I'm in love (again).

Friends and family, may I present to my new best friend. How I love her already! We just met today, and I don't know how I've lived for 27.5 years without her. She's lovely and wonderful, and she makes my life easier and happier. Her name is Dymo!

I recently stumbled across a blog out there in the blogsosphere that greatly inspired me. It's all about food storage, and the way this woman organized her pantry made me giddy to follow in her footsteps. GIDDY, I say!!! I had to wait a couple of weeks before purchasing anything, and it was torture, pure torture! My head was swimming with ideas.

Today I was finally able to make most of my purchases. I couldn't WAIT to purchase this baby, and I knew it would be love at first sight. Someone like me buying a label maker? Watch out, world!

Just to give you a taste of what I'm doing, here's a little teaser...

Gah! Can you stand it?! I can't!!! I don't care how dorky this makes me, either. Labels and mason jars (among other awesome organizational tips!) in my pantry is making me ridiculously excited! I've only just begun this little project, so stay tuned for the big reveal sometime soon!

Asher's first bus ride

Ever since school started on Monday, Asher has been begging to ride the bus. We took both kids to school the first few days, then we started letting Kyrie ride the bus the rest of the week (she was begging to ride because her best friend from next door rides). I just wasn't ready to let Asher ride quite yet, mostly because my Mommy heart isn't ready to "let go" and allow him to be that independent, but also because I wanted to make sure he was comfortable finding his classroom on his own.

He begged and begged yesterday, so I made him a deal that he could ride today if he could find his classroom on his own yesterday. Derk took him to school and had him lead the way. He did great from what Derk said! I was secretly hoping he'd need me to hold his hand just a little bit longer, but he's very confident.

He could hardly wait to start the walk to the bus stop this morning! He couldn't believe I was finally letting him ride (and neither could I!). Kyrie's friend from next door came over to walk with the kids, and then we were off. I managed to snap a few pictures along the way.

Once the bus came, all the kids were in a rush to get on, so I didn't even get to give him a hug before sending him off. My Mommy heart stopped beating for a second as I watched my little guy, who was barely tall enough to see out the window to wave goodbye to me, get on that big, yellow bus for the first time. It's HUGE to let your precious baby go out into the world alone for the first time. I thought I'd be okay since I've already walked through it with Kyrie, but it wasn't any easier.

Of course Asher LOVED it and did awesome! I told Kyrie a million times to take good care of her brother and make sure he was okay. She did! She sat by him on the bus and took care of him at school until the bell rang.

I didn't cry on his first day of school. He was so confident, and I knew he'd be okay. But I totally cried today as he rode the bus for the first time. Pretty soon, he'll need his Mommy to walk him through life less and less. I hate this part of being a mother. Seeing their happiness as they learn that they are capable of being more grown up and watching that confidence build and grow is really amazing to watch. But I still want them to stay my babies for just a little while longer. Okay, maybe more like forever....

At least it's getting used for SOMETHING...

I've always said that whoever built a fireplace in our Arizona home was completely out of their mind. The previous owner never used it, and we've never used it, either. We've talked about covering it up with drywall and building a built-in bookshelf instead. It's just a pointless waste of space (and the wall it's on is angled, which just makes it even more odd to decorate around).

But anyway, today I was busy working on the kitchen project (almost finished!), and this is what Bri decided to do to keep herself entertained while I worked! :-)

Wordless Wednesday

First day of school 2010!

Time flew by, and the kids' first day of school finally arrived. Kyrie has had her first day of school outfit picked out and sitting on her dresser for the last 7 days! The funniest part is that the school has a uniform policy, so there's not exactly many options for her to choose from -- navy blue shirts and either khaki or navy shorts/skirts. ;-) She was too excited to sleep and was up at 6am this morning. She was also too excited to let Asher stay asleep, so she decided he needed to wake up then, too. Let's hope the novelty wears off soon! ;-)

I made them some yummy breakfast burritos, then they (finally!) got to put on their uniforms (they've been super excited to wear them!), and then we headed out the door. Derk was able to come with me to drop them off, and the kids were so glad he was there.

Here they are, all dressed and ready to leave the house!

Here they are walking from the car to the school (yes, I'm a nerd).

Kyrie's teacher didn't let any parents into the classroom (boo!), so I only got one picture of her as we dropped her off. :-( Here she is lining up with her class (with her eyes closed, darn it!).

Luckily Asher's teacher wanted the parents in the room for the first little bit, so I got plenty of pictures of him.

He did totally fine and seemed really comfortable in his new environment. There were 2 kids that were sobbing uncontrollably, and I was nervous about how he'd react when I said it was time for us to go. I actually captured the look he gave me on camera when his teacher announced that it was time for parents to leave.

