ellie was invited to her first preschool birthday party for her friend Sienna {back in september}!
sienna and ellie started in prek3 together and will continue on as classmates for the next many, many years to come!
her mom, kelli, hosted the fete at a local princess party place in town. it was a beautiful day out and ellie was super excited to attend her friend’s party. olive had attended a party there for her friend betty, several months prior – right before the shutdown, but i didn’t take her, hc did. so, i had never been to this establishment.
we arrived to a lot of pink and princess everything. the girls could dress up as fairies, by picking out fun tutus, wings, and crowns. ellie was obsessed! she loved the rainbow wings and tutu. she originally picked a pink iridescent skirt but then soon found a matching rainbow one that went perfectly with her colorful wings.
once dressed up, they could walk the runway to show off their pretty gear. couple by couple, the girls working the venue eventually got all the little ones into their make up chairs and painted their faces and bedazzled their hair with a ton of glitter each. LOL i was like, dada is going to be so mad. he hates glitter!
after they had their hair and make up done, the girls then got manis! once everyone was decked out, they all walked the runway again before the pizza and cake was served!
overall, ellie had the best time with her friends! it was nice to be able to go to a party with just ellie’s friends! she’s always hanging out with olive’s friends – which is great! but it’s nice to have her hang out with girls her age, specifically the girls she goes to school with.
thanks kelli and sienna for having us at your party! it was so much fun!
[nice photos by morgan clare photography…bad photos by my iPhone LOL]
olive and ellie had their christmas programs right before christmas break!
ellie’s program was during her class time, in the morning. i am the only person who goes. i feel a little bit bad that it’s just me because most of the kid’s parents both attend along with both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, or anyone who will go. then there’s just me. ellie is the only child who only has one parent show up. well, hell, at least she has someone, right?!!
well, after her stage fright stint with her ballet recital, she kicked that into high gear for her christmas singalong. she froze up and sang not one song, not one word. nope. wasn’t doing it. she would not sing. i sat front row and encouraged her to sing and she angrily shook her head no at me the entire time. ugh.
girlfren was alllllll smiles before the program started then she shut down. oh well. at least she looked cute!!
E L L I E’ S C H R I S T M A S P R O G R A M
[she looked super excited but the performance didn’t show it]
[ellie’s skeptical face the whole program]
****
O L I V E’ S C H R I S T M A S P R O G R A M
olive’s program was at night. it was the k-5 classes and they were set to perform first. i was so excited! i was also stoked that i was photographing the performance and as a yearbook photographer for the school, i was reserved front row seating! yahooooooo!
i dropped olive off at the main school and walked into the church and found my partners in crime on the yearbook staff. i finally met carolina {after many text messages exchanged} in person and then found morgan and gabbed with her on what our game plan was for the program.
the kindergarten class walked out and the show commenced! they all looked so cute and festive! they sang their songs and did such a great job! i was snapping pics and before i knew it, their performance was over! whaaaaaaa?! that flew by so fast! i hardly snapped enough pictures! then each class performed and they all did such a wonderful job!!! each class sang unique songs and each class did fun narrative choreograph to some songs. that always makes it even more fun when you see the kids get so into it!
the very last performance, all the grades came out and sang silent night together. the best part about that? the whole audience joined in and it was so darn moving. goosebumps. oh my…i love our school!!!
the whole program was so well done. the kids did such an amazing job and kudos to the music teacher, mr. barker, for working so hard with the kids and pulling off such a wonderful program! it was such a magical night.
