First Day of School ~ Just Kidding!!

 I've been telling the boys for weeks now that today would be our first day back to school, and they believed me!  Joshua took an extra long time waking up this morning...

I made pancakes and eggs.  It was a celebratory day!  I kept asking the boys, "Are you guys ready to work hard???"

Well, after breakfast we began the morning with our back to school treasure hunt!  The boys love a good treasure hunt!

My clues don't rhyme.  Call me lazy!

And, here is the treasure....

 Homemade notebooks, school supplies, favorite new books they've been wanting, some new preschool toys and games, and t-shirts to wear on the real first day of school (tomorrow)!!

 Erik and I prayed and chose four character traits to focus on this year. We had t-shirts made with the character trait written across the front, and a verse about that character trait written on the back.  We plan to do this every year.  This year our character traits are...

Focus ~ 1 Peter 5:8
Self Discipline ~ 2 Timothy 1:7
Honesty ~ Proverbs 16:13
Love (loving God first and others better than themselves) ~ Mark 12:33

Here is Elijah with a book that I checked out of the library over a year ago, and he absolutely loved it.  Off and on over the year, he has mentioned the book.  I tried several time to buy it, but it is out of print.  The cheapest I could find it for was nearly $50!  Finally, I found it for a reasonable price and bought it!!  He was excited, and instantly began flipping through the pages showing Eriky the yellow ball on each page!

After all the fun died down and the boys' minds began to turn toward school, I made a little announcement...

"Today, we are going on a field trip!!!"

I wouldn't tell them where we were going, but I did tell them to quickly change into their swimming suits!!  We met some friends and caravanned to a local splash pad!  I think the boys enjoyed their first day...

After the splash pad, we grabbed chickfila and headed home!  I barely got baby Jack down when a little thunderstorm rolled in and stayed for several hours!  Pure peace!  I made coffee and met one on one with the boys going over what will be expected of them tomorrow.  I showed them their new workbooks and books.  They paged through them while I explained various things. I gave them their clipboards with this week's assignments written out for them and their new laminated chore charts. :-)  Hopefully they will be ready to begin our new year tomorrow!!