First week of Kindergarten

Lily LOVES kindergarten! On Labor Day, she had some jitters, which nearly put me into crisis mode. All along she's been excited, so I've been looking forward to the big day. When she started crying because she worried some kids might be mean to her, I wondered if it was too late to open enroll her to my school (the night before the first day).





Here she is talking to grammy the night before her first day:





Marc offered to join us and took lots of pictures. I was incredibly thankful to have him there, because I think it changed the dynamic enough to help all of us feel (or at least act) braver. Lily was serious at home, but got bouncy and happy once we got to school. She hung up her backpack, and found a friend to play with at Kidstop right away. She'll attend the school-based day care program while she's not in kindergarten.

I worried all day long. I looked at the clock and wondered how she was feeling, where she was, and what she was doing about a hundred times during the day! I just couldn't wait to see her get off the bus so I'd know how her first day way. Can you imagine how I felt when this is what I saw coming toward me at the end of the day:

She chatted excitedly all afternoon and evening. She was giddy! She told me:
1. She has a friend named Maria who lives somewhere

2. You can never bring chocolate or nuts for snack

3. If you can't reach something you can ask a neighbor if they can please reach it for you

4. She has a friend named Tia who wants to have a sleep over

5. Everyone else has sleep overs all the time

6. Her school has puzzles with bumpy edges and straight edges

7. Some kids cried because they wanted their moms

8. The bus is really hot and really loud

9. They read a book about a cowgirl

10. They went to the office to look for a zebra (scavenger hunt)

She talked to grammy and papa on the phone after her first day. She said so many random bits of information, they had a difficult time understanding most of it:


Willow cried when I dropped her off at Di's the first 2 days, but yesterday (Thursday) she happily walked off to play with her friends. I love having the first week behind us! WHEW!

Summer's Over

Summer is pretty much over at the King house. I went back to work this week and grammy moved in. My mom and dad sold their house, but are waiting to hear from the bank about the town home they want (which was in foreclosure) so they are homeless. Dad's been up north and mom's been raising Jen and I's kids! My girls got to put day care off for one more week thanks to grammy's homelessness.



On August 20th we appeared in court so that I would officially be recognized as Willow's mom. Now she'll have a MN birth certificate with my name on it. The judge did not have a shiner - I need to figure out the red-eye reduction problem with my editing software!
After court we got happy meals to eat at grammy and papa's house. I love this picture because they're all so true to character - Willow is being sassy with papa (who's across the table), Lily's doing as she's told and smiling pretty, and grammy's drinking them in. By the way, Willow is COMPLETELY over her fear of grammy. She runs into her arms, talks about her lovingly (instead of shaking her head and hollering "NO" every time we used to mention the word "gram"), and gets excited to see her.





Lily turned 5 on August 27th. We celebrated with the Johnsons at a hotel with a pool. Lily was far more excited about the bunk beds in the hotel room. When we served cake I asked "Who wants cake?!" Willow's hand shot up in the air as she yelled "MEEEEE!" and Lily said "Not me." She honestly didn't even eat a piece of her own (High School Musical) cake. She's so odd. Willow had enough for both of them.

Here's Lily with the Johnson cousins.

We spent some time last weekend at Marc's brother's cabin. The girls had a blast playing with Marc's "big teenagers":

Sam is SO patient with them. He is constantly playing and thinking of things they'll have fun with. Willow called him "Bam" until recently. Now it's "Sam". He wiped out on a dirt bike this weekend, and Willow was VERY concerned about him. Over and over I heard "Mom! Bam! Owie!" She wanted to kiss it, but it was too bloody.

And Lily just follows Megan around everywhere she goes. I have to put my foot down once in a while because Megan is so patient with it she'll never say no. Megan would draw these elaborate pictures and let Lily add details. Lily adores Megan and all her friends.

Lily will start kindergarten on Tuesday. She is so excited she talks about it all the time. She wanted me to read her open house fliers out loud 3 times - the menu, the conference instructions, etc. At bed time, after open house, she told me she had a shaky feeling in her tummy during open house. I said "Shaky?" She goes "Yea, you know when you feel like you have water in your tummy and it's shaky?" She was nervous! When she met her teacher, she was smiling and bouncy, so I know she has mixed emotions. I will be very happy when we have the first week behind us.

Every time I mention Diane's house to Willow, she hollers "NO!" and shakes her head. I just keep telling her "Not today, Willow." Good luck, Di.

Road Trip to Oregon

We are home from our road trip to Oregon! We got up early on Monday, July 27 - leaving Maple Grove at 3:30am. My mom went with us and was very helpful, to say the least. The girls slept most of the morning on the way to Mt. Rushmore, then they watched movies, ate, fought, and played the rest of the trip.It was pouring rain in Keystone, SD. We killed a few hours at Mt. Rushmore to avoid setting up the tent in the rain. We took shelter under a tree when we got caught in a downpour:

And then headed for the bathroom to dry the girls' hair and dresses. They thought this was a blast. I was not impressed with this part of the trip.

