4 Years Old!!

 Lydia had her golden birthday this year and turned 4 on September 4. She requested shoes and clothes for her birthday and she was thrilled with all her new clothes! Thank you!

Showing off her new bike helmet!

We also had a small birthday party with family. She was excited to spend the afternoon playing with cousins and opening a few more presents! 

Reading books with Auntie Kim

Playing with new legos.

Lydia in a nutshell: she is happy and enthusiastic and full of energy. She knows what she wants, never stops talking and gives amazing hugs. But she can throw a fit and will scream and scratch and pinch when she doesn't get what she wants! She started preschool this year and absolutely loves it! 

All three girls share a room right now so everyone goes to bed about 7:30 and gets up between 6:30-7am. She sleeps with her blanket and still sucks on her two fingers. Now that school has started, she is pretty sleepy and will nap with me in the afternoon. I love it! She is a good snuggler😀

Lydia is very particular about her clothing; she picks out her own outfits every day! 4T clothes fit her, but she can often be found wearing something of Haleigh's, despite the fact that it is too big! Shoes are between sizes 8 and 9, depending on the shoe. 

Favorite activities: this is a hard one. She likes playing with Haleigh and they can frequently be found playing with stuffies, playing groceries, or talking on pretend phones. She likes to color, ride her scoot bike, and help Grandpa with whatever he is doing. She does not like to be told what to do!

Telling Grandpa all about her first day of school.

Favorite food: this changes by the day! She lives for dessert...Friday,  Saturday, and Sunday are dessert days and she keeps track of what day it is for that purpose!!

Lydia is full of joy and is a bundle of energy and is such a fantastic little girl. I love watching her learn, watch her mind process things, and see her become her own person. 

A New School Year

After the end of last year, and with Covid still running rampant, we were unsure what the start of this school year would look like. When they announced that school would be meeting full time, in-person we were thrilled! We know that there have been many, many hours put into figuring out classroom arrangements, scheduling, and monitoring and we are so grateful to be a part of a school system that is willing to put in the effort to make this all possible! 

In addition to the transition of school during Covid, we also had the transition of now going to school in Lynden and being part of a much larger student body. This has been both exciting and a bit overwhelming! We went to an open house on Monday, the day before school started to find classrooms and orient ourselves with the campus and that helped to ease some of the nerves a bit. We also learned a bit more about the screening process: every morning, we parents have to verify that our kids don't have any symptoms (we have a list of questions...do you have a fever? headache? runny nose? been asked to quarantine etc) and check temperatures. Each kid gets a screening sticker that shows we've done these things; once they get to school, they take the sticker and check their temperature again before letting them into the building. If they don't have a sticker, we get a phone call to verify.

Annaliese is in 3rd grade this year. She is in a 2/3 combined class with Señor Berroteran. She has one new third grade girl in her class, which is super exciting because the third grade was only Annaliese and Asher! Her family moved here from California and she was part of a Spanish Immersion program there. 

Their class is going to focus on seeing and learning about God through nature; Señor Berroteran had a neat tree set up in the classroom, as well as a prayer corner. He loves to play the piano and sing with his class, so I am really excited to watch Annaliese grow during this year.

Haleigh is in 1st grade and has Señora Wolters. Her class has 5 kids returning from last year and 13 new kids! We are excited about the bigger class size and the potential for new friends. The challenging part is that parents aren't allowed in the classrooms and so it's hard to get to know the new kids or their parents!

Lydia started preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. School decided not to start the Spanish program until P4, so for the first time ever, we have someone in school in English! Lydia has Teacher Lisa and has 6 other girls in her class. They don't have to wear masks at this point, but the teachers have created some dividers on the table to help keep them a little bit farther away from one another and lots of hand washing/sanitizing! Lydia came home so excited about the first day! 

Here they are, all ready to go to school:

We've figured out a carpooling plan with Auntie Kelsey and Uncle Ben, so all five kids go to school together. My favorite part of the day is watching Lydia and Owen, with their backpacks on, walking into school together! They aren't in the same class (which is probably a good thing!) but their classrooms are right next to each other.