Well, it's official, she's a bona-fide school girl now, her first day of kindergarten has come and gone, with only a few tears from Mom.

Walking to school...


Our good friend and neighbor met us at the corner, they're in the same class this year!
His sister (big 2nd grader now!) joins in the morning walks and the little blue bird gets a ride in the stroller.


The next L.L. Bean catalogue models?


Could be, but we'll finish kindergarten first!


Playing at the playground until the first bell rings.

Whee! And she's off to kindergarten!

Lining up to head into class, the neighbors stuck together.

I (mom) was doing great up until I saw our little neighbor wipe a tear from his face and learned that my good friend (his mom) was choking up. Then I couldn't hold back, but she never saw! (thanks to the sunglasses)

I mean, kindergarten is a big step! And she's waving goodbye, it's like she's heading off to college!

He wasn't quite sure what to think of the whole thing.


After a hard day at school, she came home to a snuggle with her baby brother.

Aren't they sweet?

The little blue bird was tired, too, from all the one-on-one play time with mom.

That evening, we did a little photo shoot with the baby bird...

Tiny fingers

Tiny toes,

Tiny guy with his button nose!


Awww, that was some hard work, all that posing, now he's going to take another nap.

One more that was just too cute not to post.

God made them little for a reason, so we'd love every part of them right from the beginning!

Proud Daddy helping his little boy.

While mom went to nurse the baby, the little bird got a "wild hair" to do something crazy!

6-year-old turned watermelon rock star in seconds!

"How do I look, Daddy?"

The next day she was back to her sweet self (not that the watermelon wasn't sweet!).

Her first Open House! Posing with her wonderful teacher.

Pointing out her artwork.

The next morning, up bright and early, both kids were ready to rake leaves. Unfortunately none had fallen yet, so they knocked some off the trees with the rakes (at 5:45 am!) and raked those up.

Our other little rockstar...

A windy day lent itself to kite flying!

I love how she leans into it!

Can you see the dot in the sky? That's the kite, the dot in the grass on the right is the little bird and the larger dot in the left corner is mom and baby.

Mom took the kids to a wildlife refuge and on a short hike we discovered a tee pee!

Stretching a hide inside.

Then off to vaulting! She's getting good at standing in a trot even.

Doing "clicks"

And back home again to make mud puddles and get gooey!

What a great start to fall!