First day of schools

Sigh.
August already!
I am with the other gazillion people out there lamenting that the summer months flew by and in a blink, it is time for school to start again.
And my baby boys are growing up so quickly!
Too fast!


Our little Jude is not in Pre-Kindergarden, the Busy Bees.  He has the same teacher that Tamlin had when he started here two years ago.  Has it been 2 years?!  He is super excited and has been going around saying that he is a big boy now.  But I know he is still our little-snuggle bunny in his heart.  He's excited to be in a new room with new toys.  I'm excited that he'll be learning more and more.

Tamlin is heading into first grade and will be attending the brand new school.  I took the afternoon off on Tuesday so that Tam and I could have special time with each other before his summer officially ended.  He chose what we did together:  McDonald's, baked cupcakes (sprinkle batter with blue frosting and Swedish fish), built hot-wheel track down the stairs, and built a marble track.

  The new school is so awesome and so different from the grade school that I had attended way back when.   We went to open house on the evening before his first day of class.  This let us find out who his teacher would be and where his room was and let him see where his friends were.

Open concept design.  The hallways are huge.  The cafeteria is outside in the hallways and right next to the library!  In the hall!  Cool.   Tamlin's classroom is three classrooms connected together with movable partitions.  His main teacher is Mrs. Sprinkle. (I tried very hard not to giggle at this and Brian asked if it was here real name).  Tamlin found his name and cubby right away.  Jude helped Tam find his seat in the classroom...and then "helped" with exploring the rocking chairs and the books.  At his new seat, Tam found a treat of starbursts (Mrs. Sprinkle was "bursting" waiting to get to know you) and a baggy of sparkles.  The sparkles were magic dust to help you get to sleep quickly the night before the big day :-)  Yes, we had to use these that night and Tamlin fully believed in them.

Here's Mrs. Sprinkle and Tam.   All ready for the morning!  I know I felt better knowing exactly which room Tam was heading into and at least meeting the teacher face-to-face.




This morning was the BIG DAY.   I think Tam was excited and not worried at all.  He loves wearing his Hawaiian shirts :-)

Our neighbor and Tam's friend, Liam was NOT excited about school...but I think riding the bus was Tamlin helps.  They are good friends.  Brian and I got quick little hugs from our little man before he boarded that yellow bus, and I really didn't cry.  He's my little baby growing up!  He's all long legs and arms now and not a swaddled, curled up, little baby anymore!

Best of luck to both my boys in their new learning adventures!


Oh...and Zebra Slugs

Brian found two of these...um...in a delicate position behind our rain barrels.  Tam and Liam thought they were pretty cool.  I didn't realize we had any slugs here in Ohio that were this big (as long as my hand!).
The photo isn't ours, but from the web.