Walking off to school

Today luke and Claire walked to school for the first time:(. She seems so little.  I felt really tears watching her walk off.  Luckily she has sweet Luke to watch out for her and take care of her.  Her backpack was heavy, and I as they walked down the driveway I watched him take it off her back and carry it for her.  He is the most caring, thoughtful brother. But is the most heartwarming thing to watch the two of them together.  I just adore them both!  And wish they could stay home and cuddle with me all day.

Most Major Milestone!

Am I An Empty Nester?

Yesterday was a big day for all of us, but especially me. I don't know what to think. It was the first day of school, but most terribly, Claire's first day of all day kindergarten. I'm holding it together, but feeling a huge shift in my life.

Claire was thrilled! She could hardly contain her excitement. She asked me every day for a week if today was kindergarten. She packed her own lunch the day before. Then, she ran all the way to school with her backpack. She is in class with her cousin Thea, so that is fun. They sit right across from each other. So, I got a phone call from the school about 2:00. They wanted me to pick Claire up because she was having trouble. So I raced to school. When I got there she was curled up in a chair in the councilor's office, sound asleep. This is the story… All the kids had name tags on. The teacher told them all it was their ticket to recess, and to take care of it. It was important because all the teachers needed to know their names etc. Claire was chewing on her tag and it broke. The teacher gave her a new one and warned her to take care of it or she would not be able to go to recess. Later in the day, she was chewing on it again, and it broke again. The teacher told her she had to miss recess. She was trying not to cry when they started another activity. They were all supposed to right their name on a piece of paper, come up to the board and put it on the graph telling how they were getting home, then head out to recess. The teacher called Claire's name to put her paper on the graph and she completely broke down crying because she was worried that she was in trouble and didn't know what to do because the kids were going to recess after they put their name on the graph. And since she had to miss recess she panicked and didn't know what to do, and melted down. She could not stop crying, so Mrs. Smith sent her to the office, where she immediately fell fast asleep on the chair in the councilor's office. Poor thing! She was traumatized and did not ever want to go back. It broke my heart because she was so excited to go to kindergarten. And it turned out to be such a disappointing experience for her. The teacher felt bad. I spent the whole morning convincing Claire to go back to school today. I told her she could get chocolate milk for lunch, and have a playdate with Brynn after school. She finally agreed. But she threw up on the way to school, she was so nervous. When I dropped her and Luke off, she ran right in with him, so I hope all will go well. We will see. And I came home to an empty house… I am extremely sad to send Claire to school full time. She is my little sidekick. We spend every minute together. She's always there, hanging out with me and tagging along chit chatting. I'm not excited to move out of this stage of having little people home with me. I miss them all so much. I don't get enough time with any of my kids now. They are all farmed out all day and I want them home with me. But I know I have to let them grow up. I just want to slow down time and keep them all under my wing forever. We are so blessed with 5 beautiful, healthy, happy, wonderful children. They bring us so much joy, I feel overwhelmed with love for them. I might burst! Or be devastated when they leave me. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now.

A major turning point...

Today is a big day in the Roland household!  It's Claire's first day of preschool.  She headed off this morning, waved good bye 3 or 4 times, and skipped out the door:(   She's my baby, and it's the first time I've been left behind all alone.  I'm sitting here in my house by myself for 2 hrs.  I'm not sure if I should cry or cheer?  It's so fun to watch them grow, and enter new phases and be so excited about life.  But there's a huge part of me that is sad to see the baby/toddler phase end.  The phase where I have them to myself all day, all the time.  And a bit of me that feels like this is the beginning of the end... Once they start school it feels like they are sucked away quicker and quicker each year.  But at the same time, I love every phase.  Claire is an absolute doll!  I can't imagine our family without her sweet little spirit and adorable smiling face.  I'm so grateful that she is growing and thriving; healthy and happy and enthusiastic about every new adventure that comes her way.  I wouldn't want it any other way, but if time could just slow down a hair... is that asking too much?  I love you little sweetheart!!! 

GO GET EM! 

`

Deep thoughts by Claire...

We were sitting in church on Sunday, Claire was beside me leaning her head on my lap.  A woman was at the pulpit speaking.  

Woman:  "I am so grateful for the temple because it gives me clarity of thought..."

Claire looks up at me with a quizzical look on her face and says:

"Mom,,, did her say Claire?

I kind of mumbled something like "yes honey" to appease her as I was trying to listen to the speaker.  

Claire: "Mom,,,,,,,did her say Claire is on the pot???"

This is Claire on her 3rd birthday last month.

I must be shrinking...

What's happening around here?  Today I discovered that my size 9.5 foot fits perfectly inside the shoe of my 8 year old child????

What in the world? 

Luke-ism...

We were night skiing at Mt. Spokane.  It was completely foggy, dark, windy, and sleet-snowing.  Luke and I were riding the chair lift up.  I was ducking my head into my hood to get away from the blast of wind, and pelting snow.   

Luke in all seriousness says..."Ahh, that breeze feels nice!"  

Our Big White Ski Trip...

Thursday, Valentine's Day, we left right after school for Big White ski resort in Kelowna BC.  We rented a cute little two bedroom condo on the mountain.  We spent four nights and came home Monday afternoon, after we skied most of the day.   It was a blast.  It's a pretty big mountain with lots of different areas, and a bunch of high speed lifts.  We explored the whole thing.  I was so proud of Luke. He kept right up with us.  He every run we did except one afternoon when Chad and the big boys did the "Cliff" which was a handful of double blacks.  Luke did moguls, powder, trees, every blue, black and in between run.  It was adorable to watch him follow his brothers over every bump and jump they could find.  

We took turns spending half a day at the condo with Claire.  Usually Abbie would stay home with her in the morning while I skied.  Then Abbie would go out with the guys and I took Claire on the bunny hill.  She's adorable.  She quite likes it, and is really getting the hang of the pizza.  

We also tubed on their enormous tubing hill.  It had tow ropes on each side to pull you back to the top.  We spent one evening sledding around the resort.  It was the highlight for me.  I couldn't stop laughing. Every condo was connected by cat tracks all over the place, so they were all truly ski in and ski out.  At the bottom was a gondola that took us back to the village.  We would leave our condo and sled the cat tracks all the way to the bottom, then ride the gondola up and sled down to our condo.  We did the loop several times.  It was a blast!!  We also played cards and hot tubbed, although our hot tub pooped out after about two days.

Here we are in the gondola

Playing RAGE, Abbie is trying to see my card.

It's our new favorite game!!

At the tubing hill.

Dinner at a restaurant int he village.  Alec and Luke ordered pizzas that they built at the table.  They each got a chef hat.  It was pretty cute.

 In the condo.  Reese and Luke shared the top bunk.

Sledding

Hot tubbing.

Claire on the magic carpet all by herself!

In the gondola.

On the mountain the last day.  You can see Reese and the top, Luke, and Chad.  I told them to stop for the picture.