1st day of school {2012 style}

 

This boy was sooo ready for his first day of 1st grade! Bright eyed and bushy tailed at dark o’30….we’ve been enjoying sleeping in all.summer.long. {Okay, I admit it, I’ve been enjoying it all.summer.long!} I was exhausted after a loooooong night of tossing and turning {that’s another story!! Okay—1 hint: think Christmas morning-type anticipation mixed with a little bit of hanging out in a smoker’s lounge}. Anyway, a little off the subject.

My big 1st grader. 

I couldn’t let my kids go off to school without some sort of a gift for their teachers. I remember bringing apples to my teachers all.the.time!! {I wonder if they actually ate them?} I include some yummy apple dip and homemade caramel. :)

The excitement at the bus stop. See my boy #2…without a shirt on? He came running out the door—straight out of bed!! Wouldn’t want to miss the 7:30am bus stop!

 

My big kindergartener. Holy moly, I didn’t think it would be so hard to send him off to school! I don’t think I was quite ready to send him out the door…when did he get so big?

As some of you know, Paisley got into the pre-school program at school. She is a “partner” to the delayed learning students. We’ve been anticipating all summer how this day would go. And, might I just say right now, it went very well. She only clung to my legs for a brief second before heading off to her class room.

I didn’t notice until I posted these pictures, but you can tell that Paisley’s eyes are all puffy red from crying. Her and Parker both got the “ugly crying” gene from me…poor thing!

 

Let’s just say that her earring got yanked out of her ear by some binoculars around her neck, and we had to put the earring back into her ear so the hole wouldn’t close up. It took 2 of us to do it {thank you Robin!!} and a whole lot of crying! It took a while to calm completely down. But, she is still super cute, and ready for her first day of school!

Last Thursday, at our Back 2 School night, I finally finally found out more info about the pre-school program. From the beginning really didn’t tell me anything, just that she got in. Come to find out, since she isn’t technically a student at the school, just a partner, she doesn’t get to ride the school bus. Which isn’t bad. No biggie. The school is about a 5 minute drive from my house. It just puts some kinks into our schedule. Or rather, my schedule. I’m pretty sure this school year will be about me waiting to pick up and drop off kids! No joke!

Just cause I know you are curious—here’s the run down:

Crack of dawn: {Not really, but I don’t know if I like putting down the exact schedule down…there’s a lot of creepsters out there!} Get Parker on the school bus.

3 hours later: Get Kindergartener fed, teeth brushed, get ready to go. Load 3 kids up to bring pre-schooler to school. {She brings a lunch and eats it there!} Oh wait, what about my Kindergartener? He doesn’t need to be at school for 20 minutes after the pre-schooler…but I can’t just leave him at home now, can I? He gets to school super early! Yay for him!

Get home and have 30 minutes to feed Parleigh and lay her down and pray she takes a 2 hour nap!

3 hours later {from dropping Pres and Pais off}: Pick up pre-schooler from school. And since she can’t ride the bus home…and get’s out of school 20 minutes before the boys…and since I don’t want to get stuck behind all the buses and other parents picking up their children, I go home and have about 15 minutes until I have to walk to the bus stop.

Oh, and Paisley only goes Monday-Thursday. So Preston will get to ride the bus on Fridays. Yay for him!

Phew…exhausted yet? I sure am. I’m sure once we get into the routine of things it will be a whole lot easier. {Crossing my fingers!}

Back to the first day of school.

I dropped Paisley off, and like I said, she did awesome. She was excited to go to her classroom and play with the toys. Yay!

I brought Preston to his class….he got to hang out with one of his teachers for a bit. Isn’t he so handsome?

And can I just say I’ll be so excited when my kids are out of preschool/kindergarten? 7 teachers! Seriously!!

Parleigh and I got home and ate some lunch, and before I laid her down for her nap, she helped me make a cookie for the kids. That’s right…a cookie. Singular. Just one. How lucky are they?

