The first week of school

Spencer started 1st grade on Monday the 21st and I started work on Tuesday the 22nd.  I didn't take many pictures last week, mostly because it was just a busy, hectic week with school, work and swim lessons still going on.

About four days before Spencer started school I was putting his laundry away when I realized he was in dire need of new shorts.  I actually pulled a pair of 3T shorts out of the drawer that he has still been wearing in the spring.  Once I cleared everything out that was too small or too stained (I don't know what that boy does at recess but he has permanant dirt stains on the butt of all his shorts) he was left with very few school clothes.

A quick trip to Kohls and we were back in business.
 

Tuesday

 

Wednesday

 

This happened on Wednesday.  It was Elliott's fault.

 

Thursday

 

Elliott needed some morning cuddles with Ginger.

 

Friday

We had some pizza dough that needed to be used on Friday.  The kids didn't want pizza so I decided to make cinnamon rolls out of it.  Elliott was angry that he didn't get to help so I gave him some flour and water to play with.  He mostly ate it.

 

I didn't eat any, but everyone else claimed they were tasty.

 

And tastier with a bunch of sugar glaze.

So, by the time this posts on Thursday (I'm writing it on Monday) I will be on Day 2 of my "Mommy is Alone" trip to New England.  MA and NH have always been part of the plan, but as of yesterday I am adding an afternoon in Maine as well. 

 

I get home Monday night.  There will be much blogging about all of it very soon.

The 1st Day of 1st Grade

Even though Spencer's summer between preschool and kindergarten was the exact same length as the summer between kindergarten and 1st grade, this summer felt much, much shorter.  I think it is because we kept ourselves so busy.  I blinked and here we were, back to school.

 

Spencer is going to the same school, it still starts at the same time and it was only 7 weeks since we did this, so it was easy to get back into the old morning routine.

 

Spencer and Ginger refused to believe that the day was starting and insisted on a bit more rest.

I was the totally "with it" mom and made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  The truth is that I combined all the dry ingredients and all the wet ingredients the night before so the actual making process was pretty simple.

Then it was time for all the 1st day pictures.  I'm already excited to see how much he has grown and changed in May.

 

Elliott wanted in on the action in some of them.

Outside of his classroom.

 

Last year he was in Room 4 and this year he is in Room 8. 

They have a new policy this year that parents need to leave their kids at the gates.  They were having a problem with too many lingering parents and siblings after the school day started.   But this policy did not apply on day 1.

 

Spencer lining up in his class.  Counting him there are 6 kids from his kindergarten class in his 1st grade class.  Familiar faces are always nice.  

And then he was off for a successful first day!

 

I took these when he got home that day.  Maybe it's just me but I dare say he actually looks older in the afternoon after the completion of day #1.

We really don't go out for dinner that much anymore.  It's too expensive and Michael and I eat such restrictive diets that it's really not that fun.  But it was really, really, really hot last week and I 190,000% did not feel like cooking after swim lessons so we decided to turn Spencer's first day of school (and my first day back to work the next day) into a celebration.  We went to Cheddars for the second time.   I threw caution and my self-control to the wind and had an alcoholic beverage.  I don't regret it.

The last week of summer vacation

I've been working on loading pictures for my next three posts.  Of the three, this post is the most hodgepodge and also the longest.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that once I'm done I'll only be a week behind.

 

Ginger was enjoying a staycation with my parents in Tucson while we were in California.  On Tuesday I met them half-way and we made the beagle exchange.  She was so un-enthusiastic about coming with me that I had to pick her up and put her in the car.  She loves my parents. 

That day the kids played with their toys from Downtown Disney, although I missed getting a picture of Spencer. 

Elliott was still catching up on his sleep on Wednesday.  This was at the end of his nap.  I had to wake him up because they had their last day of tumbling class.

 

He does have a pretty cute diaper butt.

Their tumbling class was awesome because parents were not allowed in the room.  His teachers let me come in at the end to see Elliott's log roll.  Apparently it was much improved from the first day.

Wednesday was also the 16th so Elliott was 2 years 7 months old.  We decided to do a photo shoot in the grassy area outside of tumbling.  That is a parking garage in the background.

 

It wasn't the best session ever, but it wasn't the worst either.  It was mostly just too hot.

 

Official

 

We also took a few more at swim lessons that evening. 

On Thursday Spencer had his first acting performance.  The drama class he had been taking put on a showing of Green Eggs and Ham.  Spencer was the fox.

That night we skipped swim lessons to attend Meet the Teacher. 

 

Spencer and his 1st grade teacher!

On Friday, the very last weekday of summer vacation we met Michael at a place by his work for breakfast.

Then Michael went back to work and we went to the Science Center.  We're members now and it was nice to not feel like we had to do everything because we can go back whenever we want.

That night the kids played with blankets.  Because it wasn't 110 degrees outside or anything.  Monica made these blankets for the kids.  Spencer's is Angry Birds and Elliott's is dinosaurs.

 

They like to wrap themselves in blankets and run around.

 

Elliott reminded me of this scene from The Wizard of Oz.

 

On Saturday we started working on the rather large amount of laundry that had accumulated during and after our trip.

 

Ginger loves when we wash sheets because she naps on them while they wait to go in the washer.  She has always loved a big pile of laundry.

We had to run to Fresh N Easy for some stuff for dinner that day.  We saw the best car ever.

On Saturday night we had Jeannette and her family stay with us before their early flight the next day.  We had a little birthday celebration for Ellie who turned 4 this week.

And, yay, we are done.  I promise that this was the worst of it.  The next two posts will be much less blah blah blah blah blah.