I Didn't Mean To!

So a few days ago, Madison and Wyatt were playing in the back yard. Since our back yard is just dirt for now, it usually turns into some play of this variety. When I went outside to check on them and see what they were up to, I saw this Wyatt, and the first words out of Madison's mouth were, "I didn't mean to!" I'm not sure how Wyatt got mud so perfectly placed in his face, but I'm sure it was purely accidental. Just like she "accidentally" pulled his hair the other day...hair that is about 1/4 inch long. She only looks sweet and innocent!

I can ride my bike with no training wheels, no training wheels...

Another thing to add to my "She's growing up too fast" list...the training wheels came off last night! We dug out the knee and elbow pads, then Darin chased her around trying to stay close enough to catch her if she was going down. The first stop surprised her. She put on the brakes and the bike immediately tipped over. She was able to catch herself though, and then she figured out how to brake and then put her foot down. She cruised around for a little while with no major mishaps. A little more practice, and that will be one more step of growing up that we can officially check off!

Invasion!

We are being invaded by these nasty things! If any of you have called me in the last couple of days, you've probably heard all about them, because Wyatt tells anyone who will listen about the "catepittars." The pediatrician and the AC service guy were especially impressed. We first saw them on the way to church on Sunday. They were all over the road by the church. Then by that night, they had found our cul-de-sac. They are coming out of the desert by our house by the hundreds. There were about 30 on our driveway yesterday, and 10 crawling up our mailbox, and one had crawled up the house almost to the roof. They are everywhere in the rocks, and we watched one devour a leaf of a weed in our backyard in about 3 seconds. I ran over one when I backed out of the garage, and its guts shot about two feet. Our driveway is covered in slime, either from them being squished, or from the green substance they emit (I'm not sure which end it comes from) when they are threatened.

My fearless hunter. Stepping on them would be too easy. Wyatt is using a metal bat to squish them.

Madison took over the bat. Wyatt now has a plastic sand toy that he covers them with and says, "Now you can't see your friends!"

First Day of First Grade

Here she is! My big girl, on her first day of first grade. We do uniforms at our school, so it kind of takes the fun out of school clothes shopping, but at least she got some pink converse shoes with little hearts all over them to jazz up her outfit a little. We added a pink glitter headband to maximize the pink factor, and a girly brown and turquoise butterfly backpack, and all in all, the uniform isn't too bad! She had a great first day, and the first thing she asked is if she gets to go back tomorrow.

Back to School...Let's Party!

Madison was so excited to start first grade...seemed like a great reason to celebrate! Sunday night, Darin taught the kids how to play Uno in honor of starting 1st grade. Then we attempted to document the day on video, but our video camera wasn't cooperating. We had big slices of yummy Jello Poke Cake that Madison helped make. Then we topped off the evening with a back to school blessing from Dad.

Monday afternoon was "Meet and Greet" at the school where we got to go and meet Madison's teacher and see the classroom. Her teacher is Ms. Kastigar. From the few minutes I spent with her, I was really impressed. This will be her third year teaching, and she seems so excited. The classroom is set up really nice. The kids have their own desks, different from the kindergarten tables. Madison sits next to a girl that was on her soccer team last year. She says, "That's good I get to sit by Ashley so she can keep me safe and I can keep her safe." I'm not exactly sure what they have to keep each other safe from, but I am glad she knows someone in her class. There are also two kids that used to be in our ward and two kids that were in her class last year. I kept waiting for her to express some sort of apprehension about school, but she never did. She just wants to go! It's funny what being in a classroom environment does to kids. We walked in and she started pointing to posters that were hanging around the room and telling me all kinds of things--like counting to 100 by 10's--that I have been trying to practice with her all summer. She hasn't really been interested at home, but as soon as we step in the classroom, she is ready to learn!