1st Day of SCHOOL

It should be against the law to start school on August 15th.  Regardless that our summer break started on May 17th, it just seems WAY too early this year!  After all of our school supplies were purchases, organized and packed, the anticipation of the big day was contagious.  Drew, Brayden and Ella started on Wednesday....Morley will start on Monday in Sidney.

I LOVE the clothes laid out.  I remember doing the exact same thing.  It looks like their bodies melted into the ground leaving their clothes behind.  I was worried that the kids would not get up in the morning without a struggle, they had a hard time falling asleep!  Thankfully, they were up before the alarm, showered and dressed ready to go.  Ella has been counting down the days for kindergarten for two weeks.  She was NOT going to let anyone make her late!

Matt had to leave on a business trip before we left for school, we were all bummed he couldn't join in all the excitement!  After our yummy breakfast of fruit and butterscotch pancakes (totally healthy), it was time to pack lunches and take the traditional pictures together!  Thanks to Morley for being our camera man!  I CANNOT believe that ALL of the kids will be in school this year!

Ella has been saving this vintage My Little Pony lunch box for two years.

She has been pretty nervous the last few days leading up to her first day.  I was so proud of her for being so brave, walking into a classroom not knowing one person.  I am thankful she knew her teacher, Mrs. Egging was Drew's fourth grade teacher last year!  Ella was so thrilled and quietly excited to finally be at school, in her classroom, sitting at her table with her own special name tag!  There are 16 students in her class (and in all of kindergarten)...and only four boys!  I had a hard time leaving my baby girl at school...all day every day.  It was a good thing Matt wasn't there, he would have taken a picture of my "ugly cry" I was trying really hard to hide it!  It was a hard and exciting day for this momma to have all her babies old enough to be in school.

Brayden LOVES Mrs Murray!  His best buddy Mason is of course in his class too...there is only one class for each grade in this small school district.  They have a hamster named Butterscotch that Brayden is in charge of this week.  He was calling school "jail" before his first day but now he can't stop telling me how awesome it is.  Oh, I am so thankful for wonderful teachers!

Mrs. Bartling is so amazing and Drew has been looking forward to her fifth grade class.  He couldn't stop talking about all of the cool projects and things in their classroom.  She is funny and totally "gets" Drew.  She told me she "loves him already" when we were chatting at the end of the day.  I love Drew's love of learning and positive outlook.  The best thing so far that Mrs. Barting has done...she doesn't send home "homework", she sends home "homefun".  LOVE THAT!

I promised to pick up the kids after school and waited for Ella.  To my surprise she walked out with Drew, hand in hand.  I couldn't keep the tears back.  She is lucky to have wonderful big brothers!  Ella ran to me and started share all of the wonderful experiences of her first day.  She loves her new backpack, her little ducky key chain from Pa.  It was a thumbs up day!

With school starting our schedules get crazy again.  Brayden had to leave for football practice 30 minutes after he got home....and so it begins.

***DAY 2***

Ella decided she was a big enough girl to now ride the bus.  I was only supposed to take her to school on her first day.  She was a little nervous and reached out to her brothers hand for comfort and support.  Can there be anything more sweet?  They held hands until the bus came, they let her get on first and sat then in the front seat all together.  Melt my heart.  

I had to get a "first bus ride" picture

I am going to try something new this year after school called cookie "chat".  I got the idea from one of my favorite mommy blogs HERE.  Just taking the time to sit down, have a snack and talk about our day together.  I failed my intentions and didn't have homemade cookies, we had to settle for mint oreos.  Drew thought it was the greatest idea and really loved the talking.  I am going to try REALLY hard to make this happen after school, even if we can only fit in 5-10 minutes.  I want them to know I care and WANT to know about everything!  I also received a phone call from the music teacher at their school today about Brayden. She wanted to make sure I knew just how sweet Brayden was and what a wonderful big brother he was.  Ella had some blisters on her feet at recess and he lovingly took her by the hand, found a para and took her to get some band-aids, missing his whole recess.  Man, I love that kid!

So, after day two the report from the three kids: awesome, fun, cool, exciting, new and friends!

Round two will be on Monday with Morley.

That will be the hard day for me when I WILL be at home.

As Ella says, "all alone".

Whatever will I do?

I have a few ideas and irons in the fire....