First Day of Preschool

I have a preschooler!  I can't believe my little baby is in school already.  The past three+ years have just flown by.  Eva was so excited to go to school this morning.  I made her purple pancakes for breakfast (her favorite color) and even though the color wasn't dark enough she ate them up.

Then she got dressed in the outfit she picked out special for today and bounced around the driveway waiting for it to be time to go.  She was so excited!

Once there, she found her hook

and then she was off to play with her new friends.

The best part- no tears from either of us!  (Although I'm sure I'll shed a few on Thursday when I actually have to leave her there!)
When we got home I had her draw a picture of herself.  I plan on having her do this at the beginning (and possibly the end) of each school year to see how she changes and grows.  I must warn those who are faint of heart- Eva is in her nudist phase.  All of her drawings are naked because according to her she "doesn't know how to draw shirts."

Back to School

The buses are rolling through the neighborhood again so we broke out a favorite craft from last year- the shape bus.  It's fun to see how much difference a year can make!  Here is last year's:

And here's this year's:

We got fancy this year and added pom poms for lights and Eva wanted other details like a road, hubcaps and a traffic light.  I also had her tell me a sentence about the picture and wrote it down for her to "read".  (By writing down children's own words you give them ownership to the story and because they spoke those words, it will be easier for them to read them.)

Good Bye Summer!

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer and Mother Nature is following course. Today is cool and rainy with that whisper of Fall in the air.  We have been cramming as much summer as we can in these last few weeks.
We've hit the beach:

the amusement park (for roller coasters big and small):

gone swimming:

and played in the backyard:

(Eva's lawn furniture sculture)

And done all we can to keep cool:

Today we whipped up a batch of play dough and I dug out some of our fun fall activities from last year.  While Eva's been playing, I'm been coming up with new ideas to share with all of you over the next few weeks.  I hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer!