YAY!!! Zoe's first day of school......x4?!?!?!?!

Fourth "first" day of school. Picture by Dad.

Yes your read that right, Zoe had her first day of school for the 4th time this year. Just to clear up exactly what that means; Zoe started kindergarten at a charter school in Syracuse, on Antelope drive by 3000 West, which shall remain nameless. Anywho, that experience was riddled with frustrations for us and her, and although we hoped it was going to be more organized than public school, we ended up disappointed. So after a week of that we moved her to the public school down the street for her 2nd first day of kindergarten. Well after Zoe's pre-kindergarten assessment her teacher suggested having Zoe tested for first grade. (Something that Utah school districts fight letting happen with an unimaginable passion.) After numerous phone calls, meetings, assessments, and a few weeks of Zoe reading second grade material to groups of kids in her kindergarten class, the school agreed to put Zoe into a kindergarten/first grade scenario. She moved from her afternoon kindergarten class into a morning kindergarten class. At that point Zoe experienced her 3rd first day of school this year. During this transition period, she attended first grade after her kindergarten class was over.

After a week of going to kindergarten in the morning, and first grade in the afternoon, Zoe decided that she didn't want to go to kindergarten anymore, and took it upon herself to just go to first grade from there one out. Well the principal, school psychologist, and both her teachers met with us, and we all decided that maybe Zoe was onto something. So at long last, Zoe had her 4th and final "First" day of school this year! So as with the other 3 first days of school this year Zoe got her first day of school pictures taken :)

First "first" day of school. Picture by Mom.

Second "first" day of school. Picture by Mom.

Second "first" day of school. Picture by Dad.

Third "first" day of school. Picture by Dad.

Zoe also celebrated her 6th birthday recently. Wow!!! She is getting so big. She will at least be fairly close in age to her classmates now. We threw her her very first surprise party. She received pretty much everything on her wish list and more.

It would appear that I was lazy this year with making her cake, but this is actually what she requested. I am not complaining, this was tons easier than the jewelry box or carriage cakes.

She even selected her birthday dinner. She decided to go to Tepanyaki, this has been one of her favorites for a while now. We can only maintain her lifestyle for a couple more years though. This has been made possible by the very simple requests of her brothers (i.e. Carl's Jr. Yuck!).

One of her requests was a puppet theater and puppets.

Dad put on a puppet show for the kids.

The kids put on some shows for us too.

We all went swimming at Nana's the next day to keep the celebration going.

I have been excited and saddened by all of the advancements in my little girl's life. To add to it all, she lost her first tooth.

There should be some sort of rule which requires children to advance slowly so that parents can gradually cope. She is still playing the piano spectacularly and we will hopefully post video of her playing soon. Until then, here is a video of her doing a new cheer that she learned at school.