Chester's Visit

During the month of September the classroom mascot, Chester, made the rounds to all the kids' houses.

Sam was so excited when he was Student of the Day -- because that meant he got to bring Chester home! He also brought home the Class Journal so we could write about what we did with Chester and add pictures too. Apparently, the Class Journal is the book of choice during reading time!

Chester taking a ride on the fire engine.

Having a little snack after school.

Working on homework.

Tacos for dinner -- but Sam thought that
Chester would rather have Chex cereal!

Watching a little Busytown before bed.

Asleep for the night!

Chester was a very nice guest and it was fun to have him over!

1st Graders Invade the Zoo

Sam's first class field trip was to the zoo!

Matthew went along to help out -- so he snapped a few pictures during the day. The kids were broken up into small groups (Matthew has the biggest one -- three kids!) so he never got a picture with all the kids.

Allyson, Josiah and Sam spreading their wings in the eagle's nest!

Sam and Allyson -- cute little friends!

They were excited to see the bats!

Hanging out at the African Sahara exhibit.

It was a busy day -- but lots of fun!

Lunch Date With Sam

Today I headed to Sam's school to surprise him for lunch!

That was an experience! The decibel level was amazing -- the lunch lady laughed at me when I mentioned that to her -- she said it was worse when the second graders were there! I can see why kids don't always finish their lunch -- there is plenty of time to eat, but it's really distracting.

Sam and Allyson sit together a lot -- she is missing
six teeth and I don't know how she eats anything!

Sam's job that week was table washer
and sweeper -- so I got to see him in action.
He did a great job -- very thorough!

It was fun to meet some of his friends and hear about his day. I'm sure there will be a day when he won't be so excited to have his Mom sit with him at lunch!

It's Matthew's turn next -- I'm going to tell him to bring his earplugs along!

Preschool Is Hard Work!

Going to preschool two days a week for less than three hours a day doesn't sound like much -- but it wore Zak out!

I'd find him passed out before we could get him settled for his nap.


Now he has scraped up some additional energy and is starting to skip naps!

Fun At Les Schwab

While Zak and I were driving to school one afternoon to pick up Sam, a man driving next to me started pointing at my car -- like there was something wrong! I couldn't see any flames coming out the back, so I kept on driving until we were in the school parking lot.

That's where we found out we had a very low tire. Of course this was a day when Matthew was at work!

Since the tire didn't seem to get any worse while we were waiting at school, we decided to drive to a nearby Les Schwab and have them take a look at it.

The boys had so much fun! Les Schwab has popcorn, coloring books and big windows where we could watch them put the cars on the lift and take off the tires.

Watching all the action!

Taking a coloring break.

The boys were disappointed when it was time to go -- and wondered when we could come back again!

Preschool Here We Come!

Zak started preschool today -- and he was so excited to go!

Sam has been prepping Zak about his class and his teachers (Sam had them and we loved them). A few weeks before school started, Zak wasn't too interested in going to preschool, but when the day finally arrived he couldn't wait to put on his backpack and go!

Sam was a little bummed that he couldn't go too, but his school starts earlier than Zak's, so he had to miss out.

Ready to go!

Goofy boys!

The Big Kid!

Waiting to go in -- we were a little early!

He hugged us goodby and walked
right in and started painting!

He had a great first day and couldn't wait to go back!

1st Day of 1st Grade!

Today was a big day at our house -- Sam's first day of school! He's been ready for school to start for a few days now.

He had his bed made before he sat down for breakfast!

Zak wanted me to take his picture too!

Ready to go!

Silly boys!

Zak is going to miss his playmate!

Walking into school -- this year he knows the ropes!

Ready for a great day!

Matthew headed off for work and Zak and I headed to Cafe Sip-n-Play for the morning -- I thought he might need to do something special to make the day go by a little more quickly. He had lots of fun playing with the other kids, however he did ask if we could go pick up Sam around 11:00am!

Taking a little break from playing.

Zak and I went home for lunch and a quick nap for him -- I had to wake him up so we could pick-up Sam from school.

Here comes Sam at the end of a long first day!

Then we were going to stop for ice cream since it was almost 100 degrees outside -- but the boys decided they wanted donuts instead. A few other families had the same idea, so there were a bunch of kids from school and they had lots of fun hanging out together.

They both picked sprinkle
donuts -- a shocking choice!

Laughing at Sam's friend, David!

Kids lined up to watch the donuts go by.

Sam said he had a great first day of school. He earned "Bear Bucks" for paying attention in class, they had a visit from Chester, the class raccoon (stuffed, not real!), saw a lot of friends from last year and is excited to go back tomorrow!