School days

Carson has started kindergarten! His first day was August 19. I can't believe he is in school now and away from me 5 days a week. I thought I would have a really hard time with it and miss him terribly, but I am doing great with it. Not that I don't miss him-I do-but it is nice to have some time with Halli, and to have him learning so many things. One of the first things he has been learning is what to do when someone hits him. He has had someone hit, kick, or push him everyday except yesterday. We are taking some time this weekend to teach him some self defense moves and what to do if someone is beating on him. Here are some photos of his first day of school. It will be fun to watch him grow as we take pictures every year.
On the third day of school Carson got sent to the principal's office! He was helping another kid that was getting picked on at recess, and ended up getting kicked down. He had to go tell the principal what happened. He didn't get in trouble, but I think it is funny he was sent to talk to the principal so soon in his school career.Please excuse the "I'm not yet awake" face I'm sporting...I wanted a picture with Carson and didn't know how "great" I looked!
It makes me a little sad to think of all the fun things Halli and Carson have done together in the past year, and now they won't have all that special time together with Carson in school. They really are best friends! Halli misses Carson, and asks me everyday if she gets to go to school today.

I wanted to establish some back to school traditions we could do every year, and thought long and hard about what to do. Here is what I came up with. The night before school started we put together a little time capsule. I traced Carson and Halli's hands and feet and had them write their names on them. We also used a piece of string and measured how tall they were. Then I recorded some of their favorites. We put them all together and will look at them and how things have changed next year. After school on the first day I took Carson out for ice cream and talked about how things went, his teacher, what he learned about, and about the new friends he met. When we came home we ate muddy buddies. My mom always made those for us on the first day of school when I was growing up. I remember having them every first day from elementary to my senior year in high school. So I will continue on with that tradition. Oh, I also let Carson choose our meal for dinner the night before school started. Of all the things in the world that he could have chosen he picked grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I think these are all things we will want to continue doing each year...and maybe Carson will choose a more exciting "last supper" next year!

As a side note, Bentley is already 1 month old! I'll post about that in the next couple days!