First day of school

Today was the boy's first day back to school. Well yesterday was, but it was only for one hour. Doesn't really count. We had family home evening the night before with a lesson on the holy ghost as our constant companion and remembering to choose the right and how we are different ("because we are MORMON!" Bran shouted) which makes the boys very Brave and Strong. Ben then gave each of the boys a Father's Blessing. There was a sweet spirit there and each of the boys were very reverent and I could tell they knew what a special thing this was. For the next couple days whenever I heard Brannon pray he'd say that he was grateful for the blessing Dad had given him. I think it helped too because he went off to his first day of Full day school very brave. He later told me he was crying in his head because he wanted to stay with me but that he stayed brave and didn't cry for real. It was very bittersweet knowing that my boys are growing up!

Evrett did the cutest thing during the blessings. He is very good at sitting/kneeling for prayers with his arms folded and attempting to close his eyes. His whole face s crunches up all wrinkly and forms and big smile just to get those eyes closed :) Ben gave a blessing to Colin first, then Brannon, then was going to be done when Evrett (who is almost 2 and a half) jumped off the couch and shouted "MY TURN", climbed up on the chair and immediately folded his arms and scrunched his eyes closed. He sat that way for the whole blessing. I hope I never forget that cute face.

So that is about where the happy tender moments end. They came home from school today GRUMPY. Both had scowls on their faces from the moment I saw them. They do not like sitting at "BORING" school all day long. I kept questioning what had happened, thinking something specific had caused them to be sad, but nothing...unless you count having to sit in a chair all day, no recess, boring music, and worksheets. I think Brannon just needs to get used to full day and hopefully will start to find it fun. Colin just needs to make some new friends. There are only 2 kids in his class from his class last year. One boy that doesn't talk much and one girl that didn't want to sit by him because she has a girl bestfriend in the class. He was excited at first to make a new friend with the boy he was sitting next to, Miguel, but then he said every time he tried talking to him, Miguel would just grunt back and never said anything. I reminded him that it took him a couple months last year to make good friends with the boys in his class. Hopefully it will be a bit quicker this year! Oh it is hard to send them off all day into the hands of someone else! They are such precious tender things in a world that can be mean sometimes! I just pray that they can have a good experience and education here.


Here is their picture on the first day. They really are best buds. I hope it stays that way! We don't have much extra spending money and they really didn't need any clothes so I let them each pick out one shirt from the clearance section in Target. They picked the same one and wanted to be twins on the first day of school. It was so sweet. I was worried that some jerky kids might make fun of them but no one said a thing. The school is 86% hispanic and I'm starting to think that they are just naturally really nice people. The parent's I have talked to and the kids I've interacted with have all been that way.