Teacher Meet and Greet & Back to School Lunch

I mentioned in a previous post that Chloe had a "get acquainted" hour with her teacher and classmates before her first day of preschool.
 
Chris and I had already met Chloe's teacher at the orientation meeting, which was on Monday night and only for parents. It was weird, but as I was sitting there waiting to meet Chloe's teacher at orientation, I had a bit of the first-day jitters. Maybe, I was displacing my anxiousness over Chloe returning to school after a year at home with her Daddy and Bubba. Chloe was so excited when we got home and wanted me to review every single piece of paper with her that I received at the orientation meeting.

She couldn't wait to meet her new teacher and classmates on Wednesday and was all smiles.

Evan was there for moral support too;) When we dropped off Chloe, there was a moment where I knew that it upset him, but as quickly as it came, it went.

 
We were told at orientation that we were to bring Chloe to the door, but not to walk into the classroom. Mrs. Helms was there to greet Chloe at the door and even posed for a picture.
 

 
Afterwards, she told us all about their meeting and her new class. It sounds like she is going to have an awesome year! 

We also ran into some familiar faces from church, Caden and Logan.

We went home and had a celebratory Back to School Lunch!

 

I found this sign via Pinterest. I read it to Chloe and Evan as words of encouragement for the new school year.

 

Chloe quoted me a line from this sign earlier today. They do listen when I speak! Ha!

I served hot dogs and chips with dip, some of their favorites. (I think that I may add some cute scrapbook paper to the settings as placemats next year.)

We chowed down.

After lunch, the littles and Daddy opened their gifts.

Daddy's gift (It's similar to last year's gift.)

I got Chloe just a few school supplies for the house since her school provides the supplies that she needs there. 

 

Evan received lots of new supplies for art projects at home and a Preschool workbook!

 

And, this little lady's reaction to her new backpack and lunch bag was priceless!

(At Monday night's orientation meeting, we learned that this would be the first year that they would be issuing book bags to the children. I was a little disappointed, but we can still use the backpack for Kindergarten and she is already using the lunch bag. Also, Chris says that some of the children have been bringing their own backpacks anyways. Hmmm. Do we dare?)

And since I never seem to make it into my posts these days, I thought I'd share a couple of me and my littles from that morning!

First Day of Preschool 4

I've had a long week and am ready to hit the hay, but I couldn't go to bed tonight without sharing this gem from our week.

 

Chloe had a "get acquainted" hour with her teacher and classmates (to be shared in an upcoming post) on August 14th, but her first official day of preschool was August 15th. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that right! Chloe wants to be an ambulance driver when she grows up. I had to add the "n" to "a" after I had already written out the board. After all, "doctor" doesn't start with a vowel. Ha! My first thought when she told me this was that she wanted to drive fast and crazy like her Daddy. However, after talking to her, I realized that she wanted to "save lives, like a hero," so technically, she wants to be a medic when she grows up. I think that she chose a very noble profession.

 

Whatever life's turns and changes, and as long as she stays true to her spirit, I know she will make me a proud momma in her chosen profession one day!

 

 

Dear Chloe,

 

I hope that you learn lots this year. I pray that you will be open to new experiences and growth with an open heart and mind. I also pray that your teacher, Mrs. Helms, will be the teacher that you need to do this. You are a smart and loving girl with a vivacious personality and zest for life and learning! Have fun and I hope that Pre-K 4 rocks!!! :)

 

Love,

Momma

End of Summer Days

Well, it's official. It's the end of summer in our household:( Chris started his Sophomore year of college on Monday and Chloe began her Pre-K 4 program on Wednesday.

We made the most of our last weekend by spending an afternoon taking back-to-school photos seen {here} and attending Chloe's 6th Birthday party.

After just a couple of weekends at the pool, this little man was swimming like a pro!;)

I couldn't get these two still long enough to pose for a photo, but still managed to get a couple of post-worthy shots.

And, a couple of the cute birthday girl blowing out her candles!

We also enjoyed some yummy party food with our friends!

Thank you, Chloe and family, for inviting us. We had a great time and it was the perfect way to end our summer!

Back to School Photos

I've seen a few blogging moms take back to school photos of their children and have been inspired take some pictures of my own.

