Ocean Day!

Today was the long awaited for Ocean Day!!!  We have heard about this event for a few weeks now and the Kindergartners have been busy earning, and in some cases losing, their Ocean Day tickets that they would need to participate in various activities and games.  I'll admit I was starting to wonder if Caleb would actually get to play any games today because I think he was losing his tickets just as quickly as he was earning them (they had to give the teachers back tickets if they were misbehaving).  I was able to volunteer at Ocean Day today while Joshua spent the day with his Nana and Papa.

 

The Kindergartners were equipped with their sack of tickets and were allowed to decide how they wanted to redeem their tickets throughout the morning with the exception that each of them had to keep 3 tickets that they would use for popcorn, a Capri Sun and to watch a movie once all of their other tickets ran out.  Each of the three Kindergarten class rooms were set up with various stations.  Some of the options included playing in shaving cream, searching for buried treasures in the sand inside a kiddie swimming pool, making a fish, creating an ocean mobile, fishing for candy, etc.

 

I love this picture of Caleb and his friend Ray Ray. They are in the same classroom and Ray Ray also lives down the street from us.

His fish

 

I manned the shaving cream table.  It was fun watching the kids decide how they wanted to spend their tickets or see them come in excited about the treasure they found in the sand or the picture they had made. 

We finished up Ocean Day right at lunch time so I stayed and had lunch with Caleb before heading home.  So glad I got to spend time with him this morning at school.

Fall Festival

We went to Caleb's first school Fall Festival on Friday!  He had a great time getting to pick and choose what games and activities he wanted to spend his tickets on.

 

We arrived at 4:00pm when it kicked off and decided to get in line for the face painting right as it opened so that we didn't have to wait in line for a long time later on.  While Joshua and I saved our spot in line Caleb and David made a little toolbox at the Home Depot booth which was right next to the face painting booth.  The timing couldn't have worked out any better, as soon as he finished his building project he was next in line to get his face painted.  David and I joked about how he will sit so still to get his face painted but any other time you can't get him to sit this still.  He loved how it turned out and didn't want to wash it off that night when it was time for bed.

 

 

He had a lot of fun playing on the inflatables, going through some mazes, playing games, winning a cupcake at the cupcake walk, eating ice cream and socializing with his friends.  While Caleb played David and I reminisced about the different activities we had at our school carnivals.

 

 (David and I both remember "going fishing" at our school carnivals growing up).

 

 Little brother loves him some food and was not happy with the ice cream was all gone.

 

 (I love this sweet picture of Caleb and John together in the skeleton photo prop)

 

I would say that we can mark this night down as a huge success.  We all had a great time, the weather was perfect and it was just starting to get pretty crowded as we were leaving.  I love this time of year and am loving participating in things with Caleb during his first year of school!



First Day of Kindergarten!

I still can't believe that Caleb started Kindergarten today and that we have begun this new season in our life.  It just didn't seem real last night as he tore off the last link of his count down chain, we prayed over him and we read the book that they gave him at Kindergarten registration that we had reached this time in his life.  He was so excited last night and as we were putting him to bed he told us that he wished it was morning already.

Last night we put a clock/radio in his room and Daddy set the alarm for 6:20am.  Caleb thought it was neat that he had is own alarm clock.  He did great getting up this morning but I'm not so sure how fun he is going to think it is when it goes off every morning for the rest of the school year.

It's not the healthiest of breakfast options but he has been asking for Fruity Pebbles cereal for a while so as a treat he got to get some when we bought food for his lunches and snacks for school and have them this morning for breakfast.

He was a sport and obliged me with all of the first day of school pictures and didn't bat an eye when we left after walking him into his classroom.   It was a little sad this morning because he got upset when he found out we were taking him to school, bless his heart he thought he was riding the school bus. 

 
I did great while I was at the school but will admit I did cry briefly after I got home.  It was a little weird not having him at home with Joshua and I today and I kept wishing I could see what he was doing all day.  His teacher was super sweet and sent out an email part way through the day to the parents to let us know that they were all doing great.

David came home early from work and we picked him up together and went to Dairy Queen for ice cream to celebrate a great first day of school. 

It sounds like he had a great first day.  When his teacher brought him to the car she said he had a little something in his backpack that he earned today.  He was excited to show us the treat he got to pick out from the treasure chest.  We are so glad that he had a great day and are super excited that this school year is off to a great start.