Ellie's First Day of Preschool

Ellie has been anxiously awaiting starting preschool ALL summer -- she could NOT have been more excited this morning!

The first picture is Annie & Sarajayne on their first day of the same preschool two years ago -- the other three are of their younger sisters, Ellie and Kate, this morning.  Is it just me, or do Annie & Sarajayne seem younger?  Ellie's always seemed younger to me than Annie, at the same ages, but in this picture I think both older sisters look way younger than their baby sisters at the same age!

All three siblings -- this was as good as it got :-) I never got one of all three kids actually looking at the camera at the same time.

These crack me up -- Ellie is the world's biggest cheeseball, and when a camera is in sight, she just lets loose :-)

Preschool Graduation

After a long day of hanging out with Thomas the Train, we headed back down the canyon to get home in time for Annie's Preschool Graduation (we made it, with a whole 7 minutes to spare!) 

Annie had fun singing and performing in their little program (alongside her best friend, Sarajayne).

 Our little cheeseball was the only kid to stop and pose both while getting her year-end folder . . .

 . . . and while walking back to her seat . . .

 Afterwards with Grandpa KC.

 And her beloved teacher, Ms. Jenny

 Ellie was having fun sneaking off with Annie's new 'graduation bear' that Grandma Karine had given Annie before the festivities began . . .

 Ellie happily talking with Ms. Jenny too -- Ellie's super excited about starting Preschool this year.

 Annie with her friends Ryan and Aiden.

Ryan is about the cutest thing in the entire world -- not only was he belting out the songs in the program louder than anyone else, but we repeatedly heard him loudly whispering to all his grandparents, "That's Annie!  Over there!  That's her, that's Annie!"  He possibly has a bit of a crush :-)

 Grandma Ruth, Annie and Grandpa KC -- who also rushed from Heber City to get back down to our neck of the woods in time to change and get to the graduation.

 Daddy, Annie & Mommy

 Ellie & Mommy

 Grandma Karine, Grandpa Robert and the girls . . .

Dino Museum Fieldtrip

Annie was very excited to go on her latest fieldtrip for preschool.  Ellie was even more excited as she put on her sister's extra preschool shirt from last year.  But, of course, as we got in the van to drive to the museum, Ellie started crying, "No!  Going to Ms. Jenny's house!"   I hadn't realized she thought she was getting on the shirt because she was going to actual preschool -- I thought I'd explained the whole fieldtrip thing, but apparently Ellie was quite distraught we weren't just getting ready to go play at the preschool. 

Once we got there though, Ellie cheered up, while playing with some of her favorite friends . . .

Annie, Ellie and Sarajayne pretending to be gorillas.

Always the favorite -- playing in the dinosaur bones digging area.

Two sets of sisters -- Sarajayne and Kate, and Ellie and Annie.

One of Ellie's meltdowns.

Best friends.  And a triceratops.

Annie being all nurturing and stuff with Ellie at the erosion table.

Kate, Ellie, Annie, Sarajayne and Kian checking out the fish.

Annie & Ivy bouncing to see how much they could make the scale register.

Isaac and I were there too, but he was strapped to me in either the front carrier or a sling, so there are no pictures.  I attempted to get him down for a nap for a solid TWO HOURS.  And it never worked.  Then we drove home -- not a short drive either, and in all that time he refused to fall asleep too.  He's six months old, and the first time I got him down for a nap that day was at almost 2PM.  My kids are sleep-hating freaks!  :-)

And later that day, my girls were just having fun playing in front of the cameras.  I have several videos of them singing, dancing and talking -- but they're all ridiculously long and too much of a pain to upload.  :-)

First Day of Preschool (Again)

Annie's in preschool for her second year, and couldn't be happier. She was also excited that it was freakishly cold outside this morning so she could wear the new outfit (or one of the new outfits) that Grandma bought her for school.

Here she is, ready to go!

Ellie and Annie posing together.

Here was Annie last year on her first day of school . . .

Annie and Ellie last year.

Back to the present -- here's Annie showing off her new backpack. She'd just been planning on using her old backpack, until she saw this one. Which was in the closet, waiting for Ellie to start preschool next year. Annie took one look at it, and began negotiations, and before I knew it, Annie was walking around with her new backpack while Ellie was happily dragging around Annie's old one. They'd traded. Ellie didn't fare so well in the trade. I didn't know if I should step in and put a stop to it, but as an oldest sister myself, I couldn't fault Annie for getting away with what she can. :-) (Ellie proudly took her 'new' backpack with us when we walked to and from Annie's preschool -- she seems happy with the trade, so who am I to argue.)

