Zay's first day of Kindergarten!

At kindergarten orientation in the spring they gave each child a little packet of sunflower seeds.  It had a little poem with it that said something about how by the time the sunflowers grow as tall as the child, it will be just about time for the child to start kindergarten.  Miraculously, after planting, I did not kill this plant.  Zay and Eliza watered it--even on rainy days--and it grew so enormous!  By the time we took this picture, the weight of the flowers had folded the stems over, but they were probably about 8 feet tall or so.  It was a fun little way to spend the spring and summer looking forward to school starting.           

And here he is, all ready to go!  I spent WAY too much time on the "first day of school" sign.  I am predicting right now that by about 3rd grade the sign will be just a quickly scrawled message; by 4th or 5th it'll be gone all together.  But in the mean time, the excitement of having my oldest go off to school gave me enough motivation to waste a morning doing this.  

Zay picked out his own backpack, which I fully intend to make him use for at least 3 years.  I don't really get the point of getting a new one each year.  Watch future pictures to see if I stuck with my resolve on this one.  And, honestly, don't be surprised if he does get a new one and then this backpack shows up in Eliza's pictures.  It's handy how they like the same things, although I suppose it's possible that being in school will make her realize all the things she likes are "boy" things.  Until then I'm enjoying handing things down. 

He also picked out his outfit.  He is loving "sports clothes" lately, so he has like 8 outfits just like this one (in different colors).  And he picked out his school shoes several months ago.  He was really worried about kindergarten and up until the day before it started he'd tell anyone who asked that he was NOT going to go to school.  The shoes helped because he knew he couldn't wear them unless he went.  They are fire truck shoes, complete with wheels printed on the side, flames in the front, and flashing lights.  (I broke my no-flashing-light-shoes rule in order to improve the chances of sticking with the children-attend-school rule).

 

We live about three blocks from the school so we walk there when we can.  Two days a week Eliza has preschool and the drop-off times are so close that we end up driving.  And one day a week she has dance class so we drive on that day as well.  But we walk for drop-off the other two days, and walk for pick-up time every day.  He stays after school one day a week for the Lego club he's in, and in January he'll also stay another day for a soccer class.  He has a hard time starting new things so even when it's something he loves, like Lego's, he still struggles.  He has gotten SO much better this past year; he tries lots of new things that in the past he wouldn't even have considered.  We're so proud of him!

They line up in the foyer area and are supervised by Mrs. Travis until the kindergarten teachers come to get them and walk them down to their classrooms.  We weren't early enough on the first day, but almost every day since then Zay wants to go super early so that he can be the line leader.  I think there have only been one or two times that he hasn't been first.  It's slightly annoying to sit around and wait that long, but he loves it and I'm happy to oblige when it comes to things that make him excited about school!

There are 6 kids in our ward in kindergarten at his school.  On the first day, 5 of them were all in Zay's class.  But a week or so later they added an additional kindergarten class because the classes were so large and all of those kids ended up in the new class.  Part of me wanted to have him switch too because then at least he'd know some of the children in his class, but his teacher was such an awesome fit for him that I didn't really seriously consider it.  She has been wonderful with him!  Her sense of humor is quite similar to mine, so he "gets" her and has been pretty comfortable with her from the start.  Plus, she really likes him, which definitely makes a difference.  I've been a bit disappointed with the lack of extra work they've given him--he's been reading for 2 years and is doing 2nd grade math at home--but that seems to be the way things go in Kindergarten at his school.  I'm hoping next year, when he's full day, they'll be able to give him more challenging work.  So many things come easily to him that when he is faced with something difficult, he doesn't always know how to react.  I'd love for him to learn those skills as a young kid rather than struggling with them later on.  He is such a funny, smart little guy and it's been awesome watching him change and grow this year.

Big Truck Day

The parks department sponsors a Big Truck Day every year.  The kids get to go and climb around all sorts of big trucks--tractors, semis, dump trucks, fire trucks, etc.

