Kindergarten!


Today was Samantha's first day of elementary school at Columbine Elementary.  She is carrying on a family tradition because this is the same school her Dad and Tia Molly went to as well.  She has been anxiously awaiting her first day of kindergarten and the anticipation has been building these last few weeks before school.

We drove to Dave's parents house and from there walked over to Columbine with Sammy's entourage of me, Dave, Carina, Grammy, Pops, Sara and Michael.  Good thing she has a few people who love her right? We took some photos, she played at the playground and then she lined up and they took them into class. I waited until she walked away before I cried, but just for a moment.  We are so proud of her and what a kind, smart, fun, little girl she is.

The program at Columbine is a bi-literacy program and half of her class is English as a second language.  She has her core curriculum in English with the other English speakers and then the class is mixed with Spanish and English speakers for homeroom, arts, music, etc.  We are all excited for her to begin learning Spanish.

She was worn out at the end of the day.  She is a very focused child to begin with and a full day of undivided attention is going to be a lot for her, but when Grammy picked her up she exclaimed "It was so much fun!". Our little baby is growing up, hard to believe 5 years ago we were doing this.  We have all come a long way.

You can see all the photos we took from her first day here.


My Baby in a Big Girl Bed

Last week Carina got her very own big girl bed.  She has slept in there without a problem for the past week. She is such an easy going kid and she just rolls with the punches.  I have been impressed at how easy transitions are for her.

I will admit to feeling pretty emotional about taking the crib down.  And, I've been going through all her baby stuff to give away.  There are many parts of this next phase of our kids' lives that I'm excited about...no more diapers, getting sleep, traveling, camping, movie nights, etc. But we all know I love babies and it is sad knowing we are past that time now for our family.

This video is pretty cute, you can see how excited we all are as the bed is unveiled!

Camping

We don't take advantage enough of all the beauty in Colorado but last weekend we got away from Boulder and took the girls camping.  We went off the Peak to Peak highway to Rainbow Lakes.  Dave and the girls went early in the afternoon to set up camp and I met them later along with Sammy's old friend Drew Hyde from school and his family.  The kids loved sleeping in the tent, roasting marshmallows, going on adventure hikes and playing hide and go seek in the woods.  It is always nice to get away and was a fun, family adventure for us all.