Riley is 3!

Ready for presents!! She woke up and immediately needed to put on her red "sparkle" shoes from Grams and Papa. It really is a chore to get her to take them off!

Birthday girl shirt from mommy and daddy!

"icecream money" from Aunt Kathy, Uncle Mike, and cousins Melissa and Kelci

Jessie lunchbox from Grandpa and Grandma and the Jessie costume from Aunt Kari.

Daddy took Riley out for a special birthday donut. Yum!

Riley and I got to spend some time together that night since Avery went to a birthday sleepover and Daddy had a football game. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday treat and she wanted a slurpee! After that we went to the Harker football game for a bit then home to watch the new Tinkerbell movie, a gift from Grams and Papa. It was a great day of celebrating!

A post for Grandma in Africa

So far...

I just had to re-post this pic. I absolutely love it.

Well, the first 2 days of Kinder are done and Avery is having a blast. She cried when I picked her up on Friday because she did not want to be away from school over the weekend. She said she would miss it too much. It made me so happy that I thought I would join right in and cry with her.
She had music and PE on Friday. One of the things I am most excited about with Harker is all of the extracurricular activities they offer. Plus, she still gets music, art, and PE every week. I guess, unfortunately, you get what you pay for and at 25,000 buckaroos a year that gets you a lot of great stuff. (We, of course, did not pay that! Only $2500! Jaron is never going to be able to leave Harker.)

She absolutely loved PE and when she came home, she changed out of her uniform into her exercise clothes. She came out and asked me, "Mom, can I have one of those things that you wear on your top for exercising? You know, the thing that covers your boobies." I was trying so hard not to laugh hysterically. I had to blog about it so I would not forget. After I explained to her that she really had no need for one of those she happily chose a tank top to wear and proceeded to jog around the house and instruct Riley on the art of exercising. She has been "teaching" Riley everyday and it is so funny to listen to all the things that Mrs. Wallace tells her throughout the day. Man, I love that girl!

The First Day of Kindergarten!

Avery was up at 7am and into her uniform before I even walked into her room. Do you think she was excited?? :) After having 2 hours at the orientation yesterday I think she was more than ready to start her day. She happily got in the car with daddy and then just about forgot to say goodbye as she walked confidently into her classroom.

Aves and Daddy in their Harker gear.

I love this girl. I only shed a tear or two, probably because I got to say goodbye to her here at home and not at her classroom. I think I would have been a mess if I had to do that. I will pick her up at 3:25 with a special congrats gift in hand for my amazing Kindergartner.

So, Avery, we pray you have a fantastic year filled with confidence, new joyful experiences, and a love of learning. We love you!

Kindergarten Orientation

Avery and her teacher, Mrs. Wallace

Family Pics

You can check out the slideshow here:

www.vimeo.com/14074162

password is olson10

Disneyland

Jaron and I participated in the Give a Day Get a Day program earlier this year. You volunteer for a day and you get a ticket to Disneyland. We scored a free ticket for Aves from a friend of ours and Riley is still free so how could we resist taking the girls?? This was the first visit that Avery was not scared of the princesses. The girls each got an autograph book and met all the beautiful ladies. It was so sweet to watch.

Aves can now ride on every ride and she did them all except Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. We will definitely get on those next time!!

Ry really wanted to ride the Dumbo ride. I think we waited the longest for this ride! :) It was a super hot day as you can tell by the red faces and sweat!

HH

The Frog Hopper - This is the girls' favorite ride!