2nd grader!

My baby is now officially a 2nd grader! She was beside herself with excitement-and has been for a few days now. Last night she just kept giggling about it!

Chris got up first to get in the shower then I got up to start fixing breakfast. I wanted to send her off with a good one, so I scrambled some eggs, made some toast & got out a banana. Before I even got started good, Gracie came in the kitchen. She started smiling with a smile that said "something exciting is happening today!"

The girls ate breakfast then I hopped in the shower while Gracie got dressed & ready to go. We decided to walk since we live so close and we knew finding a parking place would be next to impossible. Doing carline on the first day of school isn't for me-I like to walk her in for a few days. Even on a regular day it's hard to find a parking place, but right now it's even crazier because there is a large construction project going on at the school so there are construction trucks + all the workers, etc. I'm not sure how safe it's going to be to walk with both the girls by myself (Chris was with me today) because of the traffic and the way people don't necessarily look out for us walkers.

We started out and made it through all the mess and got to her classroom. There were probably only 4 students in there when we dropped her off. I only teared up once when we were walking and she was saying the prayer for us (with her eyes open of course!) Other than that I was fine and she certainly was. She was just so happy to be there that it made it much easier. Don't get me wrong, I missed her but I know she was happy!

Chris, Katie & I met a friend for breakfast then Chris headed off to work. Katie & I went to Target then went to the church building to work in my classroom a little bit. We're having a "party" Sunday morning to celebrate the end of this year & the promotion of one of my students to the next class (although I'm going to miss her a lot so it's not really a celebration for me!) I'm going to have a small "portfolio" of work for the parents to look through, etc. Next week, I'll work on decorating the room for a new year + a couple of new students.

While there, Katie fell & busted her top & bottom lips! Of course, it's the first day of school. Remember what happened last year?!?! She had blood all over her hands & mouth. We got it cleaned up pretty well but I know it hurt.This is before the busted lip. You can tell she had been crying in this picture too. I had told her to stay inside while I took pictures of Gracie because I didn't want her to fall down the steps-like last year! She waited until we got to the church building to fall! UGH!

We picked up Gracie and I have been listening to her talk about her new class. Mrs. Zimmerman has a sports theme this year. Her discipline thing is "strikes," they have teams-Gracie is on the 'Mets' and she gets to be a team leader which means she passes out papers, etc. They have "batting order" for having a turn on the computer to take A.R. tests, etc. The computer teacher took their picture today and Gracie said Mrs. Zimmerman has an "All Stars" area where when they do something special, she may put their picture up there on a newspaper article or a cereal box. Sounds neat to me!

Her homework for tonight is to bring an object from home of a special memory of something she's done with her family. She has talked about a little girl named Kathleen, or "Katie" quite a bit. I think she had a good day!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for letting Gracie have a good 1st day of 2nd grade! Please continue to watch over her & keep her safe and help her to learn the things she needs to learn. Help our whole family to be a light to all those we meet.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen