livi's first week of school update

since i know you all are wondering how livi's first week of school went, here's an update on livi's 1st week:
monday: at the specials teacher (art, p.e. & music) orientation in the gym, livi raised her hand & answered a question in front of all the kindergarten classes. all the teachers were telling them the students about themselves & ms. marine (our art teacher) asked if anyone knew something special about her sons. that's when livi raised her hand & told all the kindergarteners ms. marine's sons were twins! we were so shocked & couldn't believe it when we heard this!
tuesday: a classmate had a bloody nose & livi offered to walk the boy to the nurses office even though she wasn't sure where it was, she just wanted to help. so off they went to the nurses office & she made sure her classmate knew how to get back to class before she left.
wednesday: mommy came up to have lunch with us as you saw & livi introduced her to her first friend, allie. mommy was really nervous about having lunch because she thought it might upset livi when it came time to leave, but livi just waved bye & off she went with her friend back to their classroom. when i was in kindergarten & daddy came up to have lunch with me the first time, i cried when he left & daddy almost took me home with him. so again we were all really shocked when livi was like "see ya later alligator!"  also livi received a marriage proposal at the end of the day, she told him she's have to think about it since they just met.

thursday: every morning mommy has been parking & walking us into school. well when it came time for mommy to park livi yelled "no, i want to try the drop off line!" we all didn't know what to do at first we were so shocked by livi wanting to do the drop off line now, the first week (we thought that wouldn't happen till at least december) that mommy forgot which pedal was the break & which one was the gas... that was interesting. the car drop off line they have about 10 5th grade safety patrols that open car doors, help you out of the car & tell you to have a great day to speed up the drop off line because they are so many cars. mommy was super proud of us but disappointed because she didn't get a kiss goodbye because the safety patrol are so fast. then i walked livi to the kindergarten hallway & i went off to the 4th grade hallway.

friday: since livi was such an awesome student didn't move her clip all week & got smiley face stickers everyday on her behavioral chart she got to get a prize out of the treasure bucket! she got a blue monkey that is an eraser that sits in the top of her pencil. she was so excited about her prize & says she's not going to move her clip all school year. 

so as you can see she had a grrrrrreat 1st week of school, mommy & daddy feel so goofy for worrying so much because she's got this!

lunch date

today mommy came up to school to have lunch with livi from 10:30-11:00 & me from 11:00-11:30. livi was really excited to introduce her to new friend allie, who is so adorable & really likes livi too.

it was so awesome getting to see her in the middle of the day, it made all of our's day so much better. we all decided that mommy needs to try & come every monday to spend lunch with us & talk with our friends. 

happy national dog day

hip hip hooray for national dog day! we know we'd be lost without our sweet sadie mc!

1st day of school

today was my 1st day of 4th grade & livi's 1st day of kindergarten! i wore my red uniform shirt (just like last year) because that one is my favorite & my new awesome skater shoes so i'd have a great day. livi changed 3 times before deciding to wear her fancy sweater shirt & her twinkle toes shoes. when i started kindergarten i was so excited about my wearing my twinkle toes & livi has remembered that for all these years. so before she started the big "k" she had to have a pair of twinkle toes too to wear on the 1st day of kindergarten. we were a lil nervous walking through the doors of our school because the 1st day of school is always a little scary. i took livi's hand & we went through those big doors together ready to take on those hallways of dickinson elementary.

we decided to take me to my classroom 1st so livi wouldn't have so much time in her classroom before school started to get her nerves even more bundled up. as soon as we turned down the 4th grade hallway, there was mrs. heikkila waiting to greet me with a giant hug! my day went by so fast it was over before i knew it. you know learning the class rules, what our outclass was for the day,  & things like that & catching up with old friends. my favorite part of the day was when we played the game "3 facts & one lie!" we wrote down 3 facts about ourselves & 1 lie, then we read them out loud to the class & we had to guess which one was the lie. my 3 facts were: i love elephants, i love to read big chapter books, my favorite color is & my 1 lie was i got a new dog over the summer named biscuit. it was just a fun way to get to know each other, i loved it! my teacher is so awesome, sweet & really funny! she doesn't believe in homework over the weekends... score!!! this was by far the best 1st day i've had so far, i know this year is going to be so grrrreat!

after hugs, kisses & goodbyes, it was time for mommy & daddy to walk livi to her kindergarten class.   livi was ready to go, moony & daddy were having to sped walk to keep up with her... she was ready to get her day started! as soon as livi got to her desk there was her special name tag waiting for her that mommy pinned on her. after livi was all settled in there was a sheet for her to color until class began. mommy & daddy weren't ready to leave yet, but livi kept telling them she was ok & they could go! they couldn't believe how well she was handling everything, it was amazing! livi loved going to the cafeteria for lunch & really loved going out for recess. her favorite thing about her 1st day of kindergarten is how nice her teacher is! all in all it wasn't as scary as she thought it'd be & she can't wait for tomorrow. so it's official livi likes kindergarten grade & can't wait to to learn all the things she's going to learn.

we even had a small little gift for our teachers, it was a ball mason jar that mommy had painted (we picked the colors) the inside of & made into a pencil bouquet  with a tag that said "cannot wait to have a ball with you this year in class!"

