First Day Of Kindergarten

Gracie has been looking forward to kindergarten for well over a year. Last year she looked on longingly while her cousins boarded the school bus and begged me to let her just got to kindergarten now.  She didn't need pre-school for another year. She was ready now! Much of our year was spent thinking about, talking about, dreaming about and preparing for kindergarten.  Once she went to kindergarten visit day in June the excitement really ramped up. It was all she could talk about all summer.  We did work sheets, work books, played counting games, letter games, all at Gracie's insistence since "there is so much I don't know mom".  In the last week she has woken me up at 4:30 EVERY morning with the kindergarten countdown.  To be honest, I was a little worried that the first day could never live up to her expectations since they were sky high but I was wrong. The day was magical.  She woke up at 4:30, came bouncing onto my bed and yelled "It's here, my special day! I'm going to kindergarten!!!!" She wanted to get dressed right then but I talked her out of it.  We packed her lunch, did her hair and then made cinnamon rolls and bacon and the cousins and auntie and uncle came over for a special first day of school breakfast, 

After breakfast she put on her new dress that Auntie Amy sent for the first day. Actually, my 18 year old nephew Nate picked out the dress. He really knows his cousin because it was perfect for her. She told me this morning "Tell Auntie Amy my dress is perfection!"

The coveted Anna and Elsa Frozen backpack from Auntie Kate.

 Then we headed out for pictures with the cousins and to wait for the school bus.

Grace wanted me to come to school the first morning and walk her to her classroom but she was dying to take the bus. So I got her on the bus and then met her at the school.

This is her arriving at the school.  I don't know that any picture can truly do the moment justice but she was exploding with joy. When she got off the bus she said "Mom, that bus ride was the best thing that ever happened in my whole entire life!"

She was a little hesitant as we walked down the hallway to her class and she asked to hold my hand. I kissed her hand and told her that she was going to be great at kindergarten! She proudly announced her name to the teachers aid who checked her in and then we went in and saw her teacher. She knows the teacher because cousin Jake had her and so she was very comfortable. We hung up her backpack, got our her pencil box and she sat down to color. She gave me a kiss and a big smile and off I went.

I have to say that while I didn't cry, I was very weepy. I was surprised at how emotional I felt,  Maybe it's because she is my first and only child to go to school. Maybe it's the realization of my baby becoming a big girl. Whatever it is, I felt it hard but it was mixed with lots of pride and love and the knowledge that my job was to make her feel ready to go and she did!

When she got home she called me and announced that riding the bus is awesome, they had rest time but she did not take a nap because she is not a baby, she had lunch with a new friend whose name she can't remember and they said the pledge of allegiance and sang 5 little monkeys. She said "School is amazing mom!"  She  goes full day and 5 days a week and when I got home she was exhausted and asked me to put her to bed at 7:00p,m.  When I kissed her good night she said "Mom, tomorrow I want to buy lunch. I am so, so happy I get to go to school again tomorrow!" I don't think it could have gone ay better.

Long Time No Post

I can't believe I haven't posted since February.  I'm lazy, that's my only excuse. I think about posting all the time but the actual posting never seems to happen.  I figured no one read it anymore but a friend recently mentioned I hadn't updated in awhile. I was thinking of just letting the blog go but it has turned into a great scrap book of Gracie's childhood so I'm not quite ready to give up on it yet.

So what have we been up to these past several months:

March:

Ready for St. Patrick's Day

This was Gracie's second year of pre-school.  Last year for St. Patrick's Day, unbeknownst to me, a "leprechaun" comes into the class room before school and messes up the room and leaves chocolate coins.  Last year Grace freaked out about it.  I mean, she lost her marbles. She was furious that leprechaun came into her class and messed it up and she was convinced he was coming back while she was in the classroom.  The teachers convinced her he would not but it took a couple of days for her to come down from that.  This year I knew what would happen and we had time to prepare and talk about how the leprechaun was being silly, not mean and that he doesn't like to be seen so he would not come in the classroom. This year she was fine and enjoyed telling me about it when she got home.  What a difference a year and a little preparation make.

April:

Ready for the party!

Gracie turned 5 this year. 5 has been a greatly anticipated birthday. She had a nightly countdown that started 2 weeks prior to her birthday. At 12:45am on the day of her birthday I rolled over to see a little face was staring at me saying "mom, I'm 5!!!!! It's my birthday! Let's go to my birthday party! Boy was she disappointed to learn she had 12 more hours to wait. As you see above, it was a Doc McStuffin theme and we had it at a jumpy place and she had a blast.

Easter in California with cousins Nate and Sarah

This year we had Easter in California. My sister Amy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had her spleen and part of her pancreas removed.  We are so lucky that it was caught so early and was very treatable.  We went out to help with the recovery and I am thrilled to say they got all the cancer and she is doing great. 

Grace is a fashionista.  I am not. I expected we would battle over clothes but I did not think it would start when she was 3.  This year proved especially challenging when it came time to buy an Easter dress.  It took two shopping trips and seven stores before we agreed on one. Here is a snippett of the conversation we had during our first trip. 

Me: Do you like this one? G: Well, I like sparkles, but not THESE sparkles. Me: OK, how about the next one? G: Well, I love the dress and it twirls great but I don't like the green around the flower. Me: I think that's supposed to be like leaves G: Well, it's not doing a good job then. Me: OK, how about this one? G: Well, I LOVE the top but the bottom is too tissue papery and I would like it to be more like a tutu. After an hour and 8 dresses tried on we walked out without one. Me: I guess we need to try another store another time. G: Yeah, that store didn't have the right dresses. Let's try a store that has mediums because I am definitely a medium! I don't even know what that means but if this is what it's like buying an Easter dress God help me when it's time for a prom dress or God forbid a wedding dress!

Gracie and Nate

Sarah and Gracie. I should fly sarah in to do her hair. She is never that cooperative with me!

 

 

May:

Goofball Cousins

Nate the graduate with his proud parents and sister,

We went back to California at the end of May for our planned trip out for my nephew's high school graduation.  The graduation was in the evening so one of Nate's friends watched Grace, Meg and Jake while the rest of us went to the ceremony.  We had to get there a couple hours early to get a good seat.  It was a great week.  My parents and my sister Kate and her family came out too.  We also celebrated my dad's 70th birthday while we were out there. 

June:

 

Gracie had her kindergarten visit day. Boy, this was a highlight for her.  I was a little emotional about it but I didn't cry! She came home with a packet of work sheets to do over the summer. She said mom, we have to work really hard because there are a lot of things I don't know for kindergarten. I said, like what? She said, well......I can't count to 500. I said I didn't think that was a requirement for the first day so she should be fine! We have already blown through what they gave us because every night she tells me we need to work on her school work.

Gracie showing off her certificate with my dad

Gracie had her pre-school promotion in the middle of June. She loved that preschool and it was a great place for her to learn.  She is going to do a couple of summer camps there this summer which I know she will love.

July:

So far, her Frozen obsession shows no signs of stopping. We are all frozen all the time over her.  She sings the entire soundtrack, I mean the ENTIRE soundtrack from start to finish daily. 85% of our conversations involve Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Sven and Christoph.  Every morning we have to do her hair in a "frozen" braid like Elsa.  That means that braid needs to go over her shoulder.  Apparently, Auntie is better at the Elsa braid than I am so she asked Auntie to give me a tutorial. 

Here is Gracie in her Queen Elsa dress.  She is convinced that if I let her wear it to target everyone would think she was the real Elsa because she is in fact a real princess.  I actually liked the movie and the soundtrack the first 829 times but now I would like to let it go...........but she just won't let me! I even walk around the hallways at work humming Do you wanna build a snowman.

