Back to School Night & a Birthday!

The end of August proved to be a busy week for us- we were trying to enjoy the last week of summer vacation, as well as going to 2 back to school nights, celebrating a birthday, preparing for the start of school and a quick weekend away to attend a wedding.

Chloe's Back to School Night was first on August 29th. She is my school girl and loves nothing more than prepping for school and being at school. She found her desk in her classroom right away and helped me organize all of her supplies.

There were a few empty desks around Chloe, so the twins made themselves at home.

Chloe has two teachers this year- Mrs. Miller (on the right) will teach Monday-Thursday. Mrs. Bonham, on the left, teaches every Friday. Both are wonderful!

Chloe with Mrs. Miller- one of the sweetest, loving people I have ever met. This is what you imagine when you think of the perfect 2nd grade teacher. She is awesome and Chloe was so excited to get her this year.

We found her locker before leaving. This school gives everyone a locker- even the kindergarteners. I didn't get a locker until Jr. High!

Group shot outside her school.

We then came home to celebrate Ben's birthday. We actually celebrated a day early- we thought we wouldn't have time the next night on his actual birthday.

The kids were excited to help and watch the Birthday Boy open his gifts.

His big gift- an outdoor canopy.

With a 50+ day streak of no rain, this canopy will be great for giving us shade with all the SUN we've been getting. (I love having records set for continuos sun, not records how many days of consecutive rain we've had).

The BIG 3-5. Mid 30's looks good on you, Benj.

We did a rhubarb crisp for his cake this year. Ben and I both love rhubarb.

Of course, the kids had to help blow out the candles.

The kids didn't care for the rhubarb crisp, so they just had ice cream. After too many bowls full of ice cream, the "crazy eyes" competition came out.

It's really hard to say who is the craziest in this family!

The next night, August 30th, we headed off to Mitch's back to school night. This was a first for him (our preschool doesn't do one), so I was really excited for him. The tricky part was toning down Chloe a bit- she was super excited to try and help Mitch with everything and I didn't want her to take over and do everything for him. I wanted it to be his night and be all about him and his school.

We had a checklist of things to do. One of the action items was to find his pencil box.

Found it!

He also had to find his name on the shelf to show him where his folder goes every school day.

This picture is blurry, but he found it!

Mitch and his fantastic teacher, Mrs. Taylor. She is sweet and patient and will be a fabulous pre-k teacher.

I didn't see the twins the whole time we were in the classroom. They immediately found the playhouse in the room and spent the entire time playing quietly in there.

Our checklist also included wandering around the room and finding where everything is. I had to drag Mitch away from this etch-a-sketch to show him everything else.

He was excited to see some familiar books on the class book shelf.

Ben got there a little late, and Mitch was very excited to show him the contents of his pencil box and around the classroom.

Next, we got to take a ride on the bus. Since we are out of district for this school, Mitch won't get to ride the bus to school, but everyone else that lives in district gets to ride the bus. But that didn't stop us from taking a ride for fun.

Our last stop was the cafeteria to eat dinner. The school was selling hot dogs, chips and drinks for pretty cheap. I think Mitch is most excited about getting to eat lunch at school this year. And kudos to the school for having a cafeteria. I think eating in the classrooms is gross (and lots of work for the teachers).

This night was Ben's actual birthday. He needed a picture under the birthday banner.