Freedom

After keeping the butterflies in captivity for one whole week (exactly one half of their expected life) and even subjecting them to Ella's kindergarten show-and-tell, this weekend we let them have their freedom.  Maybe because the girls are a little older, but this year it was much harder to say goodbye. We had tears, we had protest, we had moaning about how much they will be missed, but in the end we know we did the right thing by letting them fly around the flowers the way God created them to.  And the girls did take great delight in carefully moving each one from enclosure to blossom. Their new home is in the gardens of our friends Sara and Arend.  When they invited us over for dinner and games last night, we made our "Thanks for the Hospitality!" gift some Painted Ladies for their blooms.

This year's butterflies were a frisky bunch!  Their netted cage was rockin' every night and we have about a hundred tiny blue eggs as a result!  We'll see if we can raise a new generation of caterpillars.  Since we know nothing about sustaining baby caterpillar life, our hopes are not too high.

Just the Two of Us

Have you ever received a gift that you really like, but are not sure what to do with?  Like an accessory that's cute, but doesn't really go with anything in your closet or a cool picture frame that you can't find a place for?  That is kind of how I feel about the gift of quality time with Delia that I've been given this year.  I love the 14 hours a week where it is just the two of us and I know this time is extremely valuable, but I'm still figuring out the best way to use this gift. 

Unlike Ella, Delia does not have the interest or attention span to sit and read or do crafts with me for an hour.  It's more challenging to come up with projects that will engage her for more than just a few minutes (like that Cheerio necklace...I made most of it!).  Sooo, we're getting to know the parks around Ella's school REALLY WELL.  We have to pick Ella up each day at noon and it's nice that there are about 5 different parks to choose from.  For now, climbing, sliding, jumping and running seem to be the way Delia is most interested in keeping busy.  I'll have to keep brainstorming creative ways to use my precious gift of time with Delia!  Any ideas out there? :)

How to Make a 5 Year Old's Day:

Soar!

The following is a peek at Ella perfecting her memory work.  "Soar!" is her school's theme this year and Isaiah 40:31 is the theme verse.

Top Ten Things that Bring Me Joy:

As we jump into our second week of school and adjust to this new season of life, I am so happy to find so many new things that make me happy! 

1.  The way Delia condenses both her teachers (Miss Jenny and Miss Debbie) into one and talks about "Miss Jebby".
2.  Walking Ella to the bus stop.  Walking Delia to her preschool.  Practicing Memory Work and hearing thorough descriptions of school on the way.
3.  Being awake and outside early enough to appreciate the smell and chill in the air.  It's not, but I love the feeling that fall weather is just around the corner.
4.  Stringing Cheerios on necklaces or doing gloppy paper mache with Delia in our 1-on-1 morning time together.
5.  Gearing up for fall ministries and being a part of awesome groups, like my Women's Bible Study Leadership Team.
6.  New appreciation for weekends!
7.  The way the girls depart and greet each other with fierce hugs and kisses, like they have been and will be separated for ages.
8.  An art line full of new masterpieces: Ella's hand prints and poem, Delia's "Preschool is a Happy Place!" paintings.
9.  Acclimating to a schedule that is much more efficient for the family.  It wasn't easy (Dave compared it to switching time zones!), but going to bed and waking up earlier has given each of us extra hours to get stuff done.
10.  Meeting new moms and being welcomed into the community that is Ella's school.

One thing that does not give me great joy (yet) are the two mornings a week when I have no kids at home.  Mostly, this time feels long and strange and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.  Friends have assured me that as time goes on, I'll find plenty of ways to keep busy!  Other than that, all are thriving in the new school schedule here in the VM Household!

Five New Ladies

Big thanks to Teri and family for giving Delia what I believe to be one of the best gifts you can give, the Butterfly Garden, for her birthday this year.  Yes, we did do this last summer, but absolutely none of the awe at watching that miracle of caterpillars turn into butterflies right before your very eyes was diminished the second time around.  It is absolutely amazing, but not all that different than when I described it last year, so click here if you want to relive that.

