Back to School

Okay... I'm just going to have to let my anal ways rest, and jump back into blogging. Eventually I'll get caught up, but for now I'm going to start with September and go from there. (Seems reasonable, right?)

Okay... this is technically in August, but I want to blog all about the start of Kindergarten for Sarah.

We went to back to school night. We missed the "meet and greet" at the end of last school year, and so we were very excited to meet Sarah's Kindergarten teacher. 

Sarah picked out her outfit. She was so excited to show her new teacher her new hat and her sparkly blue belt (thus the tucked in shirt... stylish, I know!).

We made her teacher, Mrs. DiSilvio a "First Day Survival Kit" and gave it to her so she would be all ready for school to start too. Sarah is holding it in the above picture. 

I'll post it on my craft blog... but I wanted to show the cute little picture that Sarah drew in the card. 

Sorry it is a little blurry, and I'm mad I didn't write down exactly what she said the picture was, but it I know it is Sarah, her teacher, Me and Zak in the picture. I know those things at the bottom by Zak are something specific... but I can't remember. I'm sure Sarah would, but she is asleep. Meh...

The Kindergarteners started a week later than the rest of the school so they could do testing that first week. So lucky for us, we had Labor Day with Daddy, and Sarah got to go on a special date with him to celebrate back to school time. 

She was giddy and loved her Daddy Date and was so excited to tell me that they did a secret surprise that she couldn't tell me about... oh, and they got ice cream too. (The surprise was picking out a birthday present... kill two birds with one stone? Why not?) 

I had grand plans to make lunches super fun for Sarah. 

Here is my first and only attempt at doing so. 

Sarah LOVES Spiderman... so we had a Spiderman themed lunch. Spidey-face PB Sandwich, Spiderman Graham Crackers, and carrots... to um, help with that Spidey-Vision (???).

As for her lunches now... they are just thrown in a rush every morning, as I am not a morning person, and usually lunch is an after thought as we are on our way out the door. Plus, she doesn't eat hardly any of her lunch, so I'm still trying to figure out what she will eat quickly. 

So far, celery sticks with peanut butter has been our most successful lunch component. 

The morning of our first day I got up early to make a "Boo-hoo" Breakfast.

I'm sad to not have my Sarah around all day... but don't let her fool you... 

Miss Giggle-pants here is just tricking you.

She was SO excited to start school! 

Her are the obligatory photos...

with signs... 

I LOVE this picture. What a sweet, sweet, daughter I have. 

Then off to school we went in a rush.

We are not far enough for busing, but a mile is a bit for us to handle when school starts at 8am (and the girls wake up at 7am). So we drive every morning, which works great because then we just head over to Abby's preschool right after we drop Miss Sarah off. 

Her teacher made a sign that Sarah was really excited about!

Here she is dropping her lunch box and backpack off in her cubby.

Acting a little nervous at this point. We found her chair and she started coloring. 

And everything was A-Okay!

No tears, just happy!

 

A week later Miss Abby was ready to start her preschool class. 

We signed her up for a preschool class taught at Arsenal Family & Children's Center.

It is the same one Sarah went to last year, their "learn through play" teaching method made such an impact on us that we knew it was where we wanted Abby to go too (Thanks Mom & Dad).

Can you see how excited this lil' Miss is?

I could hardly get her to hold still to get a picture. 

Here Abby is finding her name on the door. 

She has her "first day survival kit" for her teacher (which she has two... and I only made one... DOH!)

At the beginning of school each child is asked to wash their hands...

They actually wash their hands a lot during the day... good for germ control... not so much for dry skin. 

Abby was so excited to have SO many things to do and play with. She didn't really play much with the other kids, but then again, she is on the younger side compared to everyone. 

She played playdough...

Stamped a picture...

Played with the animals...

And of course she had to find the puffiest, frilliest, princess dress in the class and darn it as quick as she could. I love the giant 80s sleeves. And the smocking...

She played kitchen, explored the science table with the magnifying glass... we really got into that, but I was having fun showing it to her, so I didn't snap a picture.

I am so thrilled that both girls adjusted so well to their classes. 

It is so fun knowing that they are learning and growing and having so much fun...

it is also nice to have a little time with Mr. Zak in the day...

and it is even nicer when he takes a nap and I can get some work done...

YAY for school days!