i have peace like a river...

afton came home from school today asking if she could sing a song to me. "of course you can!!" said i. so she sang i have peace like a river. the three verses are as follows...

i have peace like a river in my soul
i have joy like a fountain in my soul
i have love like an ocean in my soul.

each verse repeats a few times and by the last verse, ella came and snuggled up to me as we listened to the last verse about love like an ocean. it nearly brought me to tears!

and this is our sweet ballerina. she had her first day of ballet yesterday. i felt like a "real-life"mom as we drove to her lessons. i steered with my knees and sewed her elastic straps on her shoes at the same time!!! the girls were amazed that i could drive with my knees like marmee! like mother, like daughter i suppose.

and here we have afton's most favorite accomplishment. cursive! she has been dying to learn to write in cursive. so hooray for 3rd grade. she practices day and night. literally. i've found her writing by the light of her nightlight the last couple of nights! she is loving school this year already. she has a friend from church in her class this year named grant. she said that "this is going to be a great year!"

on a side note, it's been fun that the richards and west families go to our school now. for a year or two afton was the only member of our church in her school. so she and grant are the only two members in 3rd grade, then monte is in 2nd, jack is in 1st and lilly, lydia and ella are the only kindergartners. it's not bad or terrible to be the only mormon kid at school because all the kids are really great. but it's just a little more fun when you have an association between church and school. we love heim elementary!!!