First Day of School

While we had a wonderful summer, both kids were excited to start school.

 

 

Caitlin is in 1st grade and Dominic is in 4th grade. Seems hard for me to believe.


Caitlin at her desk. 

She has Ms. Janzen for her teacher this year.

Dominic at his desk.

He has a two new teachers this year, Mr. Moors and Ms. Ellie.

 

Kindergarten graduation

Anyone that's talked to me recently knows my feelings on kindergarten graduation. But just in case you haven't heard my rant, I'll share it now. =) It's the biggest joke. What are they graduating from or to? What have they accomplished in one year of school that needs a whole huge celebration? Shouldn't we at least wait until they have done something? I could go on, but I think you get the point. It's a waste of time and money.

But since Dominic got one and it's combined with the 8th grade graduation that the students are required to attend I sucked it up. She's my last one anyway.

But despite my reluctance baby girl was precious and I'm so proud of her. She's turning into a gorgeous young lady both inside and out. 

Both of my kids won the two reading awards for the school. Shocker! ;)

Yesterday I tested them on two different tests I found online and they are several grade levels above in their reading. Can't say I'm surprised, but it's still nice to know that I've passed my passion on to them.

This next picture is of Dominic accepting his award. I had a board meeting that started at 5:15pm. Graduation was at 7pm and I slipped in the door a few minutes before it started. I left right after the reception to another meeting that lasted until after midnight. So that was definitely not my calmest day. I knew Jon wasn't going to have time to worry about the kids clothes so I had everything picked out and packed so the kids could change at the church. I'm sitting there watching the kids march up and I see Dominic in a too small, inappropriate shirt and paint splattered shorts. WHAT?! Turns out his size 8 church pants are too small and he couldn't get them buttoned. So he just wore his play shorts to the graduation. I felt like the mom of the year! But hey, the kid can read really well. =)

Substituting

Yesterday I subbed at the school so the teachers could enjoy a meal with their spouses. It was one of the pieces to their teacher appreciation week from the school board.

Usually I sub in Dominic's room. The older kids are fun and I enjoy being with them. But yesterday I was babysitting a little girl who will be in Kindergarten next year and she wanted to eat lunch with Caitlin. So I took that classroom instead. 

Oh my word! Those kids are hilarious.

We were sitting outside eating lunch. The following is a piece of the conversation.

Student A - Mrs. Caitlin's Mom? I can't remember your name.

Student B - It's Ms. Tima or Mrs. Murrell.

Student C - You're a really good mom.

Me - Thank you!

Student C - Because you don't bite.

Me - Uhm?!

Student A - Mrs. Caitlin's Mom, I'm really glad you don't bite. 

Student B - Because we'd have to put it on facebook.

By this time I was completely lost and confused. But laughing. What was the thought process that went into this conversation?

School!!!

My kids LOVE their school. Well, Dominic does. And Caitlin loved the half day she spent there back in the spring. So they had literally been counting down the days until school started again.

Monday morning they were so excited they could hardly stand still. I made pancakes and we were almost late for school because they were too excited to eat.

 At school. They were so anxious to get inside that I was shocked I even got this picture.

 Caitlin emptying her supplies into her desk. She LOVES her classroom and teacher.

 Jon has come with us for the last three years on the first day of school.

I love this man. He's such an awesome dad!

 Dominic is in the "big kid" classroom. He's quite proud of that fact.

My little guy is growing up.

 

Caitlin was so excited that she was almost crying when I left. But her teacher said she did great. The next morning the giddy had worn off and she was nervous. But after that she's been fine. I know Dominic has enjoyed school all year the last 3 years. So hoping Caitlin loves school just as much as he does. It definitely helps that we have a great school and wonderful teachers who make learning fun.

The end and the beginning

This school year ending has been incredibly bitter sweet for me. Caitlin is ending her gymnastics program after 3 years because she will start school in August. So I took several pictures of her last day there.

 

 A special thank you to Ms. Kelly for being such an amazing teacher. 

Caitlin really, really loved going to gymnastics each week.

