My Favorite Day of the Year...BACK TO SCHOOL!!

I love my children and I love doing fun things with them...but I love it when they go back to school! My kids enjoy school and being with their friends all day. Plus we all enjoy the structure that school brings. I try to keep a consistent schedule during the summer, but that doesn't always work out. For FHE the night before school started this year, we went to a park called Highland Glen. It is this awesome place that has a pond for fishing and feeding ducks, trails to walk, and a little playground. We took up some pizza for dinner... Then watched the ducks and tried a little bit of fishing...

We ended our night with a little bubbly and a toast. We toasted to all of the fun things we did that summer and then toasted to what we looked forward to with the new school year... Then we went home and did Father's Blessings. Emma was so excited to have her first "official" back to school Father's blessing. This year Maddie is in 3rd Grade at Shelley Elementary. Her teacher is Mrs. Larsen and she is very nice. Maddie is really excited to learn cursive this year!

I love Shelley because they make the first day of school so special for the kids. Last year the kids walked into the school on a red carpet and all the teachers were dressed up in fancy clothes ready to make the kids feel like a movie star. This year they had an arch of balloons, some fun music blaring in the back ground, and the teachers all had pom-poms and mega phones to cheer each student as they walked into the school...

Maddie saw her teacher from last year as the first person to cheer her on and gave her a big hug. There was a fun little sign hanging up on the doors for the kids to see...

I usually don't cry when I drop my kids off on the first day. I usually am doing cartwheels all they way back to the car! But you just can't help getting a little misty-eyed when you feel the love and kind energy that radiates from the teachers when they do special things like this. It makes me feel proud, happy and at peace to know that my children attend such a good school!

Emma did not get the big fanfare that Maddie did but she was too excited to care anyway. After waiting for 3 whole years (and I'm not exaggerating that) Emma FINALLY gets to go to KINDERGARTEN!! Emma misses the deadline by 4 days and so she had to wait a whole year to go to school. I think it will be better for her in the long run though. Because our ward all goes to different schools (anywhere but Greenwood!) Emma doesn't see any of her friends at school. But this year 3 of her friends from the ward we used to live in are in her class! So exciting. Emma doesn't have a hard time making friends, but it's always fun to have friends in your class. My mom has a tradition of taking the kids out to lunch and school clothes shopping when they go to kindergarten. Emma loves clothes and shoes! They had a great time and Emma couldn't wait to model her favorite outfit and shoes on the first day... She bugged me every second of the day, "is it time mom? Is it time to go to kidnergarten yet?" Even when we got there and got out of the car she said, "can I walk up to my class now? Is it time for kindergarten?" She couldn't wait to be in class. No tears for either of us today! Em's teacher is Miss Lyons and she hopes to learn how to read this year. I don't know about you, but for me the first day of school has a certain smell to it and a certain feeling in the air. Even now for me as a mother I still feel that excitement in my stomach and smell it in the air. I love the first day of school!