First Day of School

This is the 14th year (including 2 years of preschool) that I have been sending my kids off to their First Day of School. Every year I take photos. So why did I sent my boys off with a smile and a wave and NEVER take their photo? Does it have anything to do with the fact that in dog years I would be dead? I think my mind is slipping....

I did remember to take Emily's photo. She looks like she is posing for a mug shot. Poor little thing was a bit of a zombie. The excitement and anticipation made her so restless the night before that she couldn't have gotten more than 5 hours of sleep.



The cutoff for Olivia to enter school is the end of July and she has a December birthday so she has to wait another year. We'll be having "school" at home. After showers she worked on writing capital and small letters.



I tried to include Lucas, but after about 3 minutes he was gone playing cars.

Then he proceeded to have a major 3-year old meltdown because I wouldn't let him play the XBox. He has become obsessed with video games, and I have to get control of it now.

I did not give in to the pleading baby blues.

After writing her letters it was art time. Okay so I really don't have my act together with lesson plans yet so we used a coloring book for art time. I think my brain has to ease into this! :)

After that Olivia worked on counting objects and writing her numbers. Honestly, she would spend all day going from one worksheet to the next if I let her.

Again, the 3-year old boy wasn't as into it as his sister. He scribbled with a black marker for about 10 seconds. He was more interested in eating brownies! I don't blame him.

Every good school day has to have playground time, and since the rain was taking a break we headed outside.

They love to help feed and water the animals. I hope that continues when they are older!

(note to those who don't Facebook with me...we had a tragedy the other night. A dog destroyed the chicken pen and killed all but three of the chickens. I'll never understand why an owner would love their dog so little as to let it roam and risk injury, but it happens all the time. Words cannot describe how sick I am about it all).

We spent the rest of the day playing until Nick, Elijah and Emily came home. The boys took off biking and skateboarding, the babies feel asleep very early and Em and I watched a movie together. (Dad's working out-of-town). Oh, and there was that mound of papers from all the teachers I had to read and sign. One day down....179 to go!

This morning Miss Emily was a bit more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Since Mother Nature is slowly destroying my gardens she took this bouquet of flowers to her teacher this morning.

There is so much work to do and things to take care of outside as winter is quickly approaching, but the rain makes me want to curl up inside and watch a movie. Ahhh, I think this is what happened last year (and the years before that) and I was out picking up stuff in the freezing slushy snow. I promised I wouldn't let that happen again so I'd better get to work.