First Day of School 2012

It is hard to believe that the school year started.  Lauren continues to go to the daycare at my school.  She has the infamous Mrs. Suzanne this year.  Mrs. Suzanne has such a kind spirit about her.  She is truly wonderful with the kids and many learn to read from her.  Lauren is primed and ready, and already knows so many of her letters and sounds.

Lauren on her first day of school.  (I guess you would consider it Pre-K, but since the kids have always been daycare kids, we have just called it "school".)

Thomas picked out this princess lunchbox for Lauren.  She was so excited when he gave it to her!  She LOVES the princesses -- especially Sleeping Beauty.  I'm sure I have written this before, but just in case I haven't -- Lauren truly thinks she is Sleeping Beauty.  She will name all of the princess, and when she gets to Princess Aurora, she says, "That's me!"  I think she has it figured out perfectly!

This is Jackson's first day of 1st grade!  How do we have a 1st grader???  I taught 1st grade, and now I have a 1st grader.  He was so excited about school!

Of course Lauren had to get in on the action too!

Jackson with his soccer backpack.  Notice that he did not want another Star Wars backpack.  Another sign that he is growing up.  Whimper, whimper.  He also really wanted the Converse tennis shoes.  He was not happy about wearing a "collar" shirt, but I explained that mommy's get to pick out the first day of school outfit, and he had to look nice!  

Lauren with Pink Baby, of course, heading into her school.

Jackson outside of the school.

Our annual picture in front of the school sign.

Thomas made sure to be there on the first day to walk Jackson inside.

Mother/son pose.  It is so nice to work where he goes to school! 

Jackson with his first grade teacher, Mrs. Bright.

Sitting at his desk with his school supplies.

Hanging up his backpack.

1st grader??  Really!  Time is flying by.

The Night Before First Grade

I can't believe that summer is already over.  Today, we marked the end of summer with our traditional Last Day of Summer pool party with our neighbors.  It seems like yesterday that we had our last day of school party.  It has been a fabulous summer spending time with my kids. Jackson will start first grade tomorrow, and Lauren has already started Pre-K.  Wow!  Time flies.  It is an interesting feeling knowing that my baby boy will be starting the grade that I taught for several years.  I couldn't be more excited for him to become a fluent reader and to learn the basics of math calculations this year.

To mark this fun time in their lives,  I thought I would conduct a quick interview to record some of the kids thoughts and memories.  I typed exactly what they said, so here are their words:

Jackson
What was your favorite part about summer?
Tonight.  I got to see all of my friends.  We got to swim, and stay to play.  I even got to stay for dinner.

What was favorite memory from summer?
Going to different swimming pools and having ice cream.

What was you favorite thing that we did this summer?
Going on the road trip for our vacation.

What is first grade going to be like?
Very cool.  Awesome!

What are you going to learn in first grade?
More than Kindergarten.

Who are your friends?
Austin, Eva, William, Logan, Avery, Luke, Jack, Macy, William and Grayson.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don't know!  I keep changing my mind. . . Meat Scientist, Police/Army Man, Chef. . . that's all.

What college do you want to go to?
Texas A&M!

What is your favorite sport?
Soccer!

What is your favorite food?
ribs, mac and cheese, cake, ice cream, crawfish, and brisket

Lauren
What was your favorite thing that we did this summer?
Seeing pictures of baby Jack.

Who are your friends?
Avery, Luke, CeCee, Sydney, William, Jack, Macy, Jackson, Mommy and Daddy

What is your favorite thing to play?
Babies

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A big princess.

What college do you want to go to?
College Station

What is your favorite food?
Chicken nuggets, french fries, bologna, and ravioli

End of Summer

The end of summer.  How does it get here so quickly??  We had the neighbors over for cupcake decorating for our end of summer neighborhood celebration.  The kids had a great time!  They even sang a song about being best friends.  It was cute!  I broke out a candle for each of them to blow out as well.

Lauren decorating her cupcakes.

Avery decorating her cupcakes.

The kids got to tell me what color icing to mix up.  They loved using the icing bags.

Ta-da!

Lauren with her cupcakes.

Luke shows off his cupcakes.

Jackson loaded up on toothpicks and candles!

How blessed to have your best friends next door!

Eating time!

The next day was our annual Back to School Celebration.  We have this every year on the Sunday before school starts.  

All of the kids on the side of the pool.

Splash time!  It is a miracle that they are all looking at the camera!

We tried another pose -- this time with all of the kiddos.  This was the first picture.  We should have stopped at one.  This ended up being the best we got.

I had to include some of the others to see the comedy that took place.  Will started pulling down his pants - in fact, I got some good pictures of this happening!

Scratching heads, dancing, pulling the strings on swimsuits. . .

More dancing, cheesy grins, and checking out what is going on. . .

More cheesy grins and looking at the dancing. . .

Oh, well!  Time to give up!  All of this with five moms yelling their child's name to stand straight, look at the camera, leave your pants on, leave your swimsuit alone, no googles, etc!

The gang ready to jump in the pool (all of the swimmers that is).

Jackson turned into such a swimmer this summer! It was so exciting!

The gang minus baby Grayson!

 How is the summer over??

Fun Times in Benbrook

Here are some pictures from a visit the kids had with Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Kaci, Mama J and Papa J at  Jonathan and Kaci's house.

Peek-a-boo!

Thomas with Jack

Playing with cousin Jack!