Third Grade! {First Day of School}

Here we are again… the first day of school!  With the year-round school calendar it always feels like our summer is a little short, but the breaks during the school year are totally worth it.



Anthony attends a school that follows a year-round calendar or 45/15 calendar.  I have written about that here and here.

It’s always fun to look back at all of Anthony’s first days of school. Follow the links to see more of the first day of Kindergarten, the first day of First grade, and the first day of Second grade.
Check out how he’s changed over the years!


So proud of this kiddo!

Last Day of School

School’s out for summer!

As always, I had to take the “last day of school pics”. Anthony was not as interested in photos this morning, but luckily I was able to get him to laugh at my silliness!




Check out these teeth!  Wow…. There will be an ortho consult in his future!


Here’s the comparison between the 1st day and last day of 2nd grade!  He’s grown a couple inches this year! He also really needs a new pair of shoes…


Happy summer!!

School Talent Show!

Each year there is a Talent Show at Anthony’s school. Children in 2nd-5th grades are invited to try out.  This year 17 acts made the talent show, and Anthony was one of them!  He played his piano recital piece from June, and he did a great job!

Here’s a link to his performance!


Anthony was really nervous, but he still did a great job!  We are so proud! 

Today is Anthony’s last day of school until January 13th - LOVE the 45/15 schedule and all the time we will have together over the next couple weeks!

This week {InstaFriday}

Last week we went to the pool and the weather was perfect!  Anthony LOVED being able to go on the big slides – until a lifeguard told him to head to the front desk to get measured to see if he was tall enough. He may or may not have had his heels lifted off the ground while getting measured… He loves to swim, so I wasn’t worried!


Hubby had an issue with his iPhone, so off to the Mall of America we went to visit the Apple store. More great customer service from Apple – hubby walked out with a brand new phone in his pocket.  While we waited, Anthony had a BLAST playing with one of the computers.  We may have joined in on the fun…  HA!


Anthony had a baseball game on Tuesday night.  They are playing coach pitch this year.  He connected with the ball on this one – it was a pretty good hit!


School started this week.  How did that happen?!?


Portabella fries. Twice in one week.  Oops….  Seriously, they are AMAZING!


That’s our week in a snapshot.

What did you do this week?

Linking to: Life Rearranged

Time for Second Grade! {First Day of School}

Wow. I can’t believe school started today! Today is Anthony's first day of 2nd grade!  If you know our family, you know that Anthony attends a school that follows a year-round calendar or 45/15 calendar.  I have written about that here and here.

Here are a few photos of our morning!

Hubby was telling funny jokes…

2nd Grade!

We are so lucky that the bus comes right to our house – at the end of our cul-de-sac!

I had planned to follow the bus to school, but was completely unprepared when the time came this morning. Hubby was like, “Aren’t you going to follow the bus?”  Cue.the.panic. I quickly grabbed my purse, keys, camera and jumped in the car.  I drove quickly – luckily I didn’t get pulled over!  I didn’t get much for pictures at school though, other than the photo below.  The school principal (orange shirt) is standing at Anthony’s bus and the kids are just about to get off.  There were too many cars crossing for me to get a good photo. I sure tried!

I had some fun looking back at the first day of Kindergarten and the first day of First grade this morning too!

Oh Anthony, how you have grown, in so many ways!



Peace out.  Oh wait, I think he means he’s off to 2nd grade… 

          

When do your kids go back to school?

School’s Out for Summer!

Just over a week ago, Anthony headed off to his last day of 1st grade.  It was an extra special day for him too, because he was celebrating his birthday with his friends at school!  Having a summer birthday used to be a bummer, but his teachers have been great and let him celebrate with his classmates before school is done for the summer.

First day of 1st Grade!


Last day of 1st Grade!


If you look at the door handle, you can really see how much he grew during the last year – crazy!  You can also tell the weather was not great.  Spring in Minnesota was not kind.

Even though school just finished, because Anthony attends a year-round school, he starts school again on July 24th.  As crazy as that sounds, we LOVE the schedule when he gets 3 long (3 weeks!) breaks during the school year.

We’ll be school shopping before we know it, but until then, we are going to enjoy every minute of summer!

A Month in Photos {May}

May… A month that should be full of beautiful weather has been cold and rainy,
which is NO FUN at all.

