First Day Fun!!!

We had a fantastic first day "Back to School" Kick-Off this year!  The boys were so excited (me too!) to start the year.  We took a traditional summer break and started the same day as our local public school.  We plan to do this every year.  It's so wonderful to have kids get so excited about starting school work again.

So for our big kick-off, I told the boys they could have breakfast any where they wanted, plus do another fun out-of-the-house activity before heading home and starting our school work.  We never, never, EVER eat breakfast out of the house when it's just the three of us.  In fact, we've only done so one other time in their whole lives.  Once, when we attended a baseball game, if one of the players hit a grand slam, then our section won free Grand Slam breakfast's from Denny's.  A player did (can't remember who, but it was cool), so the next morning, we loaded up and headed to Denny's.  Guess where they wanted to go for breakfast this time?  You guessed it...

Apparently, it's where you go for breakfast!  :)  And for their fun out-of-the-house-event, they chose a car wash.  Car washes are pretty big at our house.  The boys know all about the different types of car washes, the various manufacturers, the different styles, so forth and so on.  Seriously, they know everything.  Along with elevators, it's their latest obsession.  Strange, yeah, a little.  But so are we.

After that, we headed home and started our day!  I'll share what we did that first day, along with the rest of these first few weeks soon.  I've been planning all summer for a fun and exciting first two weeks back, and so far, it has been just exactly that.  My boys are routine kids.  They really enjoy the "flow" of school.  They are already a lot calmer and happier after the relatively chaotic-ness of summer.  They like summer, and really do need a break, but we are all glad to back into a predictable routine. 

One thing I am going to do better this year is to try and balance their personalities better with regards to social time.  My extrovert Andrew requires and desires so much more than my introvert Lucas.  Last year, Lucas was asked to do more way more than he wanted, and I think he payed the price.  He became easily overwhelmed, mad, and moody when we did too much.  To balance both of their needs, I am going to try and have more small playdates for Andrew with friends and neighbors (Lucas will attend these too, of course, but he doesn't mind occasional small playdates), and attend our homeschool groups weekly park day (again, Lucas will come along, but he enjoys the park, and can interact only if he wants, or he can play on his own).  For Lucas, I'm going to keep most field trips as outings with just the three of us as he likes and always requests (Andrew will end up talking to everyone on the field trip anyway, lol), and allow him plenty of alone time at the house.  Also, he's decided to only attend gymnastics once a week while Andrew will continue to take twice a week.  Hopefully, this will make both boys happy and balanced.

If this year goes like our first few days have gone, we're in for a GREAT year!  I look forward to keeping everyone updated!