First Five Days

It was a great first week of school! Everyone is tired tonight and ready for the weekend, but what a great start we've had!

First Day Pics

It was a rainy day, but the rain stopped long enough for Steve and the girls to walk to school, which is a tradition. So exciting for them to be walking to the same school, just across the street from our house!

Ready for Kindergarten!

 Ready for 4th Grade!

 Emma's teacher sent me this pic during the day. Then she called me that afternoon to let me know what a great day Emma had. Another friend in class was celebrating her birthday, and Emma was the helper who got to show her the office to get her cupcakes. As far as Emma was concerned, best. day. ever.

Sara was excited about her AVID binder. She showed me each section Monday night. AVID is a program that equips kids with college-ready skills, and many schools in our district start really promoting it around 4th grade.

 Emma's teacher sent a picture of her class taking a brain break. She was groovin'!

 Sara's teacher sent a picture of her class wearing their brain hats. I'm thankful that our district dedicates the First Five Days to community building, learning about the brain, and addressing social emotional health so that when we dive into curriculum next week, a great foundation for productive learning, teamwork, and problem solving has been set.

 This week set the tone for a great year, and I'm so excited to watch my girls continue to grow!

Ready for School!

It's already that time! Our schools start earlier this year than they have in a long time, so although it was a short summer, it was full of fun and now we're ready for school. The girls had Meet the Teacher on Friday morning at 7:30 ... which is the earliest part of the morning they'd seen in a long time. But they hopped out of bed, excited to see their new classrooms. As we were walking up, Emma was super agreeable to taking a picture, while Sara wanted me to hurry up before anyone saw her and she became embarrassed. Same school, but in two different phases for sure!

Kinder w/ Ms. Kalsbeck & 4th Grade w/ Mrs. Jobe and Ms. Brown

 After MTT, I headed to work while Steve took the day off to enjoy with the girls. They celebrated the end of summer with big breakfasts at a new diner nearby.

I'm so thrilled to have both girls at the same school for the next two years, and they are happy to be together, too (even if they won't always admit it).  They'll be exhausted by the end of the week, but the excitement of starting school again is definitely in the air!

Before & After

Since we moved into our 1980's house a few summers ago, we've done a number of projects. Some have been "you can see the results" fun (i.e. new pool tiles and resurface, backyard turf, girls' bathroom overhaul), and some have just been necessary (i.e. root barrier system - which led to new front sod, attic beam fixes, etc.). I have been super ready to replace flooring, so I started getting some estimates. However, as I was heading that direction, we decided our flooring options would be broader if we did something about all of the oak in our kitchen and family room. Trim in all other areas of the house was already white, and as much as it kills me to paint over real wood, we decided to go ahead and update our cabinets.

BEFORE

AFTER

We left the beams because we love them, but everything else is now white - and it is SO open and airy. We love it! It's like a completely new house. Such a great transformation, and totally worth the money (even though I now need to work on building back up my flooring budget). Master bathroom and a number of other items are still on the list, but it's getting smaller every year!