Preparations for School

Katelee started her first day of kindergarten last Thursday!!!!!

Before I write about her first day of school, I wanted to post about our back-to-school traditions and preparations.

Last year we started the fun tradition of a date out with mom to enjoy a meal and choose a new outfit for the first day of school. This is a tradition that I plan to continue every year individually with each of my children. Here we are ready to leave for our date out!

Katelee chose to go to Chick-Fil-A to eat and then we headed over to Target. We found a dress that we both LOVED. Perfect for school.

Mission Accomplished.

The only other thing that Katelee needed was shoes. She has grown out of ALL of her shoes this summer. One Saturday, Gerald needed to go downtown to campus for an hour or two and so Katelee and I went along and walked over to the 16th Street Mall. The 16th Street Mall is a huge outdoor mall in downtown Denver. I really love to walk around the 16th Street Mall; it has such an urban feel that I love. There are street musicians and performers, booths selling bags or jewelry, and old men playing chess or checkers along the road. No cars are allowed on 16th Street, but there are free buses traveling up and down the street that you can jump on anywhere. I really love the atmosphere.

There are plenty of things to see, including fountains . . .the hordes of life-sized bulls that are all painted differently...

and the dozens of brightly painted pianos that are set up all along the street. These pianos have signs on them that invite anyone to sit and play. Katelee couldn't resist giving a concert to any lucky passers-by.

And I couldn't resist joining her.

We found a Payless and the needed shoes, and we had a great time.

Katelee's hair hadn't been trimmed for a year, and I knew it was high time to get those ends trimmed before school started. Our usually stylist was taking a leave after having a baby, and I decided I didn't want to spend the money. So I got up the courage to trim her hair myself, something I've NEVER attempted before. My sister gave me some great over-the-phone instructions that helped me a lot.

So, the snipping began! It went . . . alright . . . :) I meant to only trim the very ends, but in my attempts to make her hair even it got shorter than I intended. When her hair is perfectly straight, you can tell the right-hand side is a bit longer than the left-hand side. Oops. But it's not bad enough that I'm going to mess with it for now. And I may attempt trimming her hair someday again - ha ha ha!

Here's a picture of her new cut - in curls to help hide the flaws! :)So, now our preparations for the first day of school were complete, and there was nothing left to do but wait!
And Katelee could hardly wait!!