Drool is cool!

Recess!

Each day  when I pick Mack up from school, I do my best CSI type run down to get the low down:

-How was your day?
-What did you do?
-Did you learn anything?
-What did you eat?
-Were you a good listener?

Mack's pretty good about answering evenutally but , after an afternoon as school, she is tired and a bit irritable until she gets home and gets a snack and a cold glass of water. After that, she pours out the info and I eat it up , picturing her day as she describes it. Before the snack/water combo, I have learned to simply ask her "What was your favorite part of school? What was your least favorite part?" Her answers are funny and somewhat confusing, as her new-to-school brain tries to make sense of the goings on in the preschool world. Her one consistent favorite is ...recess.

Look at her go!

Everyone say " Preschool!"

 That's what Mack shouted during each obligatory " first day of school" picture I took. She was so excited that she woke up, got herself dressed, stuffed some toilet paper into her Cars 2 lunch box ( in case she sneezes) and was ready to go in a matter of minutes. It was a pretty long wait, though, since Mackenzie is in the afternoon preschool class. But when it was time to go, we had one excited little girl!

Mack's teacher is Mrs. Vazquez, the wife of my mom's co-worker! She is a quite woman, about my age, with a very sweet disposition. Her aide, Ms. Mandy, is a bubbly, out going personality who remembers every child's name on the first day! Both teachers paid a visit to Mackenzie at our house where Mack dazzled them with her dancing skills and Ellie covered them in a few ( not always welcomed) kisses. We were glad they came for a visit and are certain their visiting each child in their own surroundings is why there were very few tears shed in the preschool classroom today ( at least not by the children) .

The gang outside Mackenzie's school

She found her cubby!

With a quick " BYE!" she was off and
didn't look back.


What an exciting day! I tried my best not to think of the fact that this was the tiny first step in Mackenzie forming a world all her own, one that Mike and I won't have constant access to. Though she is ready, I don't think any mother ever really is. Even still, I am so excited for her to have a chance to experience a little section of the world on her own ,and am pretty glad it's just for three hours a day four days a week. Mommies need baby steps, too.

For now, it's nearly time to go pick up my girl from school! I can't wait to find out how her day went and hope to post a video update from her later today!

One final farewell

To summer that is. Not according to the calendar, but with the start of preschool for Mack fast approaching, it's easy to feel like summer is over as all attention is directed toward school.  Determined to get in one last bit of fun, Mike invited Mackenzie to an end of summer camp out! Excitedly, they made plans and Mackenzie wrote a shopping list which read like this:

                                                        Dinr ( dinner)
                                                        hot dogs
                                                        wood
                                                        smoors ( s'mores)
                                                        chips

Shopping list complete!

After a trip to the store, they set up camp. As tends to happen, things didn't go exactly according to plan but they had fun none the less and even managed to spend the whole night sleeping in the tent. Here are some pictures of the event.

Thanks to the  relentless Colorado sun and heat,our grass is as dead as it can be and we didn't have to worry about  ruining it. So Mike sprayed it down and made an impromptu fire pit in the yard.Unfortunately, with the extra smoke from our tree branches and Mack loudly singing
" We're burning our grass! We're burning our grass!"  for all to hear, we decided to put the
fire out and go in a different direction, lest we alert the attention of the fire department

This is a bit safer

Some of us were less excited than others

We don't need much of an excuse
to pull out the footed jammies around here!

Morning comes pretty quickly , doesn't it Mike?

My Sweetie

Mike took Mack out for errands and a lunch date the other day and returned with these! I love these " just because" flowers!

The hanging lip

We got together to celebrate my Grandma Joann's birthday this past weekend. It was the first time most of the family had met Mason . One thing every baby should know before attending a family function is that my dad's side of the family LOVES babies. It's nearly impossible to escape with out being loved on by everyone . Mason wasn't so sure but, though he threatened to cry , he actually did pretty well. Here he is with my Aunt Jenny and Aunt Janis.

Juicy Orange