First day of school...and Elly's in kindergarten!

The boys started school this past Tuesday...


Waiting for the bus. Mac starting 4th and Nate 3rd. The boys lost a couple of their buddies at the bus stop to Middle school this year.

For kindergarten, there was a staggered start. So Elly only went to school on Thursday of this past week. Here's Elly's first day of school..


Her first day!


Waiting in line to go into her classroom.


Elly's teacher, Mrs. Hersh. She was also Mac's second grade teacher, we're excited for Elly to have her!



Elly was fine until she sat in this seat. While Mrs. Hersh was giving directions, she would not take her eyes off me. Whenever we made eye contact, she said "I do not want to stay here." We then sat with her while "The Kissing Hand" was read. Seriously...not a good book to read to the parents! It was a good thing Elly was having a tough time, because I knew I had to put on a good front for her! After the story, I let Sam try to talk her into staying, but fortunately it just took a teacher's aide to talk to her and she let us leave with a tear. Whew, wasn't expecting this from my confident little girl!

Bauder does not have a 1/2 day class, so all the classes are full day. If you only do 1/2, you pick up your kid at lunch. Not the ideal situation for 1/2 day, but we're going with it. I'm not ready for Elly to go full day, nor do I think it's necessary...so I pick her up at lunch. She gets all the academics in the morning, but misses specials. Ah well, she has the rest of her school career for that! I'm hoping the year goes well with the early pick up!


Elly's first day on the bus was today. All morning, she was adamant that she would not go to kindergarten. Fortunately a light switched about 1/2 hour before go time and she let her brother's take care of her. I thought this was sweet with Mac holding her hand.


Not entirely positive about this!


Here comes the bus...


And she's on! She sat between the boys and they said she was hanging her head on the bus. They talked her through it though and she happily held Nate's hand as he walked her to her class line, played with her until the bell rang, then walked with her back to the line. I'm hoping each day gets easier in the morning!

Here's a couple other funny shots I found...

The boys braided Elly's hair



Nate got Elly all decked out before practicing some baseball with her.



Mac was cutting onions for me for the first time and got to experience his eyes tearing up. When I turned around next, he was wearing these goggles. Goofy kid!

First week of school

It was a good first week. The boys are very tired by the end of the day, but we've been getting used to that with each school year. There's definitely a transition.

Nate would still like school to be half-day, but I guess that's to be expected from a kid who always rises at 6am. He's my early bird. The first day of school, he was dressed by 6am and had his lunch made by 6:30. I've always made their lunches. Anyway, here's their first-day-of-school pics.


First ones to the bus stop. Nate our big second grader and Mac, a third grader.


Here's all their buddies!


This cracked Sam and I up, as we read it after the kids went to bed. Nate was filling this out for his teacher, and notice what he put for needing help with? The boys do not go to a bilingual school and no, they don't take a foreign language as second graders. :)

This week is starting off a bit rough. Elly has had croup since Thursday and has slept horribly the past couple nights. Tonight her coughing is keeping everyone up. Nate finally fell asleep at 9 and Mac is still up (it's 9:45)...only 2 hours past their bedtimes. Arghhhh! Tomorrow is a new day. :)

First Day of School 2011

That's right, the boys first day was yesterday. I was nervous how Nate would do going all day since last year he continually stated "I'm going half-day for the rest of my life!", but when the time came to start first grade...he was excited. He had no problem going into class, especially since one of his good buddies from kindergarten is in his class this year.

He did say afterwards that he liked first grade, but the day was too long. Mac quickly assured him that he thought the same thing when he was in first grade, but he got used to it. That's all the reassurance Nate needed.


Here's our big first and second grader!


They no longer have a bus stop right in front of our house (I knew that was too good to last long!), we now have to walk about a block. The boys are excited that they now ride with three of their good buddies. I'm also excited that these gaggle of boys ride together instead of the boys being on their own like last year.


Another year has started...