First Day of School

Over the past few week we have been buying new clothes, lots of crayons and paper, and talking a LOT about Kindergarten! Sunday night we came home early from Grandma and Pa's house. We let Michelle help make her lunch, pack her snack, and pick out her clothes. We went through our normal night time routine (tubs, brushing teeth, reading books, ect.) and then had Michelle come into our room to give her a father's blessing. After her blessing we gave Michelle a special necklace for her to wear to remind her how loved she is and how proud of her we are. Then we gave big hugs and sent her off to bed.

When I went in to check on the girls before heading to bed myself that night I found them cuddled up together. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who were going to be missing Michelle while she was at school. 

The next morning we all woke up early, got ready, and got excited to start the first day of school!

I made Michelle a special breakfast...

and then we headed out to take a few priceless pictures.

 

Dropping Michelle of in her classroom was very emotional for both of us. You could tell that she was a little nervous and unsure, but also very excited.

Ms.Bardach and Michelle

 

 Starting the day off by coloring a picture was really great for Michelle. She loves to color so this made her feel a lot more comfortable.

On the way home from dropping Michelle off we stopped to get Tina a special treat to make her morning a little happier.

I don't have any pictures of after school because, to be honest, they wouldn't have been very happy pictures. We left the house at 2:20 to pick up Michelle. I was thinking that would be plenty early enough to be one of the first parents in line. Boy was I wrong! The carpool line was already freakishly long. We sat in line for a few minutes and then realized that we had forgotten our carpool number! So we pulled out of line, parked in the neighborhood, and walked up to the school to find out what we should do. Well this turned into a whole different fiasco, but I won't go into that right now. Long story short, we met Michelle at the front office. 

I was SO ready to see her smiling face and could hardly wait for all the fun stories she would tell. Instead, when I saw her, my stomach dropped. She looked so beat down and just not herself at all. On our way back to the car and after we got home we were all talking about her day and what she did. The Conversation went something like this...

Me: Michelle! I'm so happy to see you! How was your day?

Michelle: It was sorta ok.

Me: Sorta ok?! Did you have fun? What kind of stuff did you learn?

Michelle: Well, I don't really remember anything that I learned.

I took this as a hint that she might just be tired and a little overwhelmed so I decided to take the day step by step and talk to her about each part. She still didn't have a lot to say until we got to this part of the conversation...

Me: What about Lunch? Did you see any of your friends at lunch?

Michelle: Yeah, I saw Connor, but I wasn't allowed to sit with him.

Me: Oh, well that's ok. I'm sure that will help you make lots of new friends. So, who did you sit with?

Michelle: No one I know.

Me: Ok, well what did you talk about?

Michelle: We didn't talk. It was a silent lunch.

Me: A silent lunch?! Well, maybe to make sure that you had enough time to eat. Did you like your lunch?

Michelle: Yeah, but I didn't have any drink.

Me: We packed your water bottle. 

Michelle: Yeah, but I couldn't open it.

Me: Couldn't your teacher open it for you?

Michelle: No, I asked her, but she wouldn't do it for me.

Seriously?! It's the first day of Kindergarten and you can't talk at lunch, AND your teacher won't help you open your water? I can understand wanting the kids to be self-sufficient, but it was the first day, and even I have a hard time opening some of those bottles. Plus, if you don't want the kids bringing those bottles that's fine, but you should still open it for her today and then send home a note to ME asking me not to pack them anymore. I mean... seriously.

We kept talking and her day never seemed to get much better. I tried to pull happy moments out of her day. Like the fact that she got to play with one of her friends during recess. Or that she got a happy face on her chart, or a not that said she had a "puuuurfect first day". It wasn't until she had sat down at home, rested for a while, had a small snack and a HUGE drink of water that she seemed to come back to her normal happy self. To be honest it kind of broke my heart. I'm just hoping and praying that her second day goes a million times better. 

Helping Hands

This first picture has absolutely nothing to do with the post, but it's pretty freaking adorable so I had to include it...

This week has been full of growing up and helping each other out. Hailey is beginning to be more independant and mobile, but can't quite do everything she wants to do yet. She loves to play with our magnetic singing alphabet, but can't always get the letters to fit into the slot to make it sing. Michelle and Tina also like to play with it so they have been very nice to help Hailey make it sing whenever she gets too frustrated.

 Hailey has been a rock star when it comes to eating solid foods. If she has a choice to eat baby food or real food she will choose real food every time! It has been a huge help to be able to put her food down in front of her and know that she will gladly feed herself. The only down side to that is the horrible mess she makes!

 Lucky for me, I have two other girls who like to pretend they are princesses. My favorite princess for them to pretend to be has been Cinderella. All I have to do is give them wet rags, and show them a messy place on the floor. They then get down and start humming or singing and mop the mess right up! 

 Bryan has also had extra help during his workout time. Hailey adds just the right amount of extra weight for him to really feel the burn while he does push-ups. 

 That brings us all the way back around to Sunday (today). There was a pretty big thunderstorm that rocked our house early this morning. The girls didn't want Daddy or Me to get scared so they helped us feel safe by snuggling up in our bed. 

I have the best house full of helpers a Mommy could ever want!

Back to Crazy Town

Our last days of summer are here and we are getting right back into the swing of crazy busy weekends. This weekend was a great kick-off to get us right back into crazy town! 

