First Day of 2nd Grade and Preschool!

First day of school!!!  The summer seemed to fly by but everyone was very ready for school to start.  Keeping up with which camp was which week, getting into work later and having to leave sooner, later bed times and later wake ups (ok I like that part!)... we were ready for the normal routine to kick back in.  Kendall has been counting down the days until she got to see her friends and meet her new teacher.  She warned us that she may up yelling "It's the first day of school!!!!!"  How many years of this excitement do we have left?

Today was an extra exciting day because Charlie started preschool.  He's also been asking for weeks when school was going to start, even though we didn't think he had any idea on what that actually meant.  In all honestly we were convinced he would be our kid that cried for weeks at school drop off.  He's been with Michele since he was 8 weeks old and even though he's been fine with baby sitters, recently anyways, any time we've tried to leave him in a group daycare setting he has NOT been happy.  But today he could not get away from us fast enough.  We waited in line for Kendall's class and he literally waited in line with her class.  When we walked her in to her class to he kept trying to head to other classrooms and would yell "bye mom!" as he walked away. When we finally got him into his new school he barely got his backpack off his back before he was off and exploring the new classroom and shouting, BYE!! at us.  I didn't want to jinx this independent boy attitude so we didn't hang along for too long. Mike and I had our concerns that the tides would turn part way through the day but when we went to pick him up he hardly nodded in our direction and just kept on playing.  We missed you too buddy!

Kendall already loves her teacher. She repeated multiple times at how nice she is.  Even though she is a little sad that a few of her besties are in the other class, she was smiling ear to ear when she saw a few friends name tags on desks around her.  I'm sure our little social butterfly will have no issues getting to know better some of the kids that she hasn't been in a class with yet.  She also got to see her teacher from last year which made her beyond happy.  I think it's going to be a GREAT school year and we can't wait to see what the year brings!

Two kids in school!  Feels surreal 

Siblings one year ago

2nd Grader!

 And 1st day of 1st Grage

 Such a big boy now!

 He had to model his Cars backpack

 Walking to school with our "walking bus". A bunch of the neighbor kids, and parents, will be walking to school every day this year.  I love our neighborhood!

Walking bus kiddos

 Reunited with bestie Naomi 

 Meeting her new teacher

 Mike pointed out how confident the kids were this year.  Walked right into their class, found their desks and made themselves right at home!

 Dropping Charlie at his school, which is attached to Kendall's

And he's off...

 Walking home from school. Hopefully we can keep the walking home up too! At least until it gets dark.

 Having two kids to get off to school with bags and lunches packed has me a little intimidated.  Mike's taken Charlie to daycare for the past year while I walked Kendall to school.  I was determined to be as prepared as possible so I enlisted the kids to help me bag some snacks for easy grab and go lunch packing.  

 Breakfast muffins baked...

 ...fruit, and veggies individually bagged...

 ...snacks organized and pre-packaged...

...and backpacks/lunch boxes/water bottles labeled and packed!  We were ready!

Kendall wanted a hair cut before school started so we squeezed that in too.

Kendall:
1. How old are you?  7
2. How much do you weight?  About 56.5 pounds
3. How tall are you?  4 feet 3 inches
4. What is your favorite food?  quesadillas, lemons and limes - then she stated yelling, NO SUSHI!
5. What is your favorite snack?  Carmel Cashew Trail Mix
6. What is your favorite color?  pink
7. What is your favorite toy?  My Game Watch
8. What is your favorite song?  Good to be Alive (Andy Grammer)
9. What is your favorite book?  Harry Potter
10. What is your favorite Sport?  Baseball
11. What is your favorite tv show?  Duck Tails
12. What is your favorite movie? Harry Potter 3, so far
13. Who is the coolest person on Earth?  Stella
14. Who is your best friend?  Lyla and Naomi
15. What is the thing you do the most awesomely?  Jump on the trampoline
16. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?  Harry Potter (see a theme here?)
17. When I grow up I want to be?  A Mom
18. What are you most excited about when you start the school year? Meeting my teacher
19. What are you most nervous/scared about when starting the school year?  Making new friends
20. What are you most excited to learn about?  Learning more math

Charlie:
1. How old are you?  4
2. How much do you weight?  About 32.5 pounds
3. How tall are you?  3 feet 5 inches
4. What is your favorite food?  Mac and Cheese
5. What is your favorite snack?  Fruit pouch (snacks)
6. What is your favorite color?  Blue and Green
7. What is your favorite toy?  Lightening McQueen and Mater
8. What is your favorite song?  Lightening McQueen Song (Life is a Highway)
9. What is your favorite book?  Lightening McQueen Book (another theme emerging...)
10. What is your favorite Sport?  Soccer
11. What is your favorite tv show?  Maters Tall Tails
12. What is your favorite movie? CARS 3
13. Who is the coolest person on Earth?  Mater
14. Who is your best friend?  Lightening McQueen and Mater. Then after a little pressing about people friends, he said Riley.
15. What is the thing you do the most awesomely?  Flick. (Like with his fingers. oooookay?)
16. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?  Lightening McQueen
17. When I grow up I want to be?  A Big Dragon
18. What are you most excited about when you start the school year? Sleeping and teaching my new friends (he did not nap on day 1 by the way)
19. What are you most nervous/scared about when starting the school year?  Meeting my new teacher
20. What are you most excited to learn about?  Art