First Days of School

It's a new school year...and a big one at that. Daniel started kindergarten and Matthew started preschool at St. Alphonsus in Ballard. Daniel loves wearing a uniform, and had a pretty easy transition since nearly 75% of his kindergarten class moved up from the preschool together. Matthew has had a bit of a hard time being dropped off, but when we pick him up he tells us about all the fun he's had. His favorite parts are all the "gluing and scissoring" he gets to do. They're growing up so fast!

 On our way to Kindergarten! (Complete with a scrape across his nose. :/ )

Picking up Daniel after his first day.

The next day was Matthew's first day of preschool!

 Ready to go in. :)

A post a day while Daddy's away

It's official...Chris is a student again. He left today for Minnesota, where he will be taking part in two weeks of intensive study that is part of a three year Masters in Philanthropy and Development program at St. Mary's University. Though his classes are two weeks, he'll be gone for closer to three weeks, and that means we're left here to fend for ourselves. Actually, we're so busy here the time will probably go much faster for us than it will for him. So, I've decided to try to post every day so that he doesn't feel left out of the goings-on at home. Who knows if I'll actually be able to post every day, but we'll give it a try!

The boys get together for a photo before taking Daddy to the airport. 19 days till we see him again!

St. Alphonsus' Parade of Nations

Daniel's school, St. Alphonsus, holds an annual Parade of Nations (kind of like the Olympic opening ceremony).

Each class is assigned a country to represent, and the week of instruction incorporates the food, arts, and history of that country.  Of course, it all culminates in an all-school concert and parade.  The kids are pretty cute dressed up to represent their respective countries, and the festivities get somewhat involved by the end of the week (which also corresponds to the end of school).  Enjoy!

Now that Auntie Laura is back in Seattle, Daniel was able to have his Godmother drop him off for the start of festivities.

Mommy, Matthew, Aaron, and Auntie Laura wait anxiously for the opening ceremonies.

St. Al's really pulls out all the stops for this.

Little Matthew can't wait to go to school...

The nations enter!!

Daniel's preschool class represented Romania!  Here, Daniel masters the art of looking away from Dad taking pictures.

 And here...

And the face block....

 And the half turn away...

Finally!  An enthusiastic frontal picture.

 The next morning saw all the nations parade around the block waiving flags and chanting their country's name.  The neighbors LOVED it.  There's nothing like hundreds of kids in a giant line, filing past your home and screaming at 8am.

 Mom and Dad spot Daniel in the crowd!

Here, Spain and Greece show their colors.

 

 What a great event.  Great job Daniel!  Romania would be proud.

Curvi-what?!

Daniel walked into the room yesterday and handed me a shape, saying, "Here Mom, here's a curvilinear triangle."

Curvi-what!?  Don't tell my 8th grade geometry teacher, but I had to Google it to remember.  Well, he was right.  It was a curvilinear triangle.

And here I thought all he was doing in preschool was finger painting.