In just two shorts weeks, we’ll have two kids in elementary school.
How is that possible?
We have turned in all but one form to the school office, shopped for a {big boy} backpack, tried on and purchased new Vans, picked up a few t-shirts here, some shorts there and checked off the school supply list with things like crayons, plastic folder, glue sticks, etc.
It seems like just yesterday my Target lists included diapers, wipes, Gerber puffs and jarred baby food.
Now he asks that all his shirts display a skull and crossbones…
In just 2 short weeks, he/we will be starting a whole new chapter.
Trying so hard to fill the last blank pages of this chapter with fun memories. No more impromptu play dates on a Wednesday morning. No more lounging in pajamas ’til lunch.
My baby will be in school five days a week from about 8am – 2pm. He will have sight words and homework.
But at the same time, he’ll make new friends {which he’s really good at!} and will hopefully develop a love for school just as Elliott did.
Speaking of blank pages…he has just two untouched pages in his baby book that I’ve been dilligently keeping for the past almost 5 1/2 years…
“My First School Day”
With lots of blanks to fill in ~ what I wore, teacher’s name, what I was proud of, names of my new friends and a spot for his picture.
Looking forward to scanning the bulletin board for his name to see who his teacher will be and getting started on his educational career.
He’s ready.
Not sure if I am.
Those last two pages in the {baby book} will be hard to complete….
Yesterday afternoon I set out to make a little last-day-of-school snack for the office staff, principal, yard duty and teacher.
I wanted to make saltine toffee, but create a {summery} version using white chocolate instead and adding some dolphin shaped sprinkles and aqua blue sanding sugar. I also had visions of marbling blue and green into the white chocolate…..easier said than done!
The first batch was a total fail. I went off memory {not good!} and didn’t set the oven hot enough. When I poured the white chocolate chips onto the toffee immediately out of the oven, they didn’t melt. I returned the pan to the oven hoping that they’d melt faster and allowing me to spread easily with a knife. Not so.
I then referred to the recipe I used over the holidays and set the oven to the correct setting this time! I also slowly melted the next bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave on 50% power ~ starting with 1 minute, stirring, another minute, then stir again until blended. Once the second batch came out I poured on the melted chocolate and let it sit a couple minutes before spreading with a knife. Much. Better.
In the meantime, I reserved a bit of the white chocolate chips in a small bowl, melted those and added just a couple drops of blue and green color gel and mixed that up. After I spread the white chocolate smooth, I dropped little dots of the blue and green and then ran a knife through it for the {marbled} look. Didn’t quite turn out how I’d hoped, but wasn’t terrible. I then dusted it with some dolphin sprinkles and sanding sugar and put it into the fridge to cool and set up.
Then broke into pieces…
…and decided it wasn’t too awful to package up and share!
I put about a dozen or so pieces of toffee into a sandwich sized ziploc and then stuck that into some little blue lunch bags that I picked up at Dollar Tree {10 for a buck}.
I used leftover green ribbon and some old, unused birthday invitations to attach a little handwritten note,
“Happy Summer! ~ White Chocolate Saltine Toffee ~ From the Aspiras Family”
I must admit that I like the toffee better using either milk or semi-sweet chocolate, but I thought the white chocolate was much more summery. Plus you can add more color using the white and tailor to all sorts of holidays.
Here is our almost-first-grader holding a goodie for Mrs. P, the principal:
…and here they are delivering it to her office…
And here is E with Mrs. R, who makes sure all the little ones are safe before school and out on the play ground:
*****
Room 9 had the cutest, sweetest group of Kinders…
We certainly hope to have some fun summer play dates.
This little polka dotted goofball has exactly 4 more school hours until she becomes a first grader.
Here she is on her first day of kindergarten…
10 months has never gone by so fast.
I am so thrilled with her progress thus far and looking forward to what the next school year holds.
This afternoon as I was {attempting} some fun treats for the office staff and yard duty, I had her sit down and write a thank you note to her teacher, Mrs. H. She went and picked out a special blank card and wrote the following:
“I love you. I loved all the things that you did! You are wudfl {wonderful}! Love Elliott
{the [Love Elliott] was in bubble letters}
She drew a picture of Mrs. H {blond hair} and her {black hair} with a big red heart between the two of them and a smiley sunshine in a blue sky. The two of them standing on some lime green grass.
On the front of the envelope she wrote, not “To Mrs. H”, but instead:
“I will mis you in first grade!”
I died.
I {big red heart} that she is leaving Kinder with these words on her teacher’s thank you note.
Holden had a t-ball game last night. His field was next to the A’s, who Elliott’s classmate’s sister plays for. It’s so cute to see Elliott & Cameron call out each other’s names on game days, run to each other and pal around together while their siblings play ball.
{Cameron, Emilie & Elliott ~ Photo courtesy of Cameron’s mama}
As I sat with one eye on the game and one eye on the threesome above, I couldn’t help but smile as I watched them skip and gallop around in the late afternoon/early evening sunlight.
Ironically, on the first day of kindergarten I filled out the last page in Elliott’s baby book ~ My First School Day. Under the entry, “I was so proud because I _______________ for the first time”, she wanted to fill in the blank with “met new friends”. She named a few of her new classmates and Cameron was one of them. Almost 10 months later, they’re sharing Red Vines on the t-ball field…..awwwww!
I’m thrilled that she has fostered friendships all on her own this school year. She really does love each and every one of her classmates. She’ll come home too and mention that she met a new friend in Mrs. So-and-So’s class. I love that she’s befriended other students since, without a doubt, each school year will bring some new faces to her classroom….chances are she will already know some {or all} of them.
Making my best effort to keep in touch with many of the sweet moms for some fun summer play dates. I couldn’t be happier with the nice group of kiddos and parents we shared this school year with.
Maybe the saying {all I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten} really is true after all.
*****
“A friend is a present you give to yourself.” ~ Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
All I have to say is, if you’re a kindergarten teacher, you’re a saint.
I was assigned to the “yellow table” to help with an estimation exercise where the kiddos had a picture of a snowman and needed to estimate how many mini marshmallows it took to cover the snowman. They then put their estimation in the “guess” box, covered the snowman in marshmallows, removed and counted the marshmallows and finally reported the actual number of ‘mallows in the “check” box.
Easy right?
Bless their hearts…they did great, but all the friends at the table were counting too loud and at the same time and someone would inevitably get off on their counting and would have to start all over again.
Patience.
Let’s just say that most were {a little} off…estimating is HARD. I was never any good at guessing how many jelly beans were in the jar anyway!
*****
Most days {95% of the time} I pack Elliott’s lunch. Once in a blue moon she gets to buy {hot lunch} at school and this is a treat. Just so happened that today was a treat.
Well…
I was finishing up helping the teacher with some busy work when they went out to the lunch area. She desperately wanted me to come by the tables and say good bye and, of course, I did. She had already gone through the line and selected her lunch.
A slice of cheese pizza.
French fries.
A chocolate chip cookie.
Chocolate milk. {Of course!}
The end.
I’d hate to map that meal out on the food pyramid.
I rest my case.
That is precisely why hot lunch comes along once in a blue moon.
*****
Maybe 1st grade will bring some healthier hot lunch selections?
Hope your Thursday had at least ONE serving of fruits or veggies.
