First School Days

He always saw us take Bubba to school so there really was no explaining that this was "his" school now. Maysen has sadly graduated from our beloved Christian preschool and moved to public kindergarten. Griffin took the Scovil void Maysen left behind at the Christian preschool.

"Having" to wake up for something is a concept that Griffin has not really had to experience. So when Nate walked up those steps and gently woke him up, he was a bit flustered, but he knew he was going to school; whatever that meant.

With the parking lot filled with aflutter of nervous tots walking into the building, Griffin seemed to remember the wall of apples that greets the new children on their first day. Nate helped Griffin find his apple as he proudly sat on the bench like all the other kids to pose with this official certificate that meant HE was positively 'in school' now.

This was not an unfamiliar hallway to Griffin, as just last year Maysen was across the hall and we were trekking down this hall daily to pick up Bubba from Miss Nicole's classroom. However, he had never experienced the cries, screams, and wales that came from within his particular classroom. Nothing like the first day of "Young Preschool" cries from children whom had never been left alone before. Griffin wasn't too sure about willingly going in there.

He noticed a familiar face poke out from behind all the books; Karaline! Luckily we have great friends who have a little girl in the same class. She has been doing day care at 5Cs for a few years now, so this was a piece of cake for her. She openly hugged Griffin to show him "See, its ok!" If only it worked for a few others .. Griffin seemed to enjoy his "vacation" for the day as he thought. For when he went back the following day, Wendy was not greeted with such a welcome response. He threw himself on the ground and cried out as if torture is what was coming. Poor Wendy ... these boys are everything to her (and also not her kids) so to see her glorious baby having such a hard time was very hard for her. He was a bit clenchy on day 3 when I took him but I think by then he had realized it was going to be ok and although he shut the door behind me upon entering (such a sly dog thought that would actually keep me IN!) he begrudgingly let me go on my way. I did take a wandering peek back to see him happily playing Farm with Kara.

Next was Maysen. We had a wild week of orientations/skill review and finally last Thursday he officially started Kindergarten. I'm blessed with such a mild mannered kid. He just cruises through whatever situation is handed to him with such ease. I don't ever have to worry about him. In fact, I'm a grown adult and I had anxiety for him boarding the school bus for the first time and to him, trip up the first step and all, he smiled and there would be nothing that would get him down.

This particular picture is from the very first day of skill review, and the bus didn't come get him. It was a misunderstanding, but this picture breaks my heart when I look back at it because I know in about 5min from the time this picture was taken, the bus drove off up the street with him waving and all - and didn't pick him up. Broke my heart!

What is even more sad is that I came in right away and called, and was reassured he was on the list for taking the bus home. I picked Griffin up from school and sat outside anxiously awaiting Maysen's return on the bus. Now, it was to arrive at 11:25 so I sat with the camera, video camera ... 11:30 ...11:33 ... 11:38. I figured I'd better go in and check my messages. I heard the following: "Hi Leslie. This is Mrs. L. Maysen has been waiting for pick up since 10:55. He's now in the office waiting for you to pick him up."  You got it folks. My new little kindergartner had been waiting for his momma to pick him up for 45 min now after I reassured him after school he'd be on  the bus :( No worries - the rest of the week went just fine and he's been riding ever since!

Getting ready to go in!


"LOOK AT ALL THESE KIDS!" His little 5Cs entire school had the whole population in the school that was in this hallway. Upon really looking at this photo, I note that Maysen is not taken aback by the crowd, but he has spied a little boy with a blue Mario Brother's shirt on. Nothing like distraction ...

That's my boy ... so handsome.

Maysen went to 5Cs with these two little ones, C and C. He went straight to work on the important stuff: playing house. And so it proves it really can start at an early age. He did tell me years ago that C was his girlfriend.

Our rain is here! I took this picture because we just got our fence stained just in time. We're all ready for fall (especially me). Our small privacy fence got put up and I think now we're just ready to settle in for fall! I even walked in the rain yesterday ... true Oregonian. Hah!

Yosemite

We are lucky enough to have family who travel around the country so we can take advantage of visiting not only them, but the super cool places they live and work in. My dad and Jo travel around and manage KOA RV parks. They've worked in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and a few awesome places in California. Because of their California choice, we've been able to visit Disneyland and just this past weekend, Yosemite National Forest.

Maysen has been a huge fan of trains since he was about 1yr old. Griffin is following in his big brother's footsteps like all little brother's are supposed to do and his love is growing leaps and bounds. We took the Sugar Pine Railroad Steam Engine train ride. It was really neat and the boys were amazed by the actual "fire" that was under the train.

One of the first things we did when we got to Dad and Jo's was grandpa built Maysen and Griffin a tree swing. It was hard imagining their little rear ends on this small, tiny actually, little piece of board. It was only within a few hours that Mase really had that thing down and enjoyed it a great deal of the time.

Although gorgeous, it was hot most days. Nearly 100F every single day, a campfire was more like roasting marshmallows in hell than anything, but there is just something about a campfire at Grandma and Grandpa's to really feel like vacation. At night it would cool down (a bit) to the 60s.

On the 3rd day, Dad and Jo had to work so we headed off on our own to Yosemite National Forest. Sporting the proud football Oregon Duck attire, both boys must have been thinking it was just about lunch time ...

The wait in line was horrible. Leave it to us to decide visiting a World-Renowned National Forest on a National Holiday was a great idea. We didn't end up getting to see any view points, as all of them had 2hr waits. Instead we found a few pull-offs with no one around and had some quality alone time. Look at the boys' catch of the day. I won't tell you that 6 of those monster pine cones accidentally made it home with us. Sap and all ...

I guess we forgot nap time this day ...

Post Monster Throw via Daddy.

Here's Griffin playing "Bob". Somehow Griffin got it in his head that my dad, grandpa, was "Bob". He started calling him "Bob" about 4 months ago when, matter of factly, he walked up to dad and said 'Hi Bob". Ever since, my dad is Grandpa Bob.

It was a fun time, but knowing we had a busy week ahead of us, we left and decided to drive straight through home. I had already spent $104 on our hotel, done, paid, signed and ready ... but my bed was calling me too hard. Nate was luckily on the same page so instead of stopping and spending the night in Redding, CA we trudged through another 5hrs home. It sure felt good to get home and in our own beds and the kids did so well. It certainly helps to have a DVD player with endless amount of Scooby Doo at your fingertips. Very thankful we had this time together as a family right before important changes in our lives; the boys starting school! Griffin started "Young Pre-School" and Maysen will start Kindergarten tomorrow. School pictures to follow ...