Keira Appreciation Day

A couple of weeks ago (way before Mother's Day), I woke up in the morning to the pitter-patter of Kiwi's little feet on our bedroom carpet.  She "stealthily" set a piece of paper on my nightstand and then scurried away.  How cute is this?

I guess, out of nowhere, she decided it was Mommy Appreciation Day (gotta love her phonetic spelling there, eh?) and she must've told me about 10 billion times that day how much she loves me--which is only about twice as much as she usually says it, actually.  She's a lovey girl.

I'm not the only one who gets little love notes from here, though.  Check out this one, which she wrote to Ellie while she was at preschool the other day:

"Dear Ellie, I really really love you.  At school I was thinking about giving you a hug."

Awwwwwwwwww.  Seriously, if there is ever a Sweetest Big Sister in the Universe pageant, I'm totally entering Keira. (Is writing love notes a talent??  If not, she also could dazzle the judges with her mad artistic skillz...or her Peppa Pig impersonation.  That girl can oink like nobody's business.)  She is ALWAYS thinking about Ellie: when she took her kindergarten readiness test and the teacher gave her a pack of fruit snacks afterward, she asked if she could have an extra one for her little sister.  When her preschool class painted shoeboxes and cereal boxes to make them into vehicles, Keira made a "Keira Car" and an "Ellie Engine" (she came up with the alliterative titles all by herself) and presented Ellie with hers after school that day.  When Ellie loved the little plastic cross necklace Keira won from the treasure box at preschool, Kiwi went back the next day and asked her teacher if she could have one for Ells, too.  And the best part is, it's contagious--now Ellie is becoming the same way about Keira.  I gave her a few Starburst while Keira was at preschool one day, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Can I have some to take to Sissy, too?"  It just melts me right into a puddle, every time.  I hope they're always such close sisters!

Bear also got a love note of his own a couple of weeks ago.  Here's what it said:

To my former-kindergarten teacher eyes, it clearly said, "I love you, Dad.  I missed you while you were gone so I called you, Dad."  But, I did notice that her spelling of "called" might possibly be mistaken for "killed," in which case...hello, horror movie!  The considerate thing to do would have been to advise Bear of that as I handed him the note when he got home late that night...but the much more entertaining thing to do was to just let him read it and see how he reacted.  He looked up with a Very Concerned expression and read it aloud: "I missed you while you were gone, so I killed you, Dad??"  After some hysterical giggles, I explained.  And giggled some more.  Sorry, Bear.

This is the most recent note she wrote to us, which I found under my pillow tonight:

"Dear Mommy and Daddy, While I am in kindergarten I will miss you.  I will be kind to write you letters.  I will really really really miss you.  Kind regards, Keira Lastname."

Okay, two things: 

1)  Yes, I Photoshopped out our last name, and yes, I use Photoshop like a drunken toddler.  I totally need to take a class on how to, like, not do that.

2)  She signed it "cindry gords" (Kind Regards).  When did my child become Mr. Belvedere??

Sigh.  I just love that girl.  She cracks us up every single day.  Plus, she's adorable and tons of fun.  See?

Checking out her face paint at my school's carnival:

Modeling some more face paint (with matching snow cone, thank you very much!) at a teacher appreciation fair:

Being a beauty girl at tee ball:

Taking one of about 47 trips down the slide at the teacher appreciation fair:

Looking alarmingly coy and grown-up outside preschool with Ellie:

Based on all the aforementioned qualities, I hereby declare today to be Keira Appreciation Day!