1st Day of School

Keeping with tradition, I took the boys back to school pics (the 1st 4) in front of their schools the night before school started.  Last year the boys were gifted 2nd and 3rd grade books from their mainstream teachers so they read those at bedtime.  Of course I took pictures the morning of as well.  They both had a great 1st day of school!

1st Day of School

I continued my tradition of taking the boys back to school pictures in front of their schools the day before school started.  That night they read their back to school books, although Justin wasn't too happy about returning to school.  We found out his teacher accepted another position a few weeks before school started and a new teacher wasn't hired until after the first week so he's having a rough start and still trying to adjust to the new teacher and routine.  Nate settled back in nicely and is enjoying 1st grade.  

1st Day of School

The boys had a great first day of school.  I'm super excited to get a "raise" now that Nathan is in full time, all day kindergarten. Although it's a little bittersweet because he's at a different school than Justin.  But more about that in a different post though.

X-Mas With Friends

Last Saturday we had friends over for our annual friends x-mas celebration with arts and crafts, cookie decorating and gifts for the kids, white elephant gift exchange for the adults and every family had family photos taken. The kids loved their gifts and the white elephant exchange was pretty fun.

Breakfast with Santa

This was our third year taking the boys to Breakfast with Santa with the Mims crew.  The first year was a free pancakes with Santa at the YMCA.  Last year's breakfast at the Longacre house was more intimate.  This year's was at the Novi Civic Center was bigger but seemed to be a big hit with storytelling with Mrs. Clause, arts and crafts, including making reindeer food and of course pictures with Santa.  They even had x-mas music playing during the down time (while Santa & Mrs. Clause went from table to table) so the kids could dance and play on the stage.

1st Day of School

The boys were both excited about the first day of school.  Nathan has been talking about Ms. Lisa all summer.  And J was just excited to ride the bus; so excited that when I told him the bus was coming he ran out the door so quick that he beat me to the bus, and I was already outside.  

  

The Day/Night Before School

With J starting kindergarten this year I started searching Pinterest for back to school picture ideas and traditions.  I knew I wanted to incorporate signs indicating which grade they were in but I got a great idea from one of the blogs I follow to take pictures at the boys' school the day before with some books.  Makes total sense to avoid all the chaos at the school the first day.  Plus the the boys school just implemented new security measures this school year which doesn't allow parents to enter the building with their kids so I wouldn't be able to walk J to his classroom and take pictures.  

I also bought The Night Before Kindergarten/Preschool to read to them at bedtime.  They're both excited for school to start, although J keeps asking for Ms. Lisa.  It shouldn't take long for him to become comfortable with his new teacher and para pros.  The nice thing is his good buddy Landen from Ms. Lisa's class is in J's classroom.  And the kindergarten special ed class does some things with the ECSE class so he'll get to see Ms. Lisa, Ms. Ann and Ms. Mollie.