West Family Journal: Back to School!

Here is some fun we've had before school started.. We love to play Pie Face. It cracks me up every time! We also love walks, and bike rides, and playing at the parks near by.

We had a parent day at Kindergarten before the first official day. We went on a scavenger hunt around her classroom, colored a picture, and made a Susanna necklace with letters. It was pretty exciting. Her classroom is so cute and we love her teacher.

She couldn't wait for the first day. Every day she would say "three more days!" and then "two more days!" The night before her first day we read "The Night Before Kindergarten" together. The next morning she was up and bright eyed. Her teacher gave her magic sprinkles for her cereal to help with first day nerves. Mm!

She looks so adorable in her uniform! We wore our best friend necklaces and I told her that she was going to make new friends at school, but to remember that I'll always be her best friend.

I really thought I was just as excited as Susie and all ready to say goodbye but when the time came to leave her I couldn't keep the tears in! I held it together pretty well until I got back to the car. She is so grown up and I will miss her at home. I'm thankful we have a year of half-day kindergarten.

I picked her up and asked her all about her first day. She told me about recess and about the bench you can sit on if you don't have anyone to play with. She says if you see someone on the bench you go and get them and play with them. I'm thinking, oh what a cute idea. Then she tells me that she didn't have anyone to play with so we went and sat on the bench. She waited and waited she says but no one came to play with her. And then recess ended. How sad! She didn't seem too upset by it though so we just moved right along. She sits at a table of all boys (I'm the only girl at my table mom!) I asked her how she felt about that and she said, "a little stressed out!" Funny girl. She had a great time and she loves going everyday. We got her a few gallons and a donut for after school. We also made her favorite dinner, chicken pot pie, later that night.

She looks so cute each day in her uniform. Fridays are dress down days. Susie also had a half birthday last week. She is 5 1/2 now! We made a half cake to celebrate. It was on Sunday and when we got home from church she said, "mom no one wished me a happy half birthday at church..?" I had to explain to her that most people don't celebrate half birthdays, we just like to because it's fun and silly and a good reason to make cake!

We also started a preschool playgroup for Braden! It is a mommy and me class so it is low key and fun and the kids get lots of play time. I'm really excited that we will have something structured for him, even though he isn't quite ready for a formal class. We have some nice little girls coming and I'm excited for a year of preschool!

Braden had a bad asthma attack a few weeks ago. He woke up and his breathing got worse and worse. I took him and and they gave him a nebulizer treatment. I gave him treatments at home with our own nebulizer but they weren't helping him very much by the end of the day. They gave me an oral steroid medication to give him to stimulate his lungs but he couldn't keep it down. He just threw it up. We decided to go back to see the doctor again and they gave him a shot of the steroid. It helped right away. I put him in bed with us for the night (yay for king sized beds) and he slept and breathed well.

And of course there's Clark. He is 7 months old now! He has been working on getting two teeth for about a month and they are finally here! He has a goobery eye and gets an upset tummy here and there. I'm trying to figure out if there is a food he doesn't like. For the most part, he sleeps well and is a happy smiley baby. I can't believe how big he is getting! He is almost sitting up by himself and loves to roll around the floor.