Bryan decided to stay home with the girls while I ran errands on Friday. Since I was kid-free and had heard amazing things about the European Wax Center I decided to stop in and get my eyebrows done. I was especially happy about going there when I found out that, since it was my first visit, it would be free! So far this was turning out to be a great experience.... unfortunately it was pretty much all downhill from there. A girl named Devon did my brown... and my hair... and my eye lashes. Let me explain. Devon applied the wax to my brow and accidentally dripped some of the wax onto my eye lashes. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I made a comment about getting it off quickly, and expressed my concern plainly through my tone. Her response was that since it was right after lunch it was tricky to tell if the wax was going to be too hot or too cold. Ummmmm, isn't it your JOB to know these things?! Luckily she was able to get the wax off before it cooled and didn't rip out too many lashes. I thought that was the worst part of it until I got in the car and discovered that there was still come wax spots around the side of my eye. I was picking those off when I discovered....

 There was a big ol' drip of wax in my hair! I spent the next 15 minutes in my car literally ripping my hair out trying to get this chunk out. I called my Mom to let her know how it went and she assured me that her experience was very much so the opposite of my horror story. We decided that the best advice we could give anyone about this place was to go and try it out, but if they send you with a girl named Devon- RUN!

After getting my brows done I headed over to Sams to do some grocery shopping. It.Was.Packed. I knew that it was going to be a little crazy because it was tax-free weekend. I decided to take a picture of the food court to show Bryan just how crazy it really had been; because if there are this many people sitting down eating, you can only imagine how many people were actually shopping.

 I then headed over to Wal-Mart and right as I walked in I see this sign...

 Apparently they were having a store-wide clearance event. Bother.

Today (Saturday) was another crazy busy day, but it was a TON more fun! We started the day off with some yummy cinnamon rolls, and then got right to the fun. Michelle and I had hair appointments and Tina, while she did NOT want to get her hair cut, wanted to tag along. Michelle got about 4 inches cut off, giving her the cutest long bob I have ever seen! Tina made sure to tell everyone there they she did not want them to cut her hair. I think she slowly decided that maybe she would consider getting her hair cut when she saw me getting mine cut. I also got a few inches cut off, and had Rachael put in some shorter layers. Oh, by the way, if you live up near Melissa and are looking for a good stylist there is a little boutique in old Melissa called Bella Couture that does an amazing job! The girls there are awesome, and if you tell them that I sent you they'll give you 25% off!  

 Here's a little bit of a better picture of me and Shelly once we got home.

 After the haircuts I stopped at home for just long enough to do the dishes and make the girls lunch. Then I left to Beyond to get my nails done with the girls. I LOVE getting pedicures, but getting pedicured with Mom, Jess, and Katie is the best! I love these girls.

 Once we finished getting nails done Bryan and I hit a few stores and got some killer deals on clothes for the girls. Now, I know some people absolutely will not go out during Tax-free weekend, but... Well, I have an equation that I tend to use to decide if it's worth it to go shopping. If the level of craziness is equal to or less than the level of awesome deal then I'll try to go, but if the level of craziness exceeds that of the good deal- I'm staying home! So I was pretty selective about the places we hit. Bryan, however, tends to be one the "do not go out during tax-free weekend ever, ever, ever" side. 

 

Once we were done shopping we jumped over to iPic to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Mom, Dad, Daniel, and Katie met us there and we all took up the top half of the premium plus seats. It was a lot of fun, and the movie ended up being much better than I thought it was going to be. 

After the movie we headed back home and had just enough time to play with and cuddle the girls for a bit before sending them off to bed. We tucked them in and then very quickly cleaned up the house and got it ready for Bryan's Guys Night. I don't have any pictures of that yet because it is happening as I am typing this. Plus, I've found that guys are less inclined to take pictures and "selfies" during their hang-out time than us girls tend to be. 

All and all this weekend has been pretty nuts, but pretty amazing too.

Good times.

Bathroom Makeover

A few weeks ago Bryan and I discovered a few sugar ants around his side of the vanity in our bathroom. We killed them and went about our day. The next day the ants were back, and brought a few of their friends with them. In order to find the source of the ants we had to take the giant mirror down. I convinced Bryan that while we had the mirror down we should take the opportunity to frame it. I've been wanting to do that since the day we moved in, and this gave us the perfect opportunity. Well, just like the book, If you give a mouse a cookie... Framing the mirror turned into framing the mirror and painting, which turned into framing and painting and a new light fixture, which turned into framing and painting and a new light fixture and a few new "pretties" to make things look nice. That's about where Bryan drew the line and said, "Enough!" 

I'm a little bummed that I forgot to take any before pictures, but try to imagine builder white walls, and plain builder grade fixtures. 

With Bryan being color blind he let me pick the paint color. I LOVE it! It's a light blueish green color. I think it was called weathered glass, or something like that, from Lowes. After painting we took a little bit of the left over paint and made our mark on the empty space that would be behind the mirror. 

 We bought some liquid nails, measured out the space we would need for the frame, and put the surprisingly heavy mirror back up. We didn't want to rush anything, and needed to be sure the mirror wasn't going to come crashing down on us so we used a good amount of painters tape and let the mirror sit for two days.

 While the mirror was sitting "we" (read Bryan, without any help whatsoever from me) put the shelving up.

 I cleaned out a few old candle containers from Bath and Body Works and filled them with Q-Tips and Cotton balls. I like them a lot more than the cardboard Q-Tip box, and plastic cotton ball bag.

 We also painted the trim, and bought a new light fixture during the wait time. Once we were sure the mirror was secure we put up the frame and let that sit for another day. Then Bryan and I sat in our bedroom for a few hours and tried to figure out how to attach the new light fixture. I'm not going to lie, this was the most difficult part of the whole make over! Eventually we figured it out, and were glad that we didn't give up and stick the old ugly one back up there. 

Ta-Da! The beautiful finished product! Now, to convince Bryan to do the same thing in the girls bathroom...