First day of FIRST GRADE!

It is kind of killing me to have a child at school ALL DAY! It wasn't that bad until I started thinking over the weekend about the fact that she will be spending WAY more of her awake time with somebody else than she will with me. I am also having a hard time swallowing the fact that I have her for lunch on weekends and summers...from now on. That means that my influence better have been good up to this point, 'cause from here on out the world is going edge in and I am not going to have as much control. I hope that I did well enough. She is such a good girl by nature, and I was so blessed to have such an angel to practice on. She knows right from wrong, and I know that. I just hope that she will always be my strong little princess! I miss her already!

Tori was THRILLED to have Ms. Carla for her teacher this year. Her two older cousins both had Ms. Carla for first grade and she was holding her breath all summer waiting for her class assignment. She has been so excited to go that I thought that maybe I was the only feeling a little anxiety. Late last night, after a blessing, and heading to bed she snuck back down the stairs with tears in her eyes. I wasn't the only one nervous. I held her and kissed her, and told her how fun first grade would be. This morning she was all smiles...not a tear in sight. We took all the traditional first day of school pictures...

...at home

...at school

...with her cousins

...with her best friend/cousin (they look SO much older this year than they did last year!)

...with her teacher

...with a friend from her kindergarten class...she was hoping so much that Malak with be in her class!

Then I got home from dropping her off, and found out what I was going to have to expect from the ones that aren't in school...Owen...good luck, man!

Hilarious Liz!

My daughter says the most hilarious things. Here is a small sampling:

(On the way to church)
"Mom, you look so beautiful."
"Thank you sweet pea!"
"Even if evewybody else thinks you look gwoss, I will still think you look beautiful." Now that's comforting....

Another great one...
"I love Nana, she is so nice."
"I love Nana too."
"And I love the other Nana at her house too. Grandma. I love Grandma too. But she has a weird voice, but that's ok. I can still love her if she talks weird."

"Mom, what language do they speak in Breckenridge?"

Liz and Tor have always had a special gift for knowing when I have eaten something delicious without sharing. One day I was tucking Lizzie in for a nap when she asked me "Mom, did you eat some chocolate, 'cause your breath smells like chocolate." She caught me. When she woke up from her nap, I had just eaten some of those yummy rice crackers. She crawled up on my lap and said, "Mom, did you frow up, 'cause it smells like you have bawf on ya lips." Talk about extremes.

Poking my belly on her way past, "Mommy, do you have a baby in there?"
"No, Liz."
"Then why are you so fat?"

Nana was babysitting Liz and she went to the bathroom and found a little skid mark in her underpants. Nana asked, "Lizzie did you have an accident?"
"No..."
"Are you sure, 'cause you have a little bit of poop in your underpants."
"It wasn't me. It must have been somebody else."
Yup, that's likely. Somebody else borrowed your underpants while you weren't looking, dropped a surprise, and then gave them back?!? Probably not.

Breckenridge

We got to tag along with Daddy when he went to a work conference up in Breckenridge. We had a blast. Unfortunately for Daddy, he missed most of the fun. Since we didn't really take any big vacations, this was our family trip this summer.

Mom's poor packing meant all the kids got a souvenir sweatshirt!

They LOVED the gondolas...and they were free, so we rode them a lot!

We got to mini golf. I paid for T and Liz to play, but I figured O wouldn't pay attention anyway, so I didn't get him a club. WRONG! The boy was much more interested in the game than Liz. Looking back, I probably should have known that, but ya know.

They SHOCKED both Tom and I by sleeping soundly in the same bed, in the same room. That round of golf must have been more strenuous than I thought...or maybe it was the evening swim...

More gondolas, but same thrill!

This time when we got to the top of the gondolas we decided to pan for gems. The kids were thrilled to hear that they got to keep the "jewels" that they found. Owen found a "Percy Rock" because anything that is green must be somehow related to Percy (the train, of course, don't you know your Thomas??). The lady behind us in line kept chuckling when Owen would tell me about his "Percy Rock" because of the lack or R in Percy...ya, kinda sounds bad. I kept LOUDLY repeating "Yes, that is a cool PERCY rock" so that nobody would misunderstand what I was teaching my children. Finally the lady said "My son always used to say the same thing." It made me feel a little better.

There were lots of places to take great pictures. Unfortunately for me, I can identify those great locations, I just don't have the patient kids, or the camera ability to get those great shots. That's ok, at least I tried. Right?

Thanks for letting us join you, Dad, even if you didn't get to play very much.

So fun!

Tom and I LOVE seeing shows together! For Mother's Day Tom got tickets to South Pacific...on my birthday! Perfect! It was so fun!