Brae's First Day!!

Well, the time finally came. We sent our little "Peanut" Braelyn to preschool for the first time on Tuesday. I will never admit to losing sleep the night before because I was worried about her. (Ok, guess I just did admit to it) :) But this was a big step for her! She has been in an in-home daycare since she could remember. She's not used to a bunch of other kids, or a teacher. But she ended up doing great. No surprise right!?

It started with her little preschool's Open House last Thursday. She was all prepared with her school supplies and backpack. She was very excited to meet her teacher. She kept saying that she wanted to go to the "teacher's house". She's quite sure that the teacher lives there. She even talks about the playground at the teacher's house. The Open House went great. Gwendolyn went with us too and they were both in awe of the little sink in the classroom where they could both climb up on the stool and reach the faucet ALL by themselves. They thought this was the coolest thing ever! Here is a picture of Braelyn and her daddy at open house.

So after being there last Thursday and seeing all of the wonderful toys she would get to play with (not to mention the magical sink), Braelyn was raring to go on Tuesday when it was time to get up for school. I asked her when she woke up where she was going that day and she said, "See the teacher!!!!". I dressed Braelyn in her "first day of school" outfit, (yep, I'm THAT mom), and she looked so darn cute and grown up!

 I then took her over to my mom's house as she is the one taking Braelyn to school on the days that she goes. We took lot's of pictures to commemorate the "big" day. Here are a few. Does she look ready?

I had to talk her out of taking her "twins" with her to school.

My mom said she was a bit timid walking in, but did sit down at the table to color with the other kids. But when it was time to go sit on the carpet she wanted nothing to do with it. Apparently the teacher was really good with her though and carried her over to join the group. My mom, being the good, understanding, former teacher that she is, knew that was probably her cue to sneak out. Braelyn later told me that, "Grammy  got lost from her". Your guess is as good as mine as how the rest of the day played out. I do know that she ate her sandwich and her grapes from her lunchbox, but not her goldfish crackers and little cookie. :)

Our wonderful Miss-Tracy picked Braelyn up from school. She said the teacher told her the only problem Braelyn had was panicking and being a bit overwhelmed with all of the kids on the playground. But, that seemed to pass quickly and all was fine. Miss-Tracy was awesome and called me at work so that I could talk to Braelyn about her day. The first things she said were, "My teacher is soooooooo nice and soooooooo pretty!" When I asked her what she did all day she said, "I read books and I go potty!!" ;) When asked what her favorite part of her day was she said, "the hippo". Who knows. ;)  

So, Braelyn said she is definitely ready to go back on Thursday. Now we can't wait until Gwendolyn starts her new school the first of October! I'm SURE I won't lose any sleep the night before right? 

One of the other goings-on over here at the Castellano house was the celebration of Daddy's birthday. We celebrated over at Grammy's house with cake. When I asked Chuck what he wanted for his birthday he said that he just wanted to do something with the girls. (such a good daddy) So, I bought us all tickets to go and enjoy the Ringling Bros. circus as a family next month. Should be fun to watch the girls enjoy their first circus!

This was a pretty Braelyn filled post, so I had to add a pic of my quirky Gwenner too. :)

And It Only Gets Busier...

I apologize that it's been awhile since we've checked in with everyone. It's been a busy time lately and I have been kind of down and out not feeling the best the past couple of weeks. And like our title of this blog states, things are about to get even busier!

Believe it or not Gwendolyn has her very first "Meet the Teacher" night tomorrow night, and Braelyn has hers next week.  It is very surreal for me to be on this side of things. Usually I am the teacher preparing for parents and students. But this time I am  the parent!! When did that go and happen? ;) We have been trying to prepare the girls for what's coming. I'm not really sure they quite grasp it yet. It's going to be an interesting transition. I start back to work tomorrow again (blah), so the girls will go back to their wonderful in-home daycare with their beloved Tracy. Then next week Braelyn will start her little preschool twice a week. Because her school is run by the school district, Gwendolyn won't actually be able to start school until their 3rd birthday in September. But we are still trying to talk it up to both of them and explain that they will be going to different schools, but will be back together in the afternoon. (in just enough time to nap) ;) Braelyn has voiced her displeasure with this several times already. She has told me that she wants to go to "Gi-Gi's" school. That is really the hard part, but we know that they will be in the best suited places for their individual needs. We really think it will be good for both of them in the long run. Braelyn tends to take over a bit for Gwen and we are hoping that being in her own learning environment, she will be able to really flourish on her own.

So, as you can see there are big changes a comin' to our household, but we are excited to see what this next phase brings us!

Here are just a few pictures from the past couple weeks. Enjoy! :)

Another big change at our house....a big bed for our big girls!!

I had to add this picture. I shared it on Facebook too because I thought it was so darn cute! Braelyn drew this all by herself at her "Grammy's" house. When she was all done she said, "It's Daddy!" She even pointed out the fact that she drew his glasses. We think it has a striking real resemblance to her daddy. ;)

The following pictures were our own little version of training the girls up for their future Olympic gold medals:

We are pretty sure that our girls will have quite a future in the  Olympic sport of "swinging". ;)

Have a great week!!!