[she was sooooooo darn good throughout the whole program]
it was a double whammy! first day of school for both my girls!
it was in three parts…first – it was the meet the teachers and drop off supply day! there was also an ice cream social afterwards!
second was olive’s first day of kindergarten!
third was ellie’s first day of preschool 3!
and here we goooooooooo!
the whole week leading up to the first day of school was crazy. the girls were starting a new school, the communication from the school was so much more than olive’s previous school {who almost sent nothing in terms of that}. we literally were receiving multiple emails a day…so it was a lot to keep up with. they wanted you to enroll into their communication system…so that was an hour up set up and another hour of navigation to get acclimated. so, that was something i wasn’t used to! they needed school supplies, new clothes, new shoes, new backpacks, lunch box, thermos, food for lunches, complete school forms, sign up for hot lunch, sign up for milk, buy school uniforms {i have never returned and exchanged so much in my life to find the right fit for olive}, buy spirit wear, we needed to sign up for a class to volunteer at school, meet the teachers and drop off supplies, ice cream social, mass, coffee chat, and on and on and on. phew!
so, the first major event was meeting the teachers, checking out the classrooms, and dropping off supplies. i was hoping hc could come with me that day but he couldn’t. he had an important work event and could not make it. i spent the morning running around, getting errands done, and then we gathered up all our stuff to head out. i had to haul two huge bags of supplies with me, paperwork i needed to drop off, my camera {i never leave the house without it!} and of course, my two baby girls!
we arrived later than what i wanted but no matter. the girls helped me with bringing in the supplies. i could not fit two paper towel rolls into my bags and it was perfect because it was really all they could carry! so that worked out! we walked inside and met ellie’s teacher first. she was super sweet and we navigated around a little bit but i wanted to drop off olive’s supplies just to relieve my shoulders from the weight of it.
so, we moseyed on over to olive’s classroom {next door} and met her teacher. we explored the room, found her desk, put away her supplies, and chatted with her teacher for a bit. we then found her cubby and the girls played around the classroom before we headed back over to ellie’s classroom to spend some more time with her teacher and have her get familiar with her surroundings.
after 30 minutes or so, we decided to walk over to the school office to drop off more paperwork. i chatted with the school’s secretary and the marketing director for awhile before we skipped on over to the ice cream social over by the church. thank goodness it had stopped raining because they pulled the ice cream truck back up and mr. goodhumor was handing out ice cream bars again outside! so novel!
the girls were super excited and immediately honed in on the sponge bob ice cream bar! of course! they were so delighted and thoroughly enjoyed eating it. oh boy, it was easy for them but so hard for me! ellie kept screaming because since it was humid and warm out, her ice cream bar kept melting and dripping on her hand and she freeeeeeaked out each time! oh em gee. i had to wrap a paper towel around the stick but that still didn’t stop it. she was melting down as quickly as the ice cream bar was melting down. LOL
the ice cream social wasn’t so social for me and i tended to my needy kids and didn’t get to socialize with anyone! negate the purpose. ha! once they were done with their ice cream, i was like see ya! i wanted to gooooo! ellie had ice cream all over her shorts, shirt, and shoes. i had ice cream all over my hands and on my pants, and their lips and hands were stained. oh what fun! off to our abode we went to clean up!
scroll down for more of our eventful days to come!
[a little back to school fun]
[my sweet girls testing out their backpacks]
[i love them]
* I C E C R E A M S O C I A L ~ S C H O O L S U P P L Y D R O P O F F *
[checking out her new classroom]
[such a ham]
[my silly girls. olive’s cubby]
[her desk]
[ellie checking out her new classroom]
[her cubby]
[she loooooooves phones]
[she’s so sweet and sassy]
[the girls were so excited over their sponge bob ice cream!]
[i was like pose…and they do this…]
[excited for her ice cream bar]
[oh, eating this was a struggle!]
