First Day of School

We did it!  And it was fun.  Yay!

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To celebrate the last day of summer break, yesterday evening we went over to a friend's house and went swimming at her neighborhood pool. We went without our husbands and we probably won't do that very often!  Sara has an eleven month old little girl that tries to crawl over to the pool to jump in whenever she gets a chance.  Yikes!  She also has a little boy Leah's age to look after as well who had a lot of fun until it was time to go.  I was in the pool with the boys and Leah while Anna relaxed in her carseat in the shade.  That's a lot of young kids for two mammas, even super mammas like us.  :o)

But we did have a great time.

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So then today after lunch, while the girls took their naps, the boys and I started school.  We got through all of our subjects (minus a few that weren't started today) with three kids in about two hours.  I'll have to tweak some things, but it went really well.  Leah's nap was cut short because of a dirty diaper and then she fell and hurt her leg while I was reading science to the boys, so that was a distraction for a few minutes and I thought I would lose the boys' attention, but they were patient and held on until we finished.  We don't take breaks at all so we can finish during nap time, but I made a fun treat for them for when we finished to reward their hard work on their first day.

We took first day of school photos and the boys held up their fingers for what number grade they are in.

I didn't know how Gabe could show that he was in pre-kindergarten, but look how adorable he is with his markers and scissors!  He was so ready to start his school work.

And please don't mind the fact that the boys all have poofy hair and need haircuts! 

I bought the kids some fun little gifts for the first day...calculators, Hangman and Tic Tac Toe gamesheets, and t-shirts with iron-on paper so they can design their own shirt. 

And then we got to work.

Then, when we finished our school day, I surprised the boys with this yummy Pencil Brownie Cake.  (instructions found at the Family Fun website).  Keeping in mind that the cake decorator of the family is in Alaska right now, I think it turned out pretty well.

They didn't know I had made it and were very excited to end our school day with it. 

And there's a yummy lasagna, one of their favorite meals, baking in the oven to finish off the special day for the kids.

If Chris had been home, we might have taken the kids out for a special breakfast to start the day with.  I don't take the kids to sit down restaurants by myself anymore, not even Denny's. 

I was surprised that there are not that many back-to-school ideas out in the cyber world.  With Christopher having went to public school for kinder and first grade, I remember the excitement of his first day, taking him to school with his new backpack and lunch box, his new cute little outfit, checking out his new classroom, his new teacher, his new desk, his new classmates.  I think I may just do these fun first day of school things for myself just as much as for the kids.

I have seen ideas for a "not back-to-school" day with fun activities like Chuck E Cheese or going out for ice cream when the public schools start back up, so maybe we'll do something that day as well. 

As I end this post, my children have found a spider and are trapping it to look at it more closely.  I guess our school day isn't done after all.  :o)