We had Hunter’s curriculum night at his school. He dressed up for the occasion (the whole class did) and was my tour guide around the classroom.
I found this paper exceptionally charming. One of things you need to know about Hunter – “I’ve lived in the same house for eight years. We’ve redone about two fifths of our house and redid our front yard.”
Two fifths? That’s all the credit he’s going to give me? We only have two bathrooms, one bedroom and a laundry room left – that means I’m well over four fifths!! I keep forgetting to ask how he came up with that number!?
Don’t forget it’s important to know he had athlete’s foot in first grade, Hallie threw up on him and he went to the same preschool as his annoying brothers. When asked about his annoying brothers, he said they had to use so many adjectives and that’s what he landed on. Makes sense for a fifth grade boy!
Cannon recently came home with this little project from his first day of school. We’re a month into school now so reading this brought back all the emotions of his first day.
There he stood, in a sea of other boys and girls his age waiting for his kindergarten teacher to come pick up his class. He was a ball of nerves and at one point had tears rolling down his face. He pulled it together just in time and stood in the front of the line as the teacher walked them back to the classroom waving goodbye to all the parents.
He got home from school that day and he talked about the highlights of his day. But I never heard him mention anything about that morning – until this little paper came home. They made this the first day of school and there were a whole list of words they could cut out and put on this paper and he chose worried.
He had so many questions as to who was going to be in his class. Was his teacher going to be nice? What is lunch time going to be like? How does recess work? The questions most kids new to school would ask.
I’m happy to report that he only felt worried for a very short minute. The second day of school he was back at it, excited to eat his lunch, ride the bus and see his friends again. But his initial feelings will forever be immortalized in this little paper sitting his memory box.
The end of a 14 year era…it was time to take the crib down.
This crib has had a lot of love (and shockingly still in great condition!). It has held my most precious possessions since the day we brought them home from the hospital. It has held my crying babies and angry toddlers. It has held the rambunctious jumping child and the most sleepy of heads. It has held special blankies and random toys. It has held so many memories.
I have laid next to this crib with my arm tight against the rails as I rub a back or head. I’ve fallen asleep next to this crib as I anxiously wait for a child to fall asleep. Kids have squeezed under the crib in many games of hide and seek. I can’t even count how many times this crib has been wiped down from sticky and germ-y fingers. The kids have climbed in and the kids have climbed out.
It has been a central point in our home for a long time now. And then the kids grew. They grew and grew and the crib couldn’t seem to hold their big bodies and blossoming personalities much longer. Briggs was in the crib the longest and that’s because no one came after him to kick him out, but he looked like a giant climbing in and out of that thing.
So it was time to say goodbye. One last sleepy head, one last bedtime song, one last leg flung over the side of the rail and one grateful heart for so much love for a some pieces wood. It has served its purpose well.
As expected, I held it together just fine as I dropped off Briggs today at his first day of preschool. Briggs, however, did not keep it together.
He was so excited all morning long. He was talking and dancing and being totally silly with excitement. Even in the car we were jamming out to his favorite song and he was all smiles. I opened up the car door to get him out. He gave me a panicked look and the minute his foot stepped out of the car he was in tears. Not even his very best buddies could cheer him up as we walked into the house.
I passed him off to the teacher and she reminded Briggs that Hunter and Bennett and Cannon all sat in those chairs and loved her class. She put her arm around him and pulled him in a for a hug and the crying stopped. And lucky for the teacher it didn’t start back up again. He was a happy camper the rest of the time and he’s already talking about going back.
His teacher goes to sooo much effort for these little kiddos – she makes them each a personalized backpack every year. This year’s theme is the jungle – hence the monkey backpack. He absolutely loves it.
She also packs it full of fun things and he loved exploring all his new supplies.
The first day was a success! Everyone made it home from school and were anxious to talk about their days in detail over ice cream sundaes.
Hallie is wishing she had more friends in her classes, but grateful that she has lunch with all her friends
Hunter is wishing his buddy Scott could be there for the first day – but we made sure he was a part of the fun.
Bennett loves his new teacher because she’s so nice, he’s just wondering when basketball starts.
And Cannon…he thought it would be more fun and recess was shorter than he expected. Spoken like an honest 5 year old. He was brave for his first day but there was a moment where he had tear filled eyes and it took a minute to regain his courage. Steve and I both were there to make sure he got in the right line outside the school, waiting for his teacher.
We saw some other kids who were tearing up trying to find their lines so we made sure to get them to their teachers. We made it back to Cannon standing in his line and he was a ball of tears. His nerves had got the best of him but nothing Steve couldn’t shake him of. (Steve is the master at comforting and the master of distraction – both were needed in this moment). His teacher came at just the right time and she held Cannon’s hand as they made their way into the school. He smiled and waved and just like that he was off to new adventures.
And Briggs is wondering why he can’t start school today !
We like to bring summer in with a bang and this year that included buckets and buckets and even more buckets of water balloons. We had arranged for all the kids on the bus get off at our stop to get popsicles for the last day of school. They were in for a larger surprise when their parents and the rest of the neighborhood were all waiting ready to ambush them with balloons.
Parents filled balloons and dropped them off. Parents dropped off balloons to be filled (Thank heavens they dropped off the quick fill Bunch-O-Balloons (aff link). If you haven’t seen these in action, they are amazing. We had 1500 balloons filled in no time. If you do try these – note that they need to be filled within an hour of using them. Costco has them in a large party pack!)
I don’t think anyone escaped this event dry (except, of course, for the camera woman!) and I’m convinced Steve enjoyed this more than all the kids. In fact, I think all parents enjoyed throwing balloons at their kids – and the kids had no problem fighting back. It was an epic battle.
Someone had the genius idea to have all the balloons picked up before popsicles were given out and that was probably the best move of the day!
Here are the kids willing to pose for the photo. Happy summer to all!
