First Day of First Grade

I sometimes think I'm the only mom in Lewisburg who isn't sad to see her child to go off to school, if the Facebook postings on my wall are any indication.  But not only do I get some time to myself again (I weeded and did errands, woo-hoo), but the excitement on Katie's face is worth everything.  I always want her to love school, to love to learn, to love to part of a community, and I can't be sad about that!


So today was the first day of school for our school district, and she was up before the alarm clock (so was I, consequently)!  She got herself all ready in her new first-day-of-school dress, and then all three of us went to the bus stop in the cold fog - hence the sweatjacket in August.

She bounced off the bus in the afternoon with as much joy on her face as she started the day.  The biggest thing, apparently, is that they have DESKS instead of tables.  And her teacher does look like a Barbie doll (only not blonde), and her art teacher from last year is back.  Oh, to have that kind of delight in one's day every day!

Summer's over

OK, I guess it's not officially over, but it's the last night before school starts for everyone else in the family! I thought, before I share the First Day of School photo tomorrow, that I'd report on what I did on my summer vacation.

 - Went to San Antonio (Dave conferenced, Sara reminisced, Katie vacationed, we all sweated in the HOT Texas summer)





- Went to Chicago (Dave conferenced, Sara and Katie played tourist and had a ball)





- Watched my kid grow up all in one week in early August (learned to swim and dive, skipping a whole level of swimming class in one day; got her own library card; grew two big front adult teeth; started taking showers and not baths, and on her own; got new shoes 1 1/2 sizes bigger than the ones she'd worn the day before; got a new big-girl bike)

 - And got to spend down time just playing with my family (in addition to the usual work stuff for both grownups) - we hiked a little, kayaked a little, swam a little, partied a little, played games a little, watched the Olympics a lot.... Guess that means my fall starts tomorrow, too? Maybe I'll just be in denial. I think I'll just keep watching the swimming video over and over. When I can get it to upload, I'll share it with you, too!

The Jungle Party

Katie decided in January - yes, three months before her birthday - that she wanted a Jungle Party. Based on the Jungle Book. Knowing that my life is totally crazy at the end of March/beginning of April, I took advantage of her sureness and did a little planning every week, with a lot of internet help.


We ended up with a really fun party, and Katie helped a lot. She wanted some boys at the party (yikes - we're already there!), but I was glad to know they were boys I knew and liked! They played 20 questions, guessing their animal IDs, and started to grow sponge animals before the pizza. Big hit, that pizza, and everyone was done with lunch in something like 10 minutes. I have to give credit to elementary school timetables.

My word-oriented kid wanted a word puzzle, so I made a scrambled jungle word game. All the kids managed to finish, with parental help, clues, and Dave making elephant noises!

Then they "fished" for piranhas, made and decorated homemade binoculars, and went searching for wild animals (cute nail brushes with tiger and elephant heads).
Then they had to jump for the food in the trees (we hung bananas and animal crackers from these palm trees) so they could have ice cream sundaes/banana splits. It was funny trying to keep the candle lit in the ice cream! Every party has to have present opening, which was a big to-do.

But I think the most fun was for all the kids to have free play with the jungle balloons, and their binoculars, and their natural energy and laughter. I think everyone had a good time, particularly the birthday girl!

Big kid weekend

The weekend before Valentine's Day turned out to be a big weekend, although it didn't look that way on the calendar. Friday we knew about: the Dragon Dash!
It's the only fundraiser at Katie's school, and the kids raise pledges to support them jogging around the gym for 15 minutes. That's it - and we're done for the year (yay!). They make a really big deal about at school and the kids really get into it. Here's Katie, jogging her way around (she's got a slow pace, but steady, and she was proud of herself for walking "ZERO times, Mommy!").

Saturday's adventures started with a loose tooth that would NOT come out, leading to a standoff over lunch, to her finally pulling it out. No carrots or apples for a while! We finally got to meet her friend Charlotte, with her dad, for ice skating, then back here for a sleepover weekend. Katie's first - she was so excited!

We took the girls out for dinner - here they are with their matching front tooth gaps, and they stayed up way too late, and got up much earlier than we did, and had a ball. We brought Charlotte back to church to meet up with her family, and here's Katie on the way home from church. Good sleepover.

Now it's 2012

I guess my New Year's resolution is to start blogging again regularly, since it's been months! Sorry especially for all my relatives who get their Katie fix here. :)

So the quick catch-up is that Katie started kindergarten in August and LOVES it! (see the profile photo at right for her first day) She also has now lost three teeth. The last one was knocked out when she was "pretending to sleepwalk" into a metal sign at a mall. Traumatic, but effective. The first picture is Katie after her first lost tooth; the second is with her church friend Charlotte and their matching top tooth gaps just last week.


The biggest event of the fall was the Colorado wedding of Dave's brother Doug to his now-wife Georgia. Dave was best man and Katie was a very excited flower girl. A very fun weekend was had by all. Here's the happy couple, with Katie at left.

We got back just in time to meet Elmo (and Kevin Clash, his puppeteer):

And I can't sign off without the obligatory Christmas photos.
Katie only asked Santa for one thing: "broadline dry erase markers and a board to go with them" (and she said it at top speed whenever asked). So Santa delivered, to great delight - check out the movie. The other photos are just our cute kid.



Happy New Year, all!