when school was over livi & i were so excited to see mommy & daddy waiting for us we took off running & jumping into their arms.

this is us doing our happy dance that we made it through the 1st day of school!

then it was off to p.f. changs for our annual celebratory 1st day back at school dinner & then we had an ice cream dessert feast at maggie moo's. talk about the perfect way to end our awesome day!

back to school

well tomorrow is our 1st day of school! we know, we can't believe summer vacation is already over too. we're really excited & bit nervous about the 1st day, but we'll keep you posted on how it goes!

ella's 4th grade favorites:

tv show: girl meets world

movie: bears

song: shake it off

color: green

animal: elephant

food: tacos

candy: cookies -n- cream hershey bar

activity: creating art
toy: pollie

shoes: converse & my skater shoes

when i grow up i want to be an artist!

livi's kindergarten favorites:

tv show: max & ruby

movie: lemonade mouth

song: tennis court

color: yellow

animal: monkey

food: nachos

candy: cotton candy

activity: swimming & doing science
toy: sausage

shoes: twinkle toes 

when i grow up i want to be a teacher or a kicker on a football team.

cosmic reader

this summer i  did the "fizz boom read" program again at the library & this year livi did it too! today we got our trophies for reading 20 books... whoo hoo! we even got a rocket shaped paper to write my name on & tape to the library wall so everyone knows we're cosmic readers! we also got the coolest pencil ever, it glows in the dark... awesome! it's going to be our lucky pencil at school! livi loved being in the program just like me & we can't wait to do our reading again next summer!

meet the teachers

last night we had kindergarten orientation for livia then when that was over we got to meet our teachers, visit our classroom, unpack our school supplies & say "hi to new & old friends!we went to livi's classroom first & met mrs. pearce! she's been teaching kindergarten for over 25 years, her classroom mascot is a giant panda & all the parents & students call her "mama panda." she's very sweet & nice, she even called the night before to introduce herself & livi got to talk to her on the phone. one thing livi & mrs. pearce have in common is they both like traveling. mrs. pearce has been to 45 of the 50 states & livi has been to 18 so they'll have a lot to talk about through the school year. livi was a little nervous going into her classroom because it was filled with all of her classmates & their parents, so it was very overwhelming. livi's favorite spot was finding her name on her table where she'll be sitting everyday. she didn't want to leave because she was so excited. she's also right next to the teachers table, so that makes her comfortable. after we unpacked her school supplies she was ready for a break from all the craziness, but wanted to come back before we left so she could spend some time in her room without it being so crowded.

so off we went to visit my classroom. the 4th grade hallway is a lot longer than the 3rd grade hallway & it took a minute to find my classroom, but we finally did. my teacher this year is mrs. heikkila,  she's been teaching for 18 years & this is her 9th year at dickinson. she is so nice & bubbly, i'm so happy i got her for my teacher! she gave the biggest hug ever when she introduced herself & told me how happy she was that i was in her class for the school year. some of my friends that were in my class last year are going to be in my class again this year & that makes me feel good! i have to say mrs. heikkila has the best classroom library i've ever seen, i'm so excited.

after we unpacked my stuff & tales to mrs. heikkila for a little bit we headed back down to the kindergarten hallway to see if the crowds had died down a little. thank goodness for livi they had & she got to explore her classroom without any one else around except us & mrs. pearce. she discovered a lego table & an awesome wooden kitchen. she was still pretty nervous & didn't talk much to her teacher but we were able to get a picture of them together. we also made sure she knew how to get to the restroom & back to her classroom.

after all the excitement of meeting our new teachers we decided to reward ourselves with some delicious icees from bucees. well we have just a few meow days of summer vacation left until it's time to see what new adventures await us this school year... whoo hoo!

oh yeah, how could we forget?! we also took a small gift in to our teachers with a note telling them about ourselves so they'd have some more information about us! 

ALS ice bucket challenge

please take the challenge, donate and help us create a world without ALS! thank you all for spreading awareness & supporting those who suffer from ALS! let's make a stand & get iced iced baby! to find out more on ALS please click here

texarkana

ok if you're ever in texarkana you have to stop & go to the post office on state line avenue. the border between texas & arkansas runs along the yellow center line of state line avenue in texarkana. it is the only building in the whole united states that straddles a state line, the post office just sits right on the middle of it! it's so cool because you can have one foot in one state & the other in another. we had soooooo much fun coming up with ideas on how to be in 2 states at once, i highly recommend you do it too!

texas

yea baby we did it, we're back in texas!

little rock

well we didn't get to do as much as we wanted in arkansas because we got stuck for almost 3 hours in a really really really bad traffic jam because there was so much construction. even though we didn't do much here it'll probably be the state we'll remember most because of our awesome daddy. after being not moving for so long & 3 very full bladders daddy took matters into his own hands & drove us across a corn field! it was by far the funniest, bumpiest, craziest ride we've ever been on!!! once we finally got across the corn field onto another hwy we got going a little bit, but then traffic hit on that hwy too except there wasn't another corn field to cut across! finally we got to little rock where we stopped to have some delish pizza for dinner & do some walking in the little rock river market district. we also went on top of the junction railroad bridge to enjoy the view of the arkansas river!