Kindergarten Rocks

Lauren just finished her 3rd week of kindergarten. She loves going to school. She tells me all about it each day. Her school uses a lot of songs to teach different concepts. She is always singing about the months of year or days of week or the sounds that each letter makes.

Everyday she is so excited to tell me about her day. She tells me about her classmates and which ones she played with that day. She tells me about her classroom job (calendar this week) and about their reward system. She tells me about what they learned in school and the activities they did. She tells me about how the lunches were and about her bus ride home. Yesterday there was a fire drill and I got to hear all about that.

I am glad that she is excited to go to school and that she thinks that Kindergarten Rocks!!!

Children's Museum

This summer the Children's Museum in our city opened. This museum has been in the planning and building stages for the past few years. Although it opened they are still adding to it. It is a fun place to go and we are looking forward to the new activities that they are adding. The children's museum in Chicago was so wonderful and hoped that the Phoenix one would be also.

So today we went there to check it out. Lauren had a great time. There is a store, a pizza place, a bike area, a book area and so much more. We spent a few hours there and will be going back soon. It was not that busy so Lauren got to do a bunch of stuff.

Princess

Lauren was invited to a princess birthday party. The party was at a girl's day spa. Lauren was so excited to go, she loves to get her hair done and to play with makeup. Lauren looked so pretty before we left and I got a few pictures of her dancing around.

At the party she got to pick out the color eye shadow that she wanted. I was hoping that maybe she would go with something that at least matched the dress. Oh, no, not Lauren. She went for the brightest blue that she could. It was an interesting look. But she was so proud and she had a great time.

At the end of the party the girls sang and danced and they all had a great time.

Goal Accomplished

At the beginning of the summer I had the goal of getting Lauren to swim on her own by the end of the summer. After a summer of lessons and many many days of swim she accomplished the goal! She now swims without any type of inner tube or floaty. It is great. Not only does she swim by herself, she is now jumping into the pool and loving it. We have about another month of swimming and I know that she is enjoying swimming so much more now that she can swim on her own.

These are some pictures from this afternoon. I had some better ones of her jumping into the pool however, this swimsuit top did not stay down that well and a few of the pictures showed a little more then it should.

Fun Summer Nights

There is a shopping center by us that is a wonderful place to spend the evening. It is a shopping center that has a few "stages" that have music performances on the weekend evenings. There is also a fountain area that is set up so the kids can play. It is nice to sit there and watch the children playing in the water while someone is performing a small concert.

It is still pretty hot here during the day but once the sun goes down it is not that bad and sitting by the fountains makes for a nice summer evening. Lauren and I have gone there a few times this summer and we went back again tonight. This time Lauren's cousin, Sammie, and her parents joined us. The girls had a great time. We had a hard time getting them to leave.

Spirit Day

Lauren's new school has designated every Wednesday as spirit day. On spirit day you are to wear the school colors (black and red) and/or a school shirt. During our Meet and Greet day I purchased Lauren a school shirt and skort. Lauren was so excited to wear them today. This morning she got out the pom poms from high school musical and was playing with them before we left for school. It looked so cute I had to get a few pictures.

I take Lauren to school every day and when I drop her off she walks to her classroom. For the past two days I have been watching her do this and it makes me a bit sad. She looks so small walking to her room with her backpack on and her ponytail bouncing up and down. It seems that there are a lot of older, bigger, kids around and she looks so tiny by them. But at the same time she seems so confident as she walks to her room. She knows where to go and has never asked me to walk with her (I told her I would if she wanted me to). I am so proud of her

First Day of School

Lauren started kindergarten today. She had been so excited last night that she did not go to bed that early, so this morning she was a bit tired. She kept saying I am so tired but I could tell there was a bit of being unsure of what was going to happen today. She dressed and we went outside to get some pictures. She was not in the mood and kept asking why I had to take pictures of her. I explained that is what mommies do on important days like today.

While we drove to school, Lauren was talking nonstop. I think she was a bit scared but didn’t know what to ask or say. We drove by a few other schools and I pointed out that all the schools were starting today. I kept telling her how she will meet new friends and that she was going to be fine and do great!

It was pretty packed at school with so many parents walking their children to classes. We went to Lauren’s class and her teacher greeted her and explained some of the things they are to do each day (put pack back in cubby, mark if she is brought her lunch or is buying her lunch and etc.). She then sat down and started to color. She had no problems and I think she was ready for the new experience.

After school she told me all about her day, the rules, what she had for lunch, who were the other kids in her class, how the bus ride was, who she sat by, and so much more. She likes school. She is going to be fine and she will have fun.

She goes to school with her cousin Grant. Before school started I had ask Grant to make sure she got on the bus to go home. He kept telling me that her teachers will take care of that and that he did not need to help. Today he told me that he stopped by her class on the way to the bus to check on her but she was already on the bus. It was so cute and so big cousin of him to look out for her.

I asked Lauren if her teacher seemed nice and Grant told me “I heard her teacher is really, really nice”. He was so cute about being the big cousin and knowing the ropes at the school.

I think it will be a good year!