First day of First Grade

First day of school....ok so I get 1 picture of the little rascal!!!! I could barely get that. He was being so silly and wouldn't take a picture with either of us and I didn't have time to mess with it.
I have to mention too that this year he informed me that he didn't want any characters on his bookbag or lunch box. He was like "mommy, I just want a plain bookbag and lunch box with no superheros" I was like "why" and he said "just because" Not sure if he even knew why, but he picked plain yellow for the book bag and plain blue for the lunch box. That was so fine with me. However, one of the highlights for him is having hot lunch both days so far. He gets to pick what he wants( a choice of 2 things for the lunch and a choice of fruit and choice of a veggie) plus he loved the fact that they had pink milk. He had to memorize a 6 digit code to punch into the computer for the money to be deducted from his lunch account and he thought that was cool and had the code memorized before the first day of school.

Day #2 was a success as well! YIPPEE!!! Didn't get as much info yet because he ate his snack so fast because his buddy who is homeschooled was in the cul du sac waiting for him. The mommy in me wanted to make him stay, but I thought I'd let him be a little boy and run free for a little while before grilling him too much.

This time I was more prepared and he came running off the bus the same way as yesterday only this time I could take the picture before hugging him and not cry.

I made him get a picture by the bus for his gramma! Of course I wanted one too. Craig was able to see him again today. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to wait again today after lunch and started to leave from the bus corner and there came the buss 10 minutes earlier than yesterday so he was excited to hop in the car and have daddy ride him back rather than walking with me Don't even know how to process where the 100 days of summer went. Seems like I was just saying to Bradley that he had 100 days off and how excited we were for that and now it's already day 2 of the new school year. We had an awesome summer and if you ask him some of the favorite things about it he'll tell you.....our trip to Myrtle Beach (still have to post on that), ocean breeze, the beach, Busch Gardens. Those are the things that he said he told his class yesterday when the teacher asked each one what their favorite things about summer were. We were planning to send him to the same school, but very last minute (like two weeks ago) we felt a prompting which I know was from the Lord to sort of rethink and pray about it due to certain situations. I think anyone in this day and age can do anything they want to do, but we really had to ask if it was the wise thing to do at this time to send him to a private school. The tuition had gone up quite a bit. Quite honestly if I had to make the decision to switch to public school a year ago I would have been very anxious and probably even sick to my stomach and it's not that we were even anti public because we definitely are not. We are both very open to the different options to education. I think it was just the fact of sending him into a new big world with alot of things he may or may not have been used to ect....I believe the Lord has a way of using circumstances, people and things in ways we may not even realize to grow our faith to the next level. Through a conversation about a month ago someone said to me and a few girls that if you are making a decision out of fear it's the wrong way to make it, but to make your decision out of faith is the right way to make it. I think when we're fearful the easy thing to do is to control the situation to work out the way we want it to no matter the cost, but the hard thing to do is to always operate on complete faith, but the end result is always better because you are leaving the control up to God and he already has the perfect plan preplanned for us even before we are faced with whatever the case or issue may be. Our job is to just trust Him. So we knew very quickly we were to make the switch and we both had that peace that passes all understanding. Too hard to explain all of it in detail, but it was awesome to see the Lord work it out in the physical and inside us leading up to this. So we got him enrolled and went last friday to meet his teacher and prayed she would be the perfect fit for Bradley and got the sense right away that she would be. She's young and has a funness to her and seems very sweet. Her name is Mrs. VandeMark which Bradley got a little weird about and said that would be too hard to learn and remember:) We got all geared up for the first day and I wasn't anxious or really sad leading up to it. To keep a tad bit of control I decided I would bring him in the mornings and he'd ride the bus home. We walked into class a little late due to trying to get into the busy parking lot and the pouring down rain. All the kids were already in the class and in their seats so when we walked in he got this look on his face and buryed his head into my stomach and then the emotions started flowing. I quickly got him to his seat, kissed and hugged and told him I loved him and told him it was going to be a great day. I had to walk away with him having that look on his face that of course broke my heart. I started talking to his teacher as the tears started flowing and had to tell her sorry and that I'm just going to scoot out of here and she was so sweet and said "I understand" and that it was going to be an awesome day! I said I know it would be. I cried for an hour straight when I got home. I know how sappy is all of this right? HA! and Alayna kept saying "mommy, why you cry for" How do you explain a mothers heart to a 3 year old. I knew deep down he'd be fine. Sometimes it's easier to be real with your feelings and get it out than try to pretend it doesn't bother you so I did and then I was fine. I thought about and prayed for that little guy all day long. 2:20 couldn't come quick enough. Craig came home for lunch so he stayed to see him come off the bus too. We were at the bus stop right on time and waited until 3:00 as patiently as we could. I hear it's late the first week or so. When the bus came I was so anxious to see his little face. He got off the bus with the biggest smile ever and yelled "MOMMY" and ran right into my arms with the biggest hug and I cried again. He gave daddy a big hug and was able to tell him a little bit before he headed back to work. He and I went in to have our snack and for the next 30 minutes we talked about it all. I was thrilled I didn't get the standard answers "I don't know" boring" ect... He was so excited to tell every detail. It's only the first day so the newness may wear off, but for now I"ll enjoy the fact that he's enjoying the newness of it all. So needless to say I put him on the bus this morning at his request (so much for mommy bringing him) with lots of excitement and the stinker barely looked back to say goodbye. So another sniff, sniff to that. The most important thing is that he's happy and that makes a happy mommy. I'm so excited for this new opportunity of learning and growing for him. We absolutely adored his old school and the people there and the hearts they had and that was so hard to say goodbye to. Sometimes we're called to turn the page and start a new chapter or a new adventure on our journey in life. Sometimes we may not understand and sometimes we might. Either way is shapes us and molds us and defines our character and grows our faith. It's not always easy, but I'd rather be moving forward then going backwards. So this mommy is constantly learning that even though it's emotional to see her first little boy grow up....it is also very exciting because you see..... he's a little boy that's so excited to grow up and each birthday that he gets to say now I'm 5 or now I'm 6 or whatever age....it's exciting for him so you know what....there may be tears at times, but through those tears there is also a smile and a bursting heart right along with it because this mommy is so proud of this little boy:) :) : )