Happy Birthday Elaine!!

Tonight we celebrated Elaine's 14th Birthday. We all went out to dinner then had a cookie "cake" at her house. I can't believe that Elaine is 14 years old and a freshman in high school.

I remember so clearly 8 years ago. I had come out to Arizona to interview and we went and picked Elaine up from school. She was in kindergarten at that time and looked some tiny with her backpack on walking to the car. I still remember she was wearing this shirt that had a kitty on it. (The grade numbers do not work out because a few weeks after I was in Arizona she was moved up to the first grade.)

Time has gone by so quickly. It is so strange to hear her talking about going to Friday night football games, what college she would like to go to and etc. She has grown into such a nice young lady. I am so proud to be her aunt. Most of all I am so happy that Lauren has such a positive role model in her life!

Cammie the Camel

Lauren and Cammie the camel.

Cammie meeting new friends.

Dance class with Cammie.

Lauren sharing her snowcone with Cammie.

Farris wheel with Sammie and Cammie. Sammie loved the ride and Lauren could not wait for it to be over. I am not sure how Cammie felt.

Sharing a cupcake with Cammie at a swim party.

Lauren's class has a stuffed animal, Cammie the camel. Every weekend one student takes Cammie home. The student then writes a report in the journal on the weekend with the Cammie the camel.

Lauren was picked to take her (him?) home last weekend. We took Cammie everywhere we went last weekend and took a lot of pictures.

We started the weekend with Cammie meeting some Lauren's stuffed animals. It was Friday night and it was nice to just relax with Lauren (and Cammie) after a very stressful week at work. I just was not up to doing anything else but relaxing at home.

Saturday morning we went to dance class and Cammie came along. I put a Ponytail holder around Cammie so that she could have a tutu. Lauren thought that Cammie looked great in the "tutu" that we made for her.

Later that evening we went with my brother, his wife and Sammie to a carnival that was in their town. It was a "Farewell to Summer Carnival". Lauren and Sammie loved it. They had good carnival food and rode some rides, played some games and just ran around. It was a nice evening and I am sure that Cammie had a great time.

On Sunday we had a swim party and Cammie came along. It is late in the year for a swim party. Although it is still warm during the day the pools have gotten much cooler due to the lower temps at night. The kids swam a bit but for the most part just hung out and played around.

That was our weekend with Cammie. I spent Sunday evening making scrapbook pages to put in the journal. I had Lauren write a few sentences about what we did each day. She does a pretty good job but gets in a hurry to get done and then it gets very sloppy. I then get frustrated and make her redo it. I realize in doing these kinds of projects that I could never homeschool her.

She has to take the finished project to school tomorrow and tell her class all about it. She is looking forward to that!

Morning Time

Lauren is pretty good in the morning and so far has had no problems getting up and ready for school. Most mornings she comes running in my room without me having to wake her up. I get up and ready and then I get her ready for school.

Before she started kindergarten we could run late and it was no big deal. Since her preschool did not start until 9:00 if she got to her aunt's house by 8:00 she was fine. However, now that she has started kindergarten she has to be at school before 7:45 and since I drop her off we have to get out of the house on time. I am proud to say that Lauren has not been late once in the 4 weeks since school started.

The only concern I have in the morning is breakfast. When Lauren was going to preschool she would eat breakfast at her aunt's house and just have some orange juice when she woke up at my house. She now has to eat breakfast at home and that is a struggle. We have tried so many things and I am lucky to get her to eat a few bites. I know that it is important to have a good breakfast but I just don't think she likes to eat that early. The only thing that makes me not worry so much is that she has lunch at 10:15. (I think that is a bit crazy but that is schedule!) I figure if she is really hungry she will eat her whole lunch.

These pictures were taken one morning this week. I just love seeing her dressed and ready for school. She always looks so grown up and yet when I look at these pictures I still see that baby I remember.

I was reminded of how much she is growing up when I was dropping her off at school one day this week. In the morning when she has her juice I still put it in a sippy cup so she can lay on the bed or on the couch and drink without worrying about spilling it. Sometimes she takes it in the car with her. One day this week she had taken the sippy cup in the car and was drinking it but once we got by school she handed it to me and told me to hide it. She explained that she didn't want anyone to see her because she is way too big to be drinking from a sippy cup. I just hope she doesn't tell me she wants me to drop her off a block away from school because she doesn't want anyone to see her hug and kiss me goodbye.

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.