Back To School 2012

We made it through the summer! Hallelujah. We had a great summer but it ended up being very long due to our move! Everyone was ready for the new school year to start and get into a bit more of a schedule. Yesterday was the first day of school.  We had the typical before school photo shoot:

Carter:

Carter is my child who is the most excited for school to start. He has two kids from our neighborhood in his class plus a friend from church. He is thrilled that he already has built in friends. His teacher is impressive and I have been happy so far working with the school on his gifted and speech issues.

 Makenna:

 Makenna is growing up so much. For the first time ever she is SO into her clothes and hair. She has been planning her first WEEK outfits for the past month. And she had very specific instructions for her hair on the first day (skinny braid + a curly side ponytail).  Makenna has a male teacher this year and she is a bit nervous about it. We have heard glowing reports about him and know that he left a high profile corporate career to become a teacher. So far I have been very impressed with him.

After school we had a visit from the Back-To-School Fairy.  Makenna got the cute sparkly cap, Addison got a Merida (from Brave) doll and Carter got a game for the iPad that he's been dying for (Minecraft). Everyone was pleased as punch.

I tried a new spin on the traditional caramel apple after school snack and made a caramel apple bar for them. Big, big hit and probably what I will do from now on. We had apples and caramel dip and for toppings we had mini chocolate chips, mini cinnamon chips, crushed oreos, crushed heath bar and sprinkles.  It was super yummy. I also considered doing mini marshmallows and coconut flakes. Lots of options to try next year.

 Addison started pre-K today. She has been counting down the days for school to start and was so disappointed to have to wait an extra day. She had a fabulous time today and also seems to have grown up so much this summer. We had 3 goals for Addison this summer: learn to make her bed alone, learn to wipe her own bum and learn how to write her name. She accomplished all three quite quickly and is great at all of it now. Addie is also quite opinionated about her hair and insisted that I straighten it today. I had no idea that her hair is almost to her waist!

For me I am excited to get into a better groove now that school has started. I have a very long To-Do list of stuff I put off all summer (including lots of catch-up blogging). Today I spend over an hour browsing at Target while Addie was at school. It felt like a vacation being there with only one child. I sure miss my kiddos while they are gone but definitely look forward to seeing how they change and grow this school year.