Clara Begins First Grade

Summer seemed to flash by in a blur!  I will have to go back and play catch-up, but wanted to share some back-to-school pictures I took of Clara for her first day of school first.  

Clara was so, so, so excited for the start of First Grade.  She loved Kindergarten and really thrived in the social and academic environment of elementary school.  There were no tears or nerves or hesitations the morning of her first day - she was up and getting dressed and all smiles on our way to school and lining up outside her classroom.  

Clara actually has two teachers this year - Mrs. Cartmell and Mrs. Gonzales.  They are a mother-daughter duo and they take turns teaching the first and second half of each week.  Both seem very nice and Clara likes them a lot.  There are 15 girls and 10 boys in her classroom and Clara knew three of them going into it - a girl named Bella from her Kindergarten class, Jacob from swim team and preschool, and Wilson who was also in her Kindergarten class although she didn't know him very well.   

We did our traditional Back-to-School Feast for both girls the night before school started.  Clara requested grilled lamb chops this year (last year she wanted whole grilled fish - I like her menu choices).  We had an apple pecan salad, fresh homemade sour dough bread (my sour dough skills are a work in progress but it sure tasted good), and a berry pie a la mode for dessert.  

Afterwards, both girls received Father's Blessings in preparation for the new school year.

I had to wake Clara up in the morning but she popped right out of bed and got dressed in the clothes we had laid out the night before.  Drop-off was crazy with all the parents trying to park and walk their kids to their new classrooms.  Fortunately, we had left plenty early so we had enough time to park and walk with the crowds of kids touting shiny new sneakers and bright backpacks.

Clara got right to work coloring and hardly seemed to notice when it was time for Rose and me to leave.  Rose had the hardest time of anyone, asking all morning when we could go back and get Clara and telling me that she missed her.

I did the same thing as last year and took the girls' back-to-school pics the day before school actually started so that we didn't have worry about it that first morning when I knew we would be rushing to get out the door or after school when hair was messy and girls were tired and possibly not as cooperative.  Incidentally, if you click through to that link, it is frightening to me how much the girls have both grown in the past year!  I miss my little Kindergartener!

Clara LOVED taking pictures this year.  She hammed it up for the camera and kept coming up with new poses that she wanted me to be sure to get pictures of.  She wore her cute new dress from Gap Kids that I found on clearance for something like $12, her sparkly shoes (also a clearance find at Gap Kids - Rose has matching ones and they are the favorite shoes for both girls).  I got the chalkboard sign at the Target dollar section and I love it!  Hopefully I can find some place to keep it so that I remember to bring it back out again next year.  

When we were getting school supplies, Clara told me with so much enthusiasm, "Mom, I don't need a backpack or lunchbox this year because I have my purple ones from last year!"  I ran with it and was excited with her because I'm not going to be a new lunchbox or backpack if I don't have to and she doesn't care!  And hers were in perfectly good shape anyway.

I was going to include this little run-down in Clara's 6-year old update, but seeing as how her birthday was in MAY and it is now AUGUST, I think I had better just include it here.  These are some of the milestones Clara experienced in Kindergarten/as a 5 year old.  

• Lost her first tooth.  She has actually lost 4 of them now.
• Learned to ride a bike without training wheels.  She still needs practice but we've gone on bike trails and she does pretty well.  
• Learned to swim.  And not only learned how, but discovered a love for it and really excels at that sport!
• Learned to love skiing.  We took her when she was 4 but she didn't love it like she did this past year once she was 5.  
• Learned to read.  She can actually read super simple chapter books even like Junie B. Jones and Princess in Black and she has started doing it without prompting even!
• Learned to make scrambled eggs.  She still needs direction but she's loves doing it and we are working on pancakes and chocolate chip cookies next.  You know, the important stuff.

The rest of the year is already shaping up to be a busy one for Clara.  She has a bunch of extracurricular activities that she is involved in (to the point that I worry we are overextending, but so far she loves them all).  She's still doing gymnastics, which she continues to love, swimming lessons (once a week at a new swim school that is focused more on competitive swimming - it's more intense and great for helping her with her technique), piano (we've met her teacher and she starts lessons on Tuesday), and soccer.  

I was going to pull her from swimming, but after Clara told me that she loved swimming more than anything in the whole entire world except for me, Paul and Rose, I just couldn't bring myself to take her out of swimming until next summer.  And while she is a strong, fast swimmer, she definitely needs to correct some bad habits and improve her technique.  

The one thing we did drop this year was Spanish class.  She enjoyed it last year, but didn't love, love it, and her friend who was taking it with her can't do it this year either.  It also conflicted with our gymnastics time and I didn't want to rearrange the schedule that was such a pain to construct.  

Soccer is going great so far.  Clara's coaches are super nice and great with the girls.  So far she has just been doing practices and doesn't start games until September 9th.  It's a girls only league and they don't keep score at this age so it's not super competitive or intense, but I think that's perfect for what we want Clara to get out of this.  Her team is the T-Birds.  

I think Clara was more excited about her new gear - turquoise running shorts, socks, and cleats with shin guards and a new ball - than anything else.  Her only complaint has been that her shins get sweaty with the shin guards.  

And that's pretty much the update on how things are going for our First Grader so far!