Back to School: Feast and First Day

School started at the end of August--yet another school for these growing boys.  This school marks #5 for William and #3 for James.  But they are troopers!

We had our annual back-to-school feast the night before.

Our kid-picked menu this year was homemade chicken nuggets, baked french fries, fresh berries, and sparkling cider.   And our theme: I Can Do Hard Things.  The boys each got a keychain to put on their backpacks to remind them.

 We want the boys to remember that even when things get hard we can still do them.  We don't need to give up.  And even when it feels too hard to do on our own--Christ is always there to strengthen us  (Phil. 4:13). 

Every week at Family Night the boys report to us what hard things they've done in the past week.  It has been wonderful to hear the things they are doing (keeping their shirt tucked in at church, walking all the way to school, taking tests). And when they get discouraged about something I just whisper to them, "but you can do hard things" and it seems to give them the determination to try one more time.

Monday morning we got all ready for our first day of school in Las Vegas.  I think I'm always more nervous than the boys on the first day because we have never been at a school for more than a year--and each school has their own way of doing things.

William started 3rd grade this year:

And James is my big first grader:

I'm glad that these two are buddies and that they look out for each other.

Summer Bucket List

So I know that it's officially Fall now... but I just have to finally finish posting about our summer.  Our unexpected move put a little bit of a kink in our summer plans.  But we were actually able to still cross off most of our Summer Bucket List.

*Concert in the park & Picnic: 

We always love going to these free concerts.  We brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed the live music... even though it rained on us!

* Swim lessons--by the end of the two weeks we even got Alexander to stay in the pool the entire time!

 

* Go to the spray ground: We went a few times in Mooresville and love that there is one so close to our home in Las Vegas.

 

* Nature Museum &; Play at the park: We love this nature museum in Charlotte.  Afterward we had lunch at a nearby park and fed the ducks.

 * Hike

* Beach

 

* Family reunion

* Science museum

* Children's museum: My friend took the boy (plus her own 3) one morning while I packed the house.  It was such a blessing to have those hours to focus on the massive task that lay ahead.

* Swim: We tried to do this as much as possible!  The boys were very sad when we moved and no longer had a neighborhood pool.  But our wonderful neighbor has invited us to swim at her house whenever we would like.

*Play in the Rain: This wasn't written down on our list but I'm glad that we took the chance to do it!  We will miss the summer downpours of North Carolina!

* Movie day

* Picture shoot of the boys

* Eat from our garden

* Water fight

* Deliver treats to someone who needs some extra love: One of James' kindergarten teachers lost her husband the last week of school.  Since she lived just around the corner we brought her some cookies.  I think a big hug from sweet James made her day a little brighter.

* Service: We brought some dinners over to James' teacher as well and the boys would go visit with her while Rich mowed her lawn.

* S'mores

* Library reading program

* Homemade popsicles

* Bowling

*Watch fireworks

* Build an indoor fort

* Attend a baseball game: Technically we did this after school started... but it was still hot as heck so it counts for our summer list.  We were super lucky because a man gave us free tickets as we walked up to the stadium.  And there was a promotion so most of the food was $1!

* Root beer floats

* Visit the zoo: Not technically the zoo... but this may have been even better.

* Have a day with no electronics:  Everyday on our roadtrip!

* Collect seashells

* Play the ice cube game

* Play "drip, drip, splash"

* Make crafts: We discovered perler beads and my boys were obsessed with them for at least a week.  If I pulled them out again I think they'd go nuts still.  They even made little "toys" for Henry's birthday.

*Go to the ice cream parlor: In addition to going to our favorite ice cream parlor in Mooresville, we took one last trip into Davidson and bought a treat at the ice cream shop there.  

 *Make and play on a water blob

 Even though it wasn't what we had planned we had such a fun, memorable summer!