* O L I V E’ S F I R S T D A Y O F K I N D E R G A R T E N *
oh the anticipation of olive’s first day!
i was so excited! we woke up super early and got the girls ready to go. hc dropped ellie off at my dads as ellie’s first day wasn’t until the next day. olive had breakfast and then i got her ready in her oh so cute uniform! i know it’s novel right now but olive really loves wearing a uniform! thank goodness!
after hc dropped ellie off, he drove from my dad’s to the school as he had to go to work right afterwards. i was scrambling. i was still grabbing everything for olive’s first day and i still needed to snap a few pictures of her! oh i was running out of time! we finally jumped in the car and we hit so much traffic! i have taken that route so many times before at the exact same time and i have never had such a traffic jam! i called hc and he was struggling with it as well {he took a different route than me but it was bumper to bumper on some roads for him too and it’s all local!}.
i finally got there with plenty of time to spare. olive and i walked to the classroom as hc thought he wasn’t going to make it at all {before the bell}, which bummed me out! you could tell how full of excitement this day was. if was full of energy, pride, love, smiles, and tenuous emotions. olive does school like a boss. from preschool to kindergarten, she’s never had any trepidation. there was so excitement in the air when we arrived, it was almost tangible. there were kids sporting their new backpacks, proud parents escorting their children, and lots of knowing glances and smiles were exchanged as we passed by one another. we walked in {it was bustling!} and i navigated her to her cubby to put away her backpack, lunch box, and thermos.
afterwards, we made our way to her desk and met her new friend madison. while i was chatting with madison’s mom, hc came swooping in! he made it!!! we were so excited to see him! soon they rang the bell and the parents scrambled to wish their kids a great first day at school and gave last minute hugs. i hugged olive soooo hard and then it hit me. i wasn’t expecting to be emotional because olive and i have never cried over school the past two years but it hit me hard. i burst into tears. a new school, new friends, a full day of learning…it was all so overwhelming for ME! i did my best to buck up and walk out there like champ, albeit crying. i couldn’t believe my baby is in kindergarten and growing up! so many big girl things happening, my heart couldn’t take it!
[back to school breakfast]
[school lunches]
[picking up olive from her first day of school]
[they’re like maaaaaa, stop with the pictures]
[walking hand in hand with her sister, like a boss and so happy]
* E L L I E’ S F I R S T D A Y O F P R E S C H O O L *
it was really nice olive had her first day of school and then the next day, ellie had her first day of preschool. for me, since it was a new school, it was great we could have both girls experience their first days separately. i felt that they were huge milestones and it was nice to do it that way.
we got the babes up and ready and i made sure i gave myself enough time to snap some pics of miss ellie, as i scrambled with olive. we hit the road and excitedly walked our way to school. we dropped olive off first {she was like, ‘bye, see ya’ and ran off} and we then walked ellie over to her preschool class. we waited outside with all the happy parents and anxious kiddos, then the door then opened up and we all filed inside. we found ellie’s cubby, put her backpack away and then found her laminated name on the table and put it inside the basket to account for her attendance.
the teacher asked us to play table games with the kids and then after 10 minutes of that, we were asked to leave. here we go! i turned around and hc is already out the door, leaving me with ellie. i told her i was leaving and she started saying, “no, no. no kiki. hug meeee! hug meeee!”, so i picked her up. i walked her over to the rug area where her teacher had started playing music and was dancing to distract the kids. i coaxed ellie into dancing but that wasn’t working. she started to cry and there were 4 or 5 other kids crying as well. just then, the principle came in to visit the class. miss debbie, the teacher, yelled out to the principle to lock or watch the door. as i put ellie down and started running towards the door, a kid was literally running next to me trying to escape. the principle caught him and then grabbed another kid headed for the exit while i snuck out the door, leaving the teacher to dance and rally the kids, many kids screaming and crying and the principle trying to catch kids from running out the door. it was hilarious! a total circus.
it took ellie 3 days of school to finally not cry when i left her. now she is a champ and looooooves it!
well that sums up their first days of school. i would say success! i can’t believe my girls are getting so big and experiencing these big milestones. gah! i am so proud and excited for their growth and learning this year!
