Back To School

We love waiting till after Labor Day to start school here in Michigan. It gives us a chance to soak up more of the gorgeous late-summer sunshine. After getting back from our camp-out, the kiddos, with Emma's persuasive influence, decided to have a lemonade/popsicle stand and toy sale. It kept them busy all day and many of our neighbors came out to support them, so they felt it was a great success. At the end of the day one neighbor invited us all to swim in their new pool--a perfect way to end our last day of summer.

The next day everyone was very excited for their 1st day back to school!

Since our elementary school is K-6, this year I have all 5 of these cuties at the same school. This will be the only time this happens so I plan to savor this all year. Emma started 6th grade, Maya and Isabelle are in 2nd, Tristan is in 1st and Alex began Kindergarten. Alex was very excited, but nervous too. It was very nice to have all his siblings to give him the lowdown, especially because he has the same teacher Tristan had last year.

Sandy and Robert came over to watch Sebastian while I went over to be with Alex, so they were able to see them all off at the bus stop.

 Alex got on the bus for the first time with the others, then I got Sebastian situated with Sandy and Robert and I headed over to meet him at the school.

He beat me there and was herded with the other Kindergartners into the gym. This was scary for him as he thought I would be there when he got off the bus. :(  I found him sitting by two boys from our neighborhood, looking very worried.

We went over and greeted his teacher and the principal did a little presentation. By the time they had to line up to go to their classrooms, he was happy and confident once again (with genuine smiles).

Oh my, this little boy definitely owns a piece of my heart! He is such a tender, loving son.

The first day of school was just a half-day, so they were all home for lunch. It was with great relief that I listened to everyone's excited and happy accounts of their first day, including Alex. Now that he had faced the scary unknown, he was thrilled with all the new friends and fun things they were going to be doing. All Kindergarten classes in the state of Michigan are now full-day, so the next day he got to eat lunch in the cafeteria too. He was also very excited that all the Kindergarten classes have ipads now with special math and language arts programs, where the kids log-in and work at their own level. Tristan did not think it was fair that he didn't have ipads last year in Kindergarten. :)