Back to School

First day of school.  With Buddy Jackson.  4th grade. 

I love the little alfalfa sprout...first sign of the return of his "signature look" which we lovingly refer to as "bedhead."  

Second grade. 

It was a lovely day.  I had a long list of all the things I should be doing around the house while they were back at school.  Instead I chose to ignore the list completely.  And it was lovely.  I did my pilates without any kids trying to crawl under my plank (that sounds funny, but when I'm holding up my own weight, nothing touching me is very funny!).  Then, I lingered long over my bible, sipping coffee.  Then, I soaked in the bath, interruption free.  

After lunch, I met some friends for tea. And then it was bus pick up time.  

Isaac had a great first day.

Abby was not at all happy. 

It turned out she got her feelings hurt in class by some other girls.  And she said second grade wasn't any fun.  That was just day 1.  I was really hoping the second day of school would be better. 

The second day off the bus, I was able to catch a few smiles. 

She hadn't had her feelings hurt this day.  But she still said her class was no fun and she didn't like second grade.  She said the same thing all week long.  I have a feeling her teacher this year is more strict than in previous years and Abby is not too comfortable with that.  Every day this week there were tears...

...So, to encourage her, we took some good friends to the tea room for lunch this Saturday. 

Here's to hoping for more smiles the rest of this school year.

Lord of the Rings Party

At the birthday feast (Bilbo's birthday feast...Isaac's too!). 

At the Council of Elrond: showing the kids a scene or two of the movie so they would have a clue what they activities meant.

All the kids wearing their cloaks. 

Helm's Deep: trying to hit orcs!

 Battle of Gondor: with their home made shields...each one turned out unique. 

And the Gondor sponge battle.

Shelob's lair - climbing through the spider webs. 

And ripping the tarnations out of Shelob to get the prizes inside (ring pops and glow sticks). 

Mordor - playing the lava obstacle course that ends in knocking down Gollum. 

Birthday cake time.

Presents

These are such sweet friends to love this boy so.

The girls all snuggled into one bed and slept there all night.  Didn't get a picture of the boys but they camped out half in the movie room and half in Isaac's room.

 Thanks for helping us celebrate Isaac's birthday!

Lord of the Rings Birthday Party Set up

This year Isaac decided on a Lord of the Rings party.  Followed the storyline of the movie and began with Bilbo's birthday feast, hobbit style.

We made Isaac's rice krispie cake into a hobbit hole. 

Rivendell Activity - At the council of Elrond, where we explained what the night would be about and showed a few scenes from the movie to help them understand, we gave each child a costume to wear and keep.  Abby is modeling the "Elf capes" we made just by cutting fleece.  

Along with the elf cape, each girl got an Arwin necklace. 

The boys each got a hobbit cape...

...and elf leaf.

Rohan Activity - We set up an orc archery range in the back yard.

These were Daddy's shots!

Gondor Activity - In one room we set up the supplies the kids would need to create a shield (cardboard, tape, scissors, and twine) that we would use for a sponge war. 

Shelob Activity - we set up a yarn spider web on the stairs.  

The web leads up to "Shelob's lair" upstairs, where we created a spider out of a balloon-filled garbage bag (with taped up garbage bag legs...classy)...that also had goodies inside (ring pops, of course!).

I didn't get a good picture of our spider before she was destroyed but this is the general idea. 

Mordor Activity - we also used red plastic tables cloths as lava and black paper plates as rocks to create an obstacle course that ended in knocking Gollum into the lava.