Kindergarten and Pre-K 3's Class: A New School Year

A new school year has started for the kids.  On Tuesday, Tommy moved into Kindergarten and Charlotte moved into the 3's class.  Charlotte isn't supposed to be in the 3's but since she's so close to the cut off, they let her start early... ONLY IF she was potty trained.  We've been a little lackadaisical about potty training her this year.  We are never in any hurry for that.  But we decided we better get on it.  We started when we went on vacation in July and by the time she went back to school, she was fully trained. Yay us!
So off to school they went. 

I actually took this picture on Sunday morning since I was going to be spending the week at leadership training in Phoenix.  I dressed the kids up in their fave outfits with their favorite toys and had them pose like last year. We've been working on Charlotte to find something else besides Elsa for about a year now.  Hopefully she'll find a new heroine or career soon. ;-)  Tommy came out of left field with his response of a pirate.  No idea where that came from.  I'm surprised he didn't say gymnast.  He has been flipping all over our living room since the Olympics started. 

 Here is a comparison picture from last year.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. Both are still into pink and blue but much 'cooler' clothes, of course.  The shoes are much bigger but similar in color.  Charlotte has way more hair and both are much taller even though it's hard to tell from the angle of the second picture.  Crazy how much they grow and change in a year!

So while I was in Phoenix with these strangers learning how to be a leader...

 I was getting updates from afar on our school's new app.  This was an old picture that our cook posted.  She started a cooking class this summer and would find things to make that Tommy could make with substitutions.  Looks like he loved that!

Then on my birthday, I got this message.  Tommy had an incident which was no big deal.  But he also got kudos (which until I told him it was kudos, he thought it was Toodles, haha).  When I read the kudos at my meeting, I totally cried.  They had just announced that it was my birthday at the meeting  and everyone in the room sang me happy birthday.  Talk about awkward.  Then the presenter also mentioned that I had a kindergartner starting school this week and that they appreciated me being there.  So that was awesome. (Sarcasm intended)  Then all the moms in the room made sure to come over at break and ask if I tried to get out of this.  Thanks, strangers.  I appreciate that.  So glad you could make me feel worse when I was already there. 
But the kudos.  I got the kudos message after all of that.  Tommy helped a kid who was sad and scared about being at a new school.  He's got a great heart and I can take some of the credit for that.  So yeah, I cried.  It was my birthday and I could cry if I wanted to. :)

The night before school started, Tommy's teacher sent home a note for a parent to read on the night before school.  It was a sweet letter and it was to help calm any jitters about the first day.  Andrew did a fantastic job of pumping Tommy up for kindergarten.  Way to go, Dada! Tommy had an amazing first week. 

He had homework the first week! He had to memorize a poem and a bible verse.  Plus he had to put together an About Me bag by Friday.  Wow! Busy first week!! Sheesh! But again, Andrew knocked it out of the park.

Charlotte had a pretty great first week too! She got kudos for a great job helping clean up.  They sent this picture of her and a friend playing Zootopia, according to Charlotte. :)

They also had a dance party on Friday.  She's in this picture but you can hardly see her.  She is in the back left behind a girl in a blue shirt.  Near the end of the week, she had a rough day and got in trouble for not wanting to do seat work.  Hopefully the dance party helped and next week will be much better.  She misses her old teachers I think.  But she still has her besties which helps a lot. 

I'm so proud of these two.  They are growing up so fast and they amaze me everyday.  I'm so lucky to be their mom.  I hope this school year is the best year yet!