Jillian's First Day of School!

It was awesome!  I think I wasn't emotional because Michael brought her himself, and he's nearby teaching another class, so really, easy peasy!

Last weekend, we went shopping for a backpack.  When we got to the store, she immediately asked for a purple backpack.  She was so proud of herself once she saw what it looked like on her.  Michael asked her why she picked purple, and she replied that it would be just like Dora's backpack!  What a kid!

We went on Monday to meet her classmates and she was so excited to go there!

She was playing in the sandbox and accidentally threw sand in her own face-ouch!  The kindergarten teacher helped me clean it up as she saw how panicky I was getting.  Jillian calmed right down-awesome!

Today, she was waiting and ready at the door for 15 minutes-we had to tell her to take her boots off!  Then both girls said good-bye to each other, which is a rare thing, and it's not usually all day like that either!  Susan was quiet and pensive in the car, which is not usually her trait, and as soon as she saw me tonight, she declared that Jillian and Daddy were home.  It was cute that they missed each other.

Jillian had a huge smile on her face, and did her homework with excitement-reading a book!  I read, then she read, then we looked at the spelling of the words, then she wrote out a few sentences in the book.  (the last 2 things were me being hyper-excited, but I made sure not to pressure her, and kept it fun.)  It was so cool to hear her read to me!  Kudos goes to Michael for reading to the kids every night before bed.

The next class isn't until next week, but I'm happy that she's had such a great start!

Baking with Susan

I made some cupcakes for Michael's class for tomorrow, and Susan was very interested once she saw the cake mix box!  I decided to let her help me crack a few eggs.  First she helped me, then I let her do one herself.  I could feel Michael cringing at the thought of splattered egg across the kitchen but Susan was pretty good with hitting the egg against the edge of the bowl.  And only 2 small pieces of egg shell that I had to pick out!

Then she wanted to eat cupcakes right away-and the batter was still runny!  I got her shooed out of the kitchen, and returned with Jillian in time to see the first batch of frosted cupcakes.  Of course they wanted to eat cake right away, but we told them that they had to eat dinner first.

Jillian clued in first, shouting, "I want dinner please!"  We laughed and they had the tiniest serving of dinner before they were hollering for cake.  Turns out they weren't interested in my baking...it was the frosting and sprinkles!  Gah!

How old are you?

Jillian likes to announce that she's five years old now.  The other day in the car, she asked me how old I was.  I replied "32", then she burst out laughing.

sigh.

Away for too long.

And I do apologize. A lot has happened over the last year.

Our move this past summer went smoother than I thought.  Luckily, a lot of stuff was packed because we were prepping the house for sale, but I was still astounded that we had a living room composed entirely of boxes!  Thank goodness my brothers, mom and her husband were there to help!  On the quest to free our living room, we got rid of over 20 boxes of stuff.  Funny thing is, if you asked me to name things I gave away, I would really have to think about it.  Oh hang on, first thing that comes to mind is some extra measuring cups.

I really do like the new place.  It's closer to town, and our driveway is a smaller, more shovel-able too!   The girls are sharing a room, and although I was apprehensive about it at first, they actually settle down to bed pretty quickly.

 Jillian is getting ready to start kindergarten in a couple of weeks. She's excited about starting school and meeting new friends. Her speech is coming along nicely, and we'll even speak together in French once in a while. She tried skiing this past winter, and although it was a bit of a rough start, she's looking forward to hitting the slopes next year! I'm looking forward to doing it as a family activity. I must admit I was a bit jealous sitting on the sidelines!

Susan is a little bundle of energy. Anything Jillian does, Susan's right behind her. And the kid laughs at everything.  Eating breakfast, running in circles, singing songs.  And if she does cry, it's rarely for more than 5 minutes.  Susan liked skiing as well, although she didn't like walking back to the chalet afterwards!

Together, the girls play and communicate well, which I enjoy watching.  They love their Disney princesses, and will dress up at any opportunity.  We took them to Disney on Ice and they went bonkers over it!

Michael started work at the school where he started kindergarten!  I think it's cute how he's come full circle.

I'm still studying French full time, and I'm proud of my progress, although with my naturally impatient nature, I wish I knew it all immediately!  I do love being able to have conversations in French now and not fumbling the way I used to over grammar and vocabulary.  Naturally, I still make mistakes, and I think I confused the poor girl at the gym I go to, due to mixing up some verb tenses.  But it is appreciated that I do try to speak French to Francophones.  Just please don't ask me to speak any Mandarin...I've forgotten what little I've learned!

Okay, that's us in a nutshell.  Have a good weekend!