2013-2014

Liliahna started first grade at Canyon Crest Elementary this year.

And I tell her frequently that she needs to quit growing because she's getting way too big!

Deciding on a school for Miss Liliahna was actually quite a task. When we made the final decision that Kylan would be joining Qualtrics and we would be moving to Provo, we started to research schools. There are lots of great options in the area, and in fact Canyon Crest has one of the highest rankings for elementary schools in the entire state of Utah. However, it also has a Spanish language immersion program that is relatively new. So, we were faced with all these different options: neighborhood elementary with Spanish, neighborhood elementary in the traditional English track, next school over with a French immersion program (so tempting for me!), plus you throw in the two charter schools and a private Montessori school that are nearby and we were befuddled. Getting a good education is so incredibly important and we wanted to be sure that we were providing Lili with the best possible fit.

We spent lots of time researching, visiting the different schools and talking to parents in the area before we decided that the neighborhood school in the traditional English track was the best fit for our sweet first grader. So, here we are at Canyon Crest Elementary!

These sweet sister just melt my heart. Serelle was so proud of Lili and kept asking her questions about her new school, her teacher, etc. all morning long!

This is Lili's third year of school and her third new school/class/teacher. She has gotten very good at making friends and she wasn't nervous at all to start at a new school. She just walked right in, said hi to her teacher Mrs. Woodbury, hung up her backpack and sat down at her desk to work on her coloring project. It was definitely harder for me to leave than for her to stay!

Serelle started preschool at Kids Village this year. It was one of the most highly recommended preschools and as soon as I walked in for the first time, I knew that was the right place for her. It's really just magical! The kids get to rotate between their classroom teacher who focuses on phonics, math and reading basics, and all the "specialty" teachers. She gets to spend time in kitchen, art, music, history and language and science. She loves her teacher Miss Valerie and her favorite days quickly became Mondays because she has kitchen and art - her two favorite classes!

Of course we had to celebrate the first day of school...so we walked over to the Riverwoods for some ice cream and splash pad action. No better way to celebrate!

This photo was actually taken a couple of weeks after Lili started school...it was the first time I let her ride the bus to and from school! For some reason this seemed like such a milestone event to just send your child off to school on the big school bus - so it took me a couple of weeks to be able to let her go. When she got off the bus and right after I snapped this picture she just ran right past me instead of giving me a hug, like I though she would. I hurried and caught up to her to ask how she was doing, and she told me that I had embarrassed her by taking a picture of her at the bus. I just about died! I can't believe my little first grader is already getting embarrassed of her mom!