Country Girl at Heart: Hello 1st Grade!

I just sent my daughter off to her first day of 1st grade. I'm really in awe (and a bit of denial) that there aren't a few more weeks of summer left. It seems like we didn't go to the pool or the zoo enough, play in the back yard enough, ride bikes enough, catch fireflies enough or have fire pits enough.

Next summer I vow that we will go to fewer camps, have fewer planned activities and spend more time doing exactly what we feel like doing at that moment. There will be more zoo trips, more backyard sprinkler parties, more pool trips and more firefly catching. More listening to the sounds of summer long after bedtime. More time together just sitting. Just playing. Just enjoying life.

This 1st Grade girl turned seven a few days ago and she's managed somehow to string out her birthday to cover four days and dad sweetly informed her tonight that her last-minute "birthday nachos" are the end. Her birthday is officially over now. To be totally honest I wish she had managed to drag out age six a bit longer but I haven't finished the time machine in the basement yet, so I'll shift gears and look forward to seeing how she grows in her seven-year-old year!

In the meantime, here's her time-capsule from her year as a six-year-old!

In 2014, this was the most coveted of birthday gifts for Ella. She could NOT have survived that birthday without it. In fact, she cried the day she discovered it and we left without it, certain it would sell before someone could buy her one for her birthday.

Batgirl. Enough said.

On the first day of Kindergarten 2014 there were some tears as her class headed into the building, but little brother was there with flowers after school to tell her he was proud of her and how much he missed her!

October brought the opportunity to be flower girl for the first time at Aunt Michelle's wedding in Colorado. What does Ella remember most? The giant burrito she wants to go back and eat again!

There's nothing quite like a dance with daddy!

These two. Every year. Father-daughter date night to dinner and a dance at the YMCA. Love.

Captain One-Sock and Captain Butterfly. Don't mess.

Spring music program - April 2015

Our flag girl - keeping the downed tubers safe!

Captain of grandpa's boat!

Fishing!!!

First trail ride - Blue Bell Stables, Custer State Park, SD

Presidential faces on a mountain.

Reptile Gardens, SD

Birthday donut from Nana!

Now here's a story. Remember that gift from last year that she couldn't have survived without? Yeah, it's part of the lineup of stuffties in her room and a new gift was at the top of the list this year.

This girl wanted her ears pierced. For months. Months of asking. Months of being subtle, yet persistent enough to be taken seriously. Months of waiting patiently for her birthday. We checked out the options weeks ahead of time and I had a game plan for getting these adorable little ears pierced.

Two at once, ya'll. Two at once.

Dad asked "why do we have to do them both at the same time?"

Rookie.

"Because our daughter will go through life with only one ear pierced if we do them one at a time, dear husband."

So at 5:10 on her birthday we entered the shop to have her Hello Kitty earrings placed in her anxious lobes and an anxious little brain kicked into high gear. She got scared and stressed and wanted to leave, sans spare holes.

Cassius brought her a variety of wide-eyed stuffties and the promise of a new one if she got it done. It took that stufftie, momma counting to ten in Korean and two sweet and well-trained ladies with "earring guns" to get her those holes, but...

she did it!!!