First Day of Kindergarten (For Hannah)

Today my little banana started kindergarten.  A lot like last year with Addison, it started off as a kind of rough morning!  Addison is on our district's "Early Bird" schedule, which means she goes to school over an hour before the morning kindergarten starts.  Hannah was not happy about that, so she was kind of moping when we went out to take these pictures.

Fortunately I'm an incredibly funny person...yes that was sarcasm...and after a few jokes, I got them all smiling. ;)

Addison is so sweet.  She has been SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited for Hannah to start kindergarten.  She picked the shirt she was wearing specifically so that she'd match Hannah on her first day.  After I took pictures of all the girls together, Addison timidly asked if I could take a picture of just Hannah and her.  I was happy to agree to the request.  :)

My alarm to take Addison to school went off so we dropped her off, and when we got home, the groaning about it not being time to go to kindergarten resumed.  So I decided we would walk....very slowly.  I posted a few pictures on Instragram, but I didn't get my big camera out for the actual walk. 

When we finally made it to school, we were still SUPER early, so I convinced Hannah that we needed some pictures in front of the school.

(She wasn't especially happy about it.)

Then Maya asked if she could get a picture with just her and Hannah (they were super cute holding hands for a lot of the walk to school).

We wasted a little more time at the photo booth.

And in the hall outside her classroom.

And finally I decided it was close enough to start time that we could go and bother her teacher (Miss Williams) for a picture.

She had a couple more things to do so she sent us to the play yard where they had cookies for all the new kindergartners (and tissues for the weepy moms), so Hannah played out there for a little bit. 

And finally, it was time for class to start.  Her teacher showed her where to put her backpack and folder.

Then she found her name tag.

And settled right in at a table.

And from that point on I think she was just wondering why the heck I was still there.

And, after telling her I was leaving only to return and take more pictures about seven times, I FINALLY left the room, and snapped this shot on my way out.

I think she's not going to have any problem adjusting to kindergarten.

First Day of School (For Addison)

So our elementary school started today.  (For everyone but the Kindergartners, so Hannah starts next week).  That means it was Addison's first day of Second grade.

Her sisters will miss her a lot.

We got there early so that we could take a picture with her teacher and at her desk.

We dropped off her backpack and lunch and headed back out to the front hall where all the kids were congregating, waiting for the bell to ring.  The administration had set up a photo booth where you could dress up and take pictures, so we had some fun with that.

It was raining, so they laid out the red carpet inside instead of outside like last year.

And just like last year, teachers lined up along the red carpet and welcomed the kids back.  It was pretty chaotic because it was inside, but the kids were all pretty excited.

And when she came home, she was just as excited about school as when she left.  That's always a good sign.  :)

A Joint Art Show

So this year Bart contacted Addison's first grade teacher and asked if her class would be interested in doing a joint art show with his high school students.  Mrs. Boles said, "Absolutely!" So the show was on!

Addison's class drew pictures of monsters and then Bart's ceramic class sculpted them.



I picked up the pictures from Mrs. Boles, made copies of them, and dropped off the copies at Bart's class.  When he saw them, he got sooooooo excited!  They were so good!  He couldn't believe first grader's had drawn them!



The whole sculpting process was a bit stressful for Bart...especially since there were more students in Addison's class than in his, but several students did multiples, and a few teachers helped out too, so every first grade picture had a great sculpture that went along with it.   And when the kids came to the art show and were soooooo excited to see the sculptures of their art work, it made all of the hard work and stress TOTALLY worth it!!!



 Bart got to sculpt Addison's monster, so that was pretty cool too.  :)



Bart's class took a vote and they elected to give the sculptures to the elementary school students, so they took a field trip over to the elementary school to give them the sculptures.  It was so awesome!  The kids were so excited! 

They put the art on display at the school for the last few weeks of school. 






I got WAY more pictures than I posted here, but I didn't want to bombard you with a million pictures. 

Needless to say, it is something we hope to repeat in the future!!!  :)

As Promised

The second we got home from Parent Teacher Conferences, Addison asked if we could set off her volcano.  Unfortunately for her, the sink had dishes in it, so I told her we couldn't do it until the dishes were out of the sink.  Over the next few days there managed to be dishes in the sink non stop.  Addison kept asking and I kept telling her not while there were dishes in the sink.

