Introducing our First Grader

We are sad to see the summer end, but the kids especially have been so excited about school it has been contagious. We are also looking forward to Justin going to a regular schedule after Labor Day so that the kids can see him more (right now he's on 4 days of 10 hours). To keep the kids motivated to practice and do their little chores in the mornings before playing we gave them a paper icecream scoop do decorate each Sunday if they did their work during the week. More than one person asked what the prize was at the end, but they seemed perfectly content to work for a huge paper icecream cone and we were happy to oblige.

As a last hurrah we headed to the Rec Center and had fun on a very hot day.

Rachel impressed us with her rock climbing abilities on her first attempts.

The next day we headed out on some dates: Chuck E. Cheese for the boys, a movie and school shopping for the girls, and the Temple for Justin and Bridget. Rachel was ridiculously giddy about seeing Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer.

Rachel's fashion sense is getting more and more her own and this was the outfit she was dying to have - unfortunately they did not have it in her size. Maybe in junior high?

Here is our first grader on her big morning. She was so excited about the day and had a great experience. We were lucky enough to even have Nana here for her first day to see our big girl off and to entertain the troops back home while Bridget headed to parent meetings.

After Bridget returned from seeing her girl off she loaded Ian and Josie in for a bike ride to pick up some pizza. This was partially to celebrate the start of school and mostly to make it up to poor Ian for the weekend when she made pepperoni pizza with a zucchini crust and it was a disgusting dissappointment - especially to our boy.

A happy girl returned home and we will just have to figure out what to do without her fun personality around. We know that it's going to be a great year, but Bridget is certainly going to miss her during the days.