Whoa!

Well we recovered from "moving" last night. It went fairly well I might add. It only took us 5 hours...the girls were great and we're just happy that it's over! Aiva had a great day. I guess the crew was on their way home and back at the school, someone pulled the fire alarm. According to the "crossing guard" this is the second time it's happened. Nothing like getting the fire drills over and done with at the beginning of school!

Dinner was good. Since we had McD's last night with moving, we had the steak tonight. Spaghetti tomorrow.

Funny things from the girls:

Ana - "When I get old I'm gonna be a butt doctor like Aunt Danelle and I'm gonna check Aiva's butt!" Aiva's response, "NEVER!"

Aiva - "Ana it's not called 'branch' it's called 'ranch'. Like Long Branch without the B."

Tonight we're heading to do some shoe shopping for Aiva - I'm prepared for drama from Ana. I can't get for one without getting for the other!

Pie

After just hearing about pie on iCarly I've all the sudden become very hungry for pie...not sure what kind, but sounds very tasty about now. May be a project for this weekend! Anyway, continuing on! The second day was a success! Can't get much out of Aiva but hey there's no homework so I'm OK with that. Last year Aiva had homework every night and it was tough keeping up with it. This no homework stuff can go on for a couple weeks! It's nice having the time to get used to having a schedule and all the tasks that go into getting ready for the school day.

Dinner was great although Aiva wasn't too keen on the Taco salad. Tomorrow is pizza night and I think we're doing CiCi's in honor of Sam Bish! Sam's funeral is tomorrow at the church. Nate, Ana & I will be going.

Dinner cleaned up...check

Clothes set out...check

Lunch packed...check

Ana - Ana decided that she didn't like sour cream tonight but she kept calling it "sour chicken".

Ana- "Mom...dad just ruined my ballerina shirt in the dishwasher!" She meant to say the washing machine!

No fun Aiva quotes just lots of fun Aiva expressions!

Tired

OK, so here it is the night before the first day of school. I am so tired! I've bathed the girls and gotten dinner cleaned up but all I want to do is sit and veg. Instead I have to go thru my coupons and come up with a plan for the store tomorrrow - in which I have no idea when I'm going to fit it in other than after the girls go to bed tomorrow. Just thinking of that makes me tired.

We're having hamburgers and homemade fries tomorrow - fairly easy.

The girls said something funny tonight that I had to be sure to get down. I just sat on the bathroom floor racking my brain as to what it was and then I remembered so I had to get this out as soon as Nate went up to tell the girls a bedtime story.

Ana - "Mom...we've got to talk" It was so mater of fact that I just busted out laughing. I can't remember what it was, but the intro was hilarious.

Aiva - I asked Aiva if she wanted me to do her nails tonight or in the morning and she responded, "Mom, I really don't want you to do my nails. I just want to be myself and not somebody else. Is that OK?" Of course I said yes but it was just funny and eye opening that she's turning out to be her own person and at this particular time she didn't want her nails done.

Hope the first day goes well. Hope I'm able to hold in the tears! Not a chance!

Aiva asked me tonight if I would great her in the morning by saying, "Hello my first grade girl!"

Graduation

Last night, Aiva officially graduated from Kindergarten. Her last day at Big Walnut Elementary was on Wednesday and then we had Graduation at church. She had so much fun. You can see that she almost felt like she was an adult getting all this attention for graduating! Here she is 6 but she was walking and talking like she were 16. Not in a regular 16, don't mess with me, I'm too good for you sort of way. Just an older, sophisticated, more grown up sort of way! We had dinner and then the "commencement" started. The graduated came in and filed up on stage then Ms. Becky gave the address to the graduates. It was great...she told the students that they needed to ABC...Always Be Christ. Whenever they were close to having a bad attitude and talking not so nice to others that they needed to think ABC...Always Be Christ. She even gave the graduates ABS silly bands. Aiva thought they were so very cool! Once Ms. Becky was done, she passed out the diplomas and then there was a slide show with all the kids pictures. It was quite moving. It was so great to see all these kids and to think that these are the kids that Aiva is grow older with. These are the kids that she's going to go to camp with...the kids who she's going to go to football games with...the kids who she's going to grow closer to Jesus with. I was so proud of her last night. I was so proud of the girl that she has grown to be and so proud that she's my daughter. I love you Aiva!

