First Days of School

During the past two years, Elise has always been jealous that Connor got to go to Joy School and she didn't (except for when it was at our house.)  So, the first day of HER Joy School had her thrilled.  She very generously allowed Connor to attend, since his school hadn't started yet.  This year, we have the sweetest group of little three-year-olds you could ask for, and the moms are all awesome, as well.  After teaching five-year-olds, though, these guys just seem so tiny!
     

First day of Joy School!  Waiting for her friends to arrive

Painting the school rules

From left: Charlie, Connor, Elise, Andrew, & Sarah

Connor's first day of school was the following week.  After a lot of thought and prayer, we decided to enroll him in a charter school located about twenty minutes from us.  It's a unique classroom/home-study program, so he does all his math and reading one-on-one with me at home, then the class meets one day a week in their own classroom for P.E., science, "team challenges", and art, among other things.  He attends from 8:00 to 1:00, so he gets to take his lunch and everything.  Here he is showing off his backpack and school clothes.  
   

It took me almost an hour to sew that Mario patch on.  I still haven't added the five mushrooms.

What an excited kid.

The first day of school was a bit of a mess.  Ryan was going to meet me at the school to do the parents' welcome party together, but I was running so late I ended up just dropping Connor off with his dad and turning around to take Elise to Joy School.  I was really mad at myself for missing everything, but at least Ryan got some pictures!  
    

   
So far we're really enjoying the program.  Connor loves his class and teacher - he tells me every time I pick him up.  His favorite part is in the afternoon when they do art.  We're also having a lot of fun with the home study stuff.  The kids and I just lie on the bed and read the history, poetry, and read-aloud books together, it's totally cozy.  We don't know if we'll stay with this school next year, but for now it's working out perfectly.
    
This was also Connor's first year doing soccer.  His Joy School buddies were all going to be on a team together, so we couldn't resist.  Its been a lot of fun.  He has practice every Thursday afternoon and has games each Saturday.  In their age division they split the soccer field in half and play two 3-on-3 games simultaneously against the other team, which is perfect for giving each kid more play time.  We didn't expect Connor to be that into it,  but he loves it!  (Although he does prefer to play "defense", which seems to mean waiting for the ball to come to him.)  His coaches both do an awesome job of making it low-stress and fun for the kids.  The team is named the "Blue Speed Racers".  Yeah, they picked it.
    

Stretching before the game

So much exercise . . .

    
We were sad to see summer go, but this fall has brought a bunch of new, exciting activities.  Besides, we live in L.A., so it's kinda summer 10 months of the year, anyway.  The other afternoon I saw this horrible creature in our backyard, trying to swallow my kids.
   

We couldn't turn the sprinkler any higher, because Elise was afraid she'd get wet.