Cub Scout Graduation
A day at the park (the sun was shining!)
School Musical
Camping trip in Iowa
SNOW DAY (in MAY!)
Pony rides at the circus
Bowling (thanks to ANOTHER rainy MN day)

**Want to see more photos? I’m @MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram

First day of 1st Grade

It’s hard to believe that we are already at the end of July, which means the beginning of school at our house! 

He’s all set – ready to take on first grade!

Anthony attends a year-round school that follows a 45/15 calendar.  Basically this means that he will be in school for 45 days, then they take a 15 day break, then 45 days of school, then break, etc.  His summer vacation is about 6 weeks, which really is long enough for a 6-year-old.  His 3 week breaks will be in October, Dec/Jan (over the holidays) and March/April (over Spring Break).  Maybe this year we can squeeze in a trip during one of his breaks from school?

We played some frisbee while we waited for the bus.

Rockin’ his new shoes – he says they are FAST!  So fast that he had to challenge us
both to a few running races this morning.  Not gonna lie, they are fast!

I asked him to turn and wave as he got on the bus - He managed to throw an
arm back and wave as he ran to the bus.  That was the best he gave me,
and I didn’t even get a picture of it…

Getting off the bus at school (Yes, I am THAT Mom).  I’m pretty sure he was the last one on the bus - I took a shortcut to beat the bus and park so I could get these pictures!

Perfect!  He has a friend on the bus!

Ready or not, there he goes!  Have a great first day Anthony!

Kindergarten is OVER?!?

It’s hard to believe that Anthony is officially done with kindergarten!  Where did this school year go?!?

First day of school (July 27, 2011)


Last day of school (June 7, 2012)


Anthony is THRILLED to be a 1st Grader!

If you sell at least 25 items….

At the start of the school year, Anthony brought home a fundraising packet and was convinced that he was going to sell enough items (25) to get a limo ride. We definitely were not so sure – 25 items is a lot! He made a list of who he wanted to try to sell his items to, and started out with one of the grandparents, who bought 3 items. A few days later he stopped over to the neighbor’s house to make a sale. She “borrowed” the fundraising books for a couple hours and came back with an order for 22 items! Anthony sold a few more items after that, but his fundraising push definitely slowed once he knew he had “earned” the limo ride.
Last Monday all of the kids who sold 25+ items had the chance to jump in the limo and take a spin to the new McDonald’s for an ice cream cone. They were THRILLED!

A Hummer limo!

This was the first group, all ready to go!

SO excited for the chance to cruise around town in a limo!

After a ride like this, I can’t help but wonder what the expectations will be when this fundraiser comes around again next year!

Time for K.... Already?!?

It seems like it has been an eternity since we began our journey to parenthood. After working with fertility specialists, we decided the best route for us was adoption. Once we made that decision is was like a dark cloud had lifted. Seriously, it was a freeing feeling to know that we would finally be parents, we just would have to work with someone else's timeframe. After completing all of the required paperwork and background checks that are a part of the home study process, we waiting 6 Short long months until our little guy arrived.

This was in the car the day we brought him home. Those eyes say it all!

At 8-months old, Anthony was nearly crawling, and we were clueless parents. We had been preparing for a newborn and suddenly we had an 8-month-old! What do we feed him? When does he sleep? He's almost crawling! We QUICKLY adjusted and fell in love with parenthood. He truly was an amazing little dude.

Now here we are, 4.5 years later and he's 5-years-old and off to Kindergarten!!! He is attending a public school that follows a year-round calendar. School started at the end of July, so here we find ourselves suddenly not just parents, but parents of a Kindergartener! How did this happen so fast?!?

1st Day of Kindergarten, July 2011

For those of you wondering how the year-round schedule works, it's really pretty slick. The year-round schedule is also called a 45/15 calendar. This means that the students have 45 days "on" and then 15 days "off". Basically they start school at the end of July, take a 3-week break in October, another 3 week break over Christmas/New Year's and the last 3-week break is "Spring Break". Summer break is still 6-7 weeks, which is plenty long for children who get bored. For our family, this schedule is going to work perfect. Not only will Anthony not have a super long summer break to forget what he learned, he's also have long breaks during the year which will help keep him ready to learn. Plus, his teacher will be nice and refreshed from her extended breaks during the school year. The extra bonus - we can take family vacations during non-peak travel times.

In addition to having a Kindergartener, we are waiting to adopt again. More about that later. Please send us your positive thoughts that it will be our turn again soon!