Catching up

I feel like that's all I do these days... catch up.  But, hey, it's better then never catching up at all I guess.  Our computer crashed out about a week and half ago.  Boo!  But, thanks to family who know a thing or two about computers, they helped us out and we are back online.  Woohoo!  Viruses blow.... and are really good at scaring the "you know what" out of people like me who think my entire hard drive has been wiped out.  Anyway, enough of that.

The past month to month and half have been crazy but fun.  Lots of fun stuff going on - end of summer stuff, etc... let's re-cap (I'll try to keep this short, we'll see)  You've been warned :)

Elaina started school (as you know) but her last day of preschool was August 9th.  Here she is with Mrs. Vernice, whom we loved, on her last day

Her last week of school, they took a field trip to Safari Adventures in Pigeon Forge.  It was pretty cool.  I had not been there before.  We went with her best friend from school, Katherine and her family.  Here the girls are.

all decked out with binoculars

They got to pet all sorts of exotic creatures... here is a baby alligator

A turtle

A chinchilla (no so exotic, but very fluffy)

A snake, as you can see Katherine wanted nothing to do with this snake and Elaina is not even in the picture so she went far away.  But, Elaina ended up petting it after I showed her it was okay.  They also got to pet a ferret, baby chick, and a rat.  In the exhibits were all sort of different animals... the most memorable - a 2 headed turtle.  Elaina still talks about that thing.  She was so fascinated by it. 

They had goats... Elaina had a ball feeding them.  This was a big deal for her to do as she has normally been afraid to in the past.

Elaina, with Katherine, and Katherine's sister, Gracie.   Such sweet girls!

The weekend before she started school, on Friday (August 10th - Erik's b-day), we went to Tatarus (we had never been there before and always heard it was empty)... uh, it was raining and the Friday before school started.  What were we thinking??  It was packed!  But, still fun.  I actually took her again a few days later after school started for everyone else and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. 
Here she is in the foam blocks

and the rope swing...

And finally, the Saturday before school started, we took a drive up to Williamsburg, Kentucky to KY splash.  We had heard good things about it and how cheap it was.  It was cheap and it was great but 2 things... 1)it was strangely cool that day so the water was cold and then when you got out, it was even colder.  So, that made it a bit hard.  2) Elaina is just about an inch to short to ride any of the big rides (even doubles with us).  So, she couldn't do much.  But, we made the most of it and enjoyed the day.  Here are me and Elaina in the lazy river....she did enjoy this very much.

going down the kiddie slide

Elaina with her daddy

They had miniature golf so we played a round of it too...

she loves it...

Okay, that about wraps up the days before Kindergarten.  I have more pics but those are the highlights since I am so behind....  Thanks for tuning in. 

Uniforms

The previous post had a pic of Elaina in her first day uniform (totally cute, but I am her mother, afterall).  Her school has several options for uniforms which is nice and helps mix it up some.  All of them, I think, are UH-dorable.  This morning, I got her to wear the skorts (this has been tricky to talk her into since it's not a dress like she likes).  So, I snapped a shot with my camera phone of the cuteness.

First she wanted me to take a picture of her backpack and lunchbox. :)

Ta-da!!  AND....pink socks to finish off the ensemble :) 

Thanks for tuning into our adventure's in Kindergarten! :)

The Kindergartner

I am so behind on many activities that have occurred the past few weeks.  But, I want to get this blog post out since it's a pretty big milestone.  Well, not pretty big....but, BIG.  The past week or so have been spent doing end of summer fun things with Elaina - more to come on that.

Now on to the first day of Kindergarten.... It was this past Thursday, August 16, 2012.  I have had a lot of anxiety for the past 3-4 weeks over this.  Not because she was starting school, because she has been in a school of some sort since she was 1.  But, over the fact that she is a big girl and she is growing up.  I know it is a good, exciting time and I am excited by it also makes me sad that my one and only baby is growing up.  That's all.  Okay, enough of that.  We went last Friday, August 10, 2012 to meet her teacher and see her classroom.  After that, I had my big sob fest.  It was good.  I had cried a little almost everyday for 2 weeks before that day.  Since my big meltdown, I have been fine.  I just needed to really get it out.

The day was great.....



Breakfast of her choice... in her new plates of various animals with the ears for syrup dipping.  This morning she chose the elephant



Brush hair and teeth



She's all ready to go....



We got to school, walked into classroom with her.  Expected to have to coax her into sitting down but no.....no such thing



sat right down and began coloring....



I was the one who wanted the last minute snuggle and picture.



We left- watched her color for about  30 seconds more while I took this picture.  and we left.  That was that.... super easy. She was a super big girl.



2:30 could NOT come quickly enough.  We were DYING to hear about her first day.  Here she is walking out the door to greet us.



She told us the day was fun, she told us the names of the girl in her class (they only had 1/3 of the class there Thursday, everyone came on Friday).  Then she did this...



It's not that unusual for her to fall asleep in the car but it IS unusual for her to stay asleep when we pick her up out of the car.  And, when I went to lay her on the couch....  she slept for an hour - we tried to wake her up at 45 minutes but she was not having it.  She did the same thing on Friday.  She'll just have to get used to the long/busy days.  She has taken naps at school up until now.

That's about it.. Day 2 was a little harder for me.  I still did not cry but leaving her felt weird.  I think it's because all 18 of the kids were there that day.  Monday she wants me to drop her off in the car line.  So, that will be a whole new experience for me.  Baby steps... in a few weeks this will all be old news and we'll be the swing of things.....  YAH to being a Kindergartner!!!

Speeding ticket

cute video.......

Living with Erik's parents has increased the desire for Elaina to ride her Jeep. At our old house, it was mostly concrete and not as much yard to ride around in. Their yard is flat and has obstacles to drive around/through/etc.... It's perfect and she loves it. She has spent many evenings driving it....  yah!!  good times.