Our Kindergartaner

After much praying, soul searching, and crying (on my part) we decided that homeschooling wouldn't be the best choice for Brianna. She is much too social of a child, and needs lots of attention from others, not only her own age, but people who are not her parents. She's also a very strong willed child, and it doesn't help that her mother is very strong willed also! I realized that I spent more time fighting with her than teaching her, and realized (with the help of my mom one day) that if she was in a school with a teacher that she was butting heads with all the time I would request a change in teacher! Well, the only option left, was to send her to school. We were able to get her enrolled in a wonderful school, full of amazing facutly and staff. We know most of the people there and so we feel very comfortable that she will be well taken care of during the hours that she is away from us during the day.

Last Wednesday was her first day of school! The school she is attending does something different with the Kindergartaners in that they stagger their start days. Some of them went on Wednesday, some on Thursday and some on Friday. Then this week they all start going every day. I dropped her off on Wednesday feeling a little nervous. In spite of myself, even though she was very excited, and her teacher is wonderful, I felt like vomitting! Maybe it was the realization that I am old enough to be the mother of a Kindergartaner! Maybe it was realizing how much her brothers were going to miss her! Maybe it was realizing how much I was going to miss her! All the same, we took her to school the first day after a little photo shoot outside.

She's all ready to go :)

With her baby Micah!

Brianna and her buddy Jonah!

Nina giving her girl a goodbye squeeze!

Our baby girl...where did the time go?!?!?!

Good luck kisses for our girl!

The boys and I took Bri to school the first day. She will normally ride with my mom since we don't live in the district that the school is in, she can't ride the bus. But I wanted to be there as she went to class the first day so I woke the boys up early and we drove Bri to school. When I woke Jonah up he gave me a big hug and said "It's just you and me mom!" (I almost started crying right then and there!!!) Jonah helped carry stuff into her class for her...he was such a big helper! Her classroom is great, actually, it's made up two classrooms so they have lots of room to spread out. She's there the whole day, so she gets lunch, recess and nap time :P

Finding her desk.

I'm ready to learn Mommy!

Moving forward!

So, now here we are, embarking on our first full week of Brianna being in school. I'm slowly figuring out what to do with the boys, since Bri was always the activities director around here! But I think we're going to do alright on our own!

And in case you're wondering about my plan to homeschool, well, I still intend to do preschool with Jonah over the next two years, and I'm going to start Tot School with Micah, giving him the chance to explore and learn in a safe enviornment. I have lots of inspiration online to help me, and I'm looking forward to watching how Jonah will grow over the year, without constantly living in Bri's shadow! So, it's going to be good. Not what I planned, but still good!

My prayers this year are for my daughter. That she will grow in wisdom and grace. That she will learn how to be a good student and that we'll form good habits early on. I pray that she'll be a friend to many. I pray that she'll be safe. But most of all, I pray that she will be happy, and learn to enjoy school as much as I did! Blessings to you my sweet little girl, as you start your new role as a student! I love you so very much!

Vacation Day 4, 5 and 6

Once again, I'm sorry for the long delay in between posts. I really need to get my act together :) But I wanted to finish chronicling our wonderful summer vacation this year. Our 4th day was also spend in DC, although with the heat it was too hot to walk around and see monuments like we had hoped. So we decided to pop into the Museum of the American Indian. That museum wasn't there the last time that I was in DC and it is incredible! It's very easy to let your imagination run away to the days of cowboys and Indians, or Pilgrims and Indians while walking through the displays. The kids really enjoyed it too! And we saw a really neat multimedia presentation that was very unique and inventive. Really a lot of fun! 

The outside of this museum is my favorite!

 This is the neatest statue...and the carving goes all the way around! So cool!

Canoes in the lobby from different tribes.

After the museum we decided that Steven would take the kids back to the hotel to swim, nap and have dinner and mom, Michael, Blair, Chris and I continued to walk around town. We went to the Museum of Art, particularly to view the Norman Rockwell exhibit. That was really neat, especially since the paintings were out on loan from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The pieces are such a part of American History and it was so incredible to see them in person. 

We then walked to mom's favorite Chinese restaurant in China town for the best noodles I've ever had in my life! They are made in the front of the restaurant and I had to get a picture of the guy who made them. It was too cool to watch!

When it finally got dark and cooled off, Steven and the kids joined us back downtown and we walked the city at night. DC is such a pretty city at night when it's all lit up. We walked down Pennsylvania Avenue and said hello to President Obama and family!

It was a great last night in Washington. The next day we left and drove up to Baltimore. It was hotter in Baltimore than in DC, as if that were even possible! So we spent most of our first day there holed up in the hotel room. There wasn't a pool, so we laid around sleeping and watching TV. That evening we walked down to the Inner Harbor for dinner. The next day we walked back down to the harbor to go to National Aquarium. The Aquarium is unbelievable!!! It takes up 3 different buildings and is about 7 or 8 stories tall. We spend several hours walking around the Aquarium looking at the fascinating animals and catching the dolphin show, which was the highlight for all of us!

That night we walked to Little Italy and had an AMAZING dinner. It was, without a doubt the yummiest, most authentic Italian food I've ever had. We had a great time in Baltimore. We went back to the hotel for a good night's sleep and hit the road early the next morning for Lake Erie! Yea!!! The beach, here we come!