Hard to let go

School has been an interesting journey for me as a mother. Tyler has been loving school so far which makes me very happy. We've hit a morning routine. The three of us take our 10-15 minute walk to school, get Ty settled, and Hailey and I make our way back home (counting slugs, spider, and snails on the way). Walking on school campus in the mornings brings a lot of interesting emotions and thoughts to my mind. There are some memories of going to school as a kid...how everything seemed so big, what it felt like to sit in the classroom, everything new and different, recess, finding friends, lots of different things. Things all kids go through everyday. But now there's a new perspective. I see everything from the parents point of view. I watch every morning as a big group of kids wait outside for the doors to open and the stampede once they do open. I see kids playing and goofing off and making friends and trying to fit in. The only thing I can really think as I see all this is "it's hard to be a kid". Sure their days are filled with playing and they don't' have a lot responsibilities but boy do they have a lot to figure out. And sadly, kids just are not always very nice to each other. They tell it as it is, they make fun, they try be the center of attention, often at the expense of another kid. How hard is it to be a small child and walk into this big school? You have to take what you know and everything you are learning and figure out who you want to be friends with. You have to take it all in and absorb all that is around you and somehow make the right decisions. That's not easy. And I hope the best for my kids. As I've watched I realize that this is really the beginning of a new Tyler, the one that is outside the shelter and protection of our immediate family. I hope his core sweetness remains as he fights for a place amoung the boys of grade school.

For now I'm cherishing the sweet boy he is today. I'm holding on to his good soul. Here are some of my favorite things from the past few weeks:

Tyler and Hailey are so good to each other. Yes , they are brother and sister and they do fight but for the most part they play so well together and they really do care for each other. Neither really like to go upstairs by themselves so they go with each other so they can "protect" the other.

Tyler posted this sign in the doorway of his fort.

He found a card in my desk drawer, wrote a note, and gave this to me.

And a small victory in the household department. We've started chores (another post on this soon) and within a couple of days Tyler announced he was just going to keep his room clean all the time and then he would get his chore card each day without having to do any work. He's pretty smart. He's been doing a pretty good job too. It also didn't take him long to figure out how to take his jammies off right side out.....saves him a lot of time on laundry sorting day :).

Project Pirate Ship

One of Ty's projects a few weeks ago. He did this totally on his own with no help. Never underestimate the potential of popsicle sticks, lots of tape, and playdough. Of course a 5 year old imagination is key. And yes, I do believe there is a gun taped to the bow of the ship.

Ty ties

Tyler got his first pair or real tying shoes the beginning of August. We thought it would be perfect to have the last few weeks before school to learn how to tie shoes. And it worked out a great. About a week before school started he had it figured. He still prefers a finger on the first part to help keep it tight and sometimes a little adjusting at the end because he likes his loops equal size. Other than that our Ty can tie ties.

Biking to School

Dave was home on Monday so Tyler got to ride his bike to school. It literally made his day!

off they go

First Dance Class

Hailey had her first dance class last Saturday. She was very excited to go and it was fun to see her trying all the things the teacher requested of them. As alway, no fear, just fun. Now I just need to find a way to keep the under from falling out the bottom of her leotard :).

listening to the teacher

Waving the scarf when her name was called
Stretches

Bar work :)

Ballet train

The problem with having your dad's brain

On the way home from Grandma's today, Tyler started asking about the sun and how hot and how big it is etc. A minute later Tyler asked where lightning comes from. Without batting an eye Dave gave an explanation of protons and electrons and explosions (really important Dave is at home in the evenings when the kids homework gets serious). Tyler asked some questions like how big are they, how far does lightening go, etc. Then he was quiet for a while. I told Dave "great, now our 5 year old is contemplating the in and outs of lightning." Sure enough a few minutes later Dave got questions like "Does it hurt the protons and electrons when they explode into lightning?" and "Do they wear capes when they are flying through the air?" Then he remembered that Dave had once told him a story about every once in a while when someone is struck by lightning they somehow recover and have a new gift (like having tremendous talent on the piano when they've never played before. So he asked, "If the lightning stuff (ie protons and electrons that make up an atom) want, can they make you do stuff?". You mean like having a new special skill??? Yes, that is what he meant. And from there the conversation went into black holes. Tyler is fascinated by this stuff. Ohh, the hours of science and discovery channel those boys have ahead of them.

The problem with idolizing your dad

On our way to Grandmas's house today Hailey told us when she grows up she's going to be a police woman. She also informed us she would drink coffee and beer. She further elaborated that she would drink coffee at home and beer at work (while policing apparently).