[first day of pre-school]
[she’s a doll]
[she’s like f you ma. making me take all these pics]
i remembered the first day of pre-school so well. it wasn’t cold nor warm…it was in-between. i was excitedly anxious and olive seemed unaware of what was really happening. i got her dressed for school, a long sleeved white tee, teal jumper, grey knee socks, converse shoes, and i kept her hair down. i snapped a few pics outside and we scurried our way to school.
as we got out of the car and held hands in the parking lot, she became scared and nervous. i saw it in her expression although she didn’t say a word. we walked inside and waited in the hallway and she clung close to us, afraid of the unknown behind the closed classroom doors.
two years later…she loves school. she looks forward to it every time and absolutely loves learning, playing with her friends, and enjoys the creative activities it offers. i think some moms are sad that their children are moving on up but i felt happy, slightly tinged with sadness that this milestone was ending but so satisfied that she has grown so much and has become such an amazing person already.
graduation was quick, fun, and exciting. the kids sang four different songs to us and i actually cried when the announcer said it would be the last time the kids would sing the goodbye song to us…yes, it made me tear up.
olive’s name was called and she walked up to accept her diploma. it was so darn cute! she shook both teacher’s hands and stood there for a few seconds to face the audience with a sly smile. oh, my sweet girl. i love you so.
after the graduation, we went out to brunch at a local place and saw some of her classmates there and they had fun playing together near the end of our meal.
oh baby olive, i am so proud of you. so proud of your growth, your gregarious nature, your willingness to learn, and how far you have come with your knowledge and application. thank you for always teaching me on how to be a better person, a better mom, and level set me to the joys in life. i love you so much and only hope that this world only surrounds you with love, kindness, and faith.
[she’d always sit like this and i would change her shoes for class on snowy or rainy days]
[she was fussing with my camera and i snapped this sweet pic of her]
[she was being sneaky and kept creeping up onto the stage]
i recycled the idea we had last year, for olive’s valentine’s day cards again for this year. i absolutely loved making her cards last year {she loved it too!} but i am fond of the idea of capturing her personality and growth each year with the same type of card. i think it’d be fun to make one each year until she outgrows it!
i gathered all the components that we wanted to assemble the valentine’s bags for her classmates. a maze sheet, slime, valentine’s day card, holiday stickers, festive bandages, and ring pops; we purchased it all at target {our favorite place!}. olive placed all the goodies inside each bag, sealed it with a sticker and adorned it with a crafty heart.
she specifically wanted to cover the clear heart on the bag with the paper heart so her classmates didn’t peek into the bag of goodies and spoil the surprise! i love her thinking! she graciously made 18 bags so patiently and loved it to the very end. although, near the end, we tag teamed the sealing of the bags to be faster!
this whole over the top valentine’s day gifting is sooooo me. i am super happy olive enjoys it too but i loved this kind of stuff as a child and didn’t have the means to really create such things and i love that i can do it now. i am hoping olive grows up to love it too! maybe she will, maybe she won’t but i know that she definitely doesn’t have to do it because i am crazy about it!
olive was invited to a classmate’s birthday party. her very first birthday party ever! i was so excited over this and so was olive! it’s funny how special it is for me in a mommy sort of way and fun for her because she’ll be with her friends from school!
it was a very cold afternoon and the party was being held at olive’s gymnastics building, how easy and convenient! i had NO idea they hosted parties there! once inside, i signed a waiver and we ran downstairs to be greeted by gwen and george, sam’s parents. all the kids were already on one side of the building, playing with the parachute! i walked olive in, sam saw her and called her over to her. olive happily ran over to sam and joined in on the festivities.
hosting a party there is great! the instructors take care of everything. they are like the pied pipers. they lead the kids all around the gym, engaging them in fun activities, they serve the food, they divvy up the treats, direct the kids, and complete the clean up! how sweet is that? you bring the food, decor, and whatever else and they lead the event for you!
olive had such a great time! she loves playing with her friend sam…she told me that she is the one she plays with most at school. how sweet!
i didn’t take a bunch of pics as the kids were constantly in a different room from the parents plus, i always veer away from that when it involves other people’s kids.
olive’s first friend birthday party was a success! she loved all the activities, the food {she tried carrots for the ‘first’ time and like it!}, she loved the pink frosted cupcake treat, and was so excited over the purple {her favorite color} treat bag she received!
happy birthday sam and cheers to many more birthday parties to come!
