last day of school

The entire last week of school was themed and the last day paid tribute to the entire year. The kids were asked to dress up as their favorite Wizard of Oz character. Here's our take on Dorothy and Glinda the good witch.

 Fancy wedges are only allowed on the last day of school.

These girls. It's amazing how much they've grown up in the last year. They learned so much and had such a fun time doing it. We're all looking forward to 1st and 3rd grade!

morgan's award day

Morgan really blossomed in Kindergarten and I couldn't be more proud of her. She's officially reading and insist that I buy her chapter books. She does math like a champ and loves the playground. Every day she came home with dirt and mulch in her shoes and stuffed smeared all over her face. I wondered how her carefree attitude would mesh with Kindergarten, but she did awesome! Her behavior lollipop only got moved a handful of times and she was super excited to finally get to eat that thing on the last day of school.

A big thank you to her wonderful teachers for everything they do. We love them and can't wait to do it all again next year.

wacky wednesday

More themed school days. Wacky Wednesday is right up her alley.

Really though, this is just another typical day for Morgan. This time her clothes just matched her personality.

art night

The end of school crept up on us and it was a whirlwind of fun activities. There was the art night where the kids were able to do lots of crafts and show off some of their work from the school year. Morgan showed us her caterpillar and her cat.

Addison showed us her owl that she made.

 Then they each spent so time working on some crafts.

They both think they want to be artist and authors when they grow up. I think they want to be doctors and lawyers, but they don't know that yet.

morgan's awards

Morgan's teachers do something a little different for awards. They call each child up and list the awards they will be receiving. Morgan was a doll. She stood up there for her 15 seconds and smiled with excitement. And then when I wanted a picture of her so I could send it to Michael, this is what I get.

Finally! A normal smile.

I admit I was a little worried about Morgan and Kindergarten. She showed no interest in reading and I knew she was a social butterfly. Yeah, she's had her lollipop taken away a couple of times for not listening, but she's still a five year old. Recently I've noticed her really taking an interest in books and reading them to us. Like this...

It's amazing the progress she's made in 4 months. I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us.

kindergarten pow wow

It's that time of year. Time for all of the fall activities at school. The Kindergarten Pow Wow is something special. I remember Addison participating in Kindergarten and I was amazed at how much work went into this thing. It doesn't disappoint. Things kicked off with a tribal dance by Chief Chets Creek.

Then it was time for the kids to do their little dance. 

She did all the motions and sang all the songs. And she checked to make sure we were watching the entire time. There is not a shy bone in this child's body. She was all smiles.

I love her sweet face. She was so excited about the Pow Wow and couldn't wait to participate. I heard Indian songs being sung for weeks.

I wasn't able to spend the day doing crafts with her, so I gave her a big hug and kiss and told her how proud I was of her.

I'm lucky to have a couple of mom friends in the same class. They sent me pics from the day. I was a little sad I had to miss it, but it looks like she had just as much fun without me.

Leading up to the Pow Wow they had the build your own longhouse night. Morgan was the Iroquois tribe, same as Addison. So I was very familiar with how to make a long house.

And let's not forget the Indian. We had a good time making this thing together. In the end we decided Morgan's Indian name would be "Luminous Creator". We just went with it.

The second and last Pow Wow has officially come and gone. Thank you Chets Creek for making this day special.

strawberry shortcake

This costume has seen it's share of Halloweens. I think it's the 4th time it's been worn. But it's simple, easy and is perfect for the school's literary parade. Just like Addison, I knew Morgan wouldn't wear the wig for very long. So I got this brilliant idea to dye her hair pink. Not with the spray stuff. It had to be temporary color.

How did it turn out? Pink and perfect! She stood at the bus stop with the biggest smile on her face, posing for every car that drove by.

She also did some more posing for me. To get the good pictures, I must go through all of this.

In the long run it's worth it. I get the good pictures and a good laugh.

Addison and I watched the parade together at her classroom. She was so happy to have me there with her.

Then I went back to Morgan's class to help out with the crafts for a little bit. Her favorite craft? The snack table. Donuts complete with vampire teeth.

*A note about the pink hair. I would later learn that the temporary hair color the girl at Sally's told me would wash out was in fact semi permanent hair color. Yeah, it washes out. After months of washing. Here we are 2 weeks after Halloween and her hair is still a bit pink. Lesson learned? Always read the bottle.

first day of school

The summer kind of got away from me. We stayed so busy and had so much fun that I haven't had the time to do half of the things I wanted to. Including blog all of those fun things we did. But I can't go without posting about the first day of school. The first day of Kindergarten and Second Grade. Look at these two.

On Friday we met the teachers. I was shocked when I realized Morgan was actually nervous. That's just not like her. She's been so excited and then she buried her head in my leg when we walked up to talk to the teachers. She went from smiley to shy pretty quickly.

Addison lucked out and has Mrs. Lyons again. She was one of her Kindergarten teachers and now happens to be one of my good friends. Nina (as I like to call her) has a different co-teacher this year, but Addison is familiar with her as well. She walked in like big man on campus.

Sunday night I made their lunch, laid out outfits and got their backpacks together. Then I got up early to make sure I was ready with plenty of time to do hair and help them out. Here's the result. My youngest, the baby, my little bitty, started Kindergarten.

When I realized that all the new clothes I bought her were shorts, I took her to Target to let her pick out a dress. This is the one she picked out. It kind of fits her. A little girly, a little rock-n-roll.

She looks and acts like she's 15. This is not a good thing when she's telling me she's not going to do something.

This snaggle toothed girl was cool, calm and ready for second grade.

I asked her if she wanted to wear a dress and she decided on this outfit. It's totally her though.

The only thing she requested to wear was her shark's tooth necklace that she got in the Keys on our recent vacation.

Addison will complain about her little sister, but she sure does love her. And I later found out that she asked Mrs. Lyons a million times throughout the day if she thought Morgan would be okay.

Each year the school has a theme. This year it's the Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home". Everything was decorated with bright colors, rainbows, and balloons. Some of the staff were dressed up like the characters, greeting the kids as they walked in the doors. And later they had a hot air balloon set up in the field that the principal and some of the staff took little rides in. They go all out.

We walked Addison to her class and her teacher was just opening the door. Her teacher was giving her instructions on what to do with her things and rather than get in the way I let her go in on her own. I kissed her outside, told her I loved her and then off she went. I shed a little tear only because she's growing up so fast.

There she is. Doing it all by herself while I stayed in the doorway. 

The Kindergarteners do not go to their classrooms. They go to the cafeteria and the teachers pick them up from there. I get it. They don't want ALL of those parents crowding the classes and the hallways. And having been through it once I know how it works. This sweet girl. She was nervous, but still all smiles.

This is about the time that I started to get emotional. I wasn't a bawling mess, but still teary. It was almost time for us to part ways. My sweet baby girl was now in big girl school. Yikes! They're just not so little anymore.

But before I sent her on her way,  we needed a proper selfie.

 And there she goes. Off to learn all kind of amazing things. 

I'm a pretty proud mom. These girls are my life and I love to watch them grow and learn new things each day. They make me smile and my heart full. It feels like a new chapter in our lives and I'm excited to see how it turns out.