Back to School

We survived the first week of school! Back in May, I was worried that we'll always be running late since I have two kids with me. Lo and behold, we've actually been running early every single day! We're leaving the house by 7:15 and I'm comfortably in my classroom by 7:35. So far, drop offs have been going great too. Char seems to really be enjoying school. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with Lucas, but hopefully I'll get to the bottom of why he sometimes says he doesn't want to go to school.

 Lu's first day of Pre-K

 Char's first day of Preschool 3s

 Two Legacy preschoolers

Since we were at school before 7:30 on Monday, I had the kids sit down and take another picture for me. Lucas's response: "aww man, again? We did this already." Four years old and the attitude has already started.

 Hanging out in Mommy's room after school

I have bags and bags of candy in my classroom right now. As a reward for being good students, the kids have already developed a routine to stop by my classroom after I pick them up to pick out a candy to eat in the car. Sometimes they just like to hang out and sit in my room for a bit before we go home. 

And when we're home...

 Mouthful of broccoli

Char likes to stuff her mouth every single bite. She also takes 5 minutes to finish whatever's in her mouth. I am always fearful that she'll sneeze it all out one day.

 Reading a Bible while sissy poo's about to fall asleep

 Friday dessert treat for surviving the first week of school

After a year long hiatus, we decided to get membership to CDM again. Lucas has been begging to go to the museum every time we drive down the 87. Since we won't be going to church on Sunday mornings anymore, we figured we'll have time to utilize our museum membership. We brought the kids back this Saturday and they had a blast!

 Lu loves that fire truck

 Little rock climber

 Dora and Charla

 EYE see you too, Lu

 Sunday OOTD

We were in a sorta rush to get out of the house this morning. Once we got in the car, Lucas said that I forgot to take their morning picture. When we got to church, I asked them if they wanted to take their picture now. They said no. I made them take it anyway. Ha!

After church, we met up with Char's BFF and their family for lunch. It's so much harder planning play dates now that school is back in session. These two definitely missed each other. It's a good thing J likes Frozen, too!

Reunited with her BFF

Surrounded by two of her favorite boys in the world

And that was week 1 of school. We made it. We survived. Why is the weekend over already?! Mama tired.

Classroom Reveal

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the Shinn kids. However, I'm quite proud of what I did with my classroom. Last year, I just did whatever to get by since I was hired two weeks before school started. This year, I had the entire summer to think about how I wanted to do certain things and more importantly, how I wanted my classroom to look. I decided on a chevron, dots, and semi Dr. Seuss theme.


Panoramic view

Student work display

Front view

My time consuming student crossword wall

My OCD teacher teaching desk with my cheat sheet names

Ready for August 24

DIY velcro line spots

 All those books will be gone at the end of the school year

And that's it! I spent way more time than anticipated working on my classroom. Well, at least all the decorating is done. I still have to file a bunch of my papers. Alright, I'm ready to start teaching on Monday!

This Is It.

That's right. This is it... the end of summer break for me. I thought I would have a more relaxing development week this year since I spent so much time prepping at home. It's not as stressful as last year, but I still have TONS of stuff to do. Note for the future: clean closet out during the summer! Anyway, here's some of our last shabang adventures before I started working crazy long hours this week.

 Summer get together with church friends (and Dr. Natalie)

 Wintermelon drink = not too shabby Gong Cha

 These kids are ready to go back to school

 Play date with Dylan

 (No reason) Isn't she so adorbs?!

 Not feeling it in the back

 (No real reason) Aren't they so adorbs?!

 Oldest and youngest cousin

 Celebrating MaMa's belated birthday

Smiley kids who are up way past their bedtime

 

And that was summer. It was fast. It was crazy. It was fun. It was tiring. 

Four Years Gone

I missed this last year because I had already started work and had absolutely no time after work to visit Mom's grave. This year, I was lucky enough to still be on summer break so I had the kids decorate some succulents they picked out to bring to PoPo's grave. Lucas is coming up with more and more curious questions to ask me about all this. He knows his Mommy's Mommy is not here on earth and that she died. However, that does not stop all the "why?" questions. One thing that's hard for him to comprehend is that Jesus is in heaven and so is his grandma, but when will he see her again? How do you even start to explain that to a kid?! He does comprehend that it's sad to not have a Mommy though. He also does not want to die because he would miss his family.

 Diligently decorating their pots

 Bringing their hand picked succulents to PoPo's grave

 "That's your Mommy"

Mom's grandkids posing

As each year passes by, it gets "easier" simply because I'm getting used to Mom not being around. There is always a part of me that wishes she were here to experience all this. I can imagine how much joy it would be for her to interact with these two and just be a Grandma. Unfortunately, they will only be left with the stories I tell them about her.

The Last Hurrah Pt 1

This is it - my last week of summer break. I said it once and I'll say it again, this has got to be the fastest and craziest summer vacation I've ever had. Am I glad to go back to work though? Yessir! I can't do the SAHM life anymore. At least I have breaks, a schedule, and consistent adult interaction when I'm at work. (I might regret saying this in two weeks though.)

Anyway, I'm trying to squeeze in as many "lasts" as possible these last couple days. I'm pretty proud of our summer, we did a lot of things and I'm pretty sure the kids had fun. I know they're excited about going back to school too. Lucas loves to learn (e.g. do seatwork) and Char likes to copy whatever Lucas is doing. I think we might all be ready for our crazy school routine again.

 Checking out the Niners practice

 Working on some drills

 Someone doesn't appreciate the Niner girls cheering him on

 Trying some juicy plums @ Mtn View's Thursday Night Live

 I was the only one who wasn't afraid of mascots in real life

 Showing off her panda which looks more like a bear with pink ears

 Loving the police motorcycle

 Lucas was extremely intrigued with what the fireman was saying

 Say CHEESE

 Trying to see where that red light is coming from (strange one...)

 Relaxing with Daddy

 Siblings forever!

 Preschool pool party at a resort-like house

 A crazy bunch celebrating Whitney's 5th birthday

 Lucas's thought bubble

 Happy happy Charlie

 Sibling love

 Getting along GREAT when they're supposed to be sleeping

My little rugrats have their own bedtime routine nowadays. After the lights are off, they have their own "short story" reading time. Their short stories last around 30 minutes; if that's a short story, I don't want to know how long a long story is.