This past Saturday, Chloe, Evan, and I went to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Evan was mostly along for the ride, since we were taking pictures of his Sissy that afternoon, but he enjoyed getting out of the house and being my assistant. (Evan will be starting preschool next school year.)

Here were a few of my favorites!

 

I really could have spent all afternoon taking photos, but rain and other commitments cut our session short. I had a few ideas that I didn't get to execute, but there is always next year.

And here were a few random shots taken that afternoon.

 

And, this was my favorite shot of the day!

 

I can't believe that in less than one week, Chloe will be starting Preschool 4. I only have a year left to prepare for having a Kindergartner! (I'm so dramatic! I know!) But, my babies aren't babies anymore. I love watching my children grow, but at the same time, it's bittersweet. I read a quote earlier this week that I thought described how I've been feeling lately. " The days are long, but the years are short." It's so true. I enjoy each and every long day, some more than others, but it feels like I look up and years have passed. Where does the time go? I hope and pray that my children do the best with their God-given talents and that one day, they will grow to be faithful, contributing, and happy members of society.

 

I wish you the best of luck, Chloe, in your newest adventure!

The Great Backpack Hunt!

This post is totally random, but it's about what our life is made of...
 
Chloe will be starting a Pre-K 4 program in just a few days and I decided to get her a new backpack and lunch bag. I figured that it was a good way to get her excited about school (not that she wasn't already)!
 
Since Chloe loves kittens and her favorite colors are pink and blue, when I spotted this one on the Pottery Barn Kids website, I thought that it was perfect.
 

 
I showed Chloe the webpage and she agreed that this would be the best backpack. Unfortunately, when I checked the website a few days later, they were sold out of the size small backpack that we needed.
 
I found a few websites that had backpacks that I thought were cute and age appropriate.
 
Chloe fell in love with this backpack from Hanna Andersson which was too small for our purposes. It certainly wasn't one that we would be able to use next year in Kindergarten.
 

 

To be honest, I thought it was a little flashy. (Looking at the first and second photos side by side now, they are pretty similar, but this ones seems to be a little less "demure" and more "look at me.") I make attempts at being trendy, but overall, my style is pretty classic, simple silhouettes and solid colors. I can handle cutesy, but I'm not sure that I can handle flashy, which seems to be my dear daughter's sense of style.

 

We finally settled on this one from Garnet Hill, equally flashy, but big enough to carry us through next year. In addition, the website was running a promotion and the matching lunch bag was free with the purchase of a backpack. And hey, the backpack is starting to grow on me;)

 

 

I learned a lot about my daughter (and myself) through our backpack hunt process, so I thought it was worth documenting. The backpack and lunch bag arrived in the mail about a week ago, but I plan on giving them to her when we have our back-to-school lunch. I hope that she likes them! 



What We've Been Up To!

We've been pretty low key over these last few weeks. A few trips to our neighborhood park, taking advantage of our free summer skate passes, dollar movies at the Capri Theatre, and Wednesday night Rainbows meetings have kept the littles somewhat occupied.

I have been relishing these past few "down" weeks and not documenting as well as I should, especially since in the next week or so life will be getting pretty hectic. Chloe will be starting a new preschool program, Chloe's fall dance classes will begin, Chris will be starting fall classes, and I will be getting all of last year's fall clothes ready for consigning. I'm getting ready for a lot of activity and trying to conserve some energy for the end of August;)

We started this past weekend with a celebratory lunch for my sweet mother-in-law's birthday on Saturday. (Sorry, no pictures.)

We were also invited to swim and celebrate Papa Joe's birthday on Sunday. Papa Joe is the father of one of my childhood friends, so I've known him most of my life.

I did manage to get a few photos of the littles enjoying pool time. We have so missed the pool this summer. It was hard to justify signing up and paying for a Y membership for the pool when it always seemed to be raining.

Chloe, as always, jumped right on in!

Evan, my overly cautious boy, hung out by the stairs most of the time. He eventually started  to venture out towards the end of the party. He even jumped off the diving board a few times. Of course, momma was there to catch him:)

Also, I finally got around to capturing our black-eyed Susans on (digital) film. Here are a few of my captures.

That should have us up to date. And since it has been raining so much here lately, I thought that it would be appropriate to end this blog post with a rainbow.