Anna's nightly visits....

Every single night over the summer it was such a battle to get Sam and Anna to bed. Some how I always got to put Anna and Sydney to bed while Greg put Sam to bed, which entailed him laying in bed and watching television (usually some kind of sports) with Sam. I would read to Anna and then lay with her for several minutes. After a couple minutes I would leave and say goodnight. Greg and I would be sitting downstairs watching television when we would hear Anna on the stairs, or she would just pop out of nowhere (she is very quiet sneaking down the steps). She always showed up dressed up in some kind of costume. The latest time I was home by myself and Anna comes down dressed in her Ariel dress with a crown on her head upside down and says, "mom, I'm a pretty girl." She was a very pretty girl, but she needed to go to bed! Another time she came down dressed up in her ladybug costume, wings and all. It was becoming a nightly occurance, what would Anna show up wearing an hour after her bedtime? Needless to say when school started and everyone started to go to bed earlier because they had to wake up earlier, the nightly visits stopped. But I must admit, it was very cute!

Sam starts Kindergarten!

Our little baby boy started Kindergarten on Thursday September 1st. Of course I was an emotional wreck. That morning it was raining and I was so disappointed that we could not walk Sam to school but would have to drive him instead. Sam was so excited, he could not wait to go to Kindergarten! The weeks and days leading up to his first day of school, I read Kindergarten books to him and talked with him about what school might be like, looking to see if he had any anxiety or scared feelings about doing something new. Nope, not one ounce of fright in this kid. He didn't understand why in some of the books that some of the kids felt nervous or scared. Sam was just excited to go. It made me feel good that we had prepared him so well over the years that he really was genuinely excited to go to Kindergarten at the big school. Every night on the days leading up to school starting we read, "off to Kindergarten" which was Sam's favorite. We also read "the night before Kindergarten" which he seemed to like too, but not as much as "Off to Kindergarten" which was a book that I had bought a Marshall's two or three years ago! Sam walked right into the school and remembered exactly how to get to his classroom, he led the way! He ran into Jackson and Ella in the hallway and stopped for a dew pictures. Since it was raining, all the kids were sitting in the hallway down by his classroom. Seeing all the older kids seemed to make Sam a little nervous, but seeing his two friends seemed to make it all okay. After a few pictures, Sam was anxiously waiting by the classroom door to enter the classroom. Anna stood excitedly next to Sam, peaking into the class too. When it was time to go into the classroom, Sam was one of the first kids in. He had his picture taken with his teacher, Mrs. Rowe and found his name tag at a table. I was one of the first parents to leave the classroom because I found myself feeling like it was time to let him get started on this new adventure and I was starting to think about what I was really doing and didn't want to start to cry. I did tear up slightly as I left my little baby boy in that Kindergarten classroom, but it was happy tears that he was moving on and growing up so fast into such a wonderful kid!

I anxiously waited outside of the school waiting for Sam to finish his first day of Kindergarten. I couldn't wait to hear how everything went and what he thought! Of course he didn't say much, but he really liked it and couldn't wait to go back! We had lunch with Jackson at our house and decorated cookies for a special after school snack. Then we painted wooden picture frames that we could put a picture from his first day of Kindergarten in. It truly was a very special and memorable first day of Kindergarten that I know that I have been anticipating since the day Sam was born.