Dominic won the science award for his classroom this year. Incredibly proud of our little man. He's also doing really well in math and reading. While still wild and crazy, he seems able to channel most of that into doing well in school. So we are thankful. =)

Round Up

Caitlin has been looking forward to going to school for quite some time. This year in March she was able to attend for half a day to check out the school. During this time the teachers evaluate the students to see if they are ready. This event was talked about weeks before.

The day before she picked out her clothes to match the uniform and helped me make her lunch. It was the first time in history that I didn't have to urge her to get up. Both kids were ready an hour before we were ready to go.

 I thought I'd explained the process several times to Caitlin. But we had one sad little girl on our hands when she realized that she had to wait until August to go back again. She absolutely LOVED it.

These next few pictures were taken sometime this month. I'm so proud of how big my baby girl is getting. But a part of me will miss this baby who has been at home with me for so long.

 

Spirit Week

I completely forgot to post the rest of the pictures from Spirit Week.

Day 2 - Animal

Skunk

 

 This kid cracks me up.

 I ran into a bit of technical difficulty. I made the assumption that I would be able to find white hairspray since it was in the stores last year. But every store was out. So we tried to make silver work. I also thought I had some face paint and couldn't find it anywhere. So I used an old tube of mascara and didn't tell Dominic.

 This outfit gave me FITS! I am not a seamstress. So when I pulled my sewing machine out of the closet I had to clean off a massive layer of dust. Then I couldn't figure out the bobbin thingy since it had been so long since I last used it. But the end result pleased Dominic. So it was all good.

 I might be biased, but this is one really cute kid! Even with wonky mascara all over his face. =)

Day 3 - Backwards Day

 

 

Day 4 - Pajama Day

Day 5 - Food

Fortune Cookie

 Another technical nightmare. I couldn't find tan clothes. So we had to go with slightly burned cookie. And the sewing part, while much simpler, was still not easy for me.

If any Chinese people are reading this, I apologize for my appalling Chinese handwriting.

School

Dominic has had a couple of things going on at school that I went to take pictures of. But they somehow didn't make it on the blog. So I'm going to put them together.

The first one was when his teacher revealed what she was having. The kids have spend the entire school year guessing about it and they all had their assumptions based on the most hilarious reasons. One boy thought it would be a boy because he was a boy. One girl (whose mom is a nurse) was sure it was a girl because she'd heard that you get more nauseous with girls. 

Beth-Anne chose a cute way of revealing it to them. She had several of the upper grade kids spray her and Matthew (her husband) with silly string. They would know when it came out either pink or blue.

The anticipation was killing some of them.

 It's a boy!!!

 Dominic was thrilled!

 The kids LOVED the silly string.

 It MIGHT have made little man a tad bit crazy. =)

 This last week Dominic had to prepare and give a presentation on a country. He chose Thailand. He had to research and then present a talk about the food, clothes, major religion, and one of their festivals or holidays. Typical boy he really got into the food and holiday part. But he totally blew off the clothes. When asked to talk about it by his teacher he made the comment -

"This is what they wore in the 19s and this is what they wear in the 20s" Then he moved on to the more interesting topics.

When someone asked a question about Buddha he went into this long story about Nebuchadnezzar and the golden statue. He seemed to be under the impression that they were the same. When Beth-Anne realized where he was going she corrected him. He recovered very quickly with -

"Well you know how they bowed down to the golden idol? Well that's how they bow down to Buddha." It was a very well played save. =)

 Showing everyone Thailand on the map.

Caitlin wants so desperately to be in school. So she loves these opportunities to visit Dominic during school. She seemed to think she was helping him with his presentation.

Dominic got extra credit for bring some food from his country. Part of his presentation was about how they eat food differently. His examples were the black beans in ice cream, coconut milk in spicy soup, and sweet mixed with sour.

So to help illustrate this he gave them spicy mangoes. The kids were NOT impressed. He followed up with lychee candy and chocolate Pocky sticks. That seemed to go over much better. Caitlin helped pass everything out.

Canyons

Dominic had a presentation at school yesterday. He had to research canyons and build a 3D canyon out of any material. He had so much fun building one out of Legos with his Daddy.

