First day of school....again!

Well today was Caroline's first day of Kindergarten and she was so excited! But first of all, I got this idea from a friend of mine. Each year she does a new goal to focus on and has a special dinner the night before school starts. I thought it was a great idea so I decided to try it this year. I talked with Brian about it and we came up with the word "Respect". That was what we decided to focus on. So I got the dinner all ready and tried to make it seem nicer. I don't have any great stuff like China or even a table cloth, but for us, nice was putting the food in dishes, not just leaving it in pots. Then we displayed the picture at the table and briefly talked about it.

Since it was also Monday night, we elaborated on it for FHE and talked mainly with just Caroline and Elizabeth to make sure they understood what it was and what our goal was. To help them be more aware of how to respect others, I made a jar and each time any of us notice someone showing respect, we write down their name and how they did it and put it in the jar. Then in 2 weeks we're going to go over them and have a movie party. I think within the next 10 minutes we had over 10, so I told them that was good for today but to keep showing ways. The next hour and a half before bed were so pleasant and they seemed really excited about it.

Now you can see the picture right when you walk in the front door to hopefully remind all of us to show more respect. I had them sign a paper as a sort of commitment that we'll put on the back of the picture. They were excited about that too.

After our lesson Brian gave the girls a blessing and then Cooper jumped up on the stool and then after him, Bella did. I thought it was so cute. She was sitting there so still, holding her care bear and receiving her blessing. It was so sweet.

So Caroline woke up today and just couldn't wait. I signed her up for afternoon kindergarten figuring that it'd be easier when the baby comes. She just could barely stand it. We got her all dolled up for her first day and put her backpack on and took a few pictures before we left. I picked the girls up after school and they were outside holding hands waiting for me. It was so sweet and a perfect end to Caroline's first day of school.