Kindergarten!

Brooklyn is officially a kindergartener! I don't know who had more anxiety about this big transition, me or her? I swear I had dreams that she wore her pajamas to school, I had dreams that I was back in high school and had no clue what my class schedule was, etc. etc. I only snapped one picture of her on the first day because we were rushing around trying to get to the right place at the right time. The next picture is an "after school" picture a few days later. I just mostly loved the pink outfit with the bow. She seems like such a big girl in those denim shorts! It was really fun that my mom happily assisted in the building of Brooklyn's first back-to-school wardrobe including a cute pink backpack.
Wouldn't you know that I totally had an opinion when we got to the backpack aisle? I pulled out all the stops in trying to dissuade her from the Disney Princess backpack. With the help of my mother,we were able to entice her to select a Fancy Nancy one instead. So far, I am thanking myself for "fighting" (creatively of course) that battle. I think she may even have chosen a "one-of-a-kind." No one else that I've seen at that school has one like it. There are quite a few princess ones though. I did let her get a Tinkerbell lunchbox though. Luckily I wrote her name on all her stuff because one of the first days of school Brooklyn thought that some other girl was getting into her lunch box before realizing that she and the other girl had matching ones.
I tried to pry as much detail out of Brooklyn about the first few days after school, and the responses to my inquiries went a little like this: "We learned today that we are NOT allowed to draw stick figures in kindergarten." A day later it was, "Today we learned that when Mrs. Redmerski hears the sound of Velcro coming apart, she feels like she wants to pull her hair out." Way to go, Mrs. R! I love that you are so feeding the imaginations of these young and impressionable minds. Really though, I think she's a great teacher with just a little bitta spunk. ;) My kinda gal!

This and That

My mom sent us home with all the supplies to make this fun kitchen craft featured in the August "Friend" magazine. They are lady bugs made of crackers, cottage cheese, tomatoes, olives, and chives. The kids enjoyed making and eating them. It was kinda sad though that a couple of them bit the dust before we could consume them. (Ian reached over them and they fell to the carpeted floor below - yucky!)

I failed to snap any family photos on our recent trip to Petco Park to watch the Padres game, so I'll post the best shot I have. The kids were in heaven with that cotton candy! I am so glad that their father is fun enough to let them eat pure sugar. Brooklyn kept offering me some and couldn't figure out why I never obliged. The fireworks after the game were definitely worth staying for the entire game.

Moving Day

Ugh! Moving is seriously the PITTS! I wish we didn't have to do it so often. Basically, when our lease came up for renewal at the other place, the cost of our rent would have been increased, so we looked around a bit but to no avail. At one point, I put our name on a waiting list at a huge complex within our ward boundaries where a few of our friends lived. After we had decided to stay in our current apartment (Stephen "negotiated" a lower renewal rate), but before our lease was up for renewal, we heard back that there were some openings at the place where we were on the waiting list. I wasn't that anxious to jump on the opportunity to move, but Stephen doesn't waste any time in making decisions (unlike me) and he raced to pick up an application and fill out all the necessary paperwork. Needless to say, after having only stayed in our previous place for 6th months, it was time to say goodbye. I do miss those granite countertops and the plush, green outdoor pathway to our door, and the quiet seclusion of the tucked-away neighborhood in which we lived. However, we now have an "in-apartment" washer and dryer to appreciate along with two bedrooms with closing doors rather than a real bedroom plus a second bedroom/loft area.
Can I just say that Stephen is an AMAZING project manager? It's like his brain is wired to think in flow-charts and process improvement. While my kids and Ella and I spent the week @ my mom's house in L.A., Stephen basically packed up 90% of the house - to the point where I felt like I was camping out for the last week of our stay there when I returned from L.A. It was crazy amazing! I mean, pictures were off the walls and the holes were patched and repainted. All of our storage, kids clothes, and kitchen stuff was boxed, labeled and ready to load. He had a color-coded system of where the boxes were to be placed in the new apartment and all I had to do was pack my own clothes as well as help wrap the furniture the night before. Sheesh! I am one lucky gal!
Stephen, thank you thank you thank you for nearly moving our entire family and belongings yet again! You continue to prove heroic in my eyes! ***Just remember that next time I vent to or about you... heee heee!

P.S. Any guesses as to the signature piece of furniture that those lucky home teachers got to move in the picture above?! HA! Had they only known what they were signing up for!

GoodBye Elder Valikoula!

This Elder (pictured on the far right) served in our ward for nearly a year! He became part of our ward family. We miss him already but I'm sure New Zealand is glad to have him back!