kindergarten!

yesterday my sweet baby girl started kindergarten! i kind of can't believe it. i didn't cry or anything (surprisingly), but it still feels like a monumental thing. she is in the system now - a kid and not a baby anymore.

sunday we had a fun, mellow day. breakfast tacos and puzzles, then jb took the kids to a movie while i went to a friend's birthday brunch. for dinner, i let the kids make their own pizzas which they loved. we had bath time and i gave them a little melatonin so they were ready for their early bedtime. i've been trying to move their bedtime up a bit every night for the past week or so, and that was a huge help.

i woke up around 6:15 and a few minutes later i heard her little footsteps heading up the hall. she asked for cereal for breakfast and got dressed easily. then we all walked to school together and took about a million pictures. she was a little freaked out heading in to class, but tough too. no crying.

jb and i picked her up a little early and she was super happy - she told us all about everything, including that she "made 11 new friends but i don't remember any of their names". ha. she was happy about her after school program. she was less happy that her teacher wanted them to be quiet a lot. but, all in all, a great day.

we capped off the first day with a trip to get ice cream before dinner. then, a low key evening and easy dinner. i was asleep by 8, so i guess we were all pretty wiped out.

we are so proud of our big girl - this is going to be a great year!

breakfast request.

yesterday, on the way to central market for our typical sunday morning there, hollis said:
"mommy. for breakfast i want a bagel. and then a taco. and then chicken and fries. and then a cheeseburger with fries and ketchup."

fourth of july.

fourth of july was super fun this year. hollis's class had a parade/party celebration; we had our neighborhood parade, complete with bagels and lox at the bowmans; and we rounded out the actual day with another neighbor party and an evening at the koens. the kids loved sparklers, but the louder fireworks were not a hit this year. it was also a pretty exhausting day - three blow-outs is a lot to cram into one day, especially for the 10-and-under crowd.

the rest of june.

the rest of june is pretty much a blur at this point. probably because it was almost two months ago. woops. anyway. there was a lot of swimming, some breakfast dates, a finding dory adventure (which ended with an epic hollis meltdown, but let's not dwell on these things), some brownie baking, and about a million trips to central market.

cousin visit and work trip.

after school got out, we had a visit from the colorado cousins - justin's brother and his family. the kids absolutely adore each other and they all play together really well, so it was super fun to watch them all play so hard. i took pitifully few pictures, but it was a great weekend. we ate a lot - salt lick bbq, lick ice cream, chuy's for mexican food, i made jambalaya one night - and did some swimming and slip n sliding too. rose and i even snuck away for a quick yoga class.

the following week, in mid-june, i had to head to california for work for the whole week. i hate being away from my family, but cali was really nice and jb took great care of the kids. i'm pretty sure he wins for most likely to be goaded into getting ice cream or going for a weekday swim...

end of school.

oh. hi. remember when i used to keep track of our lives with this little corner of the internet? yeah. me neither.

way back at the beginning of june, ek wrapped up her preK year! it was such a great year - she learned so much and i feel like she will be so much more comfortable going into kindergarten after being there all last year. mr. butler was such a great teacher for her. they really loved each other and i hope he continues to be part of our lives. her early reading and math skills are really amazing so far - i could not be more proud of her. she made all 4s, demonstrating "mastery" in all the areas they measure, but more than that, i think she is really learning a lot about how to engage with the world and what kind of person she wants to be. i can only hope kindergarten is as awesome.