It may be a little harder to let our 5 Painted Lady butterflies fly free this year.  We've grown pretty attached to them!  What a treat to experience this incredible transformation again, though.

Sign of a Good Saturday:

Coolest Gift Ever

Look what arrived on our doorstep a few days ago:

A case of my favorite indulgence-- Jones Cream Soda!  Kyle designed and ordered the bottles just for us.  This may be the neatest thing I've ever seen.  Thanks, Kyle! 

"Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!"

Though I have a million feelings about Ella starting kindergarten, I will try to contain myself in this post!  I think the biggest thing I am feeling is overwhelmed at the journey we start today.  Dave and I both gasped when we saw her listed as the Class of 2023 on a bus schedule.  To think we are taking the first step on a 13 year road is almost too much to process.  However, knowing with certainty how much Ella is going to thrive in school is keeping my sadness about missing her at home every morning to a minimal.

On Monday night we had the opportunity to visit Ella's classroom and meet her teacher.  Though she is excited, she also articulated that she was nervous about the unknown.  Seeing her table and cubby, touring her classroom and meeting her sweet teacher helped a bunch.  She had a little fear that her new teacher would be scary (and told her so!), but to Ella's delight, Mrs. H. is young and pretty and super nice.  They ended their meeting with an Ella-initiated hug.  We've heard nothing but rave reviews of Mrs. H. and thank God for putting Ella in her class.

Today was THE BIG DAY and it wouldn't be complete without some pictures of the kindergartner ready for this new phase of life:

Ella gave a full and happy report on the car ride home: the first day was great, everything was her favorite, Mrs. H. is fun, keeping the rules will be easy, there were lots of church friends to play with at recess.  It's good to get such a long journey off to such a wonderful start!

Lots of Changes!

The pathway and the shirt may be the same, but oh what changes we've seen in 3 years!  Wasn't it just yesterday that Dave carried our second born up to our home for the first time in her infant car seat?  And today he's escorting her off to preschool!

Having watched Ella for the past few years, Delia knows exactly what to expect from preschool and she is EXCITED!! On the few visits we've had, she does not want to leave.  She has been reviewing her letters, numbers, name spelling, birthday and the few rules we taught her (raise your hand and don't pick your nose) all last night and this morning.  She has been singing the "Preschool is a Happy Place!" song over and over too.  Dave reported that she ran right into her classroom and got busy with an activity, hardly even giving him a goodbye.  We know that this is the perfect next step for Delia and can't wait to watch her learn and grow this year!

Fairytale Town: The End of Summer's Story

Starting this week, our life becomes dictated by a preschool and kindergarten schedule.  Obviously, I know school is a natural part of life and I am certainly celebrating how excited both girls are to start their new journeys in education, but I'm also mourning the loss of life as we've known it for the past 5 years.  I'm no longer the schedule setter.  No more just taking off for a day when things are slow and days are free.  Today we did one last summer outing together, to Sacramento's Fairytale Town.  This was a great park!  Each of the play areas were themed with a fairytale or nursery rhyme.  There were over 30 different playgrounds and areas to explore, including lots of live animals (like The Little Red Hen or The 3 Billy Goats Gruff).  These were some of our favorites:

The pumpkin coach and horses from Cinderella.

The 3 Little Pigs and their houses built of sticks and bricks.

Sherwood Forest, its climbing and swinging playground and Robin Hood chairs.

The Crooked Mile.  We loved this long and crazy, zig-zagging path! 

The Jack and Jill water well and hill.

Saying "Cheese!" in The Cheese Stands Alone.

Seeing Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter, then helping Farmer McGregor water his real garden.

Reviewing the story with the "Interactive Literacy Signs", then playing on a prop from the story.  Like reading The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, then climbing her giant shoe home and sliding out.

For this last-day-of-summer outing, we wanted to do something especially for the girls.  Fairytale Town was perfect.  I'd completely recommend it to anyone local!

