Back to School!

I can't believe how fast summer went!  It seems like it always takes forever to get here and then it's gone in an instant.  We love summer because it's full of a lot of family time and adventures.  The girls and David actually really enjoy school starting though.  (I'm the odd one)  Kadence and Shelby started school on August 21st, David and I will start on August 25th and David will start teaching on August 26th.  It was really nice that David didn't have any workshops to go to on the girls first day of school so he could help drop them off.  He really hates missing things like that so it was nice.  August 20th was David and my 9 year anniversary......as well as back to school night.  How romantic!  David went in to work all morning, came home and helped me give the girls baths.  We ran a few errands and played together with some new Guardians of the Galaxy toys and then went to dinner at Chili's.  It was nice because both girls went to the bathroom leaving David and I about 2 minutes of alone time at dinner.  We were able to talk to the girls about the new school year.  We asked what they were excited about and Shelby is excited for art and Kadence is excited to see her friends.  We asked what made them nervous and both were nervous about testing.  (How horrible is that?!) We came home and got our first day of school clothes laid out. We had taken the girls shopping and let them choose their outfit all by themselves which is the first time we have done that.

 Sadly Kadence's shoes didn't fit so we're still working out those details.

 After we had the clothes ready we were off to meet their new teachers!

 Kadence will be in 3rd grade with Mrs. Andrew and Shelby will be in 1st grade with Mrs. Jackman.  On Monday we decided to pull Shelby from the dual immersion program for multiple reasons.  Shelby was ok with it, the school was super kind about it and I think it will be better overall for Shelby.  Because of that Shelby didn't have her name on a desk when we went to her classroom. This made her panic a little.  She knew they would get her a desk, but she didn't know how she was supposed to find it.  :)  Both girls were still very excited and thought their teachers seemed very nice.  They were also excited to see friends from last year. 

The first day of school I thought needed a special breakfast.  I got all the things to make fruit and yogurt parfaits and the girls were in heaven!  They got ready really well and were in great moods.  I was happy to have Davids help because I don't love mornings.  It was pretty wet and rainy out so we took our pictures inside for the first time ever.

They both had a great day!  Right after school we didn't have much time to talk because they had a birthday party to go to.  We did however get time to talk over dinner.  Shelby said she actually liked lunch and they "even had buttered rolls!"  She didn't like how loud it was in the lunchroom and the fact that people "popped her body bubble."  Kadence loved every second of it! She said they are trying to learn everybody's names and that it is really hard.  She got to see Chloe at lunch.  Both girls think their teachers are so so nice and enjoyed going to school the following day.  I'm glad they are excited and love school.  I can't wait to see what this school year brings and I'm excited to watch them learn and grow.

As a side note, from the second we dropped Kadence off at her classroom David and I went into pure panic.  What if she didn't follow her rules?  What if she was asked to do something she wasn't able to do? How would she react?  What if she fell?  What if kids got rough with her?  What about all the kids that pick her up because they can due to her being so little?  What if she bent and her rod went through the skin?  So many things could go wrong!  This was the first time she was out of our site (Or Jeff/Rachels) for more than a few minutes.  I checked my email about every 10 minutes.  We made sure our ringers were turned on versus silent.  It was such a huge relief to see her walking down the hall, all in one piece and happy as could be.  Her teacher seems really great and like she'll take great care of her.  It caused David and I to really get realistic and answer the what ifs we had all day.  Truly she would be ok no matter what happened.  Even if her hardware fails or her rod goes through her skin, it is fixable.  It would be a dramatic situation of course, but it's all fixable.  We had talked to someone recently who had their hardware fail and the mom told us she didn't feel any pain from it. That was a huge comfort!  The rod going through if she chooses to bend definitely would cause some pain, would need an ambulance ride, and the thought of me not being with her right away terrifies me.....but she would be ok.  It is fixable.  This helped us as we sent her off the second day.  I'm not going to say it is easy to send her.  I won't tell you how many times I've thought about switching to homeschooling even though I'm against it.  I will tell you that I am taking it day by day and day 2 was slightly easier than day 1.