Immerse Yourself

It's time to go back to school (where did the summer go??), and, of course, that means it is time for our fifth annual Back to School Celebration.

Our theme this year is "Immerse Yourself".  (Previous years' themes:  2009, Listen and Learn; 2010, Treasure Learning; 2011, Time to Learn!; and 2012, Bloom Where You're Planted.)  I struggled with choosing a theme this time around; nothing seemed quite right.  But then Gee--my big first grader--had a week-long camp to prepare for his Portuguese Immersion Program (hooray!), and I landed on "immersing" ourselves in learning and growing.

I didn't even think of making crowns this year--I completely forgot that I have in the past!--but we had a good time getting ready for our celebratory dinner anyway.

We used rubber duckies for place holders.  (Sadly, they are loud squeaky rubber duckies.  I am regretting it already.)

 Turns out, it's hard to get a good picture when the whole room is backlit by the window.  Oh, well.

I made a bunch of little raindrops and wrote messages on them:  [Immerse yourself] In Family, In Play, In Learning, In Math, In Art, In Friends, etc.  The kids asked why I was hanging up tear drops.  Oh, well.  :)

The swedish fish were a big hit with certain children . (Zee decided they were the "first" course of the meal.)

My gorgeous Em--a third grader already!--and happy first grader Gee.  (Don't you love Em's glasses?  I was in third grade when I got my first pair of glasses, too.  I'm sorry she got my eyesight, but have you ever seen a cuter girlie?)

My giant fourth grader Zee (who doesn't need glasses, but he is a trifle far-sighted, just as his father was at this age), my totally eager for school  Hebs (he doesn't turn five until November, so next year, boyo!), and my angry-as-all-get-out-that-SHE-doesn't-get-to-go-to-school Yummy ("No, Mommy!  I big! I big to go to school tomorrow!!"  She's three.)

This is our first full year at this school, and we are very excited to be jumping in at the beginning, instead of at the middle.  I signed up for about a hundred different volunteer things, so we'll see how that works.  Zee is going to be taking ballroom dance lessons at the school once a week (it's only for fourth grade and up, so Em has to wait another year), and with Gee in Portuguese Immersion, well, we're going to be busy!  And happy.

Here's to another year of immersing ourselves in life!