Times are a changin'

Yesterday morning I dropped off the Emma I know for one of her last days of kindergarten. In the afternoon I picked up a new Emma full of all kinds of surprises.

At pick up, I was greeted by Mrs. Rosenkranz...the world's best teacher...who said "Do, I have some news, it's wonderful, Emma really got wild with a couple of friends in math and they had to sit out for a few minutes to compose themselves". Trust me, Emma can really pull out all of the stops at home, but at school, she's PERFECT, and Mrs. Rosenkranz made it her personal goal this year to make Emma comfortable enough at school so that she could be a typical 6 year old and break a few rules. It finally happened! I asked Emma about the incident and she responded "It happens" I had to turn my head to conceal my smile.

We had an errand to run after school which took us by Laurie's Shoes, on a whim I asked Emma if she wanted to look for some new tennis shoes. She has had the same shoes since August and has not been agreeable to new shoes, even though she REALLY needs them. Her response "Sure". I squealed into the parking lot eager although tentative about the ensuing event. With an ease I've never seen in this very particular child, she chose a blue and white running shoe, no sparkles, no pink (we did put pink shoelaces in), no velcro and is in love with them. The whole transaction took about 10 minutes, I'm still dumbfounded.

Then, this morning Emma came downstairs dressed in a get up that I would have never believed she would wear outside of the house. Until recently, she only wanted to wear pink or purple dresses. This morning she had on a tie-dyed t-shirt which she made at church, along with black shorts (usually worn under her dresses) and her new blue tennis shoes. She wanted her hair in two braids tied in the back. When she went upstairs to brush her teeth Ellie asked me, "Is today mismatched day, or what". I don't know about that but I do know my Emma is growing up.

Water Day and Ice Cream Social

We are fully into the end of the year activity mode around here! Today was water day at preschool. Tonight was the kindergarten sing and ice cream social. Can school end now?

Kids know best.....sometimes

I'm beat, we're all beat. The weekend was full and fun, but wow!, will I make it until 8:00?! When I walked into the gilrs room to read tonight they already had a plan, Emma was going to read to Ellie. When I said that was sweet but I was happy to read they both infactically said, NO! Emma continued, "this is our plan, you need to get ready for bed, you're tired too". So melted my heart! Now I'd better go get ready for bed before my kids catch me!


 

I'm counting to 100 by 10's

"Did you know caterpillars have blood? I know. I saw it today, it was a dead one." Ellie

We had one of those afternoons...the"I don't waaaaaana walk home" afternoon, the --we cannot be within 5 feet of each other but refuse to be apart--afternoon, the 37th Magic Tree House book is not available at the library today afternoon, the "I didn't kick you, you walked by me as my leg was going up" afternoon. Which then led into the "chicken makes me sick" "I can't eat any more dinner, may I have a cupcake" evening. The night was topped off with a new rapid speed teeth brushing which when I questioned, my dear daughter answered, " It doesn't take as long now, I'm counting to 100 by 10's". Somewhere in between all of that craziness the girls wandered out into the front yard with notebooks in hand and took notes on the garden. They spent about 25 unprompted minutes happily exploring the yard. It was truly the only time all afternoon when someone wasn't unhappy. Now that all is quiet, I'm thinking this someone needs to head out into the garden and get happy :)!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Our weekend started early with the arrival of Uncle Blake from LA. We loved having him here with us. I think he got the full treatment, from pick up at school, to walking home, an after school play date, lunch in the school cafeteria, The Little Red Hen performance, t-ball, and a visit to Chill (the closet thing we have to LA's Pinkberry). We wished the weekend could go on and on but alas he had to return home. Can't wait to see him again soon! In between all of that fun with Uncle Blake we also squeezed in a visit with Grandpa and Kyra, celebrated Bella's 8th birthday in Lake St. Louis, felt terribly inept at a trivia night, ate a great dinner at Gram's, enjoyed church--during which I cried for happiness (pregnancy hormones???), and ate brunch with our moms and Great Grandma--who looks lovely at 88! I now need to retire to my bed to recover from all of this fun!