Today the girls headed back to school after a fun-filled summer that went by way too quickly. For some reason, I'm having a hard time sending them off to school this year. Maybe it's because our baby, Elijah, is heading to preschool for the first time. I love my time with them and it's going by so quickly. How is it possible that Isabella is starting third grade and Sienna is starting first? An article titled
Bittersweet Song of September by Beverly Beckham on Boston.com sums up my feelings exactly. Click
here to read it.
Isabella is ready to have her hair and nails done before school.
Now it's Sienna's turn!
The three amigos.
School girls
Ready with their over-loaded backpacks!
Isabella, the third grader!
Sienna, the first grader!
Unfortunately, it was a little rainy this morning.
Hope and Isabella wait for the bus.
Sienna, Luke, John & Isabella
Almost the whole gang. We manage to fill up the bus with the kids from our neighborhood.
John, Sarah, Hope & Isabella
Third graders (9 out of 11 in our neighborhood)
First graders (6 out of 9 from our neighborhood)
And they're off!
A happy first grader coming off the bus. When I asked Sienna how she liked first grade, she said, "I love it!!" She has a sweet first grade teacher who is so warm and soft spoken but has been at the school for a long time and has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. I know that Sienna will have a great year!
Isabella has had a great start to the year, too! After open house last night, she said, "I think Miss A---- is going to be my favorite teacher!" I'm so happy that she loves her teacher and seems to have a nice class. She's looking forward to doing projects throughout the year and participating in the Science Fair in March. Their desks are separated into four clusters and each one represents a "house" from Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books. Isabella is starting out as a Slytherin!
Elijah caught up with his playgroup friends, Sammy, Anna and Adam once we got to school.
He has the same cubby that both of the girls had!
Elijah wasted no time getting busy at school. He started out at the sand table for a while before he tried this puzzle. He thought it was silly to mix up the colors.
Of course, Elijah had to use his favorite color, orange, to color this entire picture.
And more orange... Elijah sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating just like Mike and Isabella do!
The girls taught Elijah how to sit "criss cross applesauce" which he demonstrated for his teachers, Miss Monica and Miss Diann. He's ready for school!!
I just looked back at my post from Sienna's preschool open house three years ago and it looked pretty similar to Elijah's! You can check it out here.
For some reason, watching a bunch of children dressed in red, white and blue singing patriotic songs makes me teary-especially when the second graders ended with "Proud to be an American." Apparently, the same thing happens to my friends, Holly and Chris. I'm glad that I'm not the only one!! It was a nice little concert!
The children listened to The Gingerbread Man. 
They pretended to be gingerbread children through an obstacle course before they went back to the cafeteria to decorate gingerbread people.
