Lizette is off to Kindergarten!

Last night was the official 'start of school meet and greet' at Lizette's school. As I mentioned in my last post, she got into Christine Donnell School of the Arts and I couldn't be more thrilled! Christine Donnell is an art based magnet school. It's a public school, but with a few perks that make it appealing to us and we are so happy to have Lizette there. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Cochell and appears to be about the nicest teacher ever. 

In front of her new classroom

Working at her official desk spot. :-)

Happily creating.   :) 

On her way out today!

Sporting the new Lalaloopsy backpack.

Lexi didn't want to let her go. 

How sweet! 

Mom was excited for her! 

Three happy girls!

In front of her new school

There she goes with her class! It's official...she's in school!!!

End Notes!

Got through that post and realized I left off some important details! First of all, Lizette did just fine on her first day. She was a little bit nervous, but that was all. I held her hand and walked her to her teacher. After her teacher called the class over and asked them to follow her to the classroom, Lizette looked a little sad for a second but then followed along and seemed okay. The teacher told the class to wave goodbye to their families and Lizette looked back and waved. And that was it. So long mom, hello new and fun adventure!

When I picked her up after school...which is a whole adventure in itself! There are like an army of parents waiting to pick up their kids after school. It's crazy....Anyway, I asked her about her day. She said there is actually a princess in her class. And she was very serious about this. "A princess?" I asked.
"Yes, her name is Jasmine. You  know like from the movie?!!" She was very excited. :) I guess everyone with the name Jasmine is a princess. Very cool.

Every Tuesday is PE day and so the first day of school was PE. I would not have been so excited about that as a kid, but Lizette was. She had lots of fun and was very excited about the chance to get to sit on one of those little plastic things with wheels on them some time. Remember those? I do. That and the parachute games may have been one of the only fun things in PE for me.  :)

They also played an apple game and she said that during recess Jasmine could not play because she was not feeling well. So Lizette and the teacher stayed with Jasmine so that she would not have to be alone.

Oh and two of Lizette's friends from preschool are in her class and she was very excited about that. Eli and Luqa. They are the cutest little twins. Adorable really. It will be fun to have them in her class again.

So a few weeks ago, we had a family home evening and talked about the importance of friends. I thought this was a good topic going into the school year. We talked about how our friends can influence us and how we can influence our friends. Somehow the conversation ended by me telling Lizette that if anyone in school offers her cigarettes to just say no thanks and walk away and if anyone ever tries to kiss her to run away. She laughed at the kissing part. And at the cigarettes, she goes "What's a cigarette, Mommy?" I can't even remember how I described a cigarette. Oh, and it gets better. I proceeded to tell her that if anyone is ever mean to her it's okay to stand up for herself. I told her that usually the best thing to do is to walk away and ignore it, but if someone pushes her around or tries to hurt her, she can slug them in the gut and tell them to buzz off. I felt like that was Grandma Jackie talking.

A Fun Month!

The Bushmans...

The last month of summer was so fun for our family. It started out with a visit from Hilary and her family all the way from San Antonio. With the miles between us we don't get to see them as often as we would like, and we love it when they come to town. Hilary is the life of the party in the family and my girls just love her. Uncle Brent came this time too and he actually got Lexi to warm up to him. Major accomplishment for those of you who know Lexi! The kids had fun and we had a great visit. As always, it made me wish they lived closer. (sniff, sniff) If I feel this way, I can only imagine how my mother in law feels! Hilary, you really need to move back to Idaho! No pressure or anything. :-)

Here are a few pics that Jeff caught of their visit. We had some fun time at Thayne and Angel's pool. Brent is the expert at throwing the kids into the pool. Grandma and Grandpa Rigby swam too and the kids were hanging all over them! 

Haircuts...

A few weeks ago I decided the girls needed fresh, new, short haircuts. So I traded some jewelry and had a nice lady I know cut their hair. She did exactly what I asked her to do, but they both ended up shorter than what I had envisioned! What was I thinking...crazy mom that I am! But, they are cute and hair grows, right? She did a great job. They can both pull off the short hair thing. She gave me a tip about hair products. She said there is actually a difference and that she uses salon products on her kids hair. (I never have). I thought I would give it a try to see if there actually is a difference. There is! I bought some Paul Mitchell for kids that was on sale at the Walmart salon. I used it on their hair and the difference is amazing. Their hair is silky soft now. 

Ballet or maybe not? 

Lizette finished up her summer ballet lessons and we still haven't decided whether or not to enroll her for next year! I realize we have like a week to decide, but she is on the fence and I don't know what to do. She wasn't overly excited about it in the end and was sort of wanting to do gymnastics instead. I really would like to have her in only one thing at a time for several reasons, cost being one! Ballet is a big commitment. If she wants to do it, I am all for it, but if she doesn't love it, I don't want to force it. I guess we'll have to make up our mind in the next couple of days and I'll let you know!

Here is Lexi just being cute! Love those eyes.

The Downtown Market...

We love going downtown to the market. The face painting. The animal balloons. The mini donuts. The other fresh food. It is all good and all fun and a fun outing for us. 

When we got home this time, Lizette got creative and made her own animal balloon butterfly. I thought that was pretty clever! She asked us for help tying them together and then colored the dots on them. Lexi was her customer. :-)

The corn...

So, we bought 120 ears of corn and processed them into freezer corn! So much work!!! I was really not excited about doing this, but freezer corn is soooo good. We looked at each other and said, "Do we want this year to be a good year, or just an okay year?" We decided we want this year to be a GOOD year! So we did the freezer corn. Woohoo! 

This is just a portion of the corn. Yikes!

Some more family time...

The girls and I went to Utah last week so that we could meet up with Abby, Paul and Karrie and their families for a couple of days. Paul and his family took their oldest daughter Emma to BYU for her first year of college! WOW! Can't believe that day is here! It was so fun to see all of them and to be able to tag along for some of their activities. We had some fun cousin time. I love that my girls have so many adorable older cousins. They have great role models in all of them. We were able to see Lori who lives in Alaska who is just lovely and who we never get to see because of the distance between us. I was so grateful to have the chance to see everyone and catch up! Again, it made me wish that we lived closer. Thankful for these opportunities to get together though. 

Of course a trip to Utah wouldn't be complete without a trip to IKEA!  I tagged along with Paul and Emma while she picked up some supplies for her dorm. I took this picture to text to Jeff while I was there and I liked how it turned out. Sort of looks heavenly or something, don't you think? :-)  Picked up some fun kitchen gadgets and a fun art easel for the girls. 

Oh and a side note about Utah....Diane is moving there in a couple of months! This is fantastic news!!! In case you don't know Diane, she is my step sister/best friend that I grew up with.

After we got home from Utah we had some more cousin time with Thayne and Angel's kids. Angel is on bed rest! Poor lady! Hopefully, she will be better soon and back to normal activities. But in the mean time, it is a little scary and stressful! So the other day, the girls and I hung out with Phieffer, Hampton and Ammon. We love those kids! Hampton and Lizette had some fun playing dress up. :-)

My next post will be all about Lizette's first day of Kindergarten at Christine Donnell School of the Arts! Glad she got in and that she got in before the start of the school year. Can't wait to post all about it!