Twas the Night Before Kindergarten...

Twas the night before Kindergarten and all through the house there was a little creature stirring who couldn't fall asleep.

She was tucked all in bed, not in a kerchief or a nightcap, but snug in her Tinkerbell pajamas. 

When out of her room there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my recliner to see what was the matter.  The moonlight through the window showed her dancing and singing "I can't fall asleep, I'm not even tired!"

When what to her wondering eyes did appear but her mother telling her to "get back in bed and be quiet.  You'll fall asleep soon, my dear."

Okay, so I'm not a very good poet.  But I thought this was fitting because Maleah has been reciting "The Night Before Christmas" all day today (when she wasn't singing Sugarland's new hit song "Stuck Like Glue") and because she is so gosh darn excited about Kindergarten.  She had Open House at her school tonight and got to go meet her teacher and see her new school.  She also got to take her school supplies with her and put them away and meet some of the kids in her class.  She was thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.  She LOVES her new teacher and LOVES her classroom.  She was afraid that she would never love another teacher as much as she loved her pre-k teacher last year and after meeting her new teacher I think that worry flew right out the window.  So now, she has been tucked into bed for almost two hours and still isn't asleep because she is just too excited.  And it's going to be an early morning for us so hopefully she gets up okay in the morning.  Better yet, hopefully I can get up in the morning.  It's been awhile since I've had to get up that early on a daily basis.  Yikes!  Here are some cute pictures from tonight. 

Maleah and one of her best friends, Erica, who will be in her class.

Maleah and her teacher.

Maleah and her mailbox

Tomorrow will be exciting for all of us.  I'll share pictures of that soon.

In other news, we went camping this past weekend.  We had a great time!  We went with our friends, Deb and Paul and their kids, and our friend/babysitter Calli went with all of us too.  We borrowed my Mom and Dad's camper and that was a good thing.  It had air conditioning and boy, did we ever need it.  It was super hot!  Us adults just sort of sat around sweating like crazy while the kids played.   Carissa walked around the campground picking up trash (a great assortment of bottle tops) and handing it to us.  Maybe she's headed for a job in sanitation?  I don't know.  She also played with her baby doll stroller and dolls a lot and pushed them around through the gravel.  She had fun and that's all that mattered.

Maleah and the older kids had all brought their scooters so they scootered around the campground and kept making a big circle around the campsite.  They did this non-stop and had a blast.  Who knew scooters could be so much fun?  The kids all had a blast doing that and going for boat rides on the lake.  We didn't really do any fishing but all of the kids got to go out on the boat and that was exciting for them. 

I don't think I have ever seen my kids as dirty as what they got.  Their feet were disgusting.  I took a picture of Maleah's because I was so amazed.  She had been wearing flip-flops all day and riding her scooter.  Yuck! 

Here's a cute picture of Carissa that I took.  I thought it turned out great. 

And here's a picture of Maleah trying out a new "cheerleading" move.  She's all into cheerleading right now because when I signed her up for the fall semester of her dance and tumbling classes I also signed her up for a cheerleading class.  She has wanted to do that for a long time.  She is super psyched about it. 

Does anybody want to call and give me a wake-up call at 7 a.m.?  Just kidding!  I will manage to wake up and get her out the door on time.  I think I can... I think I can...