School, Birthdays, Soccer, and Football...Oh My!

First day highlights

I have always loved the first day of school! When I was a girl I had my first day outfit picked out for weeks before school started. In high school I got up at some crazy hour to make sure my hair was perfect on the first day. In college the first day was one of the only days I actually made it to class...but that is a different story.


Things haven't changed much. I was so excited for the first day of school this year. I got up early, I helped the kids pick the perfect outfit (Taylor didn't care nearly enough in my opinion) made sure they had a great breakfast, put together a rather sad lunch since the one thing I did forget was to buy food for school lunch (oops!) and took lots of pictures. Makayla didn't actually start on the first day since she is in Kindergarten (they started Thursday) but thankfully she had her assesment testing Monday so she felt like she was going.



My worries and fears of our decision to switch the kids to a new school were put to rest when I saw Taylor's face at the end of the day. He jumped in the car with a huge smile on his face and started telling me the details. A few things that stood out...


"Mom, they have pictures up in the lunch room just like in a fast food restaurant so you can order what you want. It is so cool...but, I still want to bring my lunch!"


"Mom, they have this big toy to play on at recess. It is one of those machines...you know, the ones made by CAT. It was awesome!"


Mom: "What was your favorite part of the day?"


Taylor: "We played a rock, paper, scissor, game to learn the names and meet some of the kids in our class."


Mom: "So who did you meet, what are their names?"


Taylor: "I don't know."


Mom: "What was your least favorite part of the day?"


Taylor: "Mom, there is nothing bad about the first day of school."


I think it is going to be a great year for Taylor!

While Taylor sits back and takes a little quieter approach hopefully learning the name of the girl sitting next to him by mid year...Makayla goes about things a little differently. First of all Makayla has been waiting to start kindergarten for as long as she could say the word. We have been counting the days, months, years. She was obsessed with learning as much as she could this summer so that she would be ready. As a result her teacher said she pretty much gave her assesment test to herself and if the Ms. Mills skipped over anything, ie. a picture of a trapezoid and a pentagon she was quick to point it out. Thursday morning she was up at the crack of dawn, showered, dressed, (in the outfit that has been picked out for weeks) hair done (after very precise instructions on how she wanted it to look) and pulling out the camera letting me know she wanted me to take lots of pictures of her like I did Taylor.

There were absolutely NO reservations when we got to the classroom and she even told me that she would be fine and that I could leave. I tried to sink back and not be seen but still observe. I was so happy with what I saw. After putting her name tag necklace on she immediately went over to a girl and said, "Hi, my name is Makayla what is your name?" "Do you want to be my friend?" She then took the girls hand turned to the next girl and repeated the question. I watched her do it three times and decided that Makayla was going to have a great year. She was just as excited when she got in the car at the end of the day but did say, "I had no idea kindergarten was soo long." (She is in all day kindergarten) After telling me all about her day she said, "Mom, did you know that some girls in kindergarten already have boyfriends? A boy asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend, but I told him no way I was too young and that the church didn't want us to do that."

Oh boy... here we go!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Taylor is 8 years old! I can't believe he can be so old. Where does the time go? Taylor asked if he could have an all boy, no girls allowed shark themed slumber party. Wow, what a night. He had tons of fun and we were exhausted. (Check out the picture of the decorations...That took forever!) Oh and by the way, Taylor received Sea Monkeys for a gift so add that to our random pets list.

A few things I love about Taylor...

I absolutely love his smile. It lights up his whole face.

I love it when he finds something really funny and he just starts laughing.

He is a very protective of his sisters.

He is very kind.

He is obedient and helpful.

He loves the gospel and is excited to be baptized.

I love you my boy! Cub Scouts here we come!

Soccer

Soccer season has begun. I am coaching Makayla's team the Purple Pinkies (I bet you can't guess what color their uniforms are) Their first game is this Friday night. Let it begin!

Football

Joe and I have never been big UNLV fans and have only made it to the games where they were playing BYU (wearing BYU colors I might add) but this year it is a little different. Joe's brother Adam made the UNLV football team. Their first game was Saturday night sooo... dressed in Red which neither Joe or I usually wear we enjoyed the first of many games. We are hoping that Adam gets to see some playing time. For the next two years we will be UNLV fans. GO REBELS!

Life is good! Life is busy!