Our Kindergartner

Our sweet girl has reached a huge milestone...Kindergarten! The anticipation has been huge and today was finally the day. It has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I'm so excited for her because she is so ready, but it was hard letting her go today. I won't lie. I cried. Yep...sure did. I'm not ashamed either. That's my baby in there and I left her for an entire day. Sure I was right down the hall, but so what?! I have the right to have the same emotions that any other Mommy has when dropping their kindergartner off for the first time. Thank you.

We have been praying for this day/year for a long time. Praying that she would get a wonderful teacher. Her teacher is awesome. I know Gracie Claire will learn a lot this year. I'm not concerned at all about her academics. My biggest care was that she would have a connection with her teacher and more importantly, that her teacher would be a Christian. We got both! Answered prayer when it comes to your children is amazing.

Our first big event for the year was Meet the Teacher.

Sitting (and posing) at her desk for the first time... :)

Gracie Claire and Her Teacher Mrs. Bufe

Mrs. Bufe, Gracie Claire, and Mommy

Gracie Claire's classroom has a Dr. Seuss theme...it's adorable!

These 2 love each other so much! Best friends had a hard time being apart today!

Next Up -- The First Day

Rise and Shine!! Gracie Claire woke up all on her own with her alarm! I was lurking outside of her door with the camera. :)

Making her bed and getting her shoes on...almost ready!

Having some breakfast with Daddy... :)

Our Sweet Kindergirl

Gracie Claire and Mommy getting ready to head out!

Gracie Claire and Daddy :)

Bye Daddy! Give my "shishters" kisses for me!

Putting her backpack in her locker...

Posing at her desk...

Mommy was teary at this point... :)

So thankful for a wonderful teacher!

One perk of being a teacher...sneaking in to get a couple of pics during the day!

Gracie Claire had a wonderful first day (minus the allergies :-/.) She is so ready for this time in her life and we know she is going to rock at school. My favorite part of today was her prayer on the drive to school this morning. She prayed, "Dear Lord...Please help me to do my very best. Please let everyone be nice. Please help me to tell people about Jesus because I know that is what you want me to do." Yep...I cried on the way to school too!

We are so proud of you Gracie Claire and the little lady you are. God made you to do wonderful things for Him. We can't wait to see where He will lead you on your journey! We love you so much!

Random Stuff

My Team

Love them...

Caleb's Birthday (30)

Love him...

Friends To Celebrate the Start of Kindergarten With

Love them...

ZING ZANG ZOOM

Our 2 big girls went to The Greatest Show on Earth with BigPa and Gigi and had a BLAST!! The pictures show it all! Thank you BigPa and Gigi for taking our girls on a grandgirl date! They L-O-V-E you so much!

Magical!

(L) After meeting her I think the girls might have new career aspirations as trapeze artists. :)

(R) Syd was a little hesitant to meet Mr. Clown.

BigPa and His Girls :)

Who knew you could play dress-up at the circus? SCORE!

Gigi and Syd :)

Elephants and Tigers...Double SCORE!!

The girls had SO much fun!! :)

Silliness Galore

What do you do with all of the silly pictures that are taken around here? Duh! You post them of course! :)

The first set of pictures are of the girls right before church. I was trying to get a cute sister picture...you know, the kind where they're all looking at the camera and are posed perfectly. Yeah right. Sometimes though, the outtakes are some of my faves.

Sydney would not take her thumb out of her mouth until Paul took it out for her. (We're going through a season of testing her limits with obedience with our sweet Sydster.) The first one shows a pretty accurate picture of Molly's personality. She's hilarious. :)

I love that they all have the same look on their faces in the first one. The second shows Molly trying to make a break for it. Of course.

The best one we got! :) Thanks for the smile Molls!

AND...we're done. :)

One morning after I got home from the gym (that's why I look so hot in these pics) we took some Mommy/Daughter pics. (L) Don't they look so excited to be sitting with their Mama?!

(R) Ummm...Much Better!

What's a photo shoot without more silly pictures? We encourage this behavior. :)

Don't forget to keep scrolling...there's more new stuff below! :)

Classroom Update

Sadly, these pictures are old and need to be updated already. I've gotten even further since taking these. (YAY!) Oh well! Here ya go...

(L) Word Wall (R) My area

(L) Math/Number Corner (R) Self-Explanatory :)

The Library

Newer pics to come... :)

Dre-Dre

We watched our adorable nephew Dre last Saturday night so Gracie and Nkere could go on one last date before football season starts. The girls LOVE Dre and so do we! Isn't his caramely colored skin gorgeous!? He's seriously adorable...and so funny! His little personality is really showing lately. Loved baby-sitting our handsome nephew!

CUTENESS!!

(L) Dre-Dre and Aunt Amanda (R) The Girls and Sweet Dre