First day of school 2011!

They love each other- most of the time.

Dallin 3rd grade 2011. Mrs. Rodriguez

McKade, Kindergarten! 2011. Miss Valenzuela

McKade is so excited to go to school with his big brother.

Gotta have one in front of his classroom!

This is how he spent most of his morning playing. He wanted so badly to go play soccer with the big kids, but has to remain inside the kindergarten area. His sweet older brother did run over just to check on him for a minute. (Dallin doesn't know I saw, but McKade does. He thought he was so cool having Dallin talk to him.)

I finally convinced him to go play.

Heading over to flag ceremony.

I have been looking forward to this day all summer and McKade has been looking forward to it for over a year. I can't believe I have another one in school! McKade's had a little anxiety about going; will I make friends, I don't know how to tell time, what if I need to go to the bathroom, I don't know how to add big numbers yet, what if the person who sits next to me is mean, what if people ask about my glasses or laugh at me because I have to wear them, and on and on. I think we reassured him enough because the anxiety turned mostly into excitement. We caught the boys in bed with their school clothes on late last night so they could "be ready for their first days quicker!" This morning all awoke to me making blender whole wheat pancakes, but nobody ate much as they were overly excited. We then read scriptures, made final checks on what needed brought, then went outside to take some pictures which nobody wanted to cooperate with. Then we were off. First we went to Dallin's classroom to drop off his backpack. Then we headed over to the kindergarten area. McKade was so excited, and took off to play. Tyli wasn't so excited as I didn't let her go play. McKade was funny- he played for about 3 minutes and then wandered over to the fence to find his brother. He stood longingly at that fence for almost the remainder of the time. It wasn't until Dallin ran over from his soccer game to check on McKade that McKade decided to go make some new friends and go play.
 We left right after flag ceremony, before I could think about things and start tearing up. It was nice to go with a smile on my face. As we pulled out of the parking lot, I got a little sad at the realization that he isn't so small anymore. That was the extent of my sadness. I was really puzzled by that, and finally realized that I have done what I try so hard to do, things that I feel like a failure at; I have taught him to be good, be kind, how to make good choices and that when we make bad ones, there are consequences that come. I have taught him that he's loved, that we, his family, are always going to be here for him, no matter what. I've taught him to follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I've taught him how to pray, anytime, for anything he needs. I may not have taught him everything he needs to know to the best of his ability before going into kindergarten, but he is ready to go nonetheless. I have done my best, and now I look forward to him taking the next step, going and applying all of that.
I just have to say that I LOVE both my boys' teachers this year. I am grateful to be able to send my kids to BFCS and that there is such an awesome staff and support from parents! (But seriously, I LOVE their teachers!) McKade's first words out his mouth when he got in the cars was "I have the best classroom and teachers in the whole school!" He also informed me that he made 2 new friends today but he'll have to wait one more day until he finds out their names to make sure they are still friends. (He's random like that, but it's one of the things I love so much about him.) His class did sing the "Color Song" which he was excited to teach us. Jeni, Dawna, Shari, ANYBODY: "Red stand up, blue stand up, red and blue sit down. Green stand up, yellow stand up, red and blue stand up. Oh this is the song about colors, colors, etc" Does anyone else remember that song from kindergarten? Does anyone know where I can find a copy of it?