Back to School

On August 22nd, we had the girls' "meet the teacher day" at their school, which is affectionately called Helotes Howdy Night. Up until now, we have never had a male classroom teacher. The girls have declared this "The Year of the Boy Teacher" as they both got male classroom teachers for the first time, and they're SO excited about it! I'm also excited b/c they both seem AWESOME so far!

Monday, August 26th was the first day of first grade & third grade! As you'll see from the pictures below, the girls were beside themselves with excitement! We had to pry Brady out of his bed that morning, and he did ask quite a few times that first day if it was time to go get his sisters from the bus stop yet. ;)

 

 

 

After we dropped the girls off for their first day, Brady & I had a few errands to run. Running errands with two less kids feels like a walk in the park! We of course spent some time on the toy aisle in Target & picked up a celebratory cookie cake.

 

{"This dinosaur doesn't have a uvula!"}

 

 

 

 

On the first Friday of the school year, Derek had the day off..so we surprised the girls at school for lunch after attending Open House for Brady's preschool. As soon as we left the girls' school after lunch, Brady asked if we could go back to his school. ;)  I took that as a good sign he was ready for his first day!

 

 

 

And after Labor Day, this guy had his very first ever day of school at our beloved Marvelously Made! After we got the girls dropped off, we came home for a quick breakfast & it was his turn!!

 



 

{This was right after I picked him up & got him in the car--I was so eager to get him back!}

After his first day, we came home for lunch & then we did his favorite snail puzzle that BooBoo gave to Shelby when she was probably a bit younger than Brady is now. This is his very favorite thing to do these days, so it just made my heart so happy to see him back home doing his puzzle after being apart all morning.

As I'm typing this post, Brady is napping after his second day of school, which went just as beautifully as his first day! He LOVES his school, and I am just thrilled beyond belief to be back at MM.

We are all slowly settling into our new normal. I feel like this fall is kind of a shock to my stay-at-home mama gig that I have now had for almost nine {!!!} years. For those first few years, it feels like you're always at home reading books, changing diapers, playing cars, nursing babies. And suddenly, we have three kids in school & the girls are both doing piano & soccer. That doesn't sound like much when I type it out, but it feels like a lot to me right now. We safe-guarded our family's schedule when Shelby started Kindergarten and intentionally didn't participate in any extra-curricular activities, but we are slowly starting to pull back a bit and entering into a new season for our family. As we were driving home from Hadley's first soccer practice yesterday evening, I even said to Derek: "We had soccer ALL the time growing up, why does this feel like so much?!" And then I had to remind myself that this is just all new to us. We're finding our way together!

We are so eager for all that this year will bring in preschool, 1st grade, and 3rd grade! I have a feeling it's going to be a good one!!