First Day of School 2011

Well this was it!  The long anticipated first day of school.  Not only Amerah's first day of school, but her first day as a fifth grader... her last year in elementary school! 

 Since I'm relatively new to the whole Mom thing, I try to gather ideas from other, more seasoned, parenting veterans.  I didn't have much for the first day of school besides make a special breakfast and take a photo.  Thank goodness some of my friends sent their kids back to school before me so I was able to see some fantastic things that they did and put my own twist on them. 

 

 

 

  After seeing a post from a friend of mine, who lives in Germany, I was excited to incorporate the German tradition of giving your children a schultuete (a cone filled with treats, school supplies, etc) into our family traditions.  According to google sources, the cones were originally just given to kids first starting out in school but it has become more common to give them to all children on the first day of school.

Amerah LOVED it!  She thought that it looked like a giant ice cream cone :-).  I filled it with very little candy (a couple airheads, tictacs and a couple packs of sugar free gum), a slim jim (which she loves), some hair do dads, cute mechanical pencils, erasers, glue sticks, a ruler, and a few other odds and ends.

I planned a fabulously bad-for-you breakfast of Monkey Bread... which was a total flop!  For the first time I decided to try to put it together the night before and then pop it in the oven in the morning.  FAIL.  It didn't work the way it usually does.  It looked okay on the outside...

But the inside was all dough and it stuck to the pan so I couldn't even get it out.  My husband and daughter sure are troopers though!  They picked out the pieces that were done and ate them.  I think we'll just do fruit and yogurt tomorrow morning!

We then proceeded to take the usual First Day of School photos... remind me to thank Dave for including my pot of what-was-supposed-to-be-flowers-but-ended-up-being-weeds in the photos.

 

 

 

Daddy got home from work in time to participate in the morning fun...  He wanted to go to school with her :-) ...

 

The poor kid had spent so much time anticipating her first day as a fifth grader that it was inevitable.  Standing at the door, ready to go, she turned to me and told me that her stomach hurt.  I suggested that maybe she was a little nervous or a little excited.  She agreed that she was both.  I think that the following picture says it all.  You can see it in her face.

Thank heavens she was all smiles when she came home!

I love these days.  I love having a fifth grader.  I love that she came home, perched on the arm of my chair and spent at least half an hour regaling me with everything she had seen, heard, and done at school that day.  I cherish these moments when she wants to tell me "everything."  I hope that she will still do this when she is a teenager.

Happy first day as a fifth grader baby.  You are loved.  Monkey bread aside, I am calling this day a success.