Outdoor Soccer 2010

Tyler's first year of YMCA outdoor soccer started last night. He was very excited and had a fun time running around. Their coaches seem knowledgable this year (finally). We were lucky enough that the rain stopped a couple of hours before practice and the sun was actually peeking through the clouds for part of practice. The field was pretty soupy though. I'm guessing we are in for a pretty soggy season.....but all in good fun, right? Must buy cleats for him this week.
For whatever reason all my pics came out blurry....may be because I was attempting to play soccer with Hailey while I was taking pictures....that and soccer is a fast paced sport :).

Warming up for practice

He shoots, he scores
on the move

5 year old practice

On the sidelines

Lego Knights and Castles

Tyler has been big into knights and castles the last few days. When he gets home from school he's seeming to like a little bit of quiet time and gets absorbed in his legos for a while. I think he must have a bit of let down after being in school all morning. Tyler has his first "long" Friday today. He was able to eat lunch at school (which he really liked) and didn't get out until 1:00 unlike his usual 11:10 dismissal time. He said he had a great day. Yesterday they had music class which he thought was pretty great as well. So far the year has started off fabulously. I can't believe how big he's become. Ok, back to legos. Here is the enormous castle he originally built.

He has been playing castle enough this week that he's even roped Hailey in....which takes the pressure of me :). Here they are having a knight battle.

Here is Tyler's second castle which he built after the first one started having some structural issues.

Zoomed in

Hailey was inspired by Tyler (but I did have to help her a little)

Tyler's knight and armor off to battle.

First Day of School 2010

Today was the First Day of School! We got off to a good start. Tyler and Hailey had picked out their clothes last night. It's not often I ask Tyler to pick out his clothes ahead of time. It usually doesn't take him long to pick out what he wants to where but I figured it would be a good idea for today. The few times I have asked him to lay out his clothes, I get the biggest kick out of it. He lays them out exactly like they go on his body (underwear is under the pants). I love it. See the socks coming out of the bottom of the pants?

The kids did a great job and both woke up on there own about 6:30 which gave us plenty of time to get through everything this morning. It was pouring rain so we ended up driving Ty to school which worked out fine. We did a few first day pictures before we left the house. They were both very excited to start their first day of school.

One thing I forgot to mention about orientation day was we visited the library. Tyler thought it was pretty cool that he had a library at school he got to go to. Then they had some Harry Potter books on display in the bigger kids section and that pretty much sealed the deal for him. We talked about how he would probably get a library card of some sort and his eyes lit up. So on our way this morning he eagerly asked if he would get his library card today. I told it might not be today since it was just the first day of school but he should ask his teacher what day of the week they go to the library.

We arrived at Ty's school and I of course took a few more pictures

The desks had name tags with an apple to color and a gummy worm. Tyler thought that was pretty great. He was not sad or anxious or anything this morning either arriving at school or when I left. He just smiled big and waved goodbye.

Here's a picture of the classroom and all the parents trying to get kids settled. I'm sure Mrs. Guzman was happy when we all left :).

When school was done at 11:10 all the parents were lined up outside. Ty was the first in line to be dismissed. He ran over to me and I knelt down to give him a big hug. After the hug he had a big smile on his face and said quietly (so none of the other parents in the swarm could here), "Mommy, I had so much fun!" Yes!!!

This was his homework for today (and no I won't post his homework every single day). I thought it was pretty neat. After reading the card we played the "What's missing" game in preparation for school tomorrow.

He didn't share a whole lot of details other than he had fun, the girls chased him at recess (he hates that), he got to play at the block center (which he thought was great), recess lasted 20 seconds, he got to jump in a foam pit 100 feet deep (I have no idea), they had a lot of circle times, and he gets to go to the library next Wednesday.

I'm so glad he had a great day.....a good way to start off the year.

Then it was Hailey's turn. She couldn't wait to get to school. She was patient enough to pose for a picture.

She was very excited to get her name tag back on. Then she sat on her carpet (that pic won't load for some reason) and forgot all about me.

Here is a picture of her room (before the kids had their way with it).

As they marched (or chugged) out of her class at the end of the day she had the biggest smile. It was so strange to have her on that side of the table and Tyler standing with me. And I have to say, as big as these kids are getting, they looked so small marching out of their new school room. Hailey was very excited to get an award sticker at school.

She didn't have much to say other than she likes circle time, she didn't get to do any projects, and she helped Mrs. Acey set up snack.

Tomorrow should be interesting when we take Tyler to school and she's stuck going home with me. She's not going to be happy.

