Small Blessings: August 2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ella's First Day Of Pre-School!

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010. Ella heads of to Shining Stars Preschool!

She's loving it!

A Life-Long Friend Turns 7

Irelynn...

Gracie and the birthday girl...

Gathered around the Zhu Zhu pets...

Group pic...

And a silly group pic...

Riverboat Days Dance Recital- Aug. 20, 2010

Finally! Ella's first dance recital was last Friday night, when Judi's Dance Studio performed at Yankton's Riverboat Days. Here she is in her first dance costume, their routine was called Island Fun...

Gracie's class performed the same routine they did for their spring recital, it was called Garden Party...

A quick hug while they waited backstage...

Ella did great. She didn't seem scared to go on stage at all, but once her little class got out there they had a hard time dancing. A combination of being three and being very busy checking out the audience.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Gracie's First Day Of Kindergarten!!!

Aghhhh! My baby went to Kindergarten today!!!

Here she is this morning before leaving for school...

backpack shot...

heading into school...

and into her classroom...

I'm happy to report that neither of us cried this morning upon drop-off. I tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't miss my "baby" too much, not hard to do when you have two other small children to care for.

I got all of Ire's clothes that are too small for her put away in tubs, and her fall stuff put away in her drawers.

Then Ella, Ire and I went to Alco to get some stuff we needed to wrap a baby shower gift, and then we had lunch with Mark. We happen to frequent this particular Subway often, and the lady working noticed that I was missing one. I must admit, it made me choke up a bit explaining that my oldest was in school now.

Gracie's day started by learning that she's part of the green group. She learned where her hook is for her backpack/coat/lunch bag, and where to keep her art box.

She sang a song and listened to a story before heading out on a watermelon hunt. The watermelon hunt took them to the Principal's office, where Gracie Small was the one to find the watermelon!

The class took their watermelon down to the city park where they ate it and played for a while!

I got a little teary (for only the second time!) when I walked inside to pick her up, and watched as 13 or so little kindergartners struggled to lift their chairs up onto their tables. I'm sure by the end of the year, they'll be pros at it :)

She brought home lots of paperwork for mama to read, and homework that she's already completed.

We were all very excited for our Gracie to come home, especially littlest sister...

It was a great first day, and she's excited to go back to school on Thursday (they have tomorrow off for teacher in-service)!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Story Time

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Let My Hair Go

Monday, August 9, 2010

Storm 08-08-2010

We got hit pretty hard by a storm late yesterday afternoon. When I talked to Mark this morning, he said that he heard that a small tornado touched down on the edge of town a few miles from our house.

There are lots of branches down around town...

The neighbors' tree broke...

it fell into one of our trees, taking down the power lines and pole (and our cable line) with it...

We were without power for 11 hours.

Some friends from a town close by came over with coolers and lots of ice. We packed up all of the stuff in our refrigerator, said a prayer for the stuff in our freezer, and they took it all over to an extra refrigerator they have at their house.

The girls did very well. They watched a DVD on the lap top in the basement. Bedtime wasn't too bad. They cried for their night lights, so I opened all the curtains and blinds and tried to tell them that the moon and stars could be their night lights instead. Ella went right to sleep, despite all the chainsaws and noise right outside her window. Gracie, on the other hand, kept coming downstairs. Finally, Mark took her down to the basement, and they slept in Irelynn's room. Irelynn slept with me in the pack and play in our room, and seemed totally undisturbed by all the noise.

The power company made it to our house shortly before 10 pm (by this time the rest of the town had power again) and worked until they got us up and running at almost 4 am.

This morning I am thanking God for creature comforts like air conditioning on a hot, humid day, and hot water to shower (because not very long ago we switched to an electric water heater)!

We are also thankful that no one was injured, and for the linemen who work long and hard last night to put up a new pole!

Time to stock up on some more candles!

MN Trip 2010 Part III- Mall of America

Of course, we hit the Mall of America.

Gracie saw Claire's and asked if she could get her ears pierced. She has asked a couple of times before, but always backed out at the last minute. I figured that's what would happen again. I called her dad to get approval, and after once he gave up the go ahead, we hit the store.

She picked her earrings, and...

went through with it! She has been very responsible about keeping them clean too.

We met Blue...

went on rides...

and had fun hanging out together!

May I also give a shout out to IKEA?! We love IKEA. You see, I have this problem with storage and organizational baskets and such. IKEA is a very happy place for me.

See you next year MOA and IKEA?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

MN Trip 2010 Part II- Minnesota Children's Museum

We spent one whole day at the children's museum. I was nervous to drive downtown, but Amanda's GPS was awesome! I found something to add to my Christmas list.

The girls getting their faces painted. A rainbow and flower for Gracie, and a heart for Ella...