Annie and Isaac before school.
I wish I'd gotten her hair done a little earlier, 'cause in all the pictures it's still wet. It dried super cute and curly -- which was a huge relief for me, since I hacked off a couple inches of it yesterday and wasn't quite sure how it would work.

Ellie posing with her 'little' brother -- anyone want to start placing bets on how long it'll be 'til he outweighs her?

My kids.

Two Peas in a Preschool Pod

Annie's last day of Preschool was today. She just looks at me confused every time I try and explain the concept of 'summer vacation' . . . like "Wait, we need a break from school!? It's only the greatest part of my week! Why do we need a vacation from it?!" The kids did a cute little program, showing off many of the songs they'd learned this year.

Annie and her best friend, Sarajayne, were of course sitting right next to each other. Here's just a few pictures I took.

Ellie loved all the singing, and kept standing up in the 'audience' every time the older kids stood up, and she was 'singing' along, including trying to keep up with the actions, to all these songs she'd never heard before. It was all very cute.

Edited to add a couple videos of Annie singing some of their favorite songs from the year:

Cinderella Goes to School

Annie's preschool Halloween party was today . . . complete with a costume parade. I think next week is gonna be quite the shock to her system where she doesn't get to get dressed into a gown and tiara every time we leave the house!

Here's Cinder-Annie descending the stairs to go to the ball, er, school.

Here's her class parade.

And the Halloween class photo. Complete with not one, but two, Spidermans!

Annie and her best friend Tinkerbell (Sarajayne).

Arriving home, complete with even more candy and goodies!
She's definitely a fan of Halloween parties!

Another Milestone

Annie loves preschool. Everything about it. And then to go and top it off, preschool has field trips. The only thing cooler than going to preschool, is apparently going with your preschool teacher and class to a pumpkin patch, complete with a corn maze, barn animals and inflatables. And your very own pumpkin to take home. I'm a huge fan of the whole idea of a preschool field trip too, 'cause Greg and I got to be chaperones, and therefore got in free, and Ellie only cost a dollar with the preschool discount. It was like the cheapest afternoon out I could've imagined, and so much fun. Top it off, several of Annie's (and my) best friends were there too!

So, of course we brought along the camera, to document Annie's (and Ellie's, I guess) first ever field trip.

Here are my girls together in one of those 'holes cut out to stick your head through for a photo op' things. Um, what are those called?

Off topic, but have I mentioned how incredibly chummy they've become. They are like the best of friends and laugh and giggle and hug and roll around and race and play and chase and tickle each other for huge portion of the day, and nothing I have ever seen in my life brings a smile to my face any faster. It is wonderful. Especially since it means they're fighting a lot less (and Annie's getting remarkably skilled at deflecting Ellie's tantrums . . . she distracts or talks down her irate little sister most of the time without any intervention on my part . . . it's amazing), and playing pretty independently for hours a day. I have felt like I've had more time to myself and less stress and it's been wonderful. I've had no less than five or six random comments from strangers in the past four days about how adorable they are together, and what an amazing big sister Annie is. And they hug each other constantly. Melts my heart.
Let's hope it's not just a phase.
Although, my parenting philosophy basically states: Everything is a phase. Good or bad, it's a phase.
Darn it.

Annie with one of her closest little friends, Sarajayne (and her sister Kate). Something about little kids holding hands is inherently adorable.

Sarajayne, Annie and Kian. All three of these kids live with in easy walking distance of one another, go to the same preschool, same Church nursery and have Mom's that are friends and get together regularly. These kids are like permanent fixtures in our home, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Sarajayne and Annie.

Ellie helping Daddy navigate the corn maze.

Ellie and Annie, the Friendly Ghosts.

Ellie and her new best friend, the goat. She stood there talking to him for awhile. Which mildly freaked me out, as I'm convinced goats are evil (have you seen there spooky eyes?! Gives me the chills just thinkin' about them!), and I'm just hoping Ellie doesn't actually know how to communicate with such creatures.

Ellie in the tunnel. That she seconds later freaked out in, refused to leave on her own, and Greg had to go in after her. This is why I want to bring my husband on every field trip.

Sarajayne & Annie in the Pumpkin house. They had a lot of fun playing in all the cute buildings that were set up.

Annie in another of the tunnels.

Annie and some of her friends on the inflatable slide. Which was the worst slide in human history, as the kids basically had to 'scoot' down it, since it was so underinflated that they couldn't get any speed up going down it. Oh well, nobody gets hurt that way!

Anyway, point of the whole story: field trips are awesome, and we are looking forward to many more in the future!