Mini Ellie

One of the kindergartener's first projects is a look-a-like paper doll. With some specific instructions from Ellie, and a little help from mom, we'd like to introduce "Mini Ellie":

According to Ellie, the best parts are "the eyes, cause they wiggle...the hair cause it's long with purple ribbons...and the sparkly buttons cause I wish I had sparkly buttons."

Curtis - Preschool

This morning I dropped my "baby" off at preschool. I suppose I expected to be happy about the four hours a week of "free time" that would be mine once my youngest was finally going to school. I expected to cheer; to hip-hip-hooray...or do something equally, selfishly, celebratory.

I did not expect to miss him so much. Or to fight back the tears as I drove away and realized I had no one depending on me. (sniff, sniff)

But then I spent an hour at a clothing store with NO CHILDREN...and I got over it.

With an accelerated (and successful) push at potty-training, this little boy was R-E-A-D-Y to begin school at "the blue school". He donned his brand-new backpack and posed for his very own First Day of School pictures with a smile.

And he had a blast! On our way home I heard all about his best friends (all 7 of them), Miss Heather (his new favorite person), and sitting on the floor. He loved it all.

(Miss Heather subsequently told me all about Curtis' tendency to build guns out of everything...blocks, pencils, crayons, fingers. Apparently she finally just told him that he wasn't allowed to shoot any of the kids in the class. Yikes!)

Then, when I read this cute little poem and saw that cute little handprint...I must admit I felt a little sad all over again.

Then I got over it.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten is finally here. Ellie has waited a long, long, long, long time (her words) to join Lindy at school. She couldn't have been more happy. She was ready to go bright and early this morning...and so pleased to be able to wear her newly-aquired school clothes.

The girls were up and ready early enough to get in a little jump-rope practice this morning. This particular shot made me laugh. (Side note: more practice needed.)

After meeting her new teacher, Ms. Peterson, Ellie decided that school would be even more fun than staying home with mom (again, her words), but only for the morning, she reassured me. Phew. I might miss her smiling face each morning for a couple hours. (But then again...)

Too Hot

Curtis has been fairly adamant about picking out his own wardrobe. When he showed up in this new long-sleeved shirt we tried to convince him that it was too hot outside for long sleeves.

No problem, he'll just blow on it a bit to cool it down.

One Down...Two to Go

All good things come to an end. At least for the kids. I, for one, am excited to see my children's energy being diverted to school (and other adults). The only downside, for me, is that my days of sleeping in are over. Yup...school is in!

After only a tiny amount of outfit-picking drama, Lindy was primped, prepped, and ready to hit the third grade (or "grade three", if you are reading this in Canada) bright and early (it's all relative) at 9:00am.

We stopped in at the school yesterday for the Back to School Night (yes, an unbelievable 15 hours before school began--don't get me started) and met her new teacher, Ms. Sweat. In spite of her unfortunate name, Lindy and I already feel Ms. Sweat is going to be a wonderful teacher. Lindy was so excited to begin...so excited, in fact, that I didn't even have to issue a single threat this morning to get her out of bed. See? Excited.

Lindy informed me that they will be learning cursive this year. My first thought was, "When did she get so old?" (followed quickly by my second thought, "No one even uses cursive anymore.")

Shoes were, by far, our biggest source of drama this year. After 4 hours of ruthless searching last week, we were still empty-handed. One quick stop into an Old Navy outlet on Friday, however, ended the quest with these pink-on-pink leopard-spotted glitter shoes...which she actually loves. Phew!

Here we go again. Isn't it awesome?!!!