Ni Hao! 你好! Welcome to Broadway!

Driving to Broadway Elementary on the first day of school.

Molly is lucky enough to be going to school with her buddy Ella.  Molly and Ella have been good pals since they were two and their connection takes some of the stress away of being thrown into a second language.  It's making it easier on the girls and the parents, 

it's so much easier to jump into this with a good friend!

Thank you to Principle Wang who agreed to put the girls in the same class.

When asked if it would be possible her response was, "Yes, I want the children to have the softest landing possible and a friend will help."

The Principal, teachers and families are so great 

and we are very luck to be part of this very special program.

 Molly is in Room #41 and has two teachers.

Mrs. Savage is her English teacher

and Ms. Chen is her Mandarin teacher.

Half of her day is spent in English class and the other half spent in Mandarin.

Each day it alternates between starting with English or starting in Mandarin.

 Molly walking up to her place on the rug.

Molly had a tummy ache two days last week on the way to school, not sure if this is nerves or eating breakfast a lot earlier than she is use to and then rushing out the door.  So when it came time for Mom and Dad to leave at school each morning Molly didn't want us to go and there were some tears.  But she woke up each morning excited to go to school and was full of smiles at the end of the when I picked her up.  Both teachers told me she is doing great and had a great first week.  Molly was very proud of the high five she received from Ms. Chen for saying her numbers in Mandarin.  She is also very proud of being placed at the top of the recognition board each day.  Apparently you earn stars through out the day for paying attention, participating and following directions.  Molly told me that she and 3 others are always at the top of the board.  So glad that having her buddy Ella(one of the others at the top of the board each day) in class with her isn't causing them to be distracted but rather they both are trying to be on their best behavior and soak up the learning.

So a little nerves(for mom too) some tears(for mom too).  But when I asked Molly on Friday afternoon after three days of school what she thought about school she told me, "I LOVE Kindergarten, I LOVE my school and I love learning new things every day!"

Here is a little video of Molly on the way to her first day of kindergarten.

Gracie's first day at her new preschool!

So on the same day Molly started kindergarten Gracie started at her new preschool Butterfly Garden!

She was very excited to be starting a new school just like her big sister.  For weeks leading up to the big day Grace has been talking about going to Butterfly Garden and saying she wants to wear all her dresses with butterflies on them to Butterfly Garden.

 Her new schedule is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12:30 - 4:00.  She was in a full day program last year and could still nap but now that she goes just in the afternoon we have had to cut the nap on those days.  It is going to take her some time to get use to the new schedule but the teachers said she is doing great when she is there.

Teacher Marisol getting Grace into her car seat after school.  Grace will be staying until 5:00 on Monday and Wednesdays for Spanish class with Miss Marisol.  The girls had Spanish class at Happyland Preschool and I wanted Gracie to stay in the habit of hearing two languages.  I think she will probably pick up some Mandarin from her big sister who has already started playing school at home.

Summer Recap

Molly graduated from Happyland Preschool!

We celebrated Gotcha day with Caelyn and Abby from Molly's travel group!

Gracie loves playing doctor and we would not be at all surprised if she ends up in med school.

She is so darn cute in her scrubs!

After Molly graduated from Happyland at the end of June we spent the month of July just the two of us while Gracie finished up her first year of preschool.  Molly and I kicked off our special time together with a trip to Disneyland.  Disney is the only place she gets to enjoy a lollipop this big!

We had a lot of beach days and

Molly took some classes at the Santa Monica Aquarium.

Molly loves swimming, the ocean, looking for sea creatures and even had her first taste at boogie boarding over the summer.

Molly has gotten really good at the monkey bars.

It must be all that swimming making her so strong.

There was A LOT of swimming.

This is the summer that Molly's passion for swimming was lit!

One afternoon she looked at me very serious and said,"Mom, one day I want to be a famous swimmer."

The girls had an amazing swim coach this summer and we give Danny a lot of credit for getting Molly so excited about the sport.  We had to say goodbye to Danny at the end of the summer since he coaches high school water polo.  Molly was very sad and gave him this drawing on her last day.  We miss Danny but the Y set us up with another great coach named Danielle.  After her first class with Molly she looked at me and said, "she is really good!"

There was splashing in the Lion Fountain downtown Culver City 

and enjoying ice cream on hot afternoons.

Trying snails for the first time!

Gracie loves tomatoes so this summer we planted a tomato plant in the backyard 

and she watered it and picked the tomatoes.  

Here is a very proud girl picking her first tomato.

We also took some time for lazy days in the yard hanging out in the hot tub, painting and drawing and taking time to love our Maybel.

We ended the summer with a trip to San Diego Zoo 

and spent some time on the water while we were there.

Then one last visit to Disneyland before starting the school year.

It was a great summer!