Elise's First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for our school district. We are starting the year with 9 weeks in distance learning so this year's first day of school looked very different than any other. I'm so glad we have special, fun first day of school traditions that made the day special for the kids even though they didn't get to actually go to school. We started the morning with their wrapped book presents. Elise got "The Pigeon Has to Go to School" as her book. I read the book to the kids as they topped their waffles with all the special first day of school toppings they get once a year, on the first day of school. Then the kids read books while we waited for school to start. Elise was disappointed Carter had a class Zoom Meeting and she didn't. All pre-k and kindergarten students get to meet one-on-one with their teachers so Elise got to do that today instead. After Carter's Zoom Meeting I showered while the kids played for a bit. Then we started school. We did calendar, a read aloud, a vowel song, and letter practice for Elise. I had her make her letter of the day with Play Doh and when we were done she and I played Play Doh together. 

Elise made a smiley face out of Nutella on her waffles.

When we were done taking pictures Elise asked me to take some pictures of just her by herself without Carter. She decided to pose by the flowers in our flower bed and went down the flower bed asking for pictures with each set of flowers. I wondered if it was because I always take her picture by the flowers at the church on her first day of school at the preschool or if it was just something that she thought of when she looked at our flowers. Regardless it was very cute and left me wishing I thought to get some pictures of Carter by himself as well. Due to the financial strain many families are under with the pandemic and the fact that we will be spending chunks of the school year in distance learning, our school district decided to make uniforms optional this school year. We had already gotten Elise uniform clothes at the outlets in Branson over the winter and Carter likes wearing his uniform so we went ahead and wore uniforms for the first day of school. It seemed to make it feel more like school for the kids but I won't make them wear uniforms for the rest of the time at home unless they want to. Elise was super excited to wear her special uniform dress. She's been asking to wear it ever since it appeared in her closet and she sure looked cute in it! 

Elise invited Tesla onto her bean bag with her for read aloud time.

Next thing we knew Ty was home for lunch. The van is in the shop to get the sliding door repaired so we dropped Ty back off at work and kept the car so we could go to Elise's meet the teacher. We stopped off at the library to pick up a couple books we had on hold after dropping Ty off and then headed straight to the school. Elise was a little shy with her teacher at first but perked up and really enjoyed the meeting. She learned her teacher is from Venezuela and was excited to tell her all about the pets she has at home. The meeting didn't last long and I had a gift card to Starbucks so I decided to treat the kids to cake pops before the Meet the Maestra parade back at the school. We arrived for the parade early and waited outside the gates. Then we got to drive through and see all the teachers outside waving at us. At home it was math time. Elise and I practiced counting to 5 in Spanish and she completed a cutting, counting, and coloring sheet her teacher gave us during our meeting. We discussed the weather in Spanish for science and then we were done for the day. Even though it wasn't a full day of school, the kids were wiped! Elise told me she was so excited for school she kept waking up last night. Sweet girl! Read about Elise's first day of 3 year old preschool here and preschool here.

The sign out front at the school.

Elise outside her classroom.

Fox cake pops!

Working on her math lesson.

Elise's First Day of School Interview

Kindergarten

• My School Is: Eagles! (Zarrow International School, the mascot is an eagle)
• My Teachers Are: Sra Contreras  
• My 1st Day of School Is: August 31, 2020
• Height: 44.5 inches  
• Shoe Size: 12
• Weight: 42 pounds  
• I Hope I Get to Learn About: Spanish      
• When I Grow Up I Want to Be: A mom, just a mom!  
• I'm Really Good At: Climbing
• I Want to Get Better At: Reading and eating mac and cheese really fast!
• This Year I Want to Learn: Spanish  
• I'm Excited About Kindergarten Because: It's where my brother is!  
• My Favorite Thing About Myself Is: My hands because they hold stuff. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Smashing acorns at the playground to make squirrel soup.

Pushing her puppy on the swing.

Trying some plum crumble I made with all the plums we got in our school lunches.

Carter told me since he can read, he'd like to make cookies all by himself. He asked me to go in the other room so I did, but told him I needed to supervise the use of the oven. He did a great job! His first time making a recipe all on his own.

Enjoying the gardens at Gilcrease.

We found Battleship at a garage sale and have really enjoyed playing it! Although Carter has yet to ever complete and entire game!

I'm so glad Ty captured this sweet moment. Elise decided she wanted Tesla to have her own chair so she moved over onto my lap.

Jammy day but she still has to have her purse!

Science area is ready to go for distance learning starting on Monday.

Our calendar is all set up for distance learning to begin on Monday.

Writing area is all set up and has been utilized already.

Reading corner/book nook for distance learning.

Drawing time with Oma and Opa.

Couch snuggles with dogs are the best!

The kids wanted to do some practice school work at their table when they saw everything I set up for distance learning.

Carter testing out the reading area/book nook.

This boy sure loves to read!

Using his new drawing book from Oma and Opa.

Tesla seemed really into the book until she saw me taking a picture.

Aquarium Fun Run

We were signed up for the Aquarium Run well before Covid-19 made it to America. The race was close enough to Boston that I didn't want to race. My mom signed me up for the fun run with Elise and my dad because Elise said she wanted to run and my dad was just getting back into running. Carter didn't want to run, he just wanted to go to the aquarium, so he wasn't signed up. When the race went virtual I asked Carter if he wanted to run with us or if he'd rather Elise and I do it without him after Ty got home from work. He surprised me by saying he wanted to run it with us! I asked Elise where she'd like to run it and she replied with the aquarium. Why didn't I think of that?! Our bibs had a free admission to the aquarium on them so we would run and then go into the aquarium after. Thomas gave us his bib so all three of us could get into the aquarium for free.

We took off and things were going as I expected, Elise was rocking it and Carter started walking pretty early on. I let Elise go ahead and stayed back with Carter. I think it made Elise a little nervous running ahead by herself so she kept looking back to check on us. I started yelling encouragement up to her so she'd know I was still there, but she continued to look back. At one point as she looked back, she fell and rolled off the path. She was super upset and we all stopped and I swooped her up. She didn't wan to run anymore and wanted to go home. Carter wanted to finish out the mile. We were only a quarter of a mile in. I carried Elise for a bit and then asked her if she could try walking. She did and it wasn't long before she was off running again but she wanted to hold my hand most of the rest of the way. I was really proud of her for being tough, getting back up, and running again! Since Carter didn't mind me running ahead with Elise, I did that for the rest of the way so she would feel more comfortable. She and I finished in 12:08, not bad all things considered, and then made a finish line for Carter to run through. He really enjoyed that!

We stopped off at the car to get a drink and a picture with the kids' medals. Then we put on masks and headed into the aquarium. It was a nice visit and I was so glad Elise had that idea! Doing these virtual fun runs with the kids has made me miss doing my run streak a little bit. I always enjoyed running my mile on my days "off running". I'm a bit hesitant to start a streak again just because I can be a bit obsessive and don't want to get to where I obsess about missing a day of running. But it sure has been a lot of fun!