First Days of School

I am with my friend, Alison. Even the mere thought of my blog completely stresses me out these days, and I am overwhelmed with frustration and sadness over the fact that I have not published one. single. post. since this time last year. And the reason I feel such extreme shame and annoyance is because I really want to blog and to have this record of the goings-on in our family. But, alas, I must move on and be happy with what I can manage. And remind myself that most of those "free" moments that I could have used to blog have been used to volunteer at a child's school or read a book to a little one or play a board game rather than sit in front of this screen. For some reason, this still does not totally eliminate the weight I feel, but it helps.

Regardless, here I am, with precious time to spend telling the world about my little ones' glorious first days back at school this year, with Elsa starting second grade, and Aveline in her last year of preschool. Elsa started first, on Monday, August, 29, and could hardly wait. She found out who her teacher was the Wednesday before, and Elsa was thrilled to hear she got the teacher she wanted (and the teacher I was hopeful for as well)—Ms. Hager. Ms. Hager uses stability balls as desk chairs in her classroom, which I think is such a fabulous idea, and I had a really good feeling that that, in and of itself, would make a good fit for Elsa. But even in these first almost two weeks of school, I am realizing how much of a good fit Ms. Hager really is for her. There is a spark I see—and feel—in Ms. Hager's classroom that just causes excitement to rise within me. Second grade is such a pivotal year, in my opinion, as I think back to my school years, and I can tell already that Ms. Hager is going to make an imprint in Elsa's school memories that will last a lifetime. She is inventive, she likes to bend the rules a little, she is funny, she smiles, she likes to give hugs (a requirement for Elsa!), and she treats the kids as her own. Her thoughts about homework are inline with mine, that kids should be kids when they get home from school. That they are worked enough during the school day. So, even though she is required to give homework at Claxton, she keeps it to a minimum, and she freely gives out enough homework passes that it works out to one skipped homework assignment per week, between now and Christmas break. I can live with that.

You can't really read her sign (my fault...oops), but it says she wants to be an author and illustrator (and a ballerina).

Elsa and Mae have been lucky enough to have been in the same class since kindergarten. Annette and I are so thankful for their sweet friendship.

See the pile of stability balls in the background?!

Ms. Hager sent this to me via text the first day.

We got to celebrate Elsa's birthday at her school yesterday, which was fun. I had lunch with her in the cafeteria, and then we went back to the classroom, and Elsa handed out cupcakes to all of her classmates. First, however, being as Elsa's birthday was the first celebrated in the class thus far this school year, Ms. Hager introduced the class to her classroom birthday tradition, which is to have the birthday person stand on a chair in front of the classroom, and conduct the class in their performance of the "Happy Birthday" song. So fun. And then no one can take a bite of the birthday treat until the birthday boy or girl does so first. Elsa was also given a birthday sticker to wear proudly all day.

Birthday lunch together in the school cafeteria.

See my birthday sticker?!

Conducting, with Ms. Hager's assistance.

The birthday girl and her devoured cupcake.

Aveline did not talk about her excitement of school over the summer as Elsa did, but once we actually got to her first day (this past Tuesday, September 5), she was ready to go! She was super excited to wear her new guitar shirt (she and Elsa had a guitar shirt that they each took their turns wearing when they were younger, but Avie had grown out of it and was super sad to see it go), and told me and Jarrett that morning that she was "rockin' it to school" that morning. She marched into her classroom, with her new teachers, Mrs. Puryear and Mrs. Helton, as sure as could be, and really probably could have cared less to tell Jarrett and me goodbye (but I scooped her up and forced it anyway). I was slightly worried because I ended up splitting her up from her best buddy, Mallory, as Mallory's parents decided to put her in the "transitional kindergarten" class, and I opted for the four-year-old pre-K class. With Avie's September birthday, she qualified for the transitional kindergarten class, but the major difference between the two options is that there is way more free play in the four-year-old class, and that has always been of more importance to me than knowing how to read and write before even getting into kindergarten. To my greatest pleasure, she has so far been perfectly fine being apart from Mallory, and they still get to see each other some before drop-off and pick-up, and they are also on the same soccer team (Avie's first time playing soccer!) this fall. I am expecting great things for Avie this year too. She gets to go on three field trips this year! And I hear they do lots of fun and creative things in her 4A class, so I cannot wait to see the results.

Strumming her guitar.

In the classroom, on the first day. All smiles!

Tuckered out (on the floor, of course) after her first day.

Yay for the 2016-2017 school year! It has started with a bang!