On Sunday, the day before school started, Serenata Beach club had a back to school party at their pool. We invited the Bunnels to join us and the kids had fun playing with Kennedy and Keagan. Another family from our neighborhood happened to be there and we hung out with them as well.
Connor had fun swimming and playing catch with Bo.
Both kids had fun on the waterslide, but Paige loved it more than anyone. She must have gone up and down it dozens of times.
Paige's favorite part of the day was the facepainting. Andrea noticed the guy was available and Paige was one of the first people in line for the day. The man spent a nice amount of time doing one of the most beautiful designs on Paige I'd seen.
He also made a butterfly balloon animal for Paige. I snapped a pic of her with the man and a closeup detailed view of her face before it got smudged.
Thankfully we got some pics really quickly because within a couple minutes it was all ruined. I put a flip-flop over Paige's balloon animal so it wouldn't blow away and unfortunately it popped. Paige began sobbing and wiping her eyes with her hands and within a few moments it was all gone.
The kids got unlimited snowcones for the day, and we definitely took advantage of it. Yummy!
It was a great event to cap off the summer and we were happy we got to enjoy it with some friends.
Andrea and I went out to dinner and to Costco afterwards like we do on Fridays when we can find a babysitter. While at Costco we saw the giant stuffed bears for sale and couldn't resist. They were only $30 each, and initially we decided to just buy one. A little while later Andrea was asking me how we'd decide which kid got to have the big bear in their bed. I broke down and decided to just get one for each.
Andrea took a video of us giving the bears to the kids. We decided to give Paige the grey one since it matches the colors in her room a bit better. Connor named his big bear Inferno at first, but then changed it to Longshot after some Youtube guy he watches. Paige named her bear Laura.
On Friday, we took both kids to Wolf Greeting, which is the opportunity to meet your teacher for the first time and to see your new classroom.
In the morning, I took Paige to Bartram Academy for her last day and then at 11 we went up to LPA for Connor's Wolf Greeting. We found out that his teacher is Ms Yeaple and he has a couple friends in his class including our neighbor Trevor.
We filled out all his paperwork, dropped off his school supplies at his desk, and then we went to lunch with Trevor and his parents Gina and Mark.
After lunch, we went by Bartram Academy to pick up Paige for her Wolf Greeting. Andrea changed her outfit, fixed her hair and then we went to LPA to find out who would be in her class. Before we even arrived, Andrea got a text message from our neighbor Rachael letting us know that Paige was going to be in the same class as her daughter Kennedy and our other neighbor Olivia. Paige was very excited to hear that. We were not so thrilled to hear that there would be 27 kids in Paige's class. Connor's always had small class sizes so it was a big surprise for us.
When we arrived, Paige saw Olivia and gave her a big hug. We went to her classroom and met her teachers. Since there were so many kids in her class they have the main teacher Ms Froelich and an assistant teacher Ms Pate. We were surprised to find out that there was another Paige in Paige's class too. Ms Froelich took both Paiges aside and tried to come up with a way to name them so they would be unique. They were thinking of calling Paige by her first and middle name, but Paige's middle name is Olivia and there's another Olivia in the class. They settled on calling the other Paige as Paige Ann since her middle name was more unique in their class.
Paige posed for a few pictures with her teachers.
There was a cute fireplace area setup and we took a family picture together.
Paige seemed to warm up quickly to both her teachers and we're hopeful that she's going to have a wonderful year.
It's hard to believe summer's over! School starts on Monday and we're looking forwards to the school year for both kids!
Friday, August 7th, was Paige's last day to go to Bartram Academy. She finished VPK (Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten), but still went to Bartram Academy over the summer to their summer camp. The school has become so familiar and such a part of our routine. It's going to be strange that we won't be seeing so many of the people any more and we won't be going back there again. Paige might go to summer camp there in the future, but you never know for sure what the future holds.
On her last day, I brought my camera and she brought some cards that she made for her favorite teachers. She had me draw lines on folded pages and then she cut them out and Andrea helped her spell out her messages to everyone. We snapped a picture out in front of the school and one out by the playground before we went inside.
Once inside, we snapped a few pictures with her teachers and with the front office lady Amanda.
Amanda was always very sweet to Paige and would often compliment Paige on her pretty dresses or outfits.
Bartram Academy was our favorite school that we enrolled either child in. They always did a good job keeping it clean, they served fresh organic food with a great variety, the teachers were always friendly and positive, and Paige enjoyed it very much through the years.
Probably the biggest change for me will be my change in routine. For 8 years now, ever since I went back to work after Connor was born I would drive a child in the morning. I took Connor to multiple in-home babysitters and then to multiple preschools. With Paige, I've been driving her to Bartram Academy for so long, and the drives have always been memorable. When she was very little, there were some rough mornings where she would literally cry for the entire 10-15 minute drive. More recently the drives have actually been very enjoyable and it's been a fun opportunity for us to talk, tell stories, and learn things. Paige liked talking about the GPS in the car, the animals we'd see, a tree that was knocked down by a drunk driver, how nature works, and all kinds of things. Her favorite thing to do, if I was in the mood for it, was to tell stories. She would usually pick 3-5 random things and then I'd make up a story and would include everything she picked. In the last few months she's actually gotten quite good at telling stories and I would pick some elements and she would fit it all together in to an imaginative story.
On our last day, I decided to record the drive. I rested my elbow on the armrest, pointed my phone back at Paige and hit the record button. I couldn't really see it while I was driving, but I watched it and was able to keep her in the picture pretty well. We reminisced a bit about our drives and talked about some of our favorite things. As much as I will be happy to have an extra 30 minutes each morning where I don't have to drive Paige to school, I will miss our special time together. I am surprised at how emotional I get when I think about it.
While Andrea and I were at the Omni doing our tennis weekend, the kids spent some time with Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rick. They played with a lot of the old toys that Grandma has saved all these years and Connor helped Grandma repair some of the broken ones.
Paige is really into her artwork and she enjoyed doing a lot of coloring.
It rained a bit over the weekend, but they did find some time to go to the beach together.
Sunday night was the main event and Connor and Paige got all dressed up to go see Seussical the Musical at the Alhambra theatre. Connor wore the clothes that Andrea packed, but Paige wore a fancy new dress that Grandma and Grandpa bought her at a neighbor's garage sale. She looked very pretty in her pink dress.
During the show, the kids ate their meal and enjoyed the entertainment.
After the show, Grandma and Grandpa took some pictures of the kids with the colorful stage and the colorful cast.
It was nice for the kids to get to spend some time with their Grandparents over the summer and they had a fun time as always.
This weekend Andrea and I got to go back to the Omni Amelia Island Plantation resort and did some tennis at the Cliff Drysdale tennis facility. It was supposed to rain all weekend and we weren't sure how it would work out, but it ended up pouring all over the area but never rained much where we were. It was actually pretty cloudy and cool most of the weekend and we were able to do all the tennis lessons and clinics we planned on.
We meant to get some pictures when we went out to eat, and meant to get some pictures when we were with the pros doing tennis, but only got a couple pics when we were walking on the beach. It was a good opportunity to spend some time with each other and to hone our tennis skills as well.
