Second Day of Kindergarten

Two days down!  Which means....178 early mornings to go!

This early morning business is for the birds, y'all!  This two kids going to two different schools is no joke.  And, really, I only had Meet the Teacher this morning with Sydney, so that doesn't even count.  Maybe it's the heat.  I'll blame it on the 111 degree weather {which peaked right when we were walking to and from school this afternoon}.  It's definitely the heat.  And the early mornings.  

Anyway, we are surviving.  Some of us better than others {I'm talking about you, Olivia}.  She's really doing great at school.  I would expect her to be exhausted come bedtime, but last night it was after 9 before she fell asleep, and it's 8:30 now and she's still wide awake.  We are night owls.

Yesterday after school, she begged me to let her buy her lunch from the cafeteria.  Seriously?!  I mean, that's just wrong on so many levels.  1).  We own 12 different lunch boxes/bags and at least 25 cool containers to go in them.  2).  I've been stressing all summer about what to put in my picky eater's lunch to make sure she had filling/healthy food.  3). I write little notes to her in all of her lunches.  Pretty sure her $2.50 plate lunch isn't going to have an I love you from the ladies in the hairnets.  And, I already mentioned this, but 4). She's soooo picky!  But, today was pizza day, and so I figured, I would let her try it.  Honestly, I had more anxiety over her day at school today than I did yesterday all because of this whole lunch buying business.  When I picked her up after school, the first thing she said to me was, "I did NOT like the pizza today!  Please make my lunch every single day of Kindergarten!"  So glad that there will be $22.50 sitting in her lunch account all year. 

She made it home before me and Little Miss Lollygagger Sydney and when I walked in the house she was elbow-deep in a giant container of goldfish crackers with her my beloved iPad and headphones on.  I basically saw her teenage years right then and there.  And, seriously, she didn't stop eating until dinner was done.  Turns out she ate a cup of applesauce and drank some apple juice for lunch.  

Tonight at dinner, I asked her if she missed me while she was at school or if she keeps so busy that she doesn't have time to miss me.  She said, "How do you want me to answer that?"  Ummm, truthfully?  And she said, "Sometimes at school, I forget I even have a mom."  

So, yeah, I'll be making that lunch tomorrow.  And, her love note will just be a giant picture of me.

First Day of Kindergarten

Just like I knew she would, Olivia ROCKED her first day of kindergarten!  In fact, she told me tonight that it was even better than she expected!  I'm so proud of her.

Nana, Sydney, and I all walked her to school and we ended up meeting up with Brooke and her family as we left, so they showed us the ropes.

I walked Olivia in to her classroom and showed her to her seat and quickly said goodbye.  I ducked out to the entryway and chatted briefly with another mom.  Olivia kept eyeing me and then got up from her seat and asked if I was going to stay the whole day and watched her.  I knew right then that I had to leave.  I told her that I was leaving and she asked if I could come for lunch.  I told her that, no, I would sometime, but today she needed to do this by herself so that she would know that she could do it.  I knew that if I stayed any longer, one or both of us might tear up.

Sydney and I picked up Olivia after school and I went armed with a cooler full of Otter Pops for our girls and the neighbors.  Walking home in 110 degree heat is no fun, I can assure you of that.  All of us were sweaty and red-faced by the time we got home.  So, some pool time was definitely required!

➹ I don't know why she's making that face because she was so happy about her day! ➹

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten

Can you believe I'm done posting about our summer?!  Well, I am.  And, just in time too, because school starts TOMORROW!  Holy smokes - it seriously seems like we just had Pre-K graduation a few weeks ago.  This whole year-round school schedule shortens the summers quite a bit.  I'm really not complaining - we had our share of fun this summer, and come october, we will really enjoy our two week fall break!

So, getting ready for kindergarten this past week wasn't as hard core as coming in for Pre-K last year two weeks behind.  Most of our stuff was set in place from that, and I had already ordered new backpacks for the girls before we left.

Even though her kindergarten teacher provides her with all of her necessary supplies, I couldn't not take my big girl back-to-school supply shopping.  So, we found the donation wish list on the school website and headed to Target!

That evening, we went to her school to meet her teacher and some of her classmates at Meet the Teacher night.  Her teacher is the sweetest, and I feel so grateful that we got such a wonderful teacher to start off the next 13 years of her schooling!

We decided to do a little back to school breakfast this morning with cinnamon rolls {because I know better than to fix that for her on her first day of school}.  We woke her up early to help her get used to waking up early {way to go, mom, doing that one day before school starts...} and we invited her neighbor friend over for a day of fun.  We even did a practice walk to school to see how long it would take us {and we learned it takes longer with Sydney}.

Nana and Poppy came over this afternoon to go swimming and to have a little back-to-school dinner with us.  We did our best to get the girls down early, and Olivia got the royal treatment by getting stories from Nana, David, and me.  And, pretty soon, I'm going to crawl into her bed and snuggle up with her all night tonight.  Because, tomorrow, my sweet baby girl is going to kindergarten!

Another Summer in SLO, Part 27 {Pit Stop in Palm Springs}

We took two days to get out to California on the way out and realized that was a pretty smart plan.  So we decided to do the same thing on the way out, stopping in Palm Springs.  Miracle of miracles, we left town before noon and barely hit any traffic in the LA area, so we were able to get to our hotel by 5:30 or so.  Our hotel had a nice pool, and it was a nice break for the girls.

Our parents {and Magnum} were excited to see us, and Arizona welcomed us back with a nice sunset.

Annnnnndddd, we're done!

Another Summer in SLO, Part 26 {Sister Photo Shoot}

Here are a few {sort of a lot more than a few} of my favorite pictures from the mini photo session that the girls had the week before we left!  

Love these girls!

Another Summer in SLO, Part 25 {Saying Goodbye to Sweet Friends with Sweet Foods}

Well, we had one more thing to check off of our SLO Summer Bucket List, and that was a FroYo date with friends.  What better way to swallow the bitter pill of leaving than with frozen yogurt?!  And, when one of our favorite families couldn't make it to that date, well, we just sugar coated it with a donut date that very morning.

➹ Jacob needs his own jacobsdonutface hashtag! ➹

We had a little {errr, bigger than little really} meltdown with Olivia since this wasn't our usual donut place and it didn't have her usual type of donut and the one I thought she wanted wasn't really the one she wanted and well, she ended up crying a lot and having to spend part of the date in the car with David.  But, she got it together and ended up loving the cinnamon twist donut that I got her, probably more than what she thought she wanted, and we still got to spend some quality time with our favorite boys.

And, I just love this next series of pictures.  Getting Jacob to smile for the camera.  Ha.

➹ William is not sure what Sydney is up to... ➹

We did our best to burn off as much of the sugar as we could before putting more in our bodies.  I know I did -- walking up a giant hill pushing over 70 pounds of children.  

We are so thankful for the sweet friends that we have in the happiest place in America, and for all of the fun memories they helped us make during our time there.

Bucket List Complete!