Julia and Margaret Gear Up for Back to School!

It's that time of year...when preschool starts and moms around town rejoice with new found freedom for mornings full of coffee dates, spa appointments, shopping sprees, and...oh wait, that must be someone else's life. :) The reality is that 3 hours of preschool don't leave very much time for anything other than a trip to the gym and the grocery store or a meeting and some housekeeping, but you won't hear me complaining because alone time is alone time, and I'll take it any way it comes! I do manage to fit in time to catch up with friends here and there, and yes, go shopping (sorry, Paul!), but boy, those 3 hours fly by!
Anyways, the twins are ready to go back to school and are SO excited to be "big girls" this year, with a classroom upstairs and the ability to go through the carpool line every day (YAY for Mommy!). School starts on Monday, and the twins will be going Monday through Thursday this year. They are also doing Lunch Bunch on Monday afternoons, a first for the Hepper ladies.
We spent the twin's last week of summer in a decidedly less exciting way than Caroline's, but Julia and Margaret didn't seem to notice, so it's all good. :)

I will miss having little helpers at the grocery store.

Margaret and Julia checking out the construction at Short Pump mall.

They FINALLY got to ride the train at the mall. I had been putting it off all summer to save it for a special day.

Helping Mommy make a batch of zucchini muffins. 

Being a twin means always having a playmate with whom you can try silly things.

We love our Duplo blocks. This was a zoo I helped the girls build.

Meet the teacher day!! We are SO excited to have Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Kuhn (aka, the DREAM TEAM! :) 

Margaret got right down to business. 

Julia was more interested in playing.

After Meet the Teacher Day, we changed into our leotards and headed straight over to gymnastics class.

Margaret bouncing down the trampoline runway. 

Ta-da!

Margaret in the swing.

J in the swing.

At Back to School Night, Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Kuhn asked us to make milk carton "blocks" of our house for the block area in girls' classroom.  The girls were so excited to work on this project over the weekend. They are very proud of their results (which were made better by the helpful hands of big sister, Caroline) and can't wait to bring them to school on Monday!

As you may or may not have noticed, Julia is wearing the same dress in nearly all of the above pictures. Her "pink stwipe skirt-dress" is a new obsession, the likes of which we have never seen before. It is nearly impossible to get Julia to wear anything else lately, and it does not matter at all to her if the dress is dirty, wet, or stinky. She simply does not care and wants to wear it all the time. Thank goodness the washing machine is in constant motion in our house, and the dress can usually get a quick wash before each day dawns!