Aunt Leigh's funeral was today up in Midway.  It was a lovely service, and although the circumstances were less than happy, it was good to see everyone.  Somehow this was the only picture I took.  Thomas was super cute all day, making all kinds of noise and being sweet.

It's so strange to think that Leigh is gone.  She was so fun, and while she wasn't in good health, it never occurred to me she would pass away.  I bet she's on the other side, feeling awesome, and laughing all the time.

I finally remembered yesterday to grab more monster bubble solution!  These things are amazing.

Mimi loves the book return at the library.  She always wants to put all the books on the conveyor.  If only I could get them to the library for her to do them on time!

This morning I got a call from my mom, who told me that my Aunt Leigh passed away early this morning.  This was unexpected, although she was not in the best of health.  We never would have guessed that she would pass away this quickly.  It is sad news, but she has been freed from her troubled mortal body, and her work here is done.  She is an amazing woman and I have so many memories of her generosity and her sense of humor.  Our prayers go out to Uncle Mike and the family.

Today was the first day of my newfound freedom!  Mimi left with the other girls without me this morning, and I was left to my own devices for a couple hours!  I chose to work on some calligraphy, which is coming along nicely.  I can definitely see improvement.  Today was pangram exercises.  There are some funny ones!

First Day of Kindergarten!

FINALLY!  The day is upon us!

These three little people got to head to school together today!

And they are off!

Mimi was all smiles.

I love this girl!

Mrs. Cobabe immediately started teaching them routines and procedures!

Master Thomas was less than impressed with the walk.

Later this morning Thomas and I headed back over to the school to get Mimi, and she was still smiling!

First day of school success??  CHECK!  Yay for Kindergarten!

1 Day Before Kindergarten

She is SO excited!

We made sweet little donuts into 'apples' this afternoon for a little after school treat tomorrow.  Mimi helped me mix up the glaze, and dipped the donuts in.

And you can't forget the sprinkles!

They turned out really cute!

Tomorrow is the big day!

2 Days Before Kindergarten!

We are almost there!  Mimi is so excited, especially because she wants to join her sisters at the school each day.  I think she's feeling a tiny bit left out.

Our (my) best laid plans went awry, so we exchanged a lunch picnic with some frozen yogurt and headed over to the kindergarten playground.  This is the same playground that Mimi split her chin on last Christmas.  One can only hope she has more success with it now!

This afternoon we took off to Gardner Village to the Farmers' Market.  It was a little less impressive than it has been in the past, so we headed over to the ponies and took little rides.  Which were way overpriced for how little the rides were!  But the kids had fun.

I think Mimi got a little nervous when the guy had the horse trot!

Went out with my parents' dinner group tonight where I got a gigantic piece of ice cream cake.  My dad's fingers are in the picture for scale!

3 Days Before Kindergarten

Gah!  We finally get to go to the school and meet Mimi's teacher!

She was very excited to be off.  I actually received an email last night telling me who her teacher was, but I don't know anything about her as she's new to the school this year.

Her name is Mrs. Cobabe, which is an awesome name.  I think they'll get along just fine.

4 Days Before Kindergarten

Today was the kindergarten assessment, where they show up and the teachers look at what they already know, and what they need help with.  They don't offer you the results, and the parent is not invited to go back with the child, but it's still fun for the kids to go to the school and get a glimpse, even though we still don't know who Mimi's teacher is!

After the assessment, we headed to the park with a Slurpee.

Mimi took in some rays.

This evening was the annual Neighborhood Block party at my parents' ward.  But this year, the firemen were not going to use the firehose and ladder...I imagine because of the water situation here in the valley.  They compensated by letting the kids climb all over their awesome big truck!

The pictures are all of the girls, but even I got up there!

Mac summoned the gumption to ask one of the firemen if she could sit in the front seat.  They were really nice, and agreed that was an awesome idea.

This would be a pretty good picture if I didn't have a tree growing out of my head!

First Day of School AND 5 Days Before Kindergarten!

It's the first day of school for these rascals!  I can't believe I have a 5th grader.  She's one of the 'big women' on campus, which is really just silly, because she's my little Leiden!

They were very excited for the big day.  And believe me, I was too!  Summer can get long and monotonous.  School time comes, and we are ready!

We all walked to the school this morning.  Took tons of pictures.

I'm thinking that I may not get this opportunity next year at the Middle School!

All the kids are bright and shiny, ready to start a new year.  I LOVE it!

Excitement all around, from both kids and judging by the smiles on parents faces, I'm not the only one who welcomes back to school!'

After we dropped the girls off, Mimi and I went home to do her next activity!

I chose these papers for her to use to decorate her box.  They bring home so much stuff, these boxes come in handy.

Mimi went to town, cutting and gluing.

And then she just kind of stopped!  I had expected her to cover the whole thing with the cute papers, but she decided to UTILIZE the logo on the box and keep it mostly white.  Hey, whatever!

The girls were home by about 3, all smiles!  They loved the first day...success!

We have these amazing tiny little pumpkins growing in our front yard, and they are already turning orange.  The plant was supposed to grow big jack o lantern pumpkins, according to the tag, but I'm sure I either did something I wasn't supposed to or failed to do something I was supposed to because they are little!

Celebration nightcap for me, tonight, after the kids went down!  Today was a good day, and I had marshmallow soda to try from that soda store at Gateway.  It was pretty good...tasted like Lucky Charms marshmallows.