Allison?

Allie had her first day of pre-school today! She was SO excited for school to start! She said she was most excited about playing on the playground. I'm not sure if she could ever get enough of playgrounds.

So of course we have our traditional pictures in front of the tree. Allie has this "picture smile" in which she bites down really hard so that the edges of her mouth automatically turn up. So we are always trying to get her to naturally smile and laugh. We discovered she laughs and smiles the quickest when we reference Zach and Matt's bowel habits, if you catch my drift. Can you tell what she is saying below? Hint: "poop" (Notice the giggling too.)

Allie goes to an AMAZING pre-school! I have loved that pre-school since Zach's first day 7 years ago. Allie's teacher is super nice and we are so excited for all the cool things they will do and learn this year.

The kids made their birthday crowns on the first day. (I think this was more of an exercise for their teacher to learn all the new names and faces.) So let me explain "Allison".

Allie's teacher last year did not see on the registration form that I had put "Allie" as the name she would like to be called. So her teacher had labeled everything as "Allison". I felt bad and didn't want her to redo everything. Allie did know both names, but "Allison" was used mostly as a you-are-in-trouble name. But over the year she preferred "Allison" to "Allie" at school. Her friends all called her "Allison".

This year I was sure to put "Allie" as the name she preferred because it's the name I prefer, of course. During the past few weeks, as we were talking more about school, I asked her if she wanted her new teacher to call her "Allie" or "Allison". She always said "Allison". On our ride to school today, I asked one more time. (I already knew the answer but I hoped by asking her "Are you sure?" a couple more times she would finally give in.) But the answer was "Allison".

And that's how "Allie became "Allison". But she'll always be Allie to me!

Sara didn't get a picture by the tree this year so this was my attempt to get her to stand in front of the tree. Notice there is NOT a tree behind her! Sara isn't as camara happy as the others yet and it takes quite a bit of coaxing to get her to smile on demand. This is Sara imitating ALLIE. ALLIE was putting her fingers in her mouth, making her mouth very wide. (That's right...ALLIE!)

Oh how I love my girls! It's going to be a great year!