Nolan Bradley Kindergartner!

Nolan is in Kindergarten!!! And he is loving it! We had a really fun summer, but he was ready to be back in school! We had so much fun school supply shopping together to prepare for Kindergarten. One of the things on his supply list was "25 snack sized baggies filled with one of the following: pretzels, goldfish crackers, animal crackers, or Cheeze Its". Nolan chose to bring Cheeze Its, so the day before his assessments, we busily filled snack sized bags for all his classmates to enjoy. 

Monday of last week was Nolan's assessment day. He headed to school looking mighty handsome and ready to show his teacher just how bright he is! 

He walked right in his room, dropped off his supplies, and got straight to work. He waved me goodbye and never looked back! 

He brought this little treat for his teacher, Mrs. Stackley, to let her know just how much we appreciate all she is doing to prepare for her classroom of learners this year. 

After his assessments, we stopped in the gym to take his school picture, and then we headed to McDonalds for a fun lunch with Daddy. 

Tuesday was his last day off and he spent it with Oma & Opa and his cousins while I headed back to school for meetings. 

Then last Wednesday was his first day of KINDERGARTEN! 

I got some GREAT photos of him before we headed over to school. 

He was all smiles and so excited to start! 

We decided to keep using his preschool backpack this year. We think it will still fit his folders and a library book and it is still in good shape. He loves his cool keychains: a Yoda flashlight and a Stingray from Cancun. 

He picked out this new water bottle. He said he needed one that was "all blue". It has skulls and crossbones on it too. Which wouldn't have been my first choice, but hey, I'm trying to roll with this whole letting him make his own decisions thing! Ha! 

 On the first day, our whole family went to school to drop Nolan off. He joined the line and was a little quiet, but met a few friends, said good morning to his teacher, hugged us goodbye, and walked right in!  

I picked him up after school and had a little sweet treat waiting for him! He had a great day and had many fun little things to tell me about his morning. 

 And just like I do with my Kindies on the first day of school, he read The Kissing Hand. 

And he brought home this precious little "kissing hand" for me. He said that school is "fun" and his favorite thing was the playground. His picture is of a ladder and a slide. Love seeing his early work come home! 

Nolan is attending morning Kindergarten and then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays he is going to Kindergarten Enrichment in the afternoons and After Care after that. Mark and I are SO completely impressed with how awesome he is doing with a new school, a new teacher, 3 different classrooms 3 days a week, new friends, etc. etc. etc. He loves going to school. He loves his full days. He tells us about new friends and classroom routines and fun things he is doing all day. 

We love that he is attending Mammoth Heights which is right in our neighborhood. We see all of our neighbor friends at drop off each morning. All the kids that live around us are girls, and they LOVE Nolan. So they come and say hi and give him hugs and high fives before school. He thinks he is pretty cool! We love all the girls, but another reason we wanted him to go to our neighborhood school instead of coming with me to Antelope Ridge, was so that he could meet some other boys that live nearby. He spends his full days with a friend named James and he also mentions a friend named Musiah. Love that he has just jumped in and found friends to play with! 

Now that we know the school's drop off routines, I have started to walk Nolan to school some days. It is so pleasant in the mornings and I love the idea of getting exercise and walking with others in our community. 

On this day, Nolan and Heath ran most of the way. It's about a 20 minute walk with little ones. His school goes through 6th grade, so I'm sure in the future we'll try biking or scootering to school as well. Eventually we'll have a Kindergartener, 2nd Grader, and 4th Grader all attending here! 

He has now completed a week and a half of Kindergarten. Today he came home with his folder full of as many stamps as possible which earned him the top reward- a prize and a candy! He also returned his Thursday Folder on time and received a sticker. He is all about the prizes! And we are so proud of his great start! 

Because this is my 2nd year teaching Kindergarten and Nolan is a Kindergartner, I thought it would be fun to post a picture of me on my 1st day of Kindergarten. Thanks Mom for scrounging this gem up. 

I love my Popples folder and Minnetonka Moccasins! Nolan doesn't bare much resemblance to me at age 5. He's much blonder and a little bit taller. But I like to think he got his love of school from me, considering I've never left. 

We pray for Nolan that he will always love learning, that he will make wonderful friends, that he will love others, be kind, be helpful, have fun, and always do his personal best! I'm so excited to share my love of Kindergarten with him this year. It's a magical year, like none other.