Orange Room

Kaelyn started a new school year at her pre-school this morning. I wish I could say it was her last, girl is ready, but her fall birthday will force her to do one more year next year or sign up for the new "transitional kindergarten" classes that started a few years back.

We had a fun photoshoot this morning to document her big day! Please take special note of the bows in her hair,  it's been months since this girlie has allowed mommy to put ANYTHING in her hair, but today she indulged me for the 10 minutes it took to take her picture! I'll take what I can get:) Hooray!

It's also worth noting that this is currently her FAVORITE dress and she'd wear it every single day if I let her! It was an easy choice for her first day outfit.

Love her 'tude!

I just love this little girl! Why does she have to grow up?

She wants to be a REAL princess when she grows up, or a real fairy, depending on the day of the week.

People are always commenting on her hair. This week I actually got asked if we dyed it to get the hombre look.

The kids are fortunate enough to have grandma on the same campus as their school. She takes them to lunch once a week and this morning she came to celebrate the new school year with Kaelyn.

Only the girlie cousins are left at pre-school this year. Here's to a year of "Girls Only" lunch dates with Grandma.

Now that mommy is working, daddy gets to take the kiddos to school three days a week!

Kaelyn is in the "orange" room this year. Sure wish her and Maddie girl could be in the same class, but thankful that this year they'll have lots of outside time together!!

We LOVE Ms. Annie, Brennan had her for the last two years and now it's Kiki's turn!

Kindergarten Kid

Brennan started Kindergarten today! He was BEYOND excited and has been talking about it for days! Yesterday he told EVERYONE we came across that he was starting kindergarten today. And by everyone I mean EVERYONE, including the people checking us out during our massive errand outing! He was stoked!!

He woke up early, and expertly followed the checklist I'd made him to help him get ready for school! Then we had our first day of school photo shoot!

I love this chalkboard idea from Pinterest and hope to use it year after year!  I just couldn't pick one favorite, so enjoy a multitude of cute shots of my boy!

 

Angry Birds Star Wars was the backpack of choice this year, apparently he's not the only fan in his class, another little boy has the same one! 

When I was growing up my mom always took us to get donuts on the first day of school and we've continued the tradition with our kiddos. With our new schedule we weren't sure we could fit everything in AND make it to school on time, so this year we brought the donuts to us! 

Celebrating a great first day with some froyo!

He LOVED his first day of school and declared Mrs. H the best teacher EVER!! Guess she's setting the bar high for all his future teachers!! He's already begging to go back!! 

Princess Camp

This week my little princess went to "Princess Camp".  She had SOOOO much fun!! She sang, she danced, she made crafts and adorable edible snacks. She had an all out blast!! Today she showed off some of what she learned during their performance!!

While she LOVES dance class, she gets shy when it's time to perform, so she showed off her "tude" and we saw quite a bit of her back, especially when she saw us pointing the camera her direction.

After receiving her princess crown for completing camp.

This summer's camp was based on "The Little Mermaid", today the girls were all awarded "Dinglehoppers", if you haven't seen the movie, you'll have no idea what that means. But they were thrilled and Kiki immediately starting using hers ;) (see the photo below)

Miss Amie and Miss Megan are the best!

My princess wasn't too fond of the way the crown felt on her head.

 

Ariel came to watch the girls perform! 

Reciting their "Princess Pledge"

We're in the "HOME" Stretch

It's been a year since Dz walked out of our arms and headed "home" to L@tvia and this week we FINALLYgot the news we've been waiting so long to hear!!

What is that news you ask?  

His family got the official referral to adopt him!!!!!! (click the link to read more)

If you're new to the adoption world let me break it down for you, this means Dz has been officially matched with the "P" family by the powers that be in L@tvia!!! Now they await their travel/court dates and my favorite L@tvian will be headed H.O.M.E. forever!! 

We're in the "HOME" stretch people!!!