Some firsts

This year Eliza is attending a little preschool down the street from us.  Lots of folks in our ward go there.  I loved Isaiah's preschool last year; I think it was a perfect fit for him.  But this one is working out well for Eliza and it's nice to have something a bit more conveniently located.  She goes twice a week and loves it!  When the year started there were only 4 students in her class!  Then a fifth one joined, and in January a 6th one.  Still a tiny class!  So twice a week we drop her off at school, then hurry to get Isaiah to school.  And then I have this wide open 90 minutes to myself before it's time to start picking them up.  Actually, one of the days I volunteer at Isaiah's school for that 90 minutes, so it's really only once a week I have that enormous break :)  I loved this moment--Zay helping Eliza get her backpack on for her first day of school!

Sometimes if I'm in the shower or something, Zay will take care of things himself.  I walked downstairs and he said, "Don't worry, mom, I knew you were busy so I got my own yogurt."

Isaiah is our little entrepreneur.  He has really gotten into Lego's lately, and I have not really gotten into buying them for him.  So he saves up bottles and cans, turns them in for a nickel a piece, pays his tithing, and then buys Lego's.  Several neighbors save cans for him, and sometimes we go over the ballpark near our house and pick up empty ones there.  It's been good for him to practice working for something.  

 This was my phone when I was a teenager.  The kids love playing with it.  When Zay first saw it he said "That can't be a real phone, mom, look it has that wire thing connected to it."

While little girls everywhere are tucking their dollies in for the night, Eliza tucks in her cars. They even sleep on their "backs."

Sometimes when Zay does really smart math at home, we take a picture of it and text it to Daddy.  Double praise is awesome!

Here is one of the Lego sets Isaiah bought with his bottle/can money.

This fall Eliza started taking a dance class.  It's a "creative dance" class with a focus on ballet-type movements.  For the first couple of months she absolutely hated going.  She would cooperate once she was in there, but getting her into that leotard and ready to drive over was a nightmare!  Once, a month or so after she started liking it, I  mentioned it was dance day.  She started crying her head off, which was weird.  So I said, "Eliza, did you forget you LIKE your dance class now?"  She immediately stopped crying, "Oh!  I forgot!"  It's VERY exhausting:

Summer School Fun

So this summer I did school with the kids every day.  Okay, not every day, but I tried.  Once they finished five days of lessons they earned a hot wheels.  So in theory if they did nothing but school all day they could've earned tons of cars, but in reality it was one every week or two.

Here's Isaiah doing some math.  He's finishing up his 1st grade textbook here.

Here's one of his story papers, "If I could go to a restaurant I would pick Olive Garden.  July 23, 2014."

Sometimes it went great and they both worked hard and were motivated and excited and, you know, just generally filled with curiosity and a love of learning.

But sometimes frustration would set in and it would look more like this.

And then eventually like this, "I HATE summer school!" followed by snapping pencils in half and throwing them at mom's face.  Someday when they are successful intellectuals and have mastered the skill of persevering in the face of difficulty, I'll remind them of this.  In the mean time they just think I'm the most horriblest mom every, and I'm okay with that.

And, of course, no school would be complete without a field trip to the library!

More randomness

It's harder to get pictures of Eliza swimming at her lessons because she is so rarely willing to let go of the wall.  But this summer she did much better than in the past.  The last time she took a class she would cry the entire 30 minutes!

After Eliza's lesson we sit on the benches and watch Isaiah's lesson.

Something about this reminds me of Cinderella's step sister trying to fit her foot into a too-small glass slipper.  It also makes me wonder why I buy toys.  And it answers the question of why I can't keep up on the dishes.

Bremerton & Seattle

Eliza and Cooper working on their alphabet skills.

This is Isaiah's mad face.  For real.

On the beach at Grandma Greene's house.

Riding the ferry over to Seattle

So there's this organ along the sidewalk in Seattle.  You put in a few quarters and it plays a super loud song.  It's tons of fun.  You dance around and have a great time!  Unless you're MY kids, then you do this:

We heard about a great burger place and decided to check it out. It's funny how things that are only like an inch and a half on a map end up taking like a 2 hour walk...Eliza got tired and rode the daddy taxi the rest of the way.