New Schools

Pretty much all the worrying I did about moving to Minnesota was a waste of time. Sure, I miss our home, and my garden, and a lot of other things about Wisconsin, but with a little bit of effort I have been able to accept the fact that we had to a deed in lieu of foreclosure on our house. In fact, pending all future landlords overlook our poopy credit (thanks, economy!), I am okay with renting until Theo retires in about 12-13 years.

One of my biggest worries was the kids having to change schools. Outside of the normal transitions from grade to middle, etc, I changed schools once, moving from California and Illinois. I am pretty sure I still bear the scars of the culture shock. Ha! But seriously, Ben had made great friends with his kindergarten class of 4 students, and Hunter was looking forward to going to Kindergarten with his friends from preschool. I also had fallen in love with the school both boys would be in.

But here we are, into midterm report cards in Minnesota, and we are so well adjusted. The kids both love their school. We transferred our church membership and stayed in the same synod, and therefore were able to keep the kids in a Lutheran school. Ben got his first report card this week, and he got straight A's. He's loving first grade. He has lots of friends, and has his first forensics night coming up. I am so stoked that the school requires even first graders to get up and read a story! Ben has been practicing great.

Hunter has also bee enjoying his class. I think a change of scenery has helped make this 3rd year of preschool more fun for him. He goes two days a week for about 4 hours. He loves that sometimes he gets to see his brother. He fits in size and maturity wise well, helping me feel good about my decision to keep him from starting kindergarten this year.

I also love the teachers, the office staff, the school, the people. It really feels like we fit. My very favorite part of it all? Ben's bus picks him up at the front door, and drops him off there. I don't like driving at all, and this saves me an hour of driving a day! (The school is 20-25 minutes away).

Because I finally have a computer in my home again, I decided to unload the camera and share some real photos of their first day of school last month. Hunter started about a week after Ben. Here they both are, in front of the Castor Beans I have growing in the driveway, on Hunter's first day.

Here is Ben.

Ben is absolutely obsessed with having his own locker! So much so that he coaxed Grandma into getting him lockers at home, too!

Hope you are all having a great school year!

Ben's First Day of Kindergarten

This week Benjamin started Kindergarten. He was so excited! He wanted his picture to be taken by our mailbox post.

I am super proud of his first day of school outfit, by the way. It's CHAPS, my favorite. The shorts were 80% off at $5.80, and the shirt was free! Kohl's sends out one of those $10 off any purchase cards, and the shirt was also 80% off priced at about $9.80 on clearance. Free. Love it!

Had to get one brother shot. Hunter had his second day of preschool at the same time.

This is Ben's coat and backpack hook in the hallway outside his classroom.

Here's the classroom.

And his beloved orange desk. He has proclaimed his favorite color is now only orange. It used to be green and orange.

Happy school year to all of you!

Hunter's First Day of Preschool

Hunter started his second year of preschool this morning. Of course, I took a few (er, a ton of) pictures in our front yard, and one by his cubby outside the classroom.

He's getting to be such a big boy! Even his teacher noticed.

He is becoming quite the jokester.

A shot of the Buzz Lightyear backpack-finally a large enough size for school.

My favorite shot of the morning!

Big boy by his cubby.

Happy back-to-school everyone.

Ben's Christmas Show

Of course, I took tons of videos and pictures of Ben's pre-school class Christmas Show. I didn't notice ben was at all nervous, but looking at this picture right as the kids took their places on the stage, he may have been.

He spaced out through some of it, looking around the room.

But, you can see here that he did some of the hand motions.

Looking at his teacher for instructions.

I love this picture, he's having such a good time.

The mom's got together one Thursday morning and traced all the kids hands and then one mom put them all together on this scarf.

At the end of the evening we had one of the classroom volunteers take a picture of us a whole family.

November Gingerbread Houses

Ben's class made Gingerbread houses just before Thanksgiving. The kids were sent home with the freshy made houses, to eat. I actually had the chance to watch Ben putting his together, as the classroom door was cracked open, and he ate a lot more than what made it onto the houses. Ha!

Here's Ben in his Gingerbread chef hat, made in class, with his creation:

Hunter's excited Ben's going to share.

Here it is before they ate too much:

You can see Hunter's little hand in this shot taking more pieces off...

And here is the little ham himself.

I love how they just frosting-glued the graham crackers onto the empty milk cartons. Cute idea.

Hunter was not going to miss a chance to wear the hat for a second.

Of course, we let Laura lick a bit of frosting off the milk cart.

I'm excited to make some gingerbread houses of our own this holiday season.

Ben's First Day of School!

Ben started preschool this fall. In fact, he started only a week after we got back from California. His teacher came and visited us at our home to give us a schedule, and tell us all about school. The most important thing she told us about was the Jesus Box. The first day of school all the kids were to share their Jesus Box with each other. She brought a sample box covered in wrapping paper, colored Bible images, and stickers. Ben received the coloring book Bible images, and we found a box in our basement. I covered the box in plain wrapping paper. One afternoon we colored in all the images, and glued them to the box. I also found a bag of foamies in Biblical themes at Walmart, and we tacked those all over the box, too. The kids are to store all of their school projects from the year in the box. Genious, if you ask me, so we parents do not have various craft projects all around the house, vulnerable to the cats, dog, and baby brother. LOL.

Here's Ben on his very first morning of school. Uncle Jason watched Hunter while I dropped Ben off, so I didn't have to wrangle Hunter the whole time.

Here are Ben's cubbies at school.

And here's Ben's awesome teacher.

There were no problems with Ben going to school. I wasn't worried about it one bit, and had no trouble leaving him there. He didn't care one bit that I was leaving. At some point in the first week he did describe the whole day, saying something like, "Mom, are you going to take me to school and take me inside and then go back to the car and go Walmart, and then come back and get me there?" Yup. About that simple. He loves his friends already, loves the lessons he's learning about counting, coloring, the Bible, and much more.