Aiva

This week I'm going to be posting some video's that Aiva took this weekend. She absolutely loves to be in front of a camera. She loves to sing and perform. She just told me that she wants to be a makeup song artist when she grows up!! Sounds like something I might have come up with when I was her age. I could twirl and sing for hours and so can she! For Christmas we gave Aiva her own MP3 with headphones and she could listen to it all day if we let her. She cracks me up...I really love that girl! This is a picture of her and her uncle Steve, along with Mr. Mouse from "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie". This Friday she received the book in a bag, which she's supposed to take a picture of her and Mr. Mouse along with an activity that they did that night/weekend. Hers was going out to pizza with Uncle Steve. She had a blast and is still talking about Uncle Steve coming to see her.

Can't wait to share with you some of Aiva's latest singles!

Conferences

This has been a year of milestones for both girls and it seems that time is slipping through my fingertips like sand on the beach. On Monday, I went to Aiva's school for her first real parent teacher conference. I have been so nervous leading up to this and I wasn't sure why. I don't know if it was the thoughts rushing into my head about what this teacher thought of my sweet baby girl or just the unknown of what she might say about Aiva's words and actions in class. Kids act so differently in school than what they do at home so it was no surprise when she said that Aiva is a piece of cake. It was almost music to my ears! I mainly wanted to find out if Aiva was adjusting OK. Aiva is a very quiet shy little girl when she's out in public but when she's in the house she's a ball of energy. Going to school at BWE was something that was completely new. New place, new faces, new bus...everything new. I was so concerned that that she wouldn't have me there to be the spatula! I always think of Aiva as chocolate and everyone else as vanilla and sometimes she needs me there to whip the two together. I'm very thankful that God took care of that and he took over my spatula role! The teacher confirmed that Aiva is doing just fine and she's adjusting quite well. She befriended a few of the other girls in class and according to the teacher, she's very helpful. It was so fun to see Aiva at trick-or-treating and running up to friends from school to say hi. It just melted my heart. My baby girl is blossoming into quite the young lady...God's doing some good work with the spatula! So the first parent teacher conference is over and now we're on to writing and reading. It's hard to believe that she can really be doing some of this stuff. Does she really have to grow up this quick? Prepare my heart, Lord, for what's to come!

Aiva

I just ran down the steps from putting the girls to bed and I just had to blog about my thoughts and feelings. Tomorrow is a big day for my first born...her first day of school. I can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone. Last year, when she was in preschool, was so much easier. I brought her to work with me and I dropped her off as her school was at my work. This year is completely different. She gets to ride the bus and I'm entrusting her to a group of people that I don't know. Yes, I am an overprotective mom who is sending her baby to school for the first time. I wanted tonight to be special...we had a simple dinner (which wasn't by choice) and then the party began. I gave the girls baths and we did it up right, bubbles and smelly stuff galore. It was quite fun. After the bath it was time to do the hair. As I was drying Aiva's hair I started to think about how one day...sooner than what I think...I'll be helping her with her hair as she gets ready for prom...and then sometime after that...helping with her hair as she weds. Time really does go too fast. I know we're on this earth for just a moment but I truly love this time. I love being a mom, and especially a mom to girls. Tonight, as I was thinking about how fast my baby is growing up I spent just a little extra time running my hands threw Aiva's hair. I remember the first few nights that we brought her home from the hospital - giving her a bath and running my hands threw her hair. At that time it seemed like this day would never come. Feeling the strands between my fingertips now make me realize that my dear little baby has grown up into a little young lady. After the hair we moved to nails. I painted each toe and finger with gentle strokes and chatted about life and the days to come. Her fingernails were next to nothing when we brought her home from the hospital and now they're fingers and nails of a little young lady. The day is finally here when I have to let my baby go to the world. I have no power to stop the bad things that she may see or hear around her environment. I have no power to stop the things that may go threw her fingertips. Only God can take care of her now while I can't be with her. Protect her while she goes into the great unknown and love her with the only love that is perfect and right.