first days & end of the week recap

we made it through three days of kindergarten, and i was already exhausted...ha!  we were all getting up earlier than the summer norm to make it to school, and if i'm honest, i'll tell you that it was a long week...for all of us.  by thursday, it was carson' first day of preschool.  so, here he is...


i could eat him up.


he was so excited!


and looked so cute with his rocket ship lunch box.


we took a quick family photo, just before we headed out.  we're missing miss emma in more ways than one here...


he had a great day too!  other than telling his teacher that, "i not take a nap at school."  hilarious.  my kids have only ever slept in their cribs, so nap time on a mat on the floor and not at home was. not. happening. for this little dude.  when he got home, we made pumpkin snickerdoodles together.  he loves to bake!  that recipe is a keeper, they were moist & yummy & made the perfect afternoon snack.


by friday, we were beat.  kindergarten is a long day!  it was a week full of adjustments for our whole family.  trust me.  we promised emma that if she made through her first week, we would bring her chick-fil-a on friday, so that's exactly what we did.  it was so nice to see her smiling little face, and we were all excited about the weekend.   movies+popcorn+sleeping in were all in order.

First Days & Meet and Greets

emma's first day of kindergarten appeared out of nowhere.  with the move, the previous three weeks had been nothing short of sheer chaos at the douglas house.  but when her big first day arrived, she was ready.


we left our back to school dinner stuff out from the weekend before and went ahead with a back to school breakfast too.


they had eggs, turkey bacon and cinnamon raisin mini-bagels.  it was nice to all have breakfast together before the big departure.


bro enjoyed it for sure.


this photo is my favorite :)


and her backpack...she picked it out herself.  it was complete with butterflies, which she just loves.


my pair.


on our way to school, she got well wishes from her mama c.


and she wore the bunny family necklace that was mine when i was a little girl.  i gave it to her that morning.


we were able to walk her into the classroom on the first day.


so, you know we did :)


right after drop off, carson and i attended the "boo-hoo breakfast." it's for all of the kindergarten moms. i cried my eyes out the night before, so by then, i was just fine.  then, we were off to meet carson's teacher...


carson and i thought about emma a lot on that first day of school.  we missed her terribly.  but, when 3:15 rolled around, a smiling face got off that big yellow school bus.


i couldn't have been happier!

Back to School Dinner 2012

i was trying so hard to think of ways that we could make some memories in our new house...and fast.  so, this is what i came up with....


it was our back to school dinner, held the weekend before school starts, to celebrate miss emma starting kindergarten and mr. carson starting preschool :)  i used what i had around the house, so it didn't cost me a thing, but emma thought it was simply amazing.  the flowers on the table were for my sweet sister's birthday and were from my parents.  i used some of our handwriting paper as place mats and used apples with toothpicks for our place cards.  i dug up some alphabet letters, a few rulers, and grabbed a school bus from carson's car collection and i was done.


i let emma pick the menu, so it was burgers on the grill, oven fries, and she requested strawberry shortcake, so together we baked the pioneer woman's version...delish.


we invited our aunt lindy & uncle dill over to join us.  it is so nice that they can just pop in for dinner :)


we sang, "happy birthday" to aunt lindy.  her real birthday was the day before, and when it came time to blow out the candles, she ended up with plenty of help.  we sent her home with the bouquet of flowers, alphabet flowers for her classroom, and a few love notes from miss emma.  it was a fun night and i think we'll add this to our list of traditions :)

Kindergarten Meet the Teacher

Emma loves to craft and was dying to make a gift for her new teacher, so we went with the alphabet flowers, courtesy of pinterest :)


There was lots to do at Meet the Teacher night.  I was so glad that Rob was with me to corral Carson.  Sometimes there just aren't enough hands :)


Emma was so lucky to have one of our neighbors in her class!  Since we were brand new, we were so excited to already know someone :)


Her teacher was super positive and sweet :)  We are looking forward to an awesome year.


And, we couldn't leave without a pic with the Chick-fil-a cow.  Carson thinks that every time we go to Emma's school....the cow will be there.