A Real Kindergartner

Evie has attended (most) of the her first full week of kindegarten now and we are getting used to the new responsibility of homework and required lessons.  Since she's been in the same Montessori class for the last two years, she's used to the classroom and the terminology that comes with being a Montessori grade-level student.  They have a "contract" which is about 18 different lessons/activities they are required to complete each week, a few tasks in each area (math, science, language, etc).  They have all week to complete their contracts and whenever they are finished with it, they get free choice which basically means that they're able to choose whichever task they found fun enough to want to complete again.  A few other things are open to them at the free choice level, like art and teaching the younger students some of the "work" that they, the kindergartners, already know how to do.

Mrs. Sandy dresses up as the school fairy every year and gives the kids fairy dust as a way to wish them a magical year of learning.

Evie also started her ballet/tap class this week in earnest since last week she wasn't able to participate due to her surgery.  She was delighted to get to put on her tap shoes and make a bunch of noise with the other girls.  There are 7 in the class so it's a nice size, and she'll get to be in the production of The Nutcracker in December.

This past weekend, Evie and I had a mall date, which she and I both love.  The older she gets, the easier it is to take her to the mall and have her be more patient while I return things and/or shop, and then we hit the highlights for her: the Disney store, Chick-fil-a for lunch, the carousel and/or the bungee cord trampoline jumping activity, the playground and, depending on how long we've been there, a macaron or cake pop.

I know I'm biased, but this child is so gorgeous.

We've been playing a lot of "Sorry" (the board game) in our house lately.  Evie caught onto the rules very quickly and I'm enjoying playing it with her because it reminds me of the multitude of times that Memmaw (Granna's mom) played it with me at her house.

A couple of anecdotes:

One day this week, Evie told me she was so excited about Sunday.  I asked her way and she said, "Because then I get to eat gum!"  Granna keeps the gum ready for her.

Evie was running around the living room/dining room/kitchen circle that is made in our house, and when Edgar was around, he would bark his head off at them for doing this.  While she was running, our neighbor let their dogs out and they started barking and Evie stopped running and said, "I can still hear Edgar barking, Mama."  She's still hanging onto those memories.

As we were leaving my parents' house this evening, Evie looked up at the sky and said, "That looks like cotton candy," and she was right with the blues and pinks that were streaking across the clouds.  I thought to myself as I waved back to my parents who were standing in the driveway to see us off, "These are surely the best years of my life."  Here I am with my little girl and my husband, in the same city as my parents, and we get to be together at least twice a week.  I would have it no other way.