First Day of Kindergarten!!!

Well, we made it through the first day of kindergarten! :) That is a little misleading - Anna was only in school for an hour, but it was a pretty long hour. She went to her classroom to play for a bit and meet her classmates and the parents were all taken to the cafeteria to learn the schedule and procedures for pickup and dropoff and sending work and information home to us. We learned that they DO give homework in kindergarten, who knew? Anna is still very excited, and was a little upset that they were only there for an hour. She ran a few errands with me today, and then we picked daddy up for lunch - she got both of us all to herself for a little bit - that hasn't happened for about 3 1/2 years!

Both Anna and McKenna start dance tonight - tap and ballet - so Monday's are going to be very long days once both girls are in school. Ava will continue to tag along and watch her sisters do all sorts of fun stuff - only a matter of time until she has her own activities! McKenna wanted to go to school with Anna today, but was pretty happy to hear that she will get to go to her own school starting in 2 weeks. This is the first time she will be going somewhere without Anna, but I think she will do just fine. This was Saturday morning - a little pj time in mommy and daddy's bed.

Ava is working on her sitting, and it able to sit unassisted for close to 10 seconds at a time. After one faceplant while mommy was trying to take a picture has caused me to not attempt that again - maybe next week!

Long Overdue

Let me start out by saying, sorry it has been so long. No good reason for it - just too much going on. Ava is eating veggies now and Anna REALLY likes to help feed her. Anna gets frustrated because Ava likes to play with the spoon and Ava gets frustrated because a good portion of the food ends up everywhere but her mouth! Ava is growing so much, it seems like she looks different every time I see her. Ava is improving her tripod sitting. She will also sit unassisted without using her arms for a few seconds, but she will fall over before I can snap a picture, so we don't have any photos of that yet!

The juggling of schedules continues, but it has been made a little bit easier because we had our nanny start the first week of August. The girls love her and it makes getting to work much easier for Patrick and I. We are still staggering our schedules - I get to the office at 7am and leave at 4 and Patrick leaves when Mayu arrives and works until whenever. Poor Mayu has been stuck in the house with the girls since I am not ready for her to drive them around yet, but I think we will overcome that next week. Patrick's mom has been taking Anna and McKenna out periodically so they don't all go stir crazy. I will be home all next week for Anna's first week of kindergarten!!! I definitely think that is more for me than her, but this will let me see how she is doing, figure out the pick up/drop off process and cry if I need to :) Anna and McKenna also start tap/ballet back up next week and Anna starts soccer. Yesterday was the last day of ice skating, so that is one thing off the list! Good thing the price of gas is so reasonable since I will be spending so much time in the car (lol) :(

I had posted previously about Patrick's cousin Danny who is a priest in the Philippines. There is lots of fighting, unrest, uncertainty and strained relations in the region right now and they are under curfew and other restrications. Danny has asked for prayers for the region, so I am reaching out to you all for the same.

Photos of recent events - Uncle Brian's birthday celebration, Anna and McKenna went to the circus with Grandma and Grandpa Clerkin.