1st Day of Kindergarten

Last Wednesday was Annie's first day at High Plains Elementary. We had gone shopping for her school supplies a few weeks ago and she spent about every other day from then on proudly parading around the house with her backpack full of supplies. The closer the big day got, you could tell she was getting a little nervous. Olivia was really nervous once she realized that Annie wouldn't be going to Montessori with her anymore. On Tuesday night they both had a hard time falling asleep, but both were ready to go on Wednesday. Here she is, getting all ready to head out the door. Little did we realize that while I was taking the photo, the cat snuck out and decided to camp out under our big evergreen tree. We couldn't get him to come out for anything, so decided to ditch him. I loaded up the girls and while they were getting buckled in, I checked one more time and the cat was waiting for me to let him in the house.

Once at school, Annie lined up with the other kids outside their classroom door. Annie lined up next to her new good friend, Megan and while all the parents snapped photo after photo...my baby walked into school, as proud as can be.

It's official...my work ate my summer.

It's true. I've been working as a construction engineer on the job where no one can do anything right and it has taken my summer. Even right now, it's Sunday and I'm waiting to receive 2 emails from the project on 2 items they messed up and expect me to figure out how to fix. AYE!
In the meantime, there are only 3 more days until Annie is a fully fledged Kindergartner at High Plains Elementary. She is so so so excited. We met her new teacher Ms. Lyons on Friday at the school ice cream social and she seems really excited to be a new teacher. She just graduated from NCU and this is her first job.

So what have we been up to this summer?

1. The girls both took swim lessons, although I can't say that they learned to swim yet. We are planning on a trip to the pool this afternoon, so I will throw them in and let you know what happens.
2. We spent an awesome week on the beach with Nana, Papa, John, Bonnie, Lily, Justin, Mindi, and our new cat (Mr. Georgie Spankerdoodle Throwie Nicholas Meowsers Meowgi, the Third, Jr.) All I can say about Mr. Meowgi is that he is a very tolerant kitty and loves to torment Bailey, loves to chase plastic things across the floor, loves to curl up with me if I'm laying on the couch, and has a love/hate relationship with both girls.
3. We camped a total of 3 times...once with a dead battery, and the the last time with a visit from a bear. He knocked on our door, but we didn't answer...he left a paw print on the side of our camper.
4. A new IKEA store opened in Denver and the girls and I literally got lost inside for 2 hours last week. Luckily, we found the cafeteria and restored our energy levels with some Swedish meatballs and an apple tart. I don't think we will be going back anytime soon.
5. Annie is this close to learning how to ride her bike without training wheels.

Look for a photo album of our summer appearing on the blog soon. In the meantime, I'm going to try and talk Tim into going to IKEA for lunch...

Carnival!!!

The other day while I was driving out to a job site I noticed that there was a carnival being set up in a mall parking lot. So yesterday we decided to take the girls over for a few rides. With the exception of Tim smashing Olivia's hand while buckling up on the roller coaster, they loved it! And at $3 per ride, they really should have loved it. Here are some photos of them enjoying the afternoon.

Planning for the future

Annie told me this morning that she doesn't want to get married because if she does, an angel will come up and shoot her right in the heart. What? It took me a while to figure out that she was talking about Cupid and his arrow. We've got it straightened out now though, or so I think.

What's in a name?

I've been thinking, and what set off this thinking was when I heard Annie the other day calling Olivia "Liver". Hummm, I thought, just how many nicknames does that girl answer too?
Here is a short list...

Olivia
Olivea
Livie
Livia
Liv
Olive
Baby-O
A-livia
Bavie
Bav (this one is my favorite, it started with Annie not being able to pronounce baby)

and the newest one
Liver

It has a nice ring to it I guess. Might just have to add that last one to my rotation.

Our Ballerina

Annie has been going to ballet classes for a few months now and the season has finally come to it's climax - the annual recital!

Introducing Annie, appearing on stage for the first time...

Sorry for the lack of focus on the movie, it was the best I could do. Here are some action shots to clear things up a bit. I love how they are all looking off to the side - that is where their teacher is also doing the dance, in the off chance that they forgot the choreography.

Spring Soccer

Annie is on her second season of soccer. She played last fall, and now spring season is only one game away from putting her out of her misery - or I mean being over. We were scheduled for a makeup game this evening, but it has been rain-snowing here all day so...cancelled! Annie...well, Annie, she isn't what most people would call an athletic kid. She barely hangs in there with the average 5 year old soccer player. She started off strong last fall, but I think her imagination got the better of her this season. It was really hard to convince her to play, "it's too much exercise, and running around, and how can I play like that?" is her general objections. One game we told her that if she played well and made an effort, then we would reward her by going out for dinner. Her response was "Chucky Cheese!!!". Note: I had BBQ on my mind so didn't tell her she could pick where we went, but I let this C.C. choice slide since I figured it would add to her motivation to get out and running on the field, and frankly I was starting to become a little embarrassed to be the mom of the worst player on the field...now I feel embarrassed that I actually admitted that I was embarrassed that our 5 year old isn't a soccer star. Either way - by the end of the game even Coach Justin was cheering "chucky cheese - chucky cheese" every time she lost interest in the game. At last week's game she started giving excuses as to why she couldn't play...it was too sunny, her shoes didn't fit...so I changed her out of her cleats and stuck a pair of sunglasses on her face and what do you know, she actually played pretty well! Maybe I should start believing her when she starts complaining!

Here are some photos of our girl in action - the first is her usual game day strategy, head down and trailing the pack, followed by one where she actually got her foot on the ball! Yeah Annie! You Rock Girl!