First Day of School

This year marks Emma's entrance into kindergarten. . .she was so ready to go!  She's been reading well on her own for awhile and just gets better and better the more she reads.  She was emotionally and socially ready to go as well.  She'd had enough one-on-one time with me in the last 7 months and was ready for interaction with kids her own age.  My biggest concern about school for her was that it would require her to wake up so early.  She's never been an early riser and has gotten up at 8:00 or later pretty much her entire life.  There have even been periods of time when she has consistently gotten up after 9:00.  Because of our bus schedule, I knew Emma would have to wake up at 6:15 to be ready for the bus by 7:00.  With the help of my mother-in-law, I created a sticker chart for both Carson and Emma to encourage them to be happy each day as we began the first week of school.  If they did well for two weeks, they would each receive a Jake and the Neverland Pirates doll (that I got on clearance for super-cheap, of course!).  Apparently, the prize has been worth the effort, because with only one more day to go on their two-week challenge, they have both been fabulous! 

Kindergarten is full-day here in Star Valley, so both kids are gone from 7:00 to 3:15.  That also worried me for Emma, but she has run with it.  She doesn't even act grumpy or tired when she gets home from school.  I think these two weeks have been a tender mercy from the Lord to help me with Dave working full-time in Colorado.

The school hosted a Back-to-School night a few evenings before school started, and I took a few of the kids in their new classrooms.  Plus, they brought in a bus so the kindergarteners could see what being on a bus would really be like.  It just so happened to be our morning bus and driver, so Emma really got a good feel for it.  Gayle was handing out handfuls of dumdum suckers, and quickly became the favorite part of the night for all of my kids!

Happy to have found her desk.

Mrs. Brylinski has an owl theme in her classroom.  Emma LOVED making her owl!

Carson is super-excited to be in Mrs. Crittenden's class for second grade.

These Toy Story figures were in front of the library and Joely got excited.  It may be as close to Disneyland as we get!

Bus #75 -- Checking out our morning bus with Gayle

7:00 am on the first day of school. . .still dark enough to need the flash!

Second grader

Kindergartener!

Good and ready to go!

So you can see the whole outfit. . .

Best buddies. . .most of the time.  I'm so glad they have each other at school now!

He was a good sport about smiling for pictures, even though he really just wanted to go watch for the bus.

Sporting her new backpack from Grandma Jex.  She kept her arms folded for all the pictures because she was so cold!

There's the bus. . .and off they go!

Thankfully, both Carson and Emma came home from school totally excited and ready to go back the next day.  I'm glad they'll have the next two months here in Star Valley surrounded by great people and awesome teachers.  Let the school year begin!