Well, when the cookie looks like this:

I picked Paisley up from school and had about 15 minutes until it was time to get the boys.

My big kindergartener!

At least Parker was excited to see me!

They did it! They survived the first day of school! I was so stinkin exhausted by this time, I was ready for summer break! No joke!

That’s How We Roll: Day 6

It drives me crazy. Every time Parker has a “party” at school {whether it’s a Spring Celebration, Winter Celebration, Fall Celebration…you see the trend here? Not Easter, Christmas, or Halloween! But that’s not my point.} he gets a note sent home asking if he could bring something in for the party. Next to each item, there is a line to checkmark. How are we, as parents, supposed to know what is being brought by the other kids? What if everybody said they could bring in plates? Or a can of frosting? That would be fun…21 cans of frosting. I don’t know. I think there has to be a better system! And does everybody in the class bring something in? So there is a ton of plates/napkins/pretzels/cupcakes/cookies/carrots? Or is it just 5 kids? Or what if NOBODY brought anything in? And, from the list, it looks like they might decorate the cupcakes??? I’m always so confused!

I had Parker look at his list and I asked him what he wanted to bring in. He said, “Cupcakes.” So I sent a note into his teacher asking her to clarify if the cupcakes needed to be plain, or decorated. {I sent in plain ones for the fall party, and I sent in decorated ones for Parker’s birthday. They’ve experienced both ways!}

This was her response:

When I dropped off the cupcakes this morning, the first thing she said was, “Those look really good.”

Then she said, “Are they filled?”

Phew! I’m so glad I filled them! I don’t know what it is about having a cream filled cupcake, but it makes it oh so fancy! {And it’s super easy! shhhh!!!}

So, yes. I could have sent in some store bought cupcakes like I saw another Mom dropping off at the same time. But that’s not how I roll! Cream filled funfetti cupcake with buttercream frosting topped with toasted coconut and Cadbury mini eggs.
This is how I roll!

Student of the Month

Parker was chosen as Student of the Month for September. We are so proud of him.
FYI, the students are chosen by their teacher for consistently demonstrating the qualities of a model student, putting forth their best effort, respecting others and having a conscientious attitude. There was a brief reception at school where he was awarded a certificate and received a snack.
Parker is LOVING Kindergarten. He is learning so much and having a blast! Great job, son!

Waiting for the bus

We head out the door about 10 minutes before the bus comes to pick up Parker so he will have time to burn some energy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have recess {What the hay? No recess in kindergarten? Seriously?}. Okay, I take that back. He has recess. Without a playground to play on. Just a small area to run around, and according to Parker, they get balls and hula-hoops to play with. Hum.
They have so much fun riding their bikes on the road, something that I have just started allowing them to do so freely. They love it. And it is fun to watch the kids enjoy themselves so much!

{Like all the piled up yard debris? Yeah, that’s from Hurricane Irene. The city still hasn’t come to pick it up yet!}

Does it really have to be so difficult to get a picture of Paisley looking at the camera?

{Love this girl to pieces!!}

The End!!

Kindergartener

When did this happen? I mean, for real! When did I get old enough to have a child, let alone a child in Kindergarten? {Maybe I don’t want you to answer that!}
I don’t want this to be a post about how I can’t believe my little baby boy is all grown up. Or how it feels like I was just finding out I was pregnant with him. Or it was just yesterday when we brought him home from this hospital. No, this isn’t a post about that. This is a post about my 5 year old boy who rode the school bus this morning and went to class and recess and came home with a folder full of papers for me to sign. This is about the afterschool snack that he ate and then changed his clothes and went and played with his friend down the street. I have a kindergartener. And I am super excited for this new adventure!

Two of the proudest grandparents and in the world {and an auntie, she’s pretty excited too!}  took off work to be here when Parker boarded the school bus for the first time.


In the 3 hours he was at school, we were able to run to the store and be back home in time to make his afternoon snack. Ben picked him up from the bus stop with Preston.

How about a “Back to School: Pencil” cupcake? {I tried, okay?}