Elle's First Day of Kindergarten

Elle had her first day of Kindergarten, and she loved—maybe really liked is a better description—it. I was pretty confident that she would go and be fine, and thankfully she did. There were plenty of children crying on the first day, but I was glad to FINALLY have my daughter not be one of them (she used to be glued to my hip). She happily found her seat, met the two girls sitting next to her, and proceeded to color a picture as she waited for school to start. I took a few pictures and told her goodbye. She did not even protest or hesitate—she just smiled and waved goodbye.

I really was happy that she did so well; but on the way home, I had tears in my eyes, and Hudson kept pointing to her booster and saying her name (he doesn’t really understand why we leave her everyday). It is very bittersweet letting her go to school everyday. On the one hand, I know she is ready and she likes it. But on the other hand, I want her to stay home with me and be my happy, sweet little girl forever. But with Hudson having a nap, and Elle being at school, I get a nice little break. I do rather enjoy that.



But the morning of her first day of school was a little hectic. Elle insisted the night before that she wanted to sleep in rags to make her hair curly. I tried to explain to her that she already has curly hair, and that trying a new hairdo under time constraints is never a good idea. But, like usual, my advice went unheeded, and I ended up tying her hair in rags the night before. Sure enough, when we took the rags out of her hair, it was super curly and frizzy. It looked horrible. Even Elle looked in the mirror and said, “I look ugly. I look like a boy.” Since brushing it did nothing but make it worse, I dowsed her hair in water, brushed it and slipped a headband on. Nothing like the I-just-got-out-of-the-shower look on the first day. And to top it all off, she insisted on wearing her ratty old unicorn shirt. I tried every which way to get her to wear one of her nice, new outfits, but since she is stubborn like her father (okay, maybe me), she got to wear the I-wore-this-shirt-almost-everyday-to-preschool shirt. It was a great first day look. But she was happy and all smiles, and that is all that matters.

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And of course, we had apple cupcakes and apple juice after school. We cannot start a new school year without apple cupcakes. They are something that Elle looks forward to, and something I am glad I only have to make once a year—especially because the store was out of green airheads and tootsie rolls, so I had to make white chocolate leaves and dip our homemade caramel in dark chocolate for the stems (it was a lot of work; that nice little break was not much of a break). But they turned out great and Elle was happy.



I think Elle’s first day of Kindergarten was a success. She went, she likes it and she’s ready for more (as long as she doesn’t sleep in anymore rags).

Horse Races

Seeing as horses are one of Elle’s favorite animals, Johnny and I decided to take Elle and Hudson to the horse races. Elle was ecstatic, and loved watching the horses run so fast. Hudson really enjoyed it, too; but he especially loved the big tractors that groomed the track. Those were better than horses to him. And Johnny and I had never been to horse races before either; and we both found that we really enjoyed ourselves. Between the horses and the excitement of the crowd, we had a lot of fun.

Fingernail polish is Not for Hudson

What am I going to do with Hudson? I do seem to ask this question a lot. But every week, because of his actions, I find myself wondering this very thing. And this week was no exception. Hudson had no problem making me ask this question again and again.

The main reason I asked this question this week, was because of a little purple bottle of fingernail polish. It all started while I was talking to Johnny briefly (does a couple get more than brief with young kids?), and Hudson walked in grunting and showing me his hand. I was only puzzled for a moment, and then I realized he had purple fingernail polish dripping from his hand. I instantly seized his arm and put his hand immediately beneath the faucet. But my efforts did nothing but get his hand and mine purple; and fingernail polish is hard to get off. And the situation got nothing but worse, because Johnny went to the bathroom, where Hudson and his purple hand had originated from, and he found the rest of the bottle of the fingernail polish spilled on the floor (yea!). So this, combined with a lot of other events, makes me constantly ask myself what I am going to do with Hudson. But I know my question will never get answered, because he will just be on to the next curious situation, causing new trouble.

Silly Girl

I have no words for this picture. All I can say is that my little girl is silly and hilarious. She comes up with the craziest ideas everyday. She loves making people laugh, and she is good at it. I love her so much, and I’m glad I get to laugh with her everyday.



And just for the record (blog record), Elle decided that her name while in this costume was: Chandelier Louie.

Getting Ready For School

Since summer is coming to an end, and school is looming around the corner, Elle got the chance to visit her new teacher and classroom for the coming year. I was in a little bit of denial that day, but Elle was anything but. She is excited for school, and cannot wait to get started. I, however, can wait for my little girl to be in Kindergarten; but time won’t let me. It just keeps going despite my best efforts to make it slow down. But despite my hesitation, we had fun visiting Elle’s school, classroom and teacher. Elle got to sit down and talk to her teacher about the forthcoming year, and Elle and I both appreciated a little one-on-one time. It was a good chance for Elle to get comfortable with her surroundings before the big day. And I guess it worked, because Elle is upstairs sleeping right now, and she is not even worried about her first day of school tomorrow (which is good, because I am worried enough for the both of us).

Discovering

This week the kids and I spent time at the Discovery Center of Idaho; where we had fun testing the different exhibits in science, technology, engineering and math. Both Elle and Hudson really liked this place, and I’m glad we took the time to go. One of the favorite exhibits was the mini grocery store (great for the imagination—everything was their size). Elle also enjoyed the bubbles. She waited in line several times, in order to blow giant bubbles. Hudson didn't have a favorite exhibit, he just simply ran around from place to place not caring where I was (I chased after him the entire time—always a treat). But even though I was exhausted by the end, and I still had to stop off at the grocery store on the way home, I was glad we went, because discovering was so much fun.

Family Home Evening—Shoes

Our theme for family home evening this last week was: shoes (we did have family home evening on Monday, but for some reason or other, I have not blogged until now). For our lesson we learned about forgiveness and how important it is to forgive others. We also learned that it can be difficult to forgive others when they say or do things that hurt us. When this is the case, we learned that we can try spending time in that person’s shoes, and imagine how that person feels, and think about why the person did the thing they did. We then had some pretend scenarios of situations where one might have to forgive another. Elle had to spend time in the pretend scenario person’s shoes and decide why they did the thing they did, and how she could forgive them (this lesson was a lot of fun, and Elle really got into it; Hudson thought we were all crazy).

For our activity we colored different shoes to reestablish the idea of forgiveness. And then, for treat, we had flip flop cupcakes, because any other treat is gross in the eyes of Elle.

All in all, shoes was a great theme for our weekly family home evening.