Back To School!

I can't believe the girls have already been back to school for 4 weeks now! The time has flown. Camryn started Kindergarten this year and has the same teacher that Emma had, she is thoroughly enjoying it and had absolutely no issues saying goodbye to Mommy and Daddy on the first day. Of course, it helps that she knows over half of her class from soccer and the neighborhood and that her big sister is there! Emma is in 2nd grade this year and has a great class as well. She has her first male teacher this year, which I wasn't sure how that would go over but he tells the best stories and has the class convinced he might be an alien, so it's going well.

Back to School

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!

After Mommy got both girls off to school the first day, I made it back home before I had myself a good little cry. It was a cleansing one, not of sadness per se but a "where are the years going?" kind of cry. I couldn't dwell too long though because Mommy was going back to school herself! After talking with a friend and fellow GT alumnus that lives here in CO, I decided to take a part time position teaching college prep math at Pikes Peak Community College. I am teaching two pre-algebra classes, both with perfect times during the day when the girls are in school. I just finished my third week and absolutely LOVE it! I had been toying around with the idea of starting my own business, which I still would like to do eventually, but right now while the girls are young and I'm spending time volunteering at the school amongst other things, this part time gig is perfect!

Since I wasn't great about blogging over the summer, here are some snapshots of things we did. It was a great summer, with lots of pool time, adventures and fun! We squeezed in a little more play this past weekend over the Labor Day holiday, with our annual trip to Aspen/Snowmass. There were also some running adventures involved, I'll have to post those separately :)

County Fair Fun

Around the World - Indian dance

Emma on the right dancing traditional Indian with her friend

Dress up with cousins

Girl Scout Pony Pals Camp

Sangre de Cristo Children's Museum

Santa's Workshop

Giving our best Bigfoot impression

Top of Pikes Peak

Tubing at the lake

Heading to Aspen

Emma's first time water skiing

Hiking in Snowmass

Bike ride from Aspen to Woody Creek

Field Day in the Fall

In an effort to catch nicer weather for Field Day this year, our school district decided to try Field Day in the Fall. It kind of worked, even though they had to move from their originally planned day of Thursday to Friday, due to the forecast. The sun was definitely shining but the wind was also blowing, making for a bit of a chilly one. The children all managed to have fun, regardless!

It was fun for me to be there with both girls. Emma's class was only two stations behind Camryn's on the field, making it very easy to bounce back and forth between the two. Camryn showed off her mad kicking skills, that she has been working on at Lil' Kickers and Emma finished first in round one of the potato sack race.

I have to say the best part of the day, though, was when Emma's teacher paid her a very big compliment. She told me that Emma is so very caring and compassionate in their classroom, always helping out her friends and looking out for them. She is usually the one that puts her hand around their back and walks them to the teacher when they get hurt. One of their Paras was standing there and told me that Emma is especially helpful with their special needs classmate. Of course, this just made me so very proud of our sweet little girl.

We have lots more planned for this month, with a visit to the pumpkin patch next week while the girls are out of school, ballet costume fittings for their December performance of the Nutcracker, Mad Scientist carnival at school, Boo at the Zoo, and, of course, trick-or-treating.

Antlers and all

How does one get twenty 3 and 4 year-olds organized to sing Rudolph and Jingle Bells? Lots and lots of practice. Emma has been talking for over a week now about the show her class was planning to put on at their holiday party. She's been singing holiday tunes in the car and wouldn't wear her jingle bell hair bow yesterday because "mom, we have bells already at school".

Presenting Emma's Montessori class singing Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer (Emma is on the far right, front row):

Muffins with Mom

When a day starts off like this, it's just bound to be full of blessings, right?

Today was "Muffins with Mom" at the girl's school, an early Mother's Day treat. Not only was it a special morning to wake up to my ecstatic 3 year old (she couldn't wait to see the special something - a GT puzzle - I had brought her from my trip), but I also got to spend the morning with them both at school.

They sang "Happy Mother's Day to You" - including the rock 'n roll version, the "Rainbow Song" and "Herman the Worm". Lots of fun! I'm also sharing a picture of the Picasso art that Emma made for me for Mother's Day. Maybe she'll be the next great artist!

And the day only got better from there. I was super busy with meetings and such after arriving (late!) to work but was asked to spare a few minutes to meet with my manager and his boss later in the day - didn't think anything of it, since we catch up frequently on various projects. However, I was a bit surprised (pleasantly) to find the purpose of this specific meeting was a promotion! I'm now "officially" managing a team of twelve, although I've been unofficially filling that role for the past year. Maybe my shopping bones knew something was coming down the pipe when I splurged a little in Atlanta on that new purse and watch? Ah well, it's always nice to know that your hard work isn't going unrecognized.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend ahead! One more picture before I go. Can't leave out little Miss Camryn!