First Day of School 2011

This is the first year both of my babies are in big school.  Real school.  K-12 commitment school.  We all (mom included) had a great first day.  My oldest is just like his mama and can never sleep the night before school.  There's too much excitement about seeing old friends, meeting a new teacher, anxiety over how hard the schoolwork and homework might be.  My youngest, ever the carefree type, was snoring by 8pm, no problem.  She handled the first day of kindergarten the same way.  She just breezed right through it.  Maybe it helped that big brother was up way too late the night before, penning her a letter.  He brought it down to us to leave for her at breakfast.  These were tips lil' sis just had to know before her adventure into kindergarten.

I think he summed it up just right. Try your best, don't do anything that will get you in trouble, stop talking when the teacher says stop (he even knows this will be her most challenging skill to learn)...and have fun!  What else could you possibly need to know to be ready for kindergarten!?  I guess I could have spent the past 5 years teaching her to read early, write her name perfectly, memorizing her address, phone number, social security number, how to do suduko puzzles, tying her shoes, riding her bike (check), learning the violin, playing the piano, scoring soccer goals, becoming a master swimmer, and perfecting a backhandspring (cartwheels, she's got)...but I didn't.  I'm leaving all that for the tiger moms.  Instead, I just enjoyed our time together, reading books or going to the library whenever we felt like it, enjoying a breeze at the park, listening to radio disney, taking naps, being shopping and lunch buddies, painting her nails, playing barbies, making crafts.  She's got all the rest of her life to learn the rest, if she chooses to do so.  But the past 5 years, they were ours and ours alone.  I was blessed to give that gift of "mom" for both of my kids for their preschool years.  Now, I feel blessed knowing that in their school years, they have been given their wings, and they're ready to soar.

Of course, I'm still right under them with the safety net in case they need it and ocassionally, I have to pull out the fans to blow them in the right direction.  But they don't need to know that.  They only need to know their abc's, 123's and multipication tables for now.  For now, they only need to be trying their best, staying out of trouble, listening, and having fun and even a 9 year old knows that's the best advice!  I think they're going to do just fine.  And, so is their mom (and dad).

Big brother "allowed" us to follow him to his classroom.  Of course, we had instructions to stay about 10 feet behind and to NOT under any circumstances talk to him or embarrass him.  Shucks.  Dad was only allowed to snap one pic, from a distance, and this is the one he got.  I call it the "Psst, Dad!!!  Get outta' here already!"  

 

So, we bolted for the Kindergarten wing with little one tow.  I could have predicted that she wouldn't really need us around either and she was much less camera-shy.  We walk up and one little boy had the audacity, the nerve, to make the mistake of sitting down smack dab next to B.F.F.  I held back a giggle when I saw my little one stand straight in front of him, wait about 10 seconds with him just staring up at her, then with a tiny little flick of the wrist...she said it all.  The kid totally understand her hand-speak for scoot the heck over kid and get outta' my spot!  I knew she was NOT going to sit anywhere but next to B.F.F and I made sure teacher knew if she wanted any "listening ears" outta' my daughter, they'd be better off at different tables...but I'm pretty sure she'd already heard that through the grapevine.  It wasn't 5 seconds and the girls were pulling stuff out of backpacks to share and giggle and whisper over.  

Pretty soon, it was time to head inside the classroom and I braced myself, for this was the moment.  The moment every mom waits for before sending their baaayyy-beee into kindergarten, the "No Moooommmm, I want to stay with yooooou, you're soooo much more fun, let me stay with you, Mom!"...in which I would leave the building in tears.  But nope, I got monkey face...and the little stinker didn't even look back!

Yep, she's going to be just fine.  Mom is going to be just fine, too.  Dad, on the either hand......

And yes, we kept our piggy pancake tradition.

And...They're Back!

Back to School, that is!!

So we decided to try out a few photography ideas.  My husband is not only a great & involved dad and hard worker at a real day job, he also manages to squeeze in being a photographer and yes, we experiment for session ideas with our own children.  Better to practice on them than on a paying client, no?  We have a lot of fun with shadow pics and we wondered what would happen with silhouette cut-outs.  Now we know.  I think this will come in extra handy in the future.  It's easy to do.  I just grabbed poster board and printed out the letters I wanted using my printer.  The BTS (for back to school) was sized 6x8 each and the 2011 was sized at 5x7 each.  I printed, cut them out, then arranged them onto the poster board.  I taped them down, traced around them and cut them out with an exacto knife.  Then, we handed it over to the kids to hold and hubby snapped away! You have to practice with flipping the poster around properly. I believe it was upside and backwards...that's what made it "read-able" left to right once the pic was snapped.  The possibilities are endless and I'd to see any examples if some readers give it a try!

Then, we grabbed an apple (the most needed accessory for back to school, of course).  We also grabbed books that the kids are really into now, and some chalkboards.  The idea is to "remember" through photos what they were reading at the time.  For my daughter, it's Barbie, Barbie, Barbie and more Barbie.  So, her books were...you guessed it, Barbie!  My son's tastes are a little more eclectic, and he's very into series books right now.  His favorites are Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  We wanted to remember this years from now, so we included it in the shot.  We sat them on a bench and hubby snapped away.  I love how it turned out.  It's the perfect little "scrapbook page" to remember the start of kindergarten and 4th grade!

The chalkboards were included to remember what year we snapped these.  It's also a great way to see what their handwriting looks like each year.  For example, 4th grade is an "all-cursive" year and he's been practicing all summer his best John Hancock.  I know my kindergarten's signature will lose it's baby look in a year or two and I want to remember how cute it is that her dotted i's are still sticks with swirly circles.  I'm not a big fan of keeping every little scrap of paper they've ever written on, so this was a great way in one shot to capture everything I want to remember about this year!

Oh...and we totally gave ourselves permission NOT to try and capture the back to school shots ON the first day of school.  We did this the day before.  If I've learned anything by having a 4th grader, it's to forget getting great shots on the first morning of school.  It's just too hectic and crazy.  We still took the camera in hand on the first day to make sure the moment was captured for their scrapbooks...but these shots!?  These were for mama's scrapbook, and I know I'll treasure them.

I hope you have a chance to capture some nice BTS photos of your kiddos too!  And go ahead, I give you permission to snap them a week late!

Happy Snapping & Happy Learning!

PS - If you'd like to see more of hubby's passion for photography, you can do so over at www.eidenphotography.com.  Be sure to come say "hi" on Facebook, too!

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