Back to SCHOOL!!

The kids went back to school a few weeks ago (because of the modified schedule/year-round type deal) and are LOVING it.  We absolutely love their school and are so impressed with the teachers and staff.  We feel so blessed to be here!

Brielle - is in 5th grade this year.  FIFTH GRADE!  In Idaho, middle school starts in 6th grade, which means this is her last year of elementary.  How in the world are we old enough to be saying such things?!  Brielle is thriving here!  I have to brag a little about her.  She tried out for a bell choir and honor choir and made both - which means 2 mornings a week before school and 2 afternoons a week after school she will have practices...for the whole year...plus a winter and spring concert.  But she's excited!  She also decided to try for student council.  For that, they had to write an essay on why they would be good for it, then the teachers would choose who won.  In Brielle's class, the teacher decided to read the essays out loud anonymously (so there was no popularity contest) and have the class vote for the two they liked the best, which would be the two kids from their class to be on student council.  And Brielle made it!  She is beyond thrilled.  The responsibilities of student council members is morning announcements, recycling (going and collecting recycling items from the teachers lounge and around the school and putting them in their large collection bins) and running a school store.  They rotate jobs around among all the members of student council so they get turns doing each job, as well as weeks where they don't have any job (since recycling and the school store are during last recess).  She is doing really well with making friends and being involved.  We're very proud of her!

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Claire - is in 3rd grade this year.  It seems crazy that she's getting up to the end of elementary soon too!  WHY?!  Claire is LOVING her class and teacher.  I am super impressed with the teacher and am excited for this school year.  Claire loves riding her bike to school and having that freedom back!  (In St. George and California they rode a bus...and in California I took them to and from the bus stop, they couldn't even walk that little bit for safety reasons)  She seems to be doing really well and making a lot of friends, but she tends to be less vocal about things unless something is going wrong.  So with her, no news is good news typically. :)  At back to school night (which was about a week after school started) her teacher told me how much she already loves Claire.  She said she participates and is sweet and thoughtful and just an absolute delight.  It's always wonderful to hear praise about your kids!

Some pictures of Brielle and Claire together for the first day of school: 

Off they go on their bikes!  They didn't even want me to go with them the first day. :(

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Addison - is in Kindergarten this year.  She is LOVING IT!  She was in transitional kindergarten in California and is used to going every day, but for some reason she had a hard time going in California and if I took her she cried when I dropped her off, and she would come home from school saying how "terrible" it was sometimes.  But this year, every day is "THE BEST DAY EVER!!!" and she loves it.  There are 2 little girls in our ward that are also in afternoon kindergarten with her, so we carpool and she is just over the moon excited about that.  She gets to take her bike or scooter with her to school and put it in the bike rack and then ride home after school with her sisters.  It is working out GREAT!  She is starting to read (come to find out, Claire has been reading little phonics books with her in bed at night....LOVE HER!) and has learned to tie her shoes.  She is just a wonderful girl!

I rode bikes with her to school on the first day...she thought that was AWESOME.  Here she is parking her bike by her sister's bikes for after school.

Lining up by the door!

Looking a little unsure...but she walked right in and had a great day.  The teacher made it pretty clear that parents weren't to come in with them, she came out, said "Say bye!" to the kids and took them inside.  Sweet, quick and painless.

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 Molly - just started preschool this week!  I can't believe she is big enough for that!  Molly has always been my sweet little buddy, so it'll be weird not having her around.  But she is SO excited for this.  One of my friends in the ward is her preschool teacher, so it's nice that she's just around the corner from us and knows us.  Molly is constantly amazing me with the things she knows.  She knows her letters, numbers and colors, she can write her own name and is starting to draw really well too.  She is going to do GREAT in preschool!

Dancing around a little...

 

 Being her cute, silly self.

So that means Brody and I are going to be on our own for approximately 1.5 hours, two times a week, which happens to be during his naptime.  So yeah...3 whole hours a week to myself!  What will I even do?!  Honestly...I'll probably work.  But in my head I'll be sipping a drink on a beach somewhere.