First day of school...and Elly's in kindergarten!

The boys started school this past Tuesday...


Waiting for the bus. Mac starting 4th and Nate 3rd. The boys lost a couple of their buddies at the bus stop to Middle school this year.

For kindergarten, there was a staggered start. So Elly only went to school on Thursday of this past week. Here's Elly's first day of school..


Her first day!


Waiting in line to go into her classroom.


Elly's teacher, Mrs. Hersh. She was also Mac's second grade teacher, we're excited for Elly to have her!



Elly was fine until she sat in this seat. While Mrs. Hersh was giving directions, she would not take her eyes off me. Whenever we made eye contact, she said "I do not want to stay here." We then sat with her while "The Kissing Hand" was read. Seriously...not a good book to read to the parents! It was a good thing Elly was having a tough time, because I knew I had to put on a good front for her! After the story, I let Sam try to talk her into staying, but fortunately it just took a teacher's aide to talk to her and she let us leave with a tear. Whew, wasn't expecting this from my confident little girl!

Bauder does not have a 1/2 day class, so all the classes are full day. If you only do 1/2, you pick up your kid at lunch. Not the ideal situation for 1/2 day, but we're going with it. I'm not ready for Elly to go full day, nor do I think it's necessary...so I pick her up at lunch. She gets all the academics in the morning, but misses specials. Ah well, she has the rest of her school career for that! I'm hoping the year goes well with the early pick up!


Elly's first day on the bus was today. All morning, she was adamant that she would not go to kindergarten. Fortunately a light switched about 1/2 hour before go time and she let her brother's take care of her. I thought this was sweet with Mac holding her hand.


Not entirely positive about this!


Here comes the bus...


And she's on! She sat between the boys and they said she was hanging her head on the bus. They talked her through it though and she happily held Nate's hand as he walked her to her class line, played with her until the bell rang, then walked with her back to the line. I'm hoping each day gets easier in the morning!

Here's a couple other funny shots I found...

The boys braided Elly's hair



Nate got Elly all decked out before practicing some baseball with her.



Mac was cutting onions for me for the first time and got to experience his eyes tearing up. When I turned around next, he was wearing these goggles. Goofy kid!

Skiing...exceeding our expectations

I was just talking to a friend about expectations of our kids, in the activity sense. I was telling her how there have been times that we are geared up to have a good time...and then our kids whine the whole time or whatever else a 3, 4, 5-year-old may do...and yet you just have to keep trying. You have to keep taking them hiking, on road trips, whatever you love to do and in the end, you hope for the best. You learn to give them grace because of their age, but also keep pushing them.

Honestly, I think Sam and I fly by the seat of our pants enough, that we don't think of what could happen, or how terrible it would be to camp with a newborn...we just do it. It hasn't always turned out the way we hoped (there was a camping trip that we almost drove home at midnight), but most of the time, it does. I think we've also learned that since you can't expect kids to always have a good time, to not let your expectations put you in a grouchy mood...thus having a whole family of grouches.

Anyway, this past weekend we went skiing, and it was one of those times that I would say our kids not only met our expectations...but exceeded them. I can tell they're growing up!


The boys had Monday off of school, so we headed up skiing on Sunday morning. Not the best conditions with wind...but the kids didn't mind. I think the boys were excited to help teach Elly, and Elly to learn, that they just went with it.


Sam had Elly on a tether, so she couldn't get away from him. I honestly thought her little legs wouldn't last long, but I should have realized with all her running these days, they're stronger than I thought! Sam had to hold her right between his legs quite a bit with some fresh powder being deeper in areas, but she got the hang of it. I loved hearing her repeat Sam's directions and just giggle. She giggled a lot! You could tell she had a great time. I don't know if being the third, and not wanting to be left behind skiing (she's old enough now to remember how many times the boys have gotten to go and she's been left behind) she just kept going...never complaining. She doesn't make turns yet, but more than anything, I was just impressed with her attitude.


Nate was preoccupied most of the time with helping teach his sister. He stuck by her and Sam most of the time trying to help her out. It was very sweet. I hadn't seen either of the boys ski the last couple times, so it was fun to see how much they improved. They do a great job on blues. Nate does a great job staying in control. He likes to try to bomb down the mountain,but always practices his turns.


This kid really seemed grown up this weekend. Mac has a great sense of direction and used it by leading the charge down runs. He just seemed so grown up leading us! He'd look at the signs and always wait at a good distance for everyone to catch up, never getting too far ahead. There was one time that Mac and I took a potty break and then tried to catch Sam, Nate and Elly on a run, so I led and would fly down. Whenever I stopped to let Mac catch up, he was literally right behind me. I was shocked. One time he crashed about 10 feet above me and said "I got going a little too fast on that one!" He also requested a mogul run one time and when he got down to the bottom, he looked at me and said "11...I crashed 11 times on that one." A couple years ago, Mac would have wanted to stop after crashes...but now it's just part of skiing...not a big deal...to be expected.

Mac and Nate have hit an age where they enjoy skiing, and don't need a ton of help. When they fall, they get themselves back up...they hike out of powder by themselves (we had a lot the second day), and they prefer to ride the chairlift by themselves (and amazingly, this doesn't worry me). My little boys aren't so little! Sometimes...that is! :)

Here's a video of Elly with her brothers following behind...she's usually on the tether.




You would have thought we were going to Disneyland with how excited the kids were to stay in a hotel! Mac actually said, "We're staying in a hotel with a lobby!" With the wind our first day, we only skiied for a couple hours. Sam and I knew how excited the kids were to stay in the hotel, so we headed back checked out our room and went swimming. While the kids took showers, Sam got dinner and a movie...and here we are...all eating on the bed together picnic-style! It was a great family trip!

Daddy's Girl

Elly has really turned into a Daddy's girl lately. She adores him, it's quite cute and her daddy is eating it up! Sam just gets a huge smile on his face with all her affection. When she gets up in the morning, she goes to his office first thing and stands as close as she can to him until he notices...then she crawls into his lap for a big hug.

The boys have gotten their dates with Sam, but Elly hadn't had one yet. Last night was her first. Sam looked at her and said, "Elly, what do you think of just you and I going on a date tonight?" She replied, "Sure daddy!" and "bye mommy" as she ran to get her coat and boots on. She was quite excited.


They headed to McDonalds for some ice cream. Sam said she was the best conversationalist out of all the kids on their dates...couldn't stop talking.


This is one happy girl!

One funny story about Elly, the other night I was tucking Elly into bed when she wanted to tell me a story. It started like this: Once upon a time there was a princess. The princess's name was King of Awesomeness. King of Awesomeness was going on a walk... How many little girl's have that name for a princess?! Her big brothers continue to rub off on her. :)

This Girl!

This morning Elly and I were doing yard work when I hear, "Look mommy, I caught a rattlesnake!" Not wanting to look, I glance over and she is proudly holding a gardener snake in her hand over her head. Now I love that Elly is fearless, but Good Gravy! Mommy doesn't like things that slither! I tried to calmly tell her to put it down, which she did...and then promptly grabbed a handful of cheerios with the same hand and ate it. Yuck!

Elly's moving up!

She fell out the first night and got a bloody lip, but we put up a railing by the second. We found this trundle bed at a garage sale...I think it'll look really nice in a steely lavendar with matching bedding...


Here's the big girl!