First Grade and Walking

We had our first day of FIRST grade last Thursday! It's so weird that school is starting at the beginning of August, and I keep thinking it's already September! 

Thankfully, Noelle was super excited about getting back to school, and for the last two weeks of summer was asking me daily how many days were left until the first day. She woke up excited on Thursday morning, and put on her uniform (which she had picked out at least a week before school started!)

And Jonah was awake also and jumped right in to her first day pictures. :)

She loves her teacher, and I've heard nothing but good about the teacher. Parents who have had other kids go through her class talk about how genuine her love is for the kids. Her class is 15 students this year, which is the biggest size class in the school, but Noelle will still get a lot of attention, I'm sure!

Luke stayed home with the little two since Clara was still asleep at 7:30 (which was a complete miracle, by the way) and I took Noelle in for her first day. We walked to her classroom, hung up her backpack and lunch box, and found her desk. She squealed over all the books in her desk, and was already laughing at the class clown who was sitting next to her.

We are so proud of this girl, and are excited to see all the things she learns this year. Her first day was a half day, and when I brought her home, she sat down with one of the Magic Tree House books and started sounding out words on the first page.

Girlfriend is loving seeing her old friends, and meeting a few new ones!

After school, I showed the kids how to use the self timer on the camera on my phone.

And we snapped a few "fun" ones!

And a side note to all of this- Clara WALKED last night!! In the last two weeks, she's taken like 3 steps if Luke and I are sitting a few feet away from each other, and she's been holding on to one of our fingers and walking for awhile. But it was like all of a sudden she got her confidence, and took well over a dozen steps. And then of course today she was right back to holding on to my finger to walk around. But we're getting there! And growing up so fast!