Freak-Out-Free Swimming Lessons

For the past two weeks, we've been all wrapped up in morning swimming lessons.  At age 5, we finally felt Ella was ready to get some instruction on how to independently swim without any flotation devices.  We've watched her take slow steps towards water comfort in the past few years and this year everything clicked perfectly!  I've heard all the horror stories from my friends about screaming and resistant kids come swim-lesson time and I am scarred with my own memories of being forced to let go of that teacher and flounder in the water, but we're so thankful we had none of that this year.  Another blessing was sharing this lesson time with good friends Jonathan, Grace and Amy.

Ella knew that she'd be starting lessons right after vacation and has actually been looking forward to it all summer.  She was quick to get in the water, put her face under and surrender to her sweet teacher's instruction.  She liked pushing off the wall in the "Superman", floating on her belly in the "Starfish" and going the short length of the pool on the kick board.

By the beginning of this second week, she was totally comfortable paddling along on her own with her head underwater.

On today's last day, the little class celebrated with a morning of water play and water safety.  We thought it was too cute when they learned how to save each other.  One at a time they jumped in the water and were then towed to safety by their friends.

I'm so proud of BOTH my girls.  Delia did a fantastic job being in the audience for 45 minutes every day.  Each morning she and Grace would hang out in the Little Sister Club, eating snacks and sharing toys.

Again, expecting fear, I bribed Ella a while ago.  I told her she could get a pair of goggles if she did a good job with swim lessons.  Today she proudly holds her diploma, advancing her to the next level, and these new pink goggles!

God Made Us Sisters...

Love made us friends.

Just Peachy

The girls have this puzzle game called "What Comes Next?" It requires piecing together the steps of an event in the proper sequential order.  I have that game in mind as I write this post.

For Mother's Day last spring Dave and the girls gave me an orange tree and a peach tree. 

We loved watching it bloom pretty pink flowers this spring.

Then little baby peaches grew out of those blooms.  We thought it would take longer than just one year for it to start producing fruit.

Holy peaches did it produce!  Our mouths watered while we watched our peaches slowly turn to just the right shade of pink and orange.  We impatiently pulled a few too early and were scolded with their hard and sour taste.  When we realized the bugs were starting to attack, we decided to just harvest the whole tree last weekend. 

We plucked at least 100 peaches off the tree.  Now we are eating sweet and juicy peaches for every meal, giving them away to friends and freezing them sliced up by the gallon-bag-full for winter cobblers and smoothies.

Happy Mother's Day to me! I can't think of a better gift!

Cayucos (Friday)

I believe I have saved the best for last, for what we saw on Friday morning was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  We started the day in Cayucos, a neighboring beach town.  We picked up a bag of warm and just-made kettle corn and strolled down the long pier.

At the end of the pier we looked out and started seeing the water ripple with fins.  It was dolphins. DOLPHINS! The longer we watched, the more dolphins we realized were a part of this group-- possibly as many as 20!  They swam, fished, slapped their tails and even jumped.  What they were eating must have been a feast because the seals and pelicans started joining them.  There was so much activity in this small area of ocean right off the pier!  We couldn't take our eyes off it!

We finally dragged ourselves away from our wild dolphin show and took a walk down the beach.  Once again, Delia couldn't resist those waves and ran straight in with her clothes on!

The morning in Cayucos concluded with a lunch of local catch at a neat little beachfront restaurant.   Fish and chips, fish tacos and fried clams were gobbled up by the fish-lovers in our family.

Since Saturday was just cleaning, packing and heading to the airport, Friday night and VM Vacation at the coast ended with Dad treating us to a super fancy dinner at Guisseppe's, an Italian restaurant in SLO.  We indulged in unique dishes like pear and beet salad, butternut squash gnocchi, risotto with prawns and strozzapreti with sweet pea sauce.

This was a perfect vacation with a perfect combination of activity and relaxation.  We thoroughly enjoyed our lovely home, the gorgeous sights and some relief from the heat.  Mostly, we just treasured the time to recharge and reconnect with family.  The girls basked in Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Kyle's love and attention.  Plans are already being discussed for VM Vacation 2011 (the whole group) and we can't wait!!!