Jakob Daniel and Everleigh Grace Hall

Everleigh had a great first cleaning Monday morning.  She raced down the hallway, listened to instructions, loved riding the chair up and down and back and forth, thought "Mr. Thirsty" (the saliva remover thingy) was hilarious), helped count her teeth, and was generally an absolute delight.  Then she screamed at me for a solid 5 minutes when I told her in the car that she was going to school, not home.  Oh well, at least she made me look good in public.  :-)

Jakob's final tee ball game was a couple of weeks ago.  It was impressive how much they improved over the course of six weeks, and it seemed like Jakob mostly enjoyed it.  We've been practicing hitting with a batting tee, and he's continued to make progress.  (The night he said "Mommy, can we play baseball after dinner" was a parenting highlight for me!)  They had a nice award ceremony at the end of the game, and each player got a medal.  Jakob is obsessed with trophies, so he was thrilled about it!

These kids love bugs!

A few weekends ago, Jakob and I spent Saturday afternoon together while Everleigh napped.  We got a snack and then went to see Captain Underpants, which was hilarious.  After the movie, we walked across the parking lot to a bookstore so we could buy the first Captain Underpants book.  This is the first "big kid" book with chapters that we've read to Jakob, and he's loving it.  I've got to get out later today to pick up the third book!

As if I wasn't already a ball of emotion, Everleigh's friend Ben gave her flowers (and a kiss!  Her first!!) as she was leaving on Friday.  The pictures are just about the cutest thing ever, and his mom and I had fun over Facebook talking about their future proms. This morning, she and Jakob were very excited for her to start in his classroom at JES.  They looked so cute carrying their lunchboxes, and from the moment we walked in, neither child was interested in me.  They both went in opposite directions to play, with two of the little girls following Everleigh around.  She had used the potty and started building train tracks by the time I walked out.  What a great start!

"Sometimes the things that take the most effort have the sweetest results" Back-to-back milestone posts?!?  Holy smokes, it's been an emotional week!  Today is Everleigh's last day at Hand in Hand before she starts Monday at Jericho Elementary.  She's rather excited to be in Jakob's classroom, and because she's been helping with pick-ups/drop-offs, she's totally familiar with the space, teachers, and friends.  It should be a relatively easy transition, we hope.  (Perhaps less easy will be Jakob's adjustment to having her around ALL the time...no escape from little sis at school for him for the next two months, ha!) We have been so fortunate with the care Everleigh's received at HIH.  She had a tough terrible two phase, and they did a great job with her.  She absolutely adores her teachers, and she's made such good friends there.  They made her these epically touching going away presents.  Her teacher's words are so spot-on.  She was...