Practice Run

Tyler's school is very close to our house...walking distance. Technically it's only about two minutes away but when you are walking with two small children it takes a little longer. Tyler has been very excited to ride his bike to school. I'm working on a way to make that happen. The problem is it takes Tyler about 5 minutes to bike to Totem Falls and Hailey about 15 minutes which really cramps Tyler's style. So what I need to figure out is if Tyler can be happy riding his bike slow enough for me to run with Hailey in the stroller. And will Hailey be accepting enough to ride in the stroller not on her bike. And if I have to run Tyler to school and then come home and get Hailey off to preschool how am I going to shower when I'm supposed to use my hour and half with no kids to get my work done (my morning time work hours won't work any more. We are having a major schedule shift....all of us....and it is going to take a few weeks to find a new routine....and probably even less sleep).

I've decided to put the biking dilemma on hold for a bit and we'll walk (or drive if the pouring rain continues) for a bit until we get comfortable with how the whole getting to school and getting settled in the classroom process. That takes me to the point of this blog :). Last week we made a trial run of our walk to school. The kids packed up their backpacks and we headed off.

It only took us 20 minutes (yikes). But we have to make multiple stops to check out bugs, leaves, etc....and so it goes. Ty's class opens at 8:10 so I guess we need to be out the door by 7:50 if we are walking. Then Hailey and I will head home and see how much time we have left before we head out the door to preschool which starts at 9:00.

Tyler and I have started reading the Magic Tree house books. It's a long series of short (60 page big print) adventures that a brother (Jack) and sister (Annie) take. He's enjoying the series. Jack always take a backpack with him filled with a notebook and pen so he can take notes during their adventures. So while packing up his backpack for our "test run". Tyler packed a notebook, pencil, and Magic Tree house book. And when we go to the school he sat down and went through all the pictures in the book. I love it, Tyler has such imagination in all the adventures he takes. I could see him inserting himself into the story.

The other morning Tyler woke up and immediately wanted to be this (see pic). Guess what Magic Tree house book we read the night before.....yep all about Ninjas.

I'm going to miss these two tomorrow while they are both starting on their big new adventures.

School Orientation

I can't tell you how excited this girl is to start preschool tomorrow. She's been waiting ever since I sent in her registration last February. And her day is almost here. Last week were were able to go to the "meet the teacher" night. It's such a different scenario than Tyler's first day. Though Ty loved school he was always a little sad to go, especially those first few days. Hailey won't be able to get rid of me fast enough. She has no fears, no anxiety, just joy that her day is here. After spending two years driving to the school to drop Ty off and then again to pick him up, she finally gets her turn. She's going to add some spice to Mrs. Pawley's (same teacher Ty had) room, hopefully in the form of humor. If I could be a fly on the wall I would.

Here are a few pics from orientation night. She is very proud of her name tag.

The kids sit on the carpet when they arrive in the morning and Mrs Acey reads them books until all the kids have arrived. They practiced sitting on carpet at her orientation. She kept looking over at me with the biggest grin....the look at me, I'm such a big girl, I've waited for this my whole life look.

Practicing circle time with Mrs. Pawley in the Train room.

Lining up in the train which they do everyday at the end of class and then chug, chug back out to the carpet for pick up. Mrs. Pawley had to explain to the kids that they needed to be a train without touching each other. But Hailey didn't seem to care.

A few days later Tyler had his orientation in the form of an ice cream social. I can't believe Tyler is starting Kindergarten. It really seems like such a big step to me. He's in a real school!!! I hope he loves it. He will be going to Totem Falls for half days. School starts at 8:20 and ends at 11:10. Every other Friday he has off and the Friday he goes to school is a longer day (goes until 1:00) and will get to each lunch at school. His teacher is Mrs. Guzman whom I've heard good things about. I'm just so curious how he'll like it and how the year will go. He such a creativity monster and I'm just not sure if the school environment will help that grow or squelch it a little bit. Only time will tell I suppose. I'm hoping Mrs Guzman will get him excited to learn how to read. He's been writing quite a bit the last few weeks, sounding words out and writing them down. I love his sounded out words, not spelled quite right, but you can see the effort and they have such character. A Totem Falls, the end of summer ice cream social is when all the kids come for ice cream and find out who their teacher will be for the year (and their classmates of course). The Kindergartners get the special privilege of actually meeting their teacher and visiting their classroom. Below are a couple of pictures of Tyler's classroom. I don't remember having a couch with pillows in my classroom :). I hope to get some more pics tomorrow with the better camera.

I guess the school "gets" picture taking because they set up a spot for kids to pose for pictures. Tyler was irritated that Hailey kept standing in "his" picture. Hailey was just irritated that she doesn't get to go to Kindergarten. She had to fight off tears when Tyler's teacher gave him a page of homework and she didn't get one......home copier to the rescue, so she was able to do her homework too.

Taken again with the "real" kindergartner.

And of course after it all we had to visit the playground which is bound to be the best part of school each day, right? Since last week, fall has arrived and we've spent the last few days in the rain. Hoping for no rain tomorrow morning.

For his homework page, Tyler had to draw something that made him happy. He drew a pirate.