Countdown to Kindergarten Continues

There's only a little over a week left of Summer vacation.  The days of sleeping in, and spending lazy days doing whatever we please, soon will be gone. We've been having an excellent Summer spending time at the park with pre-school friends, as well as spending weeks at a time at my parents home. We took Ava to see Mary Poppins, which was a fantastic experience.  She absolutely LOVED it and wants to go again.  Maybe Santa will bring her another set of tickets.  I've also loved spending time with old friends while visitng my home town.  I wish there were more time so I could get together with everyone. It's been such a peaceful, relaxing and fun-filled Summer.

Ava's very excited to go to school and that really pleases me. She was very nervous on the day of her Kindergarten orientation back in June.  By the time it was over though, she was happy and excited to attend her new school.  It was a huge relief.  Now she's ready for the Summer to be over and to start school. We also found out that she was assigned to the teacher she wanted which just makes this transition easier on her, and then naturally, us. I hope her positive attitude continues throughout her schooling.

We've done all of her back-to-school shopping.  She's got her new backpack and lunch bags, as well as snazzy new sneakers and purple boots.  She also has an all new Fall wardrobe.  Shopping was something I was really looking forward to, and it turned out to be a lot of fun.  I was a little concerned after leaving the first store we tried because after trying on piles of clothes, we only ended up purchasing 4 items.  Ava didn't like anything.  I don't know if it was the look of the items or the fit but I was getting a little concerned.  We ended up heading to the mall.  Thankfully, The Children's Place and Gymboree were hits with Ava and we chose a lot of cute stuff for her.
We've also spent some time making lists of all of the different kinds of food she might like to bring for lunches.  That was a really cute and fun activity.  Some of the lunches she thinks she'd enjoy are strawberries with cheese and crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, baked ziti and Mac and Cheese.  I'll share Ava's lists in another blog post, as I need to run now because I promised Luke I'd take him to see the boats down at the sea wall today.

Have a great day everyone!

Countdown to Kindergarten

Our Summer break has been wonderful but it's going by way too fast.  The countdown is on, and there's only one month remaining until my little girl will be heading off to Kindergarten.

We went shopping for school supplies last week with Grandma and Ava modeled every single backpack they had in the store until she finally decided on the perfect one.  She told us she wanted to try them all on to make sure they fit!

She chose two different lunch bags and and assortment of hot/cold food accessories for the days she'd like to bring her lunch.  Both bags were so cute, and she was so excited, that we just couldn't resist.  Grandma and Ava also decided that a new change purse was in order, to carry her money on the days she'd like to buy hot lunch or purchase a milk at school.

The memory we made shopping for Kindergarten school supplies is very special to me.  It was so much fun and Ava and I are both bursting with excitement for Kindergarten!

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to miss my little buddy during the day, as Kindergarten is full-time here. When I was little, Kindergarten was only half a day.  Full-day Kindergarten makes her seem more grown up to me. 

It's interesting though, because although she's growing up so fast and that sometimes makes my heart ache, I'd rather be in the moment with her at this age, than go back to the time when she was just a little baby.  Although wouldn't it be great to be able to go back in time for a day to relive those precious moments?!

I love that she's old enough now for us to see Broadway shows together.  I love that I can take her out to all kinds of restaurants, even the fancy ones!  I love the time we spend getting mani/pedi's together for special occasions.  One will definitely be in order to celebrate her first day in Kindergarten!  Mostly, I love the conversations we have.  She's smart as a whip and she cracks me up.

I love the school she got into for Kindergarten and that's really made this process so much easier on me as a mom.  It is the absolute best fit for her and us.  By getting into the charter school, she will be reaping the benefits of both private and public school and it really doesn't get any better than this.

We have a lot to look forward to.