First Day of School

The most magical time of the year has arrived! Its back to school we go, or TO school since this is our very first year. Rorie is officially a Kindergartner! As long as many of the days have seemed, the years have just flown by. Its hard to believe my little tiny baby has somehow grown into an independent, high spirited five year old. For anyone with kids, reaching the school years is a bitter sweet moment. You always hear that "they grow up so fast", but its times like these that it really hits you.
Rorie starting Kindergarten has been made even more exciting and nerve racking due to the fact that she is attending a Mandarin immersion school. We are so excited for her to experience a brand new culture and language. We are hoping that early exposure will set her up for a lifetime of language education. Luckily she has a couple of uncles that she can flex her Mandarin muscles with!
Rorie's first day was a great one! Despite the commute and early start time (7:45) we arrived on time and in good spirits. The entire school and all the parents met in the Auditorium for opening exercises (not sure if that is what they actually call it, but 25 years of Mormon vernacular makes me think it is). The place was PACKED. The auditorium was definitely not big enough to accommodate all of us and we were forced to get very friendly very quickly. I was deathly afraid that the huge mob of emotional kids and parents was going to freak Rorie out, but she seemed to be oblivious. She found her teacher and promptly told me "See you later mom!" No tears were shed by her at the thought of leaving her mom all day and I was only slightly offended by her excitement.
Knowing that the Kinder parents were not ready to leave (even if the kids were ready to see us go) the principal invited us to stay on the stage while the kids sang "This Land is My Land" and stated the pledge of allegiance. Then they were off, in cute little uniformed lines, half of the kids crying and the rest trying to figure out why all these kids were losing it. Rorie was in the later group and she waved excitedly as she passed me. She is just all grown up!

In honor of this big life milestone we had some special portraits done of Rorie. She rocked it in typical crazy Rorie fashion! I just absolutely love them. Big shout out to Nicole Suddeth of Nikki Nak Photography for the amazing pictures!

 This one was completely spontaneous, and my absolute favorite photo.

This is Rorie doing, in her own worlds, a "hot move". T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

  Rorie and I right outside of her school

She wanted to make sure we got a picture of her backpack!

Cute, BIG girl hair!

There is a super funny story with this picture. I found a pin on Pinterest that showed a High School Senior holding a picture of themselves on the first day of Kindergarten, holding their baby photo. I thought it would be a super cute thing to be able to do. I even REMEMBERED on that very hectic first morning (major props for me). Unfortunately in my sleep deprived state I grabbed Noa's baby picture instead of Rorie's!  

Two weeks in and Rorie is still loving school. I am so excited to see how much she learns and grows this year! Stay tuned for her progress with Mandarin.

Zai jian!

THe Kenisons

Care Packages: The Upside of Deployment

There are a lot of horrible things about deployment. The time apart, missed holidays & birthdays, crappy communication etc. Luckily for us there are a few perks, the biggest being care packages! For someone who likes to plan, decorate, shop, and create, care packages are a fun monthly project that help the time pass. For guys stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean, nothing lifts their spirits like an awesome package from home. Especially when said package contains shameless amounts of candy and treats.

Thanks to the awesomeness that is Pinterest, there is an endless stream of ideas and innovations to make care packages Legen (wait for it) DARY! Here is this months package:

Since September is Back-to-School time, we thought we would send Jake some school essentials. Notebooks? Check. Pens? Check. Adorable pictures of Rorie starting school? Check. Copious amounts of fun lunchbox snacks? Double check.

Rorie helped me decorate the box. We chose some of her assignments from the week to include in the decor so that her Daddy could see how well she was doing.

We are sending off our box, full of treats and lots of love. We are hoping it will bring a little smile to Jake's face and remind him how much we are missing and loving him. Fingers crossed it reaches him quickly!

Love, 

The Kenisons