2nd Grade, here comes Ella!

Several weeks ago Ella let me know that she wanted to have a back to school party- a back to school BOWLING party!
We invited the Riggs along too!

Jack was like this most the night. Frustrated.
We didn't think that he would really care about bowling, so we didn't include him in the kids game. Big mistake. BIG mistake!!
We all had to let him take turns on our games.
He loved it so much!!
That is why I got such a bad score.
Alright, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

Rigg's Kids!

Justin and Katrina

You can see they take bowling very seriously

They even have their own bowling shoes!

Ella LOVES to bowl!

You can see, I don't like bowling shoes. Yuck

Such excitement!

It was so much fun, I guess that we need to go bowling more often!
After we went and had some yummy pizza!

Thanks Riggs, always a good time with your wild bunch!

The night before school!

Last year was such a hard year for Ella. She had a really rough teacher.

It's a huge regret of mine and I have tons of guilt for keeping her in that class. It was miserable and I should have moved her out of that class at the first hint of trouble.

(Can I just say how much I HATE the Arizona school system!)

This year, we have moved schools all together.

Ella still had an almost- panic attack the other day though. Worried about school.

She got assigned a teacher at the new school that I had heard many many bad things about.

So over the past couple of weeks I've been working on getting her into a better class with a better teacher. Ella was so worried that she was going to have another year with a mean and rotten teacher. (Although this year I wasn't about to let that happen!)

I'm very pleased that the principle was willing to work with me and get Ella into a class I felt a lot more comfortable with!

Hey, that teacher is going to spend more of the day with Ella then I am! I want her to be nice, kind and loving to my baby girl! We were able to meet with the new "good" teacher and talk to her about Ella and what happened last year and what she needs this year.

We are confident that this is going to be a much better fit for Ella!

Breakfast. Looking a little worried still.

Feeling a little better! I can't believe she's in 2nd grade already!!!

All ready with her new backpack!

Of course Jack had to get in on the action!

It's so nice to be able to walk to school! It will be a lot nicer when it's not 110 degrees outside!

Jack's all ready with his backpack, lunchbox and sippy!

Waiting with her new class! I'm so happy that she already knows several children in her class! That made her a lot more comfortable! She even gets to sit next to her best friend from church!

Ella's classroom and awesome teacher Ms. Brown!

Crossing my fingers she has a good day!

(When Jack went peepee on the potty I gave him a treat. He then wanted me to go outside and take a picture of him with his sucker. Sarah says that my kids are weird now, because they think that we need to take pictures of everything they do now. But I don't care)

*

When Ryan and I went to leave the school Jack didn't understand why he had to come with us. It was so sad! He cried and cried! Ryan had to carry him the whole way home. When Ryan set him down at home Jack just fell to the ground and laid there. With his backpack on.

But we got some fun things going on for him, like POTTY TRAINING! He's soooo ready. At this point it's just me getting my act together! He's only had one accident so far in the last couple of days. He's growing up! I can't wait to be done with diapers!

Other then wanting a bowling back to school party, Ella also really wanted to have a banner when she came home from her first day of school! (We always make a banner for Ryan when he has a big day (last day of work, first day back at college!) So she wanted one too!)

I'm happy that she was still surprised! She kept saying, this is amazing Mom, thank you!

How could I NOT do things like that, when I get to hear such happy things from my kids!

So the first day was a TOTAL SUCCESS!!!!

She loved her teacher, her principal, her lunchroom, her playground, her friends.

She said it was a perfect day! I'm sooo glad! I hope that it continues throughout the year.