Ready or not, school's a coming

So Olivia will be going to school in just a little over a month. We bought a backpack and a few other school things today. And I just don't want to let her go! I really think I'm going to have a hard time on that first day of school (okay, I know I am - it makes me sad already). I'm excited for her, too, but its such a huge marker of growing up. She won't always be my little girl who wants to wear the same white skirt every day and never get her hair done. She won't always want me to hold her when she's sad, have pink kitty parties, make such cute crayon drawings, play endless make-believe games with her brother, and wave to me every time she kicks the ball at soccer practice, and be sad after being at a friend's house for an afternoon because she "didn't get to play with Mom and Katelyn very much today."
I feel like she can't "get big" until I've learned how to be the best mom for her and had more moments of just playing and enjoying the moments instead of thinking of what other things I still need to get done, and developed more patience for her strong-willed self. (Okay, I know she's just starting school, I'm not losing her forever), but really, what is so great about full-day kindergarten?
We're planning on starting with half-day option (at her school you can switch to full-day anytime), but she's already saying she wants to do full day - I think she heard me talking about all the fun things they do in the afternoon.
I'll just miss having her around all the time and the fun that she brings (and I know her best friend Jackson will,too). I told John how I'm sad she can't stay little just how she is, and he said, "Yeah, but she'll always be Olivia." That helped - anyone else have any words of wisdom? (Maybe going to bed so my lack of sleep doesn't make me write sappy blog posts . . .)

The after shot

I had to let the anticipation build, but here are some pictures where you can (kind of) see my haircut. I'm holding the same prop as used in the before shot. A friend in my ward did the haircut 4 days before her due date, and the best part was, she came to my house so I didn't even have to get a babysitter to get the job done.

So much to post, so little time

Here are a few pictures from this last week.

I love this picture of Katelyn - she always has huge smiles on her face!

This is supposed to be a "before" picture, but I don't have an "after" picture of my hair chopped off yet.

Grandma and Grandpa Knippers came to visit on Saturday.

Our new addition! And our kids now want to be in the backyard all day long. Hooray for craigslist - this was a good find!

There's a big slide on the other side that you can't see too well in the picture.

Katelyn and Grandma

Jackson's frog cupcake

Grandma & Grandpa brought more birthday cake for Olivia, and one for Jackson, too.

Jackson in action

I'll be putting more of Jackson on soon, but often when I try to take a picture of him, it turns out like this:

Birthday #2

on the zip-line swing

We had Olivia's party the Saturday before her birthday, but she had all kinds of big plans for her real birthday. I hung some crepe paper streamers over the dining room table for the party, and she said, "But on my real birthday, we should probably put some of those up in every room, right?" She had a whole list of things she wanted to do, and she wanted to "be gone the whole day." "I get to choose everything we do the whole day, and we'll cancel anything that I don't choose." (Including Mom's visiting teaching appt. that morning - until she found it was at one of her friend's houses). Her list included the zoo, wading pool, donut shop, park, big swimming pool, Wendy's, another pinata, and have cake again, "or maybe just some ice cream or popsicles or somethin." She's a girl who knows what she wants. We only got to do a couple of those things, but she was still worn out by the end of the day and said, "My favorite thing that I do today will be when I get to go to sleep."

Olivia's Birthday Party

Here's Olivia (middle) with friends at her birthday party. They're waiting in line for the pinata.





Lots of fun presents, a pink cake, decapitated pinata, and onlookers. (you can click on the pictures if you want to see them bigger).

Decorating wooden animal shapes.

When Olivia gets an idea in her head, she is not easily swayed. So we went through with the "kitty and sheep" theme, her favorite animals (of the moment, anyway). I found wooden kittens and lambs and they were occupied for a long time decorating those, then we did the pinata, and had to hurry to fit in the cake and ice cream and gifts before the party ended.

John's Birthday

This was a big week for John - he performed his first cataract surgery! Pretty amazing, I'd say. I don't have any pictures of that (just picture an eyeball being cut open and then some other crazy procedures better explained by him). But his birthday was the next day, and here are a couple pictures from that.

We celebrated with a barbecue in the backyard and a brownie mountain for my husband who loves mountains and doesn't really like cake. In the picture, Jackson's saying "cheese" but he keeps his eyes on the brownies instead of the camera. Also, notice the yard - John has turned the pile of weeds we had when we moved in to an actual lawn. He is usually happy to just stay at home when he gets the chance so that's what we did for the celebration.

Olivia: "Just tell the hospital it's your birthday so they won't make you do any work."

Sleeping Baby

What could be better?