FIrst Day of School and Back to School Celebration

I seriously don't know what happened.  It is like I blinked, and he is now in 3rd grade.  Somehow we were doing really great on time this morning and then it was 8:45.  I don't know what happened to that last 30 mins. but it put a serious crunch on getting pictures and getting to school on time.  So I am very disappointed with the pictures (I had the portrait lens on and forgot to switch it), but I have to realize I am also human and not a professional photographer.  Not every picture can be perfect but it can capture a perfect moment!

Benjamin - 3rd Grade

Walking to School

Our new house is right around the block from the school.  The developer was nice and somehow got the district to donate a pathway to the school.  The problem is that it takes so long for little legs to walk up the "giant" hill and there were many complaints and screaming crying from one child both ways.  I now found out there is a bus that also passes at the bottom of the subdivision, but it is on a busy road and comes like 40 mins. before school starts. Benjamin really wants to walk by himself but the path above and is so secluded that there is no way that I would let him.  So we have yet to figure out transportation yet.

Teacher gift at his cubby

Ready to go in his classroom to start the day

Coming out of school

Walking home

Back to School Celebration

Because of some other things we had to have our celebration for dinner on the first day of school (again pictures are terrible).  I set the table with tons of school supplies as decoration and when the kids saw it they thought it was art time.  The table needed some serious cleaning before we could even eat.  It was so unintentional on my part on thinking it would be a good decoration but the mess was well worth it as they created and laughed and talked together while I made dinner.

Here is our theme this year.  It is  "Be of Good Courage" from Psalm 27:14.  We have some serious needs of courage by a family member and thought it would be appropriate for all of the family.  We had a good discussion about courage, what it means and how we can have it to make good choices, over our homemade spaghetti dinner (why is homemade sauce just so delicious?  I am seriously missing my garden and all the September tomato harvest- next year).

Here is Emma's creation from before dinner.  The sticker is a snail and the tape that you can hardly see represents the snail's slime.  So very creative - mommy goggles firmly attached:) Can you tell that our new yard is full of snails and slugs?  The kids have been playing with snails like crazy, and the slugs that we have seen are some of the biggest I have ever beheld. Yuck!

A great first day and a great celebration!