School Daze!!

September begins our Good bye to summer and our Hello to school.  Our tradition is for the kids to pick out their special dinner for Labor Day for our Happy School Year celebration.

This year they wanted hot dogs on the grill and mac cheese.  So I made some homemade mac and cheese and also suprised them with some crabs which Alek was thrilled about.  Maks enjoyed a few crabs too, but he was more than to content to shovel in some shrimp--one of his faves!  The dinner was extra fun when Tim stopped by to help out with the crabs. 

We had a great dinner and talked about our excitement and expectations for the upcoming school year.  Alek's main goal is to write everything in cursive, Maks is looking forward to library and gym and getting to experience his first full day year at GS.  He is extra excited he got Alek's 1st teacher too.  We are happy to as Alek loved her and had a great year with her. 

After dinner we checked out our new baby fish in the pond and then went inside to get all our gear in order. 

Early to bed, need to have full energy for the day ahead!

This year I changed up my schedule so 2 days a week I am getting the kids on the bus and then heading to work a little later.  It is great, I love having the extra time with them in the morning and love taking the bus to school those two days. 

They are handsome and ready with their new back packs (thanks Pop and Noni)! And just because they have wheels doesn't mean they are racecar and demolition derby cars---Maks!

The first 2 weeks of school have gone great. It is wonderful to see Alek have excitement over school back and his self esteem alot higher than last year--hopefully the bully is gone for good!!  He loves his new teacher and excited over being upstairs this year. 

Back to school night was good. We met the new principal and I like her so far.  Got to meet Aleks teacher who I had known nothing about, but she is great. So cute and so energetic.  It was great hearing all the plans they had for the year, including raising and studying crayfish in class and mailing Flat Stanely to someone out of town and seeing all the places Flat Stanley gets to travel.  Alek is also able to participate in strings this year, he surprised us but wanting to and being really excited about it.  He is now deciding between the bass, cello or violin.  I hope parents dont have to know how to read music or help, otherwise we are in big trouble!

I love Maks' teacher, she is truly one of those great teachers for boys. She gets them, she has 2 of her own.  For their back to school night, Maks class did self portratis which were taped to their chairs for the parents to see. Maks of course made himself a Ninjago--we should have known.  He also wrote that his teacher was nice and beautiful.  Mrs M and I were cracking up, she said Alek wrote pretty much the same thing back then, so she knew Maks had to be his brother. 

So we are off to a good start all around.  We are in the swing of things, Maks at gymnastics, Alek at fall baseball--he can't wait until his pitches in his first game!

We have been enjoying the gorgeous weather too which inspired me to take the boys for a hike in the state park near us.  Alek loved grabbing the map and I just prayed we didn't get lost.  The trail was harder than I thought it would be, but the boys did great.  Alek and I kept betting when Maks would fall in mud or trip over something. It took about ten minutes before Maks tripped over a root as he was talking non stop.  Gotta love the kid!

Yea, the joy of boys.....always carry hand sanitizer with you on a hike!

Checking out a cave, Maks was a little worried there might be a bear!

Alek taking a break, it was a long day after the baseball game and a hike. 

They had a blast skipping rocks and looking for fish.  They were extra excited when a horseback riding group came through and they decided that is what they want to do next. Maks asked if he could make his go super fast.  God help the horse that gets Maks!

They found some fun things to climb and scale.  And Alek was psyched to hit the jackpot on acorns.  He came home with a pocket full!

Maks managed to stay clean until we turned around to head back and then he misjudged a jump distance and landed right in a puddle of mud and possibly some horse poo.  Thankfully it was all on one foot. 

After the hike they begged to go to Castle Park, so I kicked back in the shade and caught up with my People magazine while they played.  Afterwards we hit the diner.  Us and all the white haired crowd at 5:30 on a saturday!  They looked at us like we were invading their turf.  It was fun though and they were quiet and good.  We spent our time coloring while waiting for our food.  It was an awesome mama and sons day. 

I really enjoyed sitting by the creek watching them play and look at stones and just breathing the moment in.  It all goes by so fast.

I am glad I have kept up this blog for them and for me.  It is great to look back on the little memories that may have slipped my mind.  I hope one day they enjoy reading this and laughing at all the fun times they have had together.