So long, sweet summer: First Grade is in session!

The moment I have been dreading has come and gone…and I have survived! Honestly, I have not been looking forward to Brandon starting first grade and being gone ALL DAY LONG. It’s hard and strange for me to think about how he’s been with me for only 6 1/2 years and now I’m sending him off to be in someone else’s care for most of the hours of the day. I’ve really struggled with that! I feel like I can’t really adequately describe what I’m feeling. I feel like it’s the end of an era in some way, that he’s growing up so fast and I’m having to open up my arms and let him go into the great big world without ME as his constant companion. I guess I’m not quite ready for that yet. But here we are.

About a week ago, before school started, we were driving in the van from some activity and Brandon said, “I’m going to miss you when I’m in school all day.” I told him that I was definitely going to miss him too. Then he said, “You’re the first person I’m going to miss. I’ll miss being with you.” Cue the tears. I had to wipe them quickly so I could see the road to drive.

We were able to meet his new teacher last Wednesday before school started (the 1st graders all have assessments prior to the first day of school) and she was very nice.

After his assessment his teacher brought him back out into the hallway where there was a bulletin board with 3 categories about how the students felt about first grade: a little nervous, happy, or both. I was expecting Brandon to at least choose “both” but to my surprise he hopped on over and put his apple in the “happy” category! So the fact that he was excited about school made things a lot easier for me to handle.

The night before school started we had our “Back to School Celebration”, as Brandon called it. We made pizza on the grill and gave the kids little surprises and Jaden gave Brandon a wonderful Father’s Blessing as is our tradition. After he went to bed and was sound asleep, I went into his room and noticed the picture on his bulletin board of him when he was about 2 years old. I kept looking back and forth between this little toddler and this big, growing BOY and the time just flashed before my eyes. It was a sweet/surreal moment for me.

The next morning, the big day, Brandon woke up and said “Yay, it’s school day!” I made pancakes for breakfast, we got his backpack ready and memorized his school lunch number (he was having hot lunch on pizza day!) and then it was picture time! You know me, gotta document!!!

He even pulled out this little pose without me saying anything, so cute.

Then it was time to walk to the bus stop. When Brandon saw his best buddy Sam at the corner, he took off running.

Such great kids. I love how they look like twinners with their striped shirts. Finally the bus arrived and off Brandon went! For the entire day! Oh my goodness!

I’m happy to say that at least I made it back home and closed the front door before the tears came. But it was okay. Annie had dance class and then preschool so we were busy much of the day. I often found myself looking at the clock and wondering what Brandon was doing at that moment. Hoping he remembered his lunch number, hoping he was making new friends, hoping he found his classroom….you know, all those mommy worries. When he got home he said he loved school (even though pizza day had been changed to cheese nachos and shrimp poppers or something gross like that. ha ha ha ha!). We all survived the first day of first grade! Yay!

Okay, now I’m excited about this!!! For our after school snack the kids and I had made these “edible crayons”–I got the instructions from this fun site. Brandon and Annie helped me dip the preztels the day before and then I made the wrappers and put them all together. We were happy with how they turned out, and they tasted yummy too! I made some customized wrappers in Photoshop with their names on them, printed it out onto colored cardstock, wrapped them around the “crayons” and secured with a little bit of tape, and put them in their own little tins. Love!

And I put them in a pencil box, just for fun. They really didn’t last long, though.

I think they turned out SO CUTE!!!! Hooray for school!!!