Finally (a few days later) we actually had room in the dishwasher for every single dish, so I got them all out of the sink, and then with a completely empty sink in front of me I felt inspired to clean it.  No sooner had I finished polishing the last water spot off the faucet than Addison was at my side saying, "YAY! Now can we set off my Volcano???

So, the girls gathered around and Addison FINALLY got to set off her volcano.

And then I made her do it a few more times. It's still just as exciting as when I did it in elementary school.  Does watching baking soda and vinegar erupt from a volcano ever get old???

Student Led Parent Teacher Conferences

Did you ever have back to school night?  Do you remember how incredibly excited you were whenever back to school night rolled around?  Your WHOLE family got to come to your school and see what you were doing.  I can't be the only one out there who felt this way as a kid.  Back to School Nights were  seriously the highlight of my elementary school years.  I STILL remember (with fondness bordering on giddiness) guiding my parents around my classroom, showing them all the cool stuff I was working on, and just beaming with pride as my teacher told my parents what a great student I was.

Well, around here they call them Student-Led Parent Teacher Conferences, but it's still just as exciting.  Addison got to show us all sorts of stuff she was working on.



The night of parent teacher conference, which also happened to be the 100th day of school, Addison's teacher had the students write 100 words.  If they completed all 100 words, their paper got cut into these curly cues and hung from the ceiling.

The kids have been learning about volcanoes, and got to "make" one in class. 



The highlight of the evening was watching it erupt.

I missed the first eruption and asked Addison to put in some more baking soda.  Addison looked questioningly at her teacher who gave her the go ahead (apparently they were only supposed to do it one time).  As Bart was helping her put the funnel in, part of the volcano broke off.  I gasped and held my breath waiting for Addison to start crying (she does that from time to time when something she's worked hard on breaks...and she had been telling me about this volcano for days), but she didn't, she just once again looked at her teacher, who said, "Don't worry, that's fine, it's just the demo one."  Then she was fine.  I was pretty impressed, I thought for sure there would be tears.

It wasn't until I asked if Addison needed to get her volcano from the bucket to take home that I realized, it wasn't her volcano that broke at all, it was the Demo volcano for everyone to use!  The lack of tears made sense, but I felt even worse!   We had broken the volcano everyone else would be using that night. Oops!

Fortunately Addison's teacher really didn't mind.  She is such a wonderful teacher, I'm so glad Addison is in her class.



Before we left Addison's teacher asked her what the molten rock was called when it was inside the volcano.
Addison excitedly replied, "Magma!"

"And what is it called outside of the volcano?"
 
"Lava"

And with that Addison earned the right to take home her own "Lava" so that she could make her volcano erupt at home.

More on that in the next blog post...

First Day of School

I have to say, the first day of first grade was actually pretty rough for us.  I had warned Addison that this year she would have to get up earlier because school started at 8:00 instead of 9:15.  Always the dutiful daughter, she got up without complaining, put on the outfit she had carefully laid out the night before, made her bed, did her chores, ate, did her hair, brushed her teeth, and was completely ready to go by 7:30.

The only problem was that the school decided to have a P.M. common day for the first day of school, which meant school started at 9:15.
 
The next hour was filled with so many “Is it time to go yet?”s that I thought we’d try walking to school: an idea everyone was excited about...except Addison. At one point she was so opposed to it she broke down in tears.  I finally caved in and we just waited around until it was time to go.  She was still recovering from her breakdown when we piled into the car, so I was worried that it might taint the rest of her day.



Fortunately, as soon as she saw her friends at school, she got so excited I almost completely forgot it was a rough morning.  The school’s theme this year is, “Be our guest” and teachers were lined up along a red carpet welcoming the students back to school as “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast played over the sound system.



Her teacher, Mrs. Boles was excited to meet her and while Addison was a little shy at first, she really warmed up once she was sitting at her desk.


P.M. common days end at 3:30 and I think it might have been the longest day of my life.  I kept looking at the clock to see if it was time to get her.  I didn’t realize what an adjustment having Addison gone all day was going to be fore me.  I definitely missed her.  Fortunately, on normal days she’ll get home at 2:15, so I won’t have to wait quite as long.  :)

When Addison got home, she was so excited to tell me all about everything she did (including how she wanted to buy lunch instead of bringing it the next day).  It made all my waiting worth it. 
Addison, I’m so happy you’re so excited about school.  It’s going to be a great year!