He didn't cry at all, just had this concerned look. It was really hard to leave him there, and I think Derk had a harder time than I did! Derk went back to his classroom door to peek in at least twice to make sure Asher was okay. I knew if I did that, I'd really lose it, so I tried not to look back.

While they were gone, Bri and I had a little fun. We mostly ran errands today, which was a bummer. She loves being the center of attention so much that she really enjoyed having Mom all to herself most of the day. :-) But at about noon, she started asking when it would be time to go pick Kyrie and Asher up. We'll be doing lots of fun things to keep us both busy during the day (which includes story time! My older kids were too old for the class, so we haven't gone before), which she's excited about. She spent a while brushing Zelda, and she also ate a turkey and cheese sandwich that was cut into star shapes! She thought that was so awesome. :-)

They both had a really great day at school. I loved how happy we all were to see each other when I picked them up. Being around each other all the time, we started taking each other for granted. It's nice to miss each other! :-) I loved hearing all about their day, and I'm so grateful that Kyrie loves to talk as much as she does because I got to hear every single detail. Asher, on the other hand, took quite a bit of prodding and begging for info, and I'm still not sure how much info I really got. But he was happy (albeit tired from being woken up so early!), so I call Day 1 a success!

It was way too quiet around here today, and I'm hoping I get used to that. I'm trying to make myself excited about having a lot more free time to (hopefully) work on projects during the day AND with the thought that my house will stay MUCH cleaner. ;-) I am just very grateful today that I still have 2 more years before Cambria goes off to school. I really need to be eased into this gently! I love watching them learn and grow, but I sure don't like it that they're growing up so fast!

Gwyneth Ham's open house

Today Kyrie and Asher got to go to their open house at school. Kyrie was super excited and kept telling me (every 2 seconds) throughout the day what time it was and how much longer until we had to leave. ;-) This was another day where I was super grateful for Derk's job because he was able to leave work early and come with us!

I decided to be the totally psycho mom and brought my nice camera with me. I think I was the only parent who even took a camera! Hopefully none of the teachers/parents thought I was too weird (not that I care). ;-)

We stopped at Kyrie's classroom first. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Dejong (pronounced Deh-young), and she's very nice. Kyrie had fun sitting at her desk, looking at the supplies provided by the school, and speculating about what all the fun-looking charts and such were on the walls. She noticed a boy's name tag on the desk next to her and wasn't too happy about having to sit next to *gasp!* A BOY. I'd much rather she have an aversion than start with the crushes already! ;-) When we left, she said she couldn't believe she had to wait until Monday to start school and wanted to start that very second. :-) I loved having her home this last year, but this is going to be so great for her to be back in school.

Here is Kyrie in her classroom!

Next we went off to find Asher's classroom. His teacher is Mrs. V (her last name is hard to pronounce AND spell, so that's what everyone calls her). She was super friendly, too. The district has full-day kindergarten, but it's AZ law that parents also be given a half-day option. That's what we're doing for Asher. I was planning on just picking him up after lunch, but she suggested we let him stay for "specials" after lunch as well (those are things like P.E., art, etc). I was so glad she was willing to work with us and was very nice about the half-day thing. Asher is the only kid in his class who's doing half-day, so I was afraid she'd be a little standoffish about it. She wasn't at all, which is a huge blessing!

Here's Asher in his class. He wouldn't really cooperate for pictures, so I didn't get too many. Notice the mural on the wall! That is on the way to his classroom. Could that have been any more perfect?! He was SO excited when he saw that! (If you're wondering what happened to his chin, that is a result of what happens when a certain child tries to do tricks like the big boys do on the diving board....we're just grateful he just gashed his chin and wasn't seriously hurt!)

I still can't quite come to terms with the fact that I have a 3rd grader and a kindergartener! Where DOES the time go???

To the diving board!

Today we met some friends of ours at the pool. The pool's hours are changing this week because school is resuming, so for the next few weeks (until they close for the season) they're only open on Saturdays. We figured we'd better get one last weekday swim in!

It was a momentous day for Mister Asher. The lifeguards said he couldn't go on the diving board until he could swim the length of the pool without help. And today was the day he finally made it! He passed "the test" (i.e. the lifeguard watching him swim the length of the pool), and they said he could go. He was so excited!

Here's a video of his first jump!

And here are some pictures I snapped.

I just love how little he looks standing in line with all those big boys!

Kyrie's been having a blast on the diving board, too. When I finally remembered to bring the camera to catch her on video, she refused to dive and said she wanted to "do a fancy trick instead." ;-) Next time we go, I'll make her do a dive on camera. :-) Don't mind Bri screaming, "I WANT MY BABY!" in the background. It had been a long day, and she was ready to go. Anyway, here's Kyrie doing her "fancy trick"!