for college makes me feel old.  If you ask my girls, they will tell you she walks on water, and does so very fashionably :).  We will all miss her and hope she makes it back to Boise a lot.

Regan with her BFF/cousin.  Jenna is about a month older than Regan, and was baptised this summer.  She looked gorgeous, of course, and Regan was so excited to share the day with her.

We also got to do a lot of camping and hiking.  We used this summer to get the girls a little used to backpacking, which we hope to do a lot of next summer.  We weren't sure if they would like it, or just complain, but they did great on some decent-length day hikes.  To be honest, they both thought it was funny to take off running up the trail, laughing at their old, slow parents.  We'll get our revenge next summer when we make them carry the food and tent...