[olive eating carrots for the ‘first’ time and she didn’t choke! she actually liked it. duh!]
[the cute favor bags her friend, sam, decorated]
[the kids gathered around the instructor for favors and it’s so funny how close they got to her!]
[with her good friend and birthday girl, sam. it was too cute, sam ran over to olive and gave her a big hug goodbye!]
olive’s holiday concert day had arrived. she had been practicing all season! it was too cute when she would give us a sneak peek into one of her songs. i was so excited to see her perform.
we arrived barely on time for the drop off. the morning started off easy and with plenty of time but, honestly, i don’t know what happened. i thought i had all the time in the world and then before i knew it, we were going to be late! gosh…mama brain! i felt bad…it was totally my fault for losing track of time and i totally snapped at olive. i asked her to put on her shoes and she completely mixed the shoes up and was standing there with the wrong shoes on her feet and didn’t recognize it. i yelled and she cried and i felt bad. i didn’t want her feeling this, so i apologized and she smiled, which was better but darn it. i hate it when i have a failing moment like that. it hurts my heart that i hurt her feelings.
once we dropped olive off at her classroom, i scurried upstairs to grab a seat. oh, it was full. i scanned the room and spotted a couple open spots in front and dove in. i nabbed third row, which wasn’t too bad since i was so late. i blanked out and forgot to ask the teacher which side olive was on {due to my tardiness…i forgot}. i sat there for a second and debated on going over to the other side but gut told me to stay and i was right! olive was on the right side and i had a great view of her!
my favorite moment {after the concert} was during the rudolph song, i noticed olive not doing the antler gesture with her hands every time they said reindeer. i just thought she was blanking out or getting tired. she did all the other moves throughout the song but the antler one. after the concert, she said to me, “kiki, did you see? i didn’t make the antlers because i am already a reindeer!” oh my gosh…this girl melts my heart! i should have known better! she’s so clever! i loved that she knew that she was already a reindeer and it was unnecessary to make the gesture! she’s too cute!
the kiddos did such a great job singing. it was so cute and so fun to watch! olive did so well. she knew all the words, i could hear her voice, and she did all the gestures. it was such a fun time watching her with ellie! what a great job olive! you practiced and your hard work showed through your concert great performance! way to go!
[had to blur out the other kids…so don’t mind the odd pics]
[she saw us and waved! they were getting ready to perform!]
[after the concert and the sly poses she was giving me]
[this one is my favorite…she was going for the vogue, pouty, drama look. hahaha!]
[other parents were probably like, “what up with the poses?!” ha!]
[walking down the stage to and getting a reindeer candy cane]
i love cute little things like a costume parade at school! it’s just wayyyyy too adorable to watch! these young school days have my heart, i love how sweet and innocent it is. i look forward to moments like this!
hc and i split our duties. hc dropped ellie off at my parent’s house {plus, he was going to take off to work after the parade} while i took olive to school to get her ready for her parade! i also hauled her class treats in the biggest bag ever and i couldn’t wait to give them to the teacher to pass out to the students. i was so excited…maybe just as or more excited than olive! hahaha!
once we arrived at school, i fixed her up, attached her wings, gave her a hug and ran outside to where everyone was gathering for the parade. i adjusted my camera settings and waited for hc to join me. the parade started on time and i couldn’t wait to get olive’s attention. as i waved to her and yelled her name, she gave me a happy, shy look. she usually does that in situations like this. it’s so hard to read her reaction!
the kids circled around the park outside and then grouped together for class pictures. it was so fun to see all the kids costumes. i must admit, the polar express conductor was a fav! the little boy was so cute with his mustache, so flippin’ cute!
after the parade, hc left for work and i went home to grab ellie belle and couldn’t wait to come back to school to pick up olive and hear about her halloween fun filled day at school!