Valentine's Day

Gracie loves valentine's day. I mean, she really loves it. She has been talking about it for weeks.  The first thing she said to me this morning was "Happy Valentine's Day Momma!" Today was supposed to be her Valentine's day party at school but unfortunately, there was a snow delay so they cancelled pre-school.  Next week is school vacation so hopefully the week after she can pass out her Doc McStuffin Valentine's.  She wrote her name on all of them all by herself.  I thought she was going to be crushed when she found out there was no school but she handled it fine.  Her only concern was wanting to still wear her new Sophia the First Valentine Shirt. Once I told her she could still wear it she was fine. 

She had been telling me for weeks that she LOVES flowers, colorful flowers and that you are supposed to give your valentine flowers.  I don't know where she got this, but I picked up on the clue and had this waiting for her when she woke up. I forgot to take the picture when she first saw it so I took one when the cousins came down for cinnamon roles. 

Gracie has been planning her surprise for me for a few weeks with her Auntie Kate.  I cam home tonight to this.

 

She did a great job writing her name all by herself.  The small person is Gracie wearing large earrings and I am the heart shaped person, also wearing large earrings.  She told me she chose those flowers because they were the most beautiful, like me.  We are going to finish our evening snuggling, watching a movie and sharing the lollipop she got me. It's the perfect Valentine's day if you ask me.

Best Laid Plans

So the plan this weekend was to celebrate Halloween in spades. Friday night was a Halloween party at Grace's school and Sunday is our town's annual Halloween parade. Grace was excited about both.  Friday night I put her in her Sophia the first costume, we went to the school, bought our tickets and 15 minutes later we were back in the school parking lot with Grace shaking, crying and swearing that Halloween is very weird and she is not going trick or treating ever again.  The problem was that the second we walked into the school cafeteria, she saw a little kid in a gorilla costume with a mask and she lost her mind. I could not convince her that it was just a kid in that costume and it wasn't real. She cried, she refused to let me put her down, I couldn't distract her with the crafts or cookie decorations and she was sobbing to go home. So we did.  We stopped for a quick dinner and then mutually decided that we would skip the Halloween parade on Sunday.

So we went from lots of plans, to very little plans which worked out perfectly.  This morning we took a trip to Starbucks and rather than going through the drive through which I prefer, we went inside so Gracie could people watch.  That made her happy as a clam.  Next we went to Target and bought her some new jeans and a new winter coat because as Grace says, she is getting "giant tall." While there I  decided it was time for a new pair of slippers for her and she chose a sparkly princess pair (big shock there). When I told her she was getting the slippers, she hugged them to her chest and spent the rest of the time thanking me for them. We also picked up a pumpkin carving kit.

When we got home we set to the task of pumpkin carving.  I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was about 11 and even then, my dad always did most of the carving. I generally prefer drawing a face on it but Gracie asked if we could carve them this year so we did.  She loved the whole process.

Then she spent the rest of the day playing with her cousins and the neighbor kids.  Gracie told me tonight it was a perfect day. I have to agree.

Fall in New England

Not that I think about leaving New England very often, but on the rare occasions when I do I realize that if I ever did, I would so miss the fall season.  We have been very lucky with weather lately and the colors are just spectacular.  A couple of weeks ago we went Apple picking which is one of Gracie's favorite things to do . 

Today we had nothing planned so last night Gracie and I decided that we would just sleep until we woke up and then we'd have a lazy day.  Well, as it turned out, we were both awake at 5:30 and after an hour of lounging around we decided that a lazy day would just not do today.  Instead we headed to our favorite breakfast place and then to Gracie's favorite farm.  Anytime I mention going someplace special she always says are we going to the farm? It's owned by the Audubon Society and I was thrilled to find out that today we could renew our membership for half price! We had gorgeous weather and Grace kept saying mom, we sure live in a beautiful place! I could not agree more.

Grace took this picture

Ready for the hayride

She is in the process of jumping but she looks like I hung her up like a scarecrow