First Day of School

MacKayla

Monday was MacKayla's first day of first grade and boy did she love it. She came home and was so excited she could not sit still. She was bouncing, jumping, singing, dancing and everything but relaxing. It was so fun to see the excitement that she had for school. She loves her new teacher, Mrs. Jensen, and has a lot of friends in her class. She also loves that she gets to eat lunch at school every day, although I think we might have a problem there already. It's only the third day of lunch and she already asked me if her lunch was the same as yesterday because she wanted something different. Oh well, tomorrow she can have hot lunch...

When MacKayla was learning to read we made her a deal that she could have a party when she read 100 books, and she realized her goal this past week. She worked hard all summer and read all of the books. This weekend we are celebrating and going to Leo's Place.

Annika
Today was Annika's first day of four year old preschool, and boy was she excited. She loves her teachers, her friends and her class and could not wait to get back to see them. We went to the open house yesterday and when she realized that we were only staying for a minute she was a little miffed at me, until she knew that she would go for a long time today. We'll see how her day went, but I am guessing that she too will be bouncing off the walls telling me everything.

As for Annika's summer she too has been working on learning to read. I made her a copy of MacKayla's kindergarten skills book and she is about halfway though it already. She knows her numbers, letter, letter sounds and some simple words. We are excited to have another reader in the house.

Just another funny tidbit about my girls. A while ago I posted about taking MacKayla shopping for some clothes and the craziness that was that. The funny thing about that though is that she doesn't care what she actually wears. She will happily put on whatever clothes I lay out for her. Annika on the other hand is very particular about what she wears. The colors, textures, and styles have to be just right. So when I tok her to pick out a new outfit for the first day of school I was prepared for real drama. What do you know, there wasn't any. She loved the first pair of jeans that I showed her. As for the shirt I picked out a cute polo shirt with blue stripes and she liked it, but then saw the purple one and asked nicely if she could have the purple on instead. We were in and out of the store in less than ten minutes, that kid is funny.
Look how much she grew in the last year. The above photo was the first day of school last year and the bottom is this year. It seems to be a good six inches or so, and I think most of it was this summer, she outgrew all her clothes.
Arabella
Arabella had her 18 month check-up yesterday and is doing great. She only gained 2 oz in the last three months for a total of 20lbs 9ozs, how that is I have no idea, the kid eats more than anyone else in the house, it must be all the playing she did this summer. She also grew on inch this summer to be 30 1/2 in.

She is doing great developmentally. She knows her body parts, names of the people and favorite things in her life, as well as animal sounds and names. She loves to play outside, especially in the water, she is a little fish. She loves to ride her toy car and to pretend that she is big and ride the girl's bikes. Bella is a sweet little kid and we are so glad that she is in our family.
All my girls together, and they are even smiling.