Day 2

So, on our walk to school on Day 2 of Kindergarten, Morgan told me all about her new friend, Amber. She said Amber was on Team Blue (Miss C's class), but they had been able to play together. So, we get to school and a little girl from the other line comes over to talk to Morgan a few times. Morgan says to me "Mommy, that's my new best friend, Amber!" Turns out the girl's name is actually Rachel. :) She came over and introduced herself and asked Morgan her name. Then, she went back to the Team Blue line. She yelled across the lines "Hey, Morgan, do you want to be my friend?" and Morgan yelled back "Sure!" Morgan was super excited! Morgan said she's been sitting by Rachel every day at lunch. Avery has been talking a lot about a little girl named Nina. They sit by each other at lunch every day, too. 

We find out the girls' teacher tomorrow night. It would be nice if Rachel and Nina end up in the same class as the girls, but we'll see what happens.

Ready for Day 2

Old pros at the morning line-up

Kindergarten

Last week was a week of endings and beginnings. I've been sad and anxious and excited and just a bunch of different emotions. I'm sad that the girls are growing up, but also excited for them that they are learning and growing and doing so well. It's like I want them to stay the same, but I also love watching them turn into the amazing little people they are becoming!

The girls had their last day of daycare last Wednesday. We've been at the same place since we moved to Downers Grove when they were 18 months old. They started out there as babies! I almost teared up listening to their teacher Ms. Mikayla tell me how much she was going to miss them. It's not that I'm going to miss them being in daycare really (especially not the cost!), but the fact that everything is changing for them makes me sad. They were in a good routine, loved their teachers and had great friends at daycare. Now, we're changing that all up on them and they have no choice but to go along with it.

Last Tuesday, the girls' elementary school had the supply drop-off and a popsicle social. It was crazy with tons of kids and parents running around. It was overwhelming for me, so I can't even imagine what the girls must have been thinking.

We found out the girls are in Team Gold with Miss Boehm to start off school. We will find out their actual teacher assignment later this week. The school likes to evaluate the kindergarteners before assigning classes, so they can balance out the classes.

Their first day in Kindergarten was last Thursday. We had their outfits all picked out and lunches packed. By the way, there are no hot lunches at their school, so we will be packing lunches every day. They do have some "fun lunches" on six Fridays during the semester that we can order food for them. So, that's at least a little break.

The girls seemed really excited for their first day of school. We walked over to school together and found our Team Gold line. Morgan thought we were just dropping her off and bolting, so she looked at us and waved bye and ran over to the line. I said "um, we're not leaving just yet kiddo". Another mom laughed. Avery was a little more hesitant and wanted us to stand by her in line for as long as possible.

The school had a "clap-in" this year where all the parents line the sidewalk and clap and cheer while the kids walk into school. I think it actually made it a little easier for the kids (and for me!).

I worried about the kids ALL day. Would they do ok eating lunch? Would they make any friends? Would they listen to the teacher? Would they make it to their after school program ok? What if they hate Kindergarten? What if someone was mean to them? Based on what they told me, they had a great day! They learned all kinds of new rules and got to meet the principal. :)

To celebrate making it through the day, we went out for some frozen yogurt!

Trip to Utah - Part 3 - Sunday Funday

We started off our Sunday with some swimming in the backyard and a hike up the mountain behind Matt's Dad's house.

The girls actually took a nap after lunch to catch up some sleep. That evening the rest of the family all came over to Matt's Dad's house for a cookout. The girls got to meet their extended Utah family, which included Matt's stepsisters, his nephews, his nieces and their kiddos. I wish we would have gotten a big family picture! There was a HUGE water gun fight and the girls got right in the middle of it! Avery was vicious!

One of the kids is into origami and made Avery a flower

Lots of kids in the pool

The girls with Aunt Jeri and baby Quinn

Avery stood at the top of this and shot everyone with her water gun

Then, we were just hanging out and Morgan comes running out of the playhouse screaming "there's a tarantula in there!" I thought she was exaggerating and that there was just a large spider. Nope, turns out it actually WAS a tarantula. They come down from the mountains to mate, according to Marcia. Marcia caught it and set it free up in the mountain.

Morgan wanted to hold it - um, nope!

On it's way back up the mountain

On Monday, we had to head back to Chicago. The girls were sad to go because they had so much fun! Our flight home was a bumpy one due to a lot of weather getting out of Utah and then again landing in Chicago. I had given the girls Dramamine because I had seen the forecast. Good thing I did. I hate those kind of flights!

Trip to Utah - Part 2 - Thanksgiving Point

On Saturday, we went to this area called Thanksgiving Point. It's got a few museums, an IMAX, farm and petting zoo and a few restaurants. We could have spent the whole weekend there exploring! But, we stopped off at a few of the attractions and the girls loved it!

We started out at the Museum of Ancient Life. There were so many dinosaur exhibits here! The girls were on overdrive, running from one room to the next checking everything out. There was even a room with sand that the girls could pretend to dig for fossils.

The best part of this museum was that we were there for a special Shark Day! They had a whole section with activities for the kids to do.

We were there just in time for the dissection of a dog shark. Yep. They were cutting up a dog shark. And they had plastic gloves the kids to wear, so it could be a hands on activity for them. Of course, Morgan jumped at the chance to do this. Avery stood back and watched for a few minutes, but was not that interested in seeing the insides of the shark. During the dissection, they found that the dog shark had been pregnant and pulled out a tiny little baby dog shark, which Morgan got to hold. Then, Morgan asked if she could touch it's eyeball. Yikes! Of course, they let her. She also got to see the teeth. She loved this!

Holding the baby shark

Touching the eyeball

 The next activity was more up Avery's alley - making necklaces out of shark teeth. And these were real shark teeth that were sharp. I was surprised they were letting the kids play with these!

Another activity was making a toy shark to take home. Avery decorated hers with glitter glue (of course!)

After this, we had lunch at a deli. Then, we headed to the Farm area. The girls got to pet quite a few animals, ride some ponies and take a ride around the farm on a wagon pulled by a tractor.

After the Farm, we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. This place was amazing. I wish we could have spent more time here. I didn't get enough pictures! It started off with kid-sized doors - how fun is this!

Then, there was a massive climbing area with all sorts of different levels and a big slide to get you from the top all the way back to the bottom.

The girls are in the ropes
Matt and Richard are at the bottom left of the picture looking up
The girls are pretty high up in the air!

There was also a section called Kidopolis, that had a full city of kid-sized buildings. There was a movie theater, vet office, bank, house, laundromat, dance studio, art studio... and tons of other "places" for them to go in and play. The girls loved dressing up and putting on a show on the stage at the little theater.

There was a section with all kinds of water and air exhibits. The kids really liked the wind tunnel and standing in the 85 MPH winds!


Outside of the museum were some gardens and a large koi pond. We fed the fish and watched them go crazy!

The girls each picked out a souvenir to take home with us. No surprises here... Morgan picked a leopard and Avery picked a neon unicorn.

The girls were exhausted after all this fun! We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. Grandpa let the girls run the model trains in the basement, another highlight of their trip.

And of course, after dinner we got more yummy ice cream treats!