We did make it to Mt. Rushmore between bursts of rain.

We went for a walk around Sylvan Lake near Keystone.

After spending 2 nights in Keystone, SD we headed further west for Yellowstone. We camped at Grant Park and spent a lot of time at Yellowstone Lake.

I didn't bring my cooking stove to save space (did I mention we all 4 traveled in my tiny Civic?).

We spent a lot of time walking around Grant Park the first day in Yellowstone. We wanted to avoid getting in the car after spending 9 hours driving from Mt. Rushmore that morning.

Lily desperately wanted a camp fire. Check out that fire!

The girls spent over 2 hours collecting sticks, pinecones, branches (and rocks and sand from Willow) for the fire while grammy and I got to sit back and relax.The second day in Yellowstone we spent about 6 hours near Old Faithful and surrounding geysers. Lily was finally impressed! The entire drive anytime I'd say "Lily! Look at the mountains!" or "Lily! Look at the elk!" she'd get annoyed that she had to look away from her movie long enough to appease me. She did love Old Faithful, though. And she had a blast naming the unnamed geysers and hot springs with us. Willow, on the other hand, hated Old Faithful. She has fine-tuned her scolding of all things hated to include bent knees, arm outstretched, pointed finger, shrill SCREAM, body leaning forward, "NOOOOO!". She didn't enjoy Old Faithful because of the fine mist it spewed in our direction.

This photo is significant because I have mastered a trick to get Willow to cooperate with pictures. Right before this was taken it occurred to me to only invite Lily into the picture. I said "Mom? Will you take a picture of Lily and I? Willow, you can stand over there." and pointed off in the distance. She ran to get in the shot! Why didn't I think of this a couple months ago? For the rest of the trip she ran to get in pictures and say "cheese".

Willow refused to ride in the stroller at Old Faithful. She hiked 1/2 mile up a "mountain" with us and then back down. She walked for about 4 hours around the geysers. She REFUSED to ride and I REFUSED to carry. The next day she couldn't walk! Every time I set her down she lifted one leg, cried, and waited for me to pick her back up. I kept saying "I broke my baby".

After 2 nights in Yellowstone we were back in the car on the way to Ontario, Oregon where my cousin Heather and her family live:

We spent a few hours in Heather's ADORABLE and homey quilt shop in Ontario. Lily was watching her cousin Hutton sew:

And then we drove just 2 hours from Ontario to Sumpter, Oregon where Heather and Julanne/Carl own land.

Lily spent a bunch of time picking huckleberries with her cousins in Sumpter. Ignore the "KEEP OUT" sign I guess.

The kids also loved digging in the rocks/sand:

We went on a steam-engine train ride while in Sumpter:It was attacked by robbers! Thankfully the robbers only gave out candy when they made their way onto the train.

Here are most of the little cousins in Sumpter. Hunter stayed back and Harper was asleep when this was taken:

Lily loved this dog! She drug Patches around constantly either carrying him or on the leash. Jen suggested I get us a dog and Lily will focus on that instead of climbing all over me, but all I could imagine was the dog AND Lily (and Willow half the time) barnacled to me.

Here are all the little counsins on our last night together in Sumpter. Heidi and Phil hosted a movie night:

And then we were back on the road on our way to the Oregon Coast:
With one stop on the way at this incredible mountain waterfall:

We tented 2 blocks from the ocean in Cannon Beach. It was incredible and I was instantly glad we made the trek.
Willow's first look at the Pacific Ocean:

I think it felt good to be out of the car again:

Grammy and her highly protective sun hat. WHAT is a sun hat?

I just hate the showers at camp grounds. I had to include this one to show how much the girls didn't hate camp ground showers. Why is that? I'm standing there thinking about all the other feet and.... well, I won't go on. I'm just glad to be home!

Lily got home sick in Cannon Beach. She cried and said she wanted to go home. I asked what she wanted to do first at home and she said "take a shower"! I guess I must have rubbed off on her. She said she missed her room (with the door shut) and her bed. Me too!

Willow was upset here because, once again, she wanted me to carry her. I wish I could have taken a picture of all I had in my arms: a stroller folded up, a giant beach bag, towels, my own back pack, and snacks for the day. She didn't seem to care:

And here's my view from the other direction. Thank God for grammy on this trip!

Lily and Gram went exploring and Lily found 2 perfect sand dollars. Notice grammy's cute, cute hair cut:

We spent almost 5 hours at the beach the first day and 8 hours the second day! It was heaven.

Ahhh, the life. An Oreo cookie, the sand, sun, surrounded by your favorite people and nothing to do but play in the sand and water.

We drove 14 hours 2 days in a row to make it home in 2 days. At our very last stop for gas in Fargo I told the girls they could pick out any candy/chips they wanted. Without hesitating, Willow pointed up high at this pink snowball thing. I can't wait to email Sandra and find out if she ate these things in Guatemala. I have never eaten one, much less given one to her. She knew EXACTLY what she wanted.