K is for Kindergarten!!!

Sigh.

The day has finally come!

Bren is now officially a Kindergartener!!

Last night we laid out this outfit for her to wear on her first day.

We snuggled and read three books and talked about how much fun she was going to have this year in school.


She was sooooo excited, she could hardly contain herself!

She was wondering all morning about how her day would be.



I'll be wondering all day about how all the years went by so quickly!




Loaded with all the necessary supplies like crayons, pencils, a folder, glue sticks,

baby wipes, kleenex and graham crackers,

Bren's backpack is almost as big as she is!

Waiting at the bus stop, which is thankfully just steps from our driveway.

This is her friend Tristen.

He lives in our neighborhood.

His house is known as the "trampoline house"

because on warm summer afternoons,

giggles and shouts from happy kids can be heard from his backyard

while all the kids jump on the tampoline.

Tristen is in Bren's class, which makes it so nice for her.

She's already got a friend.

Here comes the bus!!!

After a quick hug and a kiss, Bren didn't even hesitate to climb the stairs of the bus

and ride off to her new adventure.

I jumped in the van and beat the bus to school so I could get some more shots.

I know what you are thinking, but I wasn't the only parent doing that!

There were lots of other mom's and dad's doing the same thing.

Fresh off the bus.

Some other parents and I felt like paparazi as we followed our rookies to their class.

We were like a swam around them clicking our cameras like crazy!

I loved every minute of it!

Waiting in line for Mrs. Butler to open the door.

This little girl plays soccer on Bren's team and they are in the same class.

Yippeee, two friends already!

And there she is! Mrs. Butler!

God bless her!

I stayed long enough to watch Bren and Tristen settle in to their classroom.

And then I was kicked out.

Just kidding.

There was a short orientation for parents that I attended.

I'm glad I did because they needed me!

I'm going to be a year book photographer.

They need someone to come in periodically and just snap candids of as many different kids as I can during the regular school day.

I am going to have so much fun with that this year!
I can't think of a better opportunity for exposure.

Some of you will be proud to know that I did not shed very many tears this morning

and no, I did not start singing "I Hope You Dance" through tear filled eyes as the bus pulled away.

I had a knot in my stomach all day yesterday just thinking about how I would handle today.

I hoped that I would handle it with as much grace as I could muster.

It's not a sad occassion. It's a happy one.

But it does put in perspective the fact that change is inevitable.

She wont always be my little girl.

As much as I'd like to freeze time and be able to enjoy her forever just as she is now,

that's a very selfish notion.

She needs to grow

and experience

and taste

and feel

and try

and fail

and love

and laugh

and cry

and yes,

she needs to one day leave me behind for her own chosen path in life.

This is just baby step one.

And I'm not rushing any step from here on out!!

You know they tell you that time flies and you agree,

but it isn't until milestones like this happen

that you really reflect on how fleeting time really is.

It just makes me want to cling to every single moment and live it to it's fullest.

Time is both a friend and an enemy.

It's a friend when I look at the calendar and see a big red circle on a special day in October which is fast approaching.

It's an enemy when I look at the lines on my face or have to say goodbye to a loved one for a while.

But above all time is a precious gift.

One I hope to never take for granted.

In honor of the NFL opener last night.......

Here's my favorite player of the year!!!

Michael is playing for the middle school this Fall.

He's playing running back, defensive back and is going out for special teams.

Go Wildcats!!!

I'm so proud of him, and I can't wait to see how he does this year.

His first game is on September 17th.

These are blackberries, right?

And these are not.........


The above photo was actually taken last September at the house I grew up in.

I made a trip back there to visit and found them growing all along the street,

just as they had when I was about Bren's age.

I remember my friend and I getting a belly full of them

when we were little girls

and then making a trip to the ER to have our stomachs pumped!

As pretty as those berries are on their bright pink stems,

they are not for human consumption!

But these are!



They grow wild all along our street.
For a few days now, Michael and Bren would disappear for a bit
and come home with purple tongues.

I decided to go along with Bren on a berry picking excursion last night.

She showed me all the best places to pick the fattest berries and avoid the scarriest spiders.

We had so much fun and brought home a bucket full of blackberries!

If you've been following my blog for a while,

you know how much Bren likes snails.

She seems to find one wherever she goes and brings them home with her all the time.

We decided to leave this one to enjoy his berry vines undisturbed.


Here's our bounty of blackberries!!!

First Day of School..........

Armed with new backpacks, and new carefully picked out first impression clothes,

Madison and Michael headed out this morning for day one of 7th and 8th grade.

None of us can believe how fast this Summer went,

but we're all excited that school is here.

They don't have to walk far to catch the bus, just up the hill and around the corner there.
I thought it would be overkill, and a little cruel, to get actual bus-boarding photos, but don't think I didn't think about it!
I'll save that for Friday when Bren boards the bus for the first time.







I hope this will be a good year for them.
I hope they learn alot and make some quality friends.
Madison was accepted for "leadership" which is a huge honor. She'll be helping to orchastrate assemblies for the school and will be speaking at them.
She'll be in the public eye alot.
I'm so proud of her for applying for that position and being selected!
Michael will be very busy this Fall with football practice everyday and a game once a week.
He's motivated this year so I hope he continues to push hard in his classes.

Zach left early this morning with no fanfare or photos.
It killed me to not snap a few, but I held back for his sake.
He's a big boy now,
but I did see a little bit of worry on his face about the size of the school
( the largest in the state of washington!)
and getting lost.
It made me want to go with him to make sure that he'd be alright.
He's resourceful though, he'll make his way just fine.
I'm sure when he gets home and I ask him how his day was,
he'll look at me like I am silly for having worried about him and he'll say that he handled everything just perfectly.
He's got some great classes lined up so I'm hoping that he will really enjoy this year.

Queen of Hearts............

We had so much fun with this photo shoot!!!

My friend Lisa of Little Bits

sent this set that she called "Queen of Hearts".

Lisa just opened a web boutique

where you can find all kinds of adorable and unique sets for your little girl.

You can also find the fabulous hair accessories by Melanie on the site.

We wanted to find a great place for this shoot.

We were looking for something teal or aqua to use as a backdrop so that the colors would pop.

We also thought that some graffiti might be fun.

Being new to an area always present challenges

when it comes to knowing where to go to find great backdrops.

I still feel like there are so many places that I have yet to explore

in order to see what is really out there for us to use during photo shoots.

I like to be able to look at a set and then know immediately where to go to shoot it.

We just happened upon this stage with a painted wall behind it

just a few minutes from our house.

It gave us exactly what we wanted as far as color and feel.

And because it was a stage, Bren felt like a little star.

She had me stand on stage first with an imaginary microphone to introduce her.

"Ladies and Gentleman,

please welcome Brendell Cleary

modeling Little Bits designs!"

Then I hopped down and she came on stage and strutted her stuff for over and hour!

We always try to do a few jumping shots after every shoot
because she enjoys them so much!

Then she grabbed a pretend microphone and said,

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

Here's my mom, Miss Rebecca,

taking pictures!!!"

I got on stage, bowed to an imaginary audience and she clapped and squealed for me.