Monday, September 13, 2010

1st Day of Preschool

Micah woke up this morning and said "No more sleeps! I'm so happy!" He was very excited to start preschool today! His teacher told him at his visiting day last week that it was five more sleeps until they started school. He has been counting down ever since he heard that!

It was a long morning for my excited boy. Afternoon preschool involves a lot of waiting. I'm sure the morning felt like an eternity for him. I could definitely tell he was excited. I answered the "Is it time for preschool?" question many times today!


We passed some of the time by taking a few pictures in the back yard. He thought this was great. He kept choosing all different spots to have me take his picture. We zig-zagged all over the yard! I loved the fact that he allowed me so many opportunities to take his picture. I don't often have that chance!


We made sure we took the traditional school picture by the tree! It's hard to get a good, not cheesy, picture of a 4-year-old!


He was thrilled to finally put his new backpack to use. He picked it out with Grandma. This morning we loaded it with a special stuffed animal friend to keep him company in class.


I love the picture above, yet I'm having a hard time coping with the reality of it. He looks so old! I guess that happens! We ended our picture spree with a quick mom/Micah shot. Another favorite!


He had a great day at school. When I picked him up he ran to me and said "I had so much fun!". I'm so thankful for his teachers and how they helped make his first day go so well. They are wonderful teachers (we had them when Ethan was in preschool) and we are looking forward to a great year!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

First day of 2nd Grade

Time for another school year to begin! Ethan has been anxiously awaiting this day since the end of 1st grade! We were all up and ready to go right on time (surprisingly, we were not up incredibly early), so we had plenty of time for pictures.

I had to take our now traditional picture by the tree. It's a great place for a first day/last day of school picture.


I was able to take a few nice pictures in between all of his silly faces and poses. The following picture is by far my favorite. Keep in mind that I just shoot the pictures and say "OK, it's time for a nice one" every once in a while. He does all the silliness and posing all on his own!


Can you say "charmer"? This boy...I don't even know what to really say beyond I love him dearly.


By far, my favorite part of the first day of school is that each year the teachers take time to pray with the kids before they even enter their classroom. Because of an incredibly busy parking lot I only caught the tail end of their prayer time, but I love knowing that it's happening. Just coming around the corner to see this reminds me of what a great school this is.


Another great part of the first day is the praise assembly that they have. The principal is wonderful and has a great way of outlining some rules while still being fun. There are 400+ children sitting on the floor (and another 160!! preschoolers will start next week). They spent time singing and learning about the theme for the school year and then off to classes they went!


As the kids all sang, "This is the day that the Lord has made". What a great day it was!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Summer Carnival

Here's a flashback to June because I'm still sorting through pictures...

I was able to take the kids to a summer carnival at our local library. There were all sorts of fun (free!) things for them to do. We started out at the balloon guy since we managed to get there before a huge line formed.

It was easy to wait patiently in line because we could watch them make balloon creations for the other kids. So cool!


I told the boys to stick close to each other since there were so many people. They obeyed...and were cute about it! Definitely something to record and remember!


Both of them chose to have a sword made. They weren't interested in any animals. They were thrilled with the end result.


Norah kindly held on to the balloon creations while her brothers toured the rest of the carnival.


Next we headed to the bounce house (again scoring a short line!) and they had fun jumping around.


After that we lined up for the goldfish race. This was so cute--each of them chose a fish and it was placed in a lane. Once the block was removed they had to blow on the fish to get it to swim to the finish line. Micah gave one little blow and his fish shot right to the end. Ethan kept blowing and blowing and his fish stayed right at the starting point. It was a fun little game!


We played a few other carnival games and they each took home a little bag of prizes. It was a great night!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

So much to say

Norah is really starting to "talk" and coo a lot more. Sometimes she only has a few giggles or quiet coos. Other times, she really gets going and has quite a story to tell! We're thinking that once she learns how to talk she's going to be one talkative girl! Jason seems to think she gets that from me!

"Talking" from Janna on Vimeo.


Doesn't she have a sweet little voice?

Conversations with boys

Here's a snippet of a conversation at our house today:

Mom: You need to hop in the shower and get cleaned up.

Boy: Why?

Mom: Because you smell like 'boy'.

Boy: How do you know? You didn't even smell me!

Mom: I just know.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Getting ready for school

We had an opportunity to go to the boys' school (notice the plural--now it's Micah's school, too!) tonight for an open house. It was a chance for Ethan to meet his teacher and check out his new classroom. We also took a peek into Micah's classroom, but he will meet his teachers at a preschool open house next week.


Ethan quickly found his desk and gave it a whirl. He's thrilled that school is starting soon. It was a long summer for this boy. He loves school so much!


He took a tour of the inside of his desk. He has a pencil box filled with all sorts of treasures--a penny, pretend money, a tape measure, dry erase marker, a glue stick, and a pen (this was exclaimed over as he has always used a pencil in school until now!). There were also workbooks and folders. All ready for next Tuesday!


Micah was excited that his classroom was open and we poked around in it for a few minutes. He took some time to meet the preschool birds and the fish.


He also had fun looking around the rest of the room. He's very excited for next week when he is able to look around some more. He'll start school the week after Ethan, so we'll have a little more time to prepare me, I mean him, for school (really, he's so excited there's not much preparation!).

We are all looking forward to getting back into the school routine!