Wait a Second, School Started, and so Fourth

You don't even want to know how long it took me to come up with a somewhat comprehendible sentence that made a pun out of my kids' entrance into second and fourth grade. And I understand the weakness of my pun which is why I'm here pointing it out to you so you can appreciate the last hours' worth of my time stewing over it. 

Carson's our second grader! Woot, woot!

Let's spend this moment appreciating that I accidentally went with a full-blown mugshot vibe for our back to school pictures which really makes you feel like my kids are going places...like jail? 

Just kidding. The mug shotting was intentional. Not because I was prepping them for an orange jumpsuit but because I wanted to capture every angle of their first day of school cuteness!

Fourth grade ain't got nothin' on Eli!

And someone's schooling welcomed an excitable start. 

Lincoln is doing a joy school, a community preschool, and online preschool. I kept fearing none of these options would work out, so I kept making back-up plans, but everything worked out and Lincoln LOVES all of his schools, so we're making them all work right now. Turns out he's a lot less mischievous when his little brain is working on learning instead of on how to tear the house apart or pester his brothers. 

And Jonah is going to school. Just long enough to drop everybody off and then he's stuck home with me. But he still thinks he's one of the big boys!

School is off to a great start!

For the past few years I have wanted a first day of school dinner tradition. The only thing I could think of was this one time when I was growing up and my Grandma was watching me on the first day of school while my parents were gone on a trip. I came home from a long day to piles and piles of Pringles paired with a heaping pan of sloppy joes. My mom never bought Pringles and my Grandma had at least four different flavors lined up on the table for our enjoyment.

Much like my mother, I never buy Pringles, so I thought it would be a cute tradition to continue on with this fun memory of my Grandma and serve heaping piles of Pringles with a side of Sloppy Joes for our back to school dinner. The kids appproved!

With all the stress of back to school, the boys have gotten a little feisty. We stole an idea from the magazine, The Friend, where they shared a story of siblings who got to choose an activity out of a bucket to do together whenever they weren't getting along. We decided to give The Love Bucket a whirl. Nothing makes me happier than walking upstairs to screaming children, making no noise other than the subtle shaking of The Love Bucket to prepare the bickering boys for their mandatory love assignment.