First day of school

First day of school was today!

Of course I made a point of getting her dressed early so that we could take plenty of pictures before she left. She wanted one with Sharla, of course…

And then we had to do some with Mommy and Daddy…

And then some with just her…

This is one of my favorites…

At this point, it was a couple minutes before noon. Afternoon kindergarten starts at 12:30, and since we had no idea what time the bus would be there, we made sure we were outside early. And it was a good thing too… no sooner had we taken that last picture than the bus pulled up. It was totally empty, which must mean she’s the very first stop. We were a little startled, and didn’t want to hold up the bus, and she was eager to go, so as soon as it stopped, she bolted right on, and I snapped this picture…

The bus driver was sweet, though… if you look at that picture, you can see she is getting Ari’s attention, which resulted in her turning around and me getting a slightly better picture.

She took a seat right behind the driver, and poof… just like that, she was gone. I didn’t cry… probably because it all just happened so fast. We didn’t even hug or kiss her goodbye, heh. But I think I would have been fine either way. And it was probably better that we didn’t drag it out.

We walked to the school to pick her up at the end of the day, and I snapped a couple pictures on our way back. Here you can see her backpack, the one we scored for free at orientation.

And then I grabbed this shot, another favorite of the day…

Once we got home, she chattered our ears off all about her first day. I think it’s safe to say she loved it.

Oh, and after dinner, we worked on her first school project… an “about me” poster. Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

My kidlet is a kindergartner, you guys!

Catching up on the rest of July

I have been neglecting this poor blog... prepare for some major catch-up and lots of pictures...

A couple entries ago, I posted from our visit to the butterfly conservatory, where we bought a monarch caterpillar who made itself a little chrysalis. Well, she hatched perfectly, right according to plan. Yes, she is a girl, because she has no spots along the black lines in her lower wings (not to be confused with the spots on the edges of the wings, which all monarchs have).

Tony got her on his finger... she couldn't fly yet because her wings were still wet.

Tony helped her move from his finger to this plant. Here you can see more of her wings. They were still wet, but when she moved, they flopped around a little, so it looked almost like she was flapping them.

I have to say, this was a pretty cool thing to see. I don't remember ever hatching any butterflies when I was little, so I guess this is the first time I've been able to watch a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. I kind of want to sing "The Circle of Life."

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The weekend after Ari's birthday, Tony's mom and his sister and her kids came for a visit. Our town does a huge 4th of July celebration each year, usually the weekend after the actual 4th, so we spent some time attending that, starting with a parade on Saturday morning.

Ari with her cousins Taryn and Michael...

And the 3 cousins again, with Grammy (Tony's mom). Yes, I realize Michael and Ari look like they could be siblings. Just further proof that she takes after Tony's side of the family.

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I snapped this picture before leaving for work one morning.

I know... it's a sickeningly sweet picture, right? And, she is totally his mini-me. I have to tell you, though... it was really hard to leave, when all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed with them and go back to sleep.

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The latest story is this... My darling daughter decided to open one of her birthday toys with the kitchen scissors, and managed to stab her hand. Tony got the bleeding under control, and off to the ER they went. Tony sent me pics after the fact. I'll warn you that the first 2 are a teensy bit icky, but the last 3 should make up for that.

Le wound.

All stitched up.

She needed 2 stitches. The doctor put some numbing cream on her skin in preparation for the needle of novacaine, and Ari freaked out about having a shot. So they irrigated the wound and asked her if she felt it, and either she said no, or said it didn't hurt. Not sure, but either way... she refused the shot, and they stitched her up with just that numbing cream. Tony said he saw her flinch a few times, but she kept saying it tickled. He said to me, "I know she must have felt it... I guess she just REALLY didn't want that shot."

All bandaged up, with Dora stickers for her troubles. Also note that her kitty has a matching bandage--a little perk of going to a children's hospital, I guess.

Checking out kitty's bandage... Or maybe comforting kitty?

And a smile.

Here's hoping she learned her lesson about playing with grown-up scissors.

Party pictures

I tried to get a couple more pictures of her in her party dress (besides the one I took with my phone and posted a couple days ago). She is so into "posing" lately...



And making extreme faces...



The pool was a huge hit. And we could not have had more perfect weather.





Taking a break from the pool...



...for cake!



She was acting all shy about being sung to...



Pinata time! I was asking her to smile for me, so I could get a picture of her with it before it got smashed, and her little friend Nathan heard me and gave me a cheesetastic smile... love it.



Of course Ari got the first swing. I love how she looks totally prissy in this picture.



With all the party prep and such, I never got around to wrapping Ari's little presents from us in time for it. Which actually worked out well, because I wrapped them that night, and she got to open them the next day, on her actual birthday.



A nightgown. She's really into nightgowns now (as opposed to regular shorts/pants/shirts pajamas).



She wanted this so badly when we were in the store a couple weeks ago, and I put her off and bought it later.



Another pose and crazy-face...



Sharla wanted to get in on the pictures too...



And a family shot. Love this one... it's my new Facebook profile pic.

Happy 5th birthday, Ariana

I do this entry each year...

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From this...


(Birth Day--July 3, 2006)

..to this...


(1st birthday)

...to this...


(2nd birthday)

...to this...


(3rd birthday)

...to this...


(4th birthday)

...to this.


(5th birthday)

Happy birthday, Ari!

Attack of the butterflies

So, this weekend was a busy one. It started with a bang on Friday night while I was brushing Ari's hair before bedtime. I noticed that there seemed to be a few pieces that were shorter than the rest. I asked Ari if she had cut her hair with scissors, and she softly admitted that she had. When we asked her what she'd done with the hair, she said she'd put it in the laundry basket in our bedroom... and sure enough, there was a clump of hair hidden underneath a sweatshirt in the basket. So not only did she lop off a chunk of hair, but she hid the evidence, the little rascal. Luckily, her hair doesn't look too bad. It just kind of looks like she has side bangs.

Tony's dad came for a visit, and one of the things we did on Saturday was go to a nearby butterfly conservatory. Basically, they have a huge indoor garden area where you can walk around, and there are hundreds of butterflies flying loose. It was pretty cool. And I have pictures.

Ari, sitting on a bench outside the gardens. I think she was flapping like a butterfly.

They had these feeders throughout the conservatory... I think they had sugar water in them.

I felt bad for this guy... he was missing a big chunk out of one wing. The workers kept picking him up and putting him on a tree, but he kept trying to fly and ended up on the ground. Hopefully no one stepped on him.

These butterflies had transparent wings... it was really cool to watch them fly.

Another butterfly...

Some of them were really huge. You can't really tell in this picture...

...so here is one of those really colorful ones with Ari, for scale. (You can kind of see the results of her haircut in this picture... that little chunk of hair over her right eye was NOT that short before.)

Ari was a bit pouty while we were there because she wanted so badly for one to land on her. Tony finally assisted her by getting this one on his hand and then transferring it to her. She was in HEAVEN.

And here she is with Pappy (Tony's dad).

And of course we had to come home with one of these... a monarch caterpillar.

I know you probably can't read the little card, but it says that he should form a chrysalis within a day or so. Sure enough, this morning, I found this...

I don't know what that black thing dangling is, but it looks suspiciously like a part of the caterpillar, and I hope it doesn't mean anything bad. The butterfly should "hatch" in a week to 10 days, so that should be fun to watch.