I thought I'd gotten a close up of the canyon, but sadly I can't find it. It was so cool with water, waterfalls, trees, and even a cave with a secret treasure chest in it.

Sleeping Late

This morning when Jon woke me up (he leaves really early so he can ride his bicycle to work) I asked him to call me when he got to work. I was extremely tired and knew I'd fall back asleep. Quite a bit later I wake up and glance at the clock - 7:38. We leave the house at 7:40 every morning to get Dominic to school in time.

I ran into the living room to find out that Dominic had just woken up himself. We both panicked and ran around trying to throw on clothes and get stuff together. 

Thankfully we make lunches, pick out clothes, and get the back pack ready the night before. So Dominic and I got dressed and I handed Dominic an apple/oatmeal trail mix to eat in the car on the way there. We made it with time to spare. But my heart had a bit of exercise.

When we got back home, Caitlin asked if she could have the same trail mix. I got one out of the cabinet and handed it to her. I knew I'd handed her the smores one when she started getting really excited about the chocolate. Oh well!

Dominic gets back into the car after school and grabs the leftovers out of the cup holder to finish. Caitlin, in a very excited voice, asks him -

"Is that the ones with the enema in them and the tiny dried marshmallows?"

Dominic was clueless and I about died laughing.

We finally got her to pronounce M&Ms properly.

I LOVE hearing Dominic's version of school every day on the ride home. Today I told the kids we needed to pray for Ms. Beth-Anne because she might be getting a cold. 

Dominic - "No. She's fine. She would have told me if she was getting sick."

Me - "Uhm. I'm pretty sure she's not feeling 100% so we can still pray for her."

Dominic - "No. She tells me EVERYTHING about her, well almost everything. So I would know this stuff."

We still prayed for her!

Homework

We have a set routine that after the past two years is pretty set in stone.

1. Arrive home from school and empty back pack. Take care of the things in the back pack.

2. Do any homework.

3. Practice piano.

4. Do chores (including getting ready for school tomorrow).

5. Go play.

I've mentioned quite often that I'm not cut out to homeschool. Today reiterated this very well.

Dominic gave me his red folder (full of info for parents, take home papers, and homework).

I pulled out a sheet of homework. It was only a couple of questions that I knew he could answer. So I didn't even bother to offer my assistance.

He began whining. 

"I can't do this. It's impossible."

Seriously?!

When I asked him what the problem was, he explained that his failure to even start was due to his lack of a pencil.

"Please don't tell me you say this to your teachers?"

"Uhm, no. I just answer the questions."

Sigh!

And THIS is why I don't homeschool. I am perfectly willing to pay educated and qualified teachers to wrestle teach my sweet little boy. =)

Caitlin and school

Caitlin wanted to start school so badly this year. But her birthday isn't until December so she wouldn't be old enough. She begged me to have the teachers start a pre-k. She asked if she could pretend to be 7 yrs old, like Dominic. She asked if she could do K twice, instead of once.

I felt sorry for her, but rules are rules. And she's not really ready yet. I still would have held her back another year regardless of the rules. So I told her we'd do homeschool. I bought one of those little workbooks and had her pick out some supplies. She picked out her 1st day of school outfit.

But being at home with mom also means lots of fun times. It just means those times are alone.

Because I don't work well as a princess (or so I was told by a tiny princess).

And the water was just too cold for me to join her. I was perfectly content to sit and watch.

 

We will have a fun school year just the two of us. 

And I will savor every moment. Because next year there will be no holding this girl back.

She's more than willing to abandon me. =)

2nd Grade

Little man was super excited this morning. 

School started today.

He's so precious. And I couldn't let him go if I didn't have such faith in our amazing teachers. 

This is one blessed kid! All three of his teachers are outstanding.

 This face just melts me.

 I forgot my good camera so pardon the rest of the blurry pictures.

Waiting impatiently for me to finish taking pictures.

 Dominic asked Jon if he would stay and go to school with him on the first day.

 Sitting at his desk with newly sharpened pencils.

We are looking forward to hearing all about his day when he gets home.