HAPPINESS IS...

...an elementary school dance with the two best little dancers in the world!

SLSS VOL 8: BRING IT ON KINDERGARTEN

Well, the long-awaited, blessed day finally came.

Our awesome little Brinlee is no longer a "soon-to-be", 

now's she just official.

And she is LOVING it!

Her school day doesn't start until 9:00, but she was up and ready to go by 6:30.  A little early for my taste, but it did give us lots of time for a few first day of school festivities.  We packed her first lunch, ate a special breakfast, picked out her first outfit from her stash of new clothes, took lots of pictures, and then headed out the door!  School is just a block away, so we get to walk there every morning.  Though, for her first day she didn't actually do much walking, 

she skipped and hopped most of the way :)

Then it was a hug and a kiss, time to line up, a few tears from mom (none from Brinlee though, she was ready, and did I mention SO excited?), and then she was off!

I got over being sad quicker then I thought I would, I guess her excitement rubbed off on me. By the time McKenna and I got back home I was pretty recovered and surprisingly just giddy to hear all about her day!  Maybe this next phase won't be so bad after all?

I did wonder about her all day though and how she was doing with such a busy, long day full of totally new things.  I prepped for her coming out totally overwhelmed.  But when 3:00 came and that door opened, out bounced the happiest most excited little girl I think I've ever seen!  And that's when I knew that this phase really won't be as bad as I thought after all.  She was exhausted, but she had loved every minute and couldn't wait to tell me and McKenna all about it! And I loved that!  Hearing about her day is one of my favorite things.

Speaking of McKenna.
I had wondered if we would have a bit of a hard time when this little one lost her full-time play partner.  And it was a little rough at first.  She was bummed.  When we got home that first day and she realized her days weren't going to be as full of sissy anymore, she was pretty sad.  I spent the first couple of schooldays dropping off Brinlee, and then walking home and cuddling a very tearful McKenna.
But it didn't take her long to realize that sissy does come home, and in the meantime, I have mommy and all of the toys to myself!  She still doesn't love it.  Every day she asks probably 14 times if it's time yet to go pick up sissy. But she is a little more ok with Brinlee leaving. And she is a super fun little buddy!  It's been kind of nice to have her one on one a bit more and see a little different side of her.  A bit more of her personality blossoms out when she's not trying to mimic so much, and she has been so sweet and so fun!

While Brinlee was gone for her first day, McKenna and I stayed busy getting ready for our "K" party (K for kindergarten, of course).  We went to the store and McKenna picked out all the things she knew Brinlee would love, and then once Brinlee was home, we had a celebratory dinner.  We made little pizzas, wore party hats, ate cupcakes, and listened to every detail of the Kindergartner's big day. It was perfect.

We had to party without daddy.  Poor Tim was out of town taking a board exam and missed all the fun.  He was super bummed.  But you better believe that a very excited Brinlee was more than ready to spare no details and get him all up to speed the next day when he got home.

Oh I can't say enough about this girl.
I'll just leave it at she's completely amazing,
and we love her, love her, love her!
And she's going to knock this whole kindergarten thing right out of the park!

SLSS VOL 6: MARSHMALLOWS, MOON MODELS, AND MCDONALDS

BACKYARD BONFIRE

Ok "bonfire" might be a bit of a generous term here.  We built a fire one night in our grill.  Brinlee had gotten her hands on a star finder she was dying to try out, and neither of the girls had ever had a s'more before.  AND we had daddy home.  It was meant to be.

ECLIPSE DAY

There was a solar eclipse, and we celebrated!!

The girls were SO excited for eclipse day they could hardly stand it! A week or two before the big day I took them to the library and got as many books as we could find about the moon and the sun and the planets and what an eclipse is, and these two practically memorized them.  Then a day or two before the big day we made models of the star players (sun, moon, and earth).

Then, when the big day came, we ventured to COSI to spend the day.  They had all kinds of activities there to do while we waited for the eclipse to start.  It was actually a lot of fun, and the girls loved it!  We made and launched mini model rockets, we drew and colored our solar system, we acted out the eclipse, we felt how different gravity would be on different planets, we built stuff, simulated space ship flying, splashed in fountains, and sat on a space potty.

This is moon shaped sandwich, because

Eclipse!!

When the eclipse got going the girls were mesmerized! Columbus was not in a zone of totality, and it didn't work out to make the trip to anywhere different (maybe next time!).  But we still got pretty good peak coverage, and we were still completely dazzled.  It was so neat!  

For quite a while the girls just kept saying "Look! It looks like the moon is taking a bigger and bigger bite from the sun, like a cookie!"  

Then they realized just how slow moving the process was...

and then the clouds came and we had a hard time seeing it.  Big thumbs down.  But it was still magical, and the day was SO fun!  When Tim got home that night, he got quite an earful from these two about how amazing "eclipse day" was.

And he got quite an earful from me about how awesome these girls looked in those glasses!  :)

I had no idea how much I would love watching my kids learn and experience new things, but I do totally love it!  It's definitely in my top 10 favorite things about being a mama. 

And did I already mention that I love being out and about with my two favorite pals?!

ALL READY TO GO

You get your first child's kindergarten school supply list in the mail.

What do you do next? 

     1. Have a mini "oh my goodness this is actually happening!" panic attack

     2. Have a not-so-mini "mama's not ready for this!" meltdown

     3. Get really excited because she is really excited

     4. Go shopping!!!

The answer actually is the hidden answer #5: All of the above, in that order.

After I got over the panic attack, 
and the meltdown,
I decided we could go ahead and just be excited.  So we picked a day, miss Brin spent the morning putting little empty checkmark boxes next to everything she needs, we took sissy to a friend's house to play for a while, and then we ventured out for a little mommy and me date!  We did our school supply shopping, some clothes shopping, and then grabbed some lunch. It was the perfect day with the perfect little soon-to-be-kindergartener.

And now she's all ready to go!