I have a preschooler

I am happy to report she's still as happy to go each morning as she was the first - maybe not with the exact amount of enthusiasm but she still gets very excited and often skips up to the school building. I love that she gets excited when she realizes she gets to go to school the next day, and even like hearing when she says she's sad when she thinks of the days she doesn't have school ("I'm sad I don't go to school tomorrow"). She goes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

I think she's still shy in class and doesn't talk much, though I haven't seen her in class. She's "trying" to say "thank you" at snack time - trying to muster the courage to get the words out, I guess. I had asked last week or the week before if she said "thank you" when given a snack and she told me she doesn't so I talk to her about it most days and hopefully she'll get the words out one of these days. I wish she could carry her enthusiasm with her on her face into class. I'm not sure how animated she gets but at home she's very animated talking about school. She tells me bits and pieces randomly throughout the day as she recalls different things that happen.

Her backpack is yellow AND has rainbows AND says "love" on it, all of which are pretty much her favorite things. Thank you, Target. Emma likes to put it on and buckle it herself.

I sure love this sweet, amazing girl and I hope she keeps an enthusiasm for school for many years to come.

August Adventures in California

We got to spend a week and a half in California which was pretty amazing. My parents, Patrick, and Becca's family were all there too and we managed to squeeze our group of 13 into the cabin. Spent the first half of the trip in Tahoe - played miniature golf, went to the beach, walked Rainbow Trail, went to church, spent half a day on a boat with an inner tube, played Phase 10.

The second half of the trip we spent in Newark/area. We went to the Oakland Zoo and rode the amazing gondola. We visited with family. Becca took me out for an early birthday present to get pedicures. The kids were about ready to get back to regular life by the end of the trip (though Emma would never admit it, her behavior indicated otherwise), but we were all pretty sad when vacation was over. Thankfully mom and dad flew back with us, so we still got to party. ;)

Bright outside in the California sun.

It was her first time... 

Belated Birthday Post

I got Henry's birthday posted last month but didn't get around to mine or our other August adventures.

On my birthday Amazon had its Post-Prime Day Concert featuring Katy Perry so we got to go to that which was pretty amazing. Thankful my parents were able to take care of our kiddos. Also sort of thankful I was sick because it made me nix our original plan to take the light rail and instead we drove (the event had free parking if you made it before the parking garage was full). It saved us a lot of time - it was slow getting into the parking garage but wasn't slow when we left, and traffic was pretty good both ways. Woot.

Sushi mom bought for me for lunch. Mmmm.

Jeff Bezos sharing his appreciation for Amazon's employees.

It was a pretty amazing coincidence that Amazon happened to have this cool, free event (included food vouchers for 1 meal each) on my birthday so we could celebrate at a concert by a pretty amazing performer that we both like listening to.