[olive seeing us and waving]
[my pegicorn]
[a little creepy, but the only way i could post her class pic…pardon the blurry faces!]
firsts are always special to me, so my girl’s milestones make me happy and i love documenting it.
halloween treats have always been a personal favorite of mine. ever since i was a kid, i loved putting treat bags together. i can’t explain it but i know that it’s sooooo fun for me! i love gathering cute little toys and candy to create a bag that is unique and fun for the kiddos.
of course, we were at target and that dollar section will get ya! i grabbed a bunch of items and continued throughout the store to grab additional things {outside of what i needed, natch}. when we arrived home and gathered the items we purchased for the treat bags, i realized i had far too many items but alas, i wasn’t going to run back to target to return dollar items! so be it, my treat bags were a bit overzealous and i loved it!
olive is on this hello kitty kick {thanks mcdonald’s!} and loves to wear anything hello kitty. she opted for this fabulous outfit {that you will see below} to create her goodie bags. you go girl!
she actually assembled all her classmate’s bags by herself and i was so proud! i did the lettering and the sealing but everything else was all her! i was so excited that she was excited to put together each bag. as she did, she kept saying, “my friend will like the orange glow stick” or “she will love chips!” it was so cute that she was thinking about her different classmates as she assembled each bag!
we had a blast putting everything together and i hope all the kids loved what was inside as much as i did!
[this girl cracks me up! this was the outfit she wanted to wear to put her halloween treats together]
i truly had intent to post this well over a week ago but liiiiiiiiife. we were so busy leading up to our trip {i could name the 100 millions things we had to do and had going on but i’ll spare you} and i even brought my computer, with intent – again, to finish this post and publish while i was on vacation but that didn’t happen either {i’m a weirdo when it comes to unsecured wifi streams and won’t log into anything, so therefor, i didn’t log into my web account to finish this post! i should have known…}.
anyhoo, long intro to olive’s very short first day of school. i executed all the necessary preparations. i had pre-picked out her outfit, packed her backpack with the required essentials, filled out all her forms needed, and gathered all her school supplies the night before, amongst other things! olive was very excited for her first day of class this year! she loves going to school, she loves meeting new friends, and she loves to learn.
we got ready and we were all extra early. hc took ellie over to my parent’s house and no one was up and ready to go there! whaaaaaaa? we wanted to get to school early because one: the parking lot gets sooooo full and two: it’s her first day! we didn’t want to rush around and wanted it to be more relaxing and fun. my dad finally came out and hc ran out of the house like flash to come back and pick us up! we screeched the wheels on our way to school, of course the parking lot was fullllllll, and we were late – running our way into the building! ugh! what a start!
to top it off, i couldn’t remember what the classroom number was!! so there we were, walking back and forth, trying to figure it out. i ran upstairs to the office and they told me which room number it was and we slowly snuck into the room! we got called out and the teacher told me to come sit up front with the other parents, with olive and i obliged.
after the introductions and details of the how their day would look, the kids were given the green light to explore and of course, olive beelined for the doll house and barbies! after some time of playing, we circled back together for some final details and then everyone was dismissed!
we then took olive out to breakfast to celebrate her first official day of class. it’s the little things like this, that make me happy and i hope it makes olive happy too! i love making certain occasions and moments in life special. i really hope that actions like this will positively resonates with olive.
it was a great start to the school year and a wonderful start to our morning! we loved having hc there to make events like these whole. although, i had a #momfail moment later on in the day when i completely forgot to take them to their gymnastics class! heyyyy, you win some, you lose some. hahahaha!!
[my girl]
[she was being so silly…she kept dancing all over the place!]
[mean mugging]
[i love her]
[always so somber and cautious]
[going for the doll house and dollies]
[she loves this doll!]
[drawing at breakfast, getting ready to eat her rainbow pancakes!]
