Kindergarten!

Emilia's first day of kindergarten was yesterday. She was very excited to start school again. And although I'm not sure how I feel about her being in school already (and having homework every day), I think her being out of the house for a couple hours every day will be good for everybody.  She and Mira will get along better for being separated for a while, she and I will get along better because she has someone besides Mira and me to interact with, and she will be challenged mentally, so she won't be so bored with life.

Steve only works about 10 minutes from our house, so he decided to come to the school to drop her off on her first day.  I think that made them both happy.

Here's a picture of them walking to the front doors together.

 This one is a little blurry, but it was the only one I got outside the door.

 Finding her place to put her backpack.

 My sweet girl and me (with baby Cecily).

 Finding her name tag.

 She immediately made friends with the girl sitting next to her at the table because her name was Alexia. Emilia loves Barbie and the Diamond Castle and the main character's name is Alexa. How could they not be friends?

 Mira's reaction to having to leave Emilia in the classroom. I bribed her out of the school with an ice cream cone.

We also did a photo shoot before school started (since she's in afternoon kindergarten).  Here are some photos from that.

Sunday nights

I thought I might try to blog each week on Sunday nights.  We'll see how I do...

This last week was rather trying with the girlies.  The two older ones at least.  Mira is SO good at finding and pushing people's buttons.  And Emilia's buttons are easily pushed. And then screaming ensues.

I actually had Emilia yelling "Mom! She's touching me! Stop touching me!" this week.  Ugh.

But! Cecily slept from 10:00pm until 7:00am twice this last week! Oh my goodness, I lucked out with this child.  She is amazing.

Friday night, Wilda was nice enough to babysit the kids so Steve and I could celebrate our 7 year anniversary with a date.  (Our actual anniversary is today.) We played tennis for the first time in like 6 years and then had some tasty brick-oven pizza from a local place called Malawis.  Then we got some dessert and picked up the girls.  It wasn't epic or over-the-top, but it was really mellow and fun.  I'm looking forward to another year with him.

Saturday we tried to do something fun with the kids.  We ended up going to the splash pad in Spanish Fork, which we stuck our hands in for about 5 minutes and then played on the playground.  It was overcast and windy, so it was too cold for getting wet.  I invited Ben and Haylee and they came and we enjoyed their company, too.  We all went back to our house and chatted and let the girls play and watch My Little Ponies.  It was a relaxing type evening.  Very enjoyable.

Did you know they came out with a MLP movie where the ponies travel to earth and become "human?" There are toys in the store right now that make me hope my girls NEVER see the movie so I don't have to own those creepy dolls.  What were they thinking?

Also, since Steve had Friday off (he had to pick a day off in January so he picked the Friday before our anniversary--sweet huh?), we decided to paint one of the bathrooms.  The girls'/guest bathroom was the lucky winner.  It's now a calming gray instead of a jolting lemon yellow.  Hooray! One more thing I can cross off my list.  When I get more decor in there I'll post some before and after pictures.

Today was Stake Conference, so church was only two hours instead of three and it was at 10 instead of 11.  So we were able to go to Grandma and Grandpa Watts' house early.  The girls love their grandparents so much!  And I'm glad now that Grandma Great (Watts) is there that she gets so much joy out of holding and seeing Cecily grow.  I know one day I will have to tell her she was loved very much by a woman she will probably not know very well.  I can say that about my Grandpa Richau, and it makes me feel good every time I think of it.

Poop face

Part of the reason why Cecily has been such an easy baby is because she is so easy to read.  It is easy to tell when she's hungry, or tired, or uncomfortable.  But the easiest one of all is how to tell when she is pooping.  She makes the funniest face!

Ballerina

We signed Emilia up for a summer ballet class through the city.  They learned first and second position, passe, jette, arabesque, and follow the leader, among other things.  Emilia absolutely LOVED it.  She had a grin on her face through the whole 1/2 hour class, every time.  It was just two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday, for 5 weeks.  Mira really wished she could join in, but the youngest they allowed was 3.  Maybe next year! :)

On the last day of class, they had a "recital." Parents and grandparents, etc. were invited to attend.  Since it was on a Tuesday at 10:30am, Steve was the only other person to make it.  I recorded the whole thing, except when the dance was about 1/4 of the way through, my phone ran out of memory. Darned electronic devices!  I'll add the 1/4 that I did get, though, cuz it's pretty cute. :)

If you looked up cute in the dictionary...

...I'm pretty sure you would find a picture of Mira. (Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure you would also find her picture under "strong-willed" and "stubborn.")

Mira eating cheerios for breakfast:

When her spoon stops working, she just sticks her fingers into the hole and picks them up that way.

Poor sick baby.

She loves reading with her grandparents.  I attribute her love of reading to a patient grandpa.

Emilia turns 5

Emilia's birthday was on the 17th of July and she requested a "My Little Pony Spa Birthday Party." This meant that she wanted to do the ponies' hair and decorate dresses for them at her party.  She decided to invite 3 of her friends and their sisters to join us.  Actually, the first person she asked to invite was Nana, so she was there, but I thought we should also invite girls her age. :)  She was very sad her cousins Jane and Meg were too far away--in Arizona--to come.  We were lucky enough to have my Aunt Jean and cousin Dot join us.  They were here visiting for a couple days, so they joined us to help and spend time with everybody.  It was a good thing we had some extra hands because things got a little crazy with 7 girls mostly under 5 trying to do pony hair and decorate pony dresses!

Here's the kitchen while the girls were getting ready to decorate dresses.

 I made pony cupcake toppers to go on her funfetti cupcakes.

 The living room while getting ready to open presents.

 Emilia's friend Gracie and her mom.

 Dot and Ariana.

 Megs and baby Febe.

 Emilia opening presents.

 More presents to open.

Emilia loved her gifts and had a great time at her party.  Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped me not go crazy! :)