Julia has missed having Emily around to play with. Still, Julia is great at playing by herself and is also enjoying having time with Mama to herself. While much of our time isn’t spent doing "exciting" things, we try to have fun in just the normal moments of life. As an exercise Mama has tried to take random photos of the things we do. Here is a selection of our life.

Someone blew the bubble and then caught it back. It looks like her fancy magnifying glass.

Some of our morning walks are on chilly mornings. To stay warm Julia prefers blankets to a coat.

Who can pass a random bike rack without having to play with it before moving on?

Coloring anywhere is fun, but the front porch is as good as anyplace.

When we walk Julia has great smiles to share with others. Her favorite song to sing while we walk is "twinkle, twinkle, little star".

Just loving and playing with our toys are fun things to do too.

We are on-the-go so long some days that we just give out in the car. This day was really funny because five minutes before this photo was taken, Julia had just informed Mama that she was not tired.

Rainy days are great days to jump in random puddles. This one was outside of the preschool.

A week can’t go by without some train building. This day she made the Diego house into the train station. The trains are lined up on the porch waiting for their turn on the track.

Never underestimate the fun of helping Mama shop at the super-warehouse store. Yes, the cheese puffs are almost as big as she was. And yes, her Mama bought it because she was so darn cute.

Driving the grocery car is always a bonus. She informed me that she was Milli driving her UmiCar. If you don’t know the reference you have not been watching Team Umizoomi like we do.

There is always the fun of an after-lunch slide to go down.

Julia doesn’t always stroller on our walk. Although it is not so strenuous for Mama, little girls have to stretch their legs too.

Weekends have been different since school started. It is the time the girls are together and some Mama/Emily time that we were used to. There is nothing better than spending the morning together not necessarily doing much, but just hanging out.

Mama and Julia getting some snuggling in!

Side-by-side sister coloring – never to be under appreciated.

If there is a morning person at our house it is Julia, but everyone else seems to be a bit slow getting going in the morning. We are grateful that Julia gets up and gets her routine completed and breakfast eaten without any complaint and minimal trouble.

Emily is not inclined to get up and get busy in the morning. The correlation between not wanting to fall asleep at bedtime and morning tiredness hasn’t sunk in for her yet. Not sure if it has for her Mama either. To help with each morning, we have two routines in place. One is pre-selecting clothes for the week and labeling each outfit. Maybe, we will learn how to spell the days of the week while we’re at it. The second routine is nifty routine cards Mama found online. They seem to work well to remind the girls what is expected without so much interaction from Mama. While all the morning excitement is going on Mama is making breakfast and lunch. As long as the girls have gotten their responsibilities done on time they get a few minutes of play and TV time before going to school.

Julia used her playtime to build herself a track. It started simply with the track coming up to Diego’s Treehouse. Then over the day she continued to build onto it. She was very intent as she built the two loop pieces into a bigger loop. After she finished she proudly showed it to Mama saying “it took me forever”. Then later she added the mountain track loop. She was delighted to show it off to her Daddy too. This little track has also gotten a lot of play. I guess it is fun to take the train to see Diego. Mama was pleased with her creativity and joy over her creation.

Her complicated loop that “took forever”

Julia is starting a new pre-school program this year called Camp Faith. This program has a few advantages for us. It is two days a week and it is right at the end of our short street. Today was her first day and she was excited to go and play at “her church” as she calls it.

We got there on time, so there were only two other kids already there. She was quick to sit down and pick out the color of play-dough she wanted. She hardly gave Mama a good-bye before she got involved in her own world of play. Her best friend is also in the class with her this year. The teacher told me that they sat together all day as they changed activities. When I picked her up she was happily digging through a “treasure chest” for a prize. She picked out a Sponge Bob plastic toy that she has taken to calling “Big Bob”. Funny kid.

Because of our close proximity of the church to our house we walked home today. Hopefully this will be something we can make into a habit. The distance seemed pretty short when walking it alone, but once Mama was joined by the 3-1/2 year old it got a bit longer. I bet this distance will shrink each week as we walk it.

It is going to be a great year for her!

Julia out in front of the church with the pretty (and wet) flowers wearing her favorite kitty outfit.

Julia playing with Juno at the beginning of class. Juno lives up the street and two years ago was in the same swim class with Julia. Small world.

This day finally came!

Emily picked out her clothes the night before, ate a good breakfast, consented to a few photos, packed up our family in the car, drove the mile and half, and made the journey into her new stage of life.

Emily was a little apprehensive about the unknowns of the day, but also excited about school. She was literally jumping with excitement before we left the house this morning. When we got to school she marched down the hall with her Daddy like she knew what she was doing. Emily patiently waited her turn in line to turn in her school supplies and meet the teacher. She seemed pleased with the attention and then enjoyed her practice exercises while she waited for the class to start. We asked her to give us hugs and tell us goodbye and then she happily went back to work on her desk assignment.

When it was time for pickup, she seemed to have a bit of a deer-in-headlights look until she found her Mama in the right car. Once the "helper" was getting her in the car she was exuberant to tell Mama that "School is Great!". She wasn’t a fountain of stories on the way home, but she continued to tell little things that has given a window into her day. She loved hearing stories and going to lunch. No playground today because of the rain though. She is definitely looking forward to going back on Friday.

When we dropped off Emily in her class we took the whole family. It seemed like a good idea for Julia to know where Emily would be during the day. When we left the classroom to walk down the hallway Julia told us, "I want my sister!". She did get settled and she had her own excitement for the day that distracted her. It was pretty sweet to see how much she enjoys being with her sister.

Emily’s new homework desk ready for when she has some.

Our Big Girl!

Check out her BIG flowery backpack. Maybe we will remember to get a photo like this around the end of the year to see how much smaller the backpack looks as she grows.

Our photos had to be taken inside today due to a rainstorm.

Her favorite Kitty lunchbox accompanied her to school today.

Her first school lunch, she told me that she finished it just in time. It seems lunch ended just after her last bite. Emily can be quite a talker at lunch instead of focusing on eating.

Emily walking down the hall to the Kindergarten wing. She wanted to do it on her own and didn’t want to take Daddy’s hand. Our independent girl!

I’m sure this will not be Emily’s assigned seat, but it was for the first day with her first coloring and writing activity. She was pleased as punch.

Emily with her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Pendergrass