There they go!

It's the first day of school and the kids hopped out of bed, put on their clothes, ate breakfast and brushed their teeth - all with no complaining.  I expect that to end tomorrow morning when the realization hits that they still have 179 days to go!

Both kids told me at bedtime last night that they were nervous.  And this morning as we were waiting for the bus they both said they had butterflies so I have been doing lots of extra praying for them! 

Aren't they cute - butterflies and all?

Sarah - First Grade

Peter - Second Grade

                                                                  
                                   

And they're off!  

Can't wait to hear all about at 2:38!

BFF pictures now. Field Day pictures later.

Yesterday was field day at school and while I took lots of pictures of my kids exhibiting their physical prowess, these turned out to be my favorites:

Sarah and her BFFs Tori and Kysten

Peter's BFFs Turner and Griffen and Peter

Star Fuyshhh, Jlay Fuyshhh, Poufr Fuyshhh

I love to open the kid's backpacks every afternoon when they get home from school.  There is always some sort of treat for me - a spelling test, a drawing, a writing assignment. 

And now I have proof that they aren't being completely honest when I ask the question, "What did you do at school today?" and get "nothing" as their typical response.  Busted! 

Sarah's backpack always contains some sort of writing that she did that day.  Her teacher will give the class a prompt and then they have to write several sentences.  And they aren't allowed to ask for help on spelling.  They are supposed to sound out the words and do the best they can.

Sarah usually spells her sight words correctly but the rest of her spelling usually cracks me up.  I think she likes to see how long she can make the words.

They have been studying ocean life and it looked as if she was asked to draw some things that live in the ocean and label them.

Here is what she wrote and my translation:

Star fuyshhh - Star fish

Euyll - Eel

Poufr fuyshhh - Puffer fish

Wauyll - Whale

Ockduypusss - Octopuss

Jlay fuyshhh - Jelly fish

Cauyb - Crab

Notice that she spelled fish the same way each time.  She may not be correct - but she's consistant!

The 100th day.

The kids just celebrated the 100th day of the school year. They were very excited to have made it to this milestone in the school year and have been talking about it for weeks.

They celebrated with different activities such as counting to 100, eating snacks shaped like 100 and putting 100 stickers on a piece of paper.

Each grade celebrated differently but one thing both Peter and Sarah came home with was a drawing of what they thought they would look like when they were 100 years old.

I'm not sure what concerns me the most:

The fact that Peter thinks he will be in a wheel chair being harassed by local teen thugs when he's 100 (Please note one of the thugs is yelling, "Out of my way!" and the more apologetic one is saying, "Our bad.")

Or the fact that when she's 100, Sarah thinks she will be an African American with a cane and gold gloves. (Note the matching gold party hat.  I guess anyone who makes it to 100 deserves a gold party hat!)

Awesome! Cool! Only 178 more to go!

Well I think she had a good day.

She came running off the bus this afternoon and gave me a big hug. Then she said, "Kindergarten was awesome! It was like preschool - only better!"

And then she proceeded to talk my ear off for the next ten minutes. I couldn't even keep up. Something about a new friend, walking to the bathroom in a line, reading "The Kissing Hand", practicing writing her name, eating lunch and playing in the gym.

And she said she wants to go back. Which is a good thing because not only does she get to. She has to.

When Peter got off the bus on Tuesday afternoon he said, "First grade is cool! The teacher brought Rice Krispie Treats and watermelon! And in first grade we have PE before lunch!"

Food and playtime. He gets it honest.

Who is this?

Who is this little first grader I put on the bus this morning? He looked the same as always when I kissed him goodbye, but now as I look at these pictures I snapped in the rush of the first day of school, I barely recognize him.

Through my blurry photography I struggle to make out something, anything, that resembles the baby boy I once held in my arms. Everything about him seems foreign to me now - the long legs, the freckles on the left side of his nose, the snaggle-toothed grin, the slender feet, the adorable ears.

Someone came in the middle of the night and quietly replaced my baby with a first grader.

Be still my heart.

Meet The Teacher Morning.

Yesterday was the first day of school in the local school system but for the kindergartners it was Meet The Teacher Morning.

We had two choices of times to attend. We could go at 9:00 or we could go at 10:30. I decided on the 9:00 slot and that was a mistake because all of the other parents in Peter's class chose it as well.

So imagine my delight as I found myself surrounded by 23 kindergartners, many of their younger siblings and one to two parents each as we all crammed into Peter's classroom.

And when I say crammed, I really mean crammed. Think sardines.

There were large adult-sized rear ends squished into child-sized chairs, or squeezed on the floor beside child-sized chairs or hovering worriedly over kids in child-sized chairs. (If an adult rear end can hover that is, but you get what I'm saying here. There were too many adult-sized adults in a kid-sized room.)

And to make matters worse, we were expected to fill out paperwork! And all of the information was redundant to information that I had already filled out when I signed him up in the first place. I was not a happy sardine.

So there I was sitting on the floor beside Peter who was sitting in his little chair looking nervous. I was trying to listen to the teacher talk about fees, where the kids should go in the mornings, lunches, snacks, supplies and bus schedules while trying to fill out forms, ask questions and constantly reassure Peter who kept saying, "I want to go home. I don't like it here. I want to go home."

But then he saw it. Sitting near the front of the room was...

A LEGO TABLE!

It was if the clouds parted and the sun started shining. I think I even heard the angels begin to sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

But then all Peter would say was, "Can I play on the Lego table? Can I play on the Lego table? Can I play on the Lego table?"

I was finally able to take my adult-sized rear end out of the classroom. All of my questions were answered, all of my forms were filled out and my sanity would soon be restored.

When we got home I asked him what he thought about his classroom. His response was, "I didn't like it. It was too crampy." I have a touch of claustrophobia and I think Peter may have it too.

But I'm not going to worry yet because he then said, "But did you see that Lego table? I want to play on that Lego table!"

Peter won't go back until Thursday which will be his first real day. They split the kindergartners into thirds. So 1/3 of the class will go today. 1/3 will go tomorrow and the final 1/3 will go on Thursday. And then on Friday ALL of them will go.

Hopefully on Thursday when the room isn't as "crampy" he will be able to relax and actually get to meet the teacher. Because after we got home from Meet The Teacher Morning, I realized that Peter didn't actually even get to meet the teacher!

I'm sure Thursday morning will be fine. I'm sure he will do great. I'm sure he will relax and enjoy himself.

I'm starting to worry though because even thought